Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1899-12-30
band, against which declaration Eng

band, against which declaration Eng
land protested, and with good reason.
But all this is inapplicable to the
case of provisions shipped to Delagoa
Bay, which is a neutral port. and not a
belligerent port at ALL England's be-
havior indicates that she regards for
her own purposes that port to be block
AIDED, but this treatment of neutral
territory is mere assertion of brute
force that ought not to be acceded to
for moment by the United States or
has no more right to stop vessels bound
for Delagoa Bay than she has to seize
vessels bound for New York city.
Would Great Britain have p right to
prevent commerce with Germany or
French territories in Africa on the
ground that the goods, not contraband,
were ultimately intended for trans
shipment to the Transvaal? Certainly
not. Her treatment of Delagoa Bay as
If it were a blockaded port is simply
another example of the assertion of
superior force for which England has
become famous. She is dealing at Del
agoa Bay with an inferior power. But
she is not dealing with an inferior
power when she seizes American -four,
and this government ought not to be
content with simply insisting on pay
ment for the provisions eonfiscated, but
should assert the principle so long up
held by American statesmen and diplo
mats, and enunciated so recently as a
year ago by President Mckinley HIM
self, "the principle of the exemption
Of all private property at sea, not con-
traband of war, from capture or de-
struction by belligerent powers" More
over, we should assert the principle,
also long insisted upon by American
diplomats, that provisions are not con-
traband of war All the more should
we declare and upheld these principles,
since England has ignored them with
respect to a purely neutral commerce,
with a neutral port, and with which,
as has been said, she has no possible
right to interfere. By allowing Eng
land to trample On our neutral rights
we are giving her substantial aid in her
conquest of the Transvaal. Is it posi-
Bile this is part of the understanding
with Great Britain? Such an alliance,
for the subjugation Of a liberty-loving
people is a striking mark Of the moral
depths to which we have been precipi-
tated by the imperialistic policy AS
in so many other things we have aban-
doned principles long known as Amer
lean, principles that are righteous,
whose advocacy was the proud dlstlnc-
ton Of our pre-expansion statesmen,
for principles that are wrong, but Wnlch
have the hallmark of European des-
potism and brute tyranny upon them.
1t is frequently said by the oppo-
nents of government ownership or con-
troll of railroads that the power to nix
railroad rates should not be conferred
upon any one man or set OF men; that
competition is the only force that can
be trusted to deal with this matter.
But in actual practice we do find rail-
road rates fixed by fallible men and
infallible competition ruled out OF the
game altogether. The most remark
able example of this has been furnished
lately by the trunk lines centering IN
Chicago, which have ordered into ef-
feet tariff of rates so high as to have
brought out an almost universal pro-
test from shippers, and especially from
small shippers. And now the courts
are to be invoked to prevent this in
crease of rates on the ground that it
is in violation of the Sherman anti
trust law. So if the decision be adj
verse to the railroads their rates will
have been fixed or modified by court
decree, which is government control
by the judiciary, whereas government
control should be exercised by the leg
islative and executive branches of the
government. Two facts stand out very
clearly in this affair: First, that I'M
der the regime OF private ownership
there may be brought about the very
same control of railway operations by
a few men that the opponents of gov
ernment ownership or control profess
to think so dangerous if exercised by
federal authority; and, second, that
under the present regime the only fed
eral control over railroads that can
be invoked or secured is judicial In
character, thus throwing upon that
branch of the government executive