The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1900-04-30

!
! accorded due consideration and vllue, the
Monroe Doctrine speech of the Hon.
/ Elihu Root at the Grant birthday dinner
I in New York is nothing like as surprising
| as it appeared at first. The Administra-
! tion, of which Mr.. Root is part, is no.
| toriously in sore straits for some sort Of
popular issue with which to go before the
people. Anything which would tend to ex-
! cite an active sentiment Of patriotism
would be a godsend to Hanna, RocSe-
Teller, Carnegie Havemeyer, and the
other proprietary Republican leaders, be-
cause ii might serve to obscure TIE great
issue of the trusts against the Constitu-
| ton, which they have been foolish enough
to create and render dominant in the cam
paign.
Mr.. Roots New York speech is of
piece with the party trust policy. The Re-
publican machine and Administration are
owned by and are the servile tools of the
trusts. The latter have bought them, body
and soul, with campaign contributions, in
exchange for contracts, the exclusive priv
lege OF looting the new territories, oppres-
sive and unconstitutional taxation of do
nestle trade for trust profit, the promise
of the Subsidy bill, defeat Of the Near
aqua Canal proposition and other similar
things. The Republican organization gees
ipto the Presidential struggle of 1900 hop
ing to win only because of the advantage
it will have in the possession of vast cor
ruption fund, subscribed by the benefici-
aries of accomplished or promised trust
and monopoly legislation. Yet its mana
gers have the impudence to pretend that
the party is unfriendly to it's owners and
masters, and would bring their tyrannical
or criminal operations under control of the
law. Naturally nobody is much impressed
by antics so amazingly unreasonable.
In an equal spirit of effrontery the Ad
ministration, through its ablest and least
unpopular exponent, the Secretary of War,
declares its readiness to fight for the
Monroe Doctrine. Yet this doctrine it has
been trying for months to surrender, under
the terms of treaty secretly peddled
around among the foreign offices of the old
world, and cooked and whitfield at until
the Hay Pauncefote agreement, in the
form in which it was finally eonided to the
Senate, became one of general understand
ing between the Hanna Administration and
the Concert OF Europe, that the former
should enact the Clayton Bulwer Treaty.
never operative for want of constitutional
ratification by the United States; should
guarantee the powers against an inter
oceanic waterway in any sense American,
md abo he Non
roe Doctrine.
That perfidious treaty is still being
pressed in the Senate by the White House
and the State Department. But the War
Department rises after dinner and warns
the country that we will never give up the
Monroe Doctrine, and that before long We
shall be called upon 10 fight for it and will
do so to the bitter tud. This, We presume,
is what might be called an exhibition of
Mckinley consistency. If the Administra-
ton had any idea of standing by a declara-
ton SO dear to every honest American, it
would instantly withdraw the Hay-Paunce-
fote Treaty from the Senate, and ask the
country's pardon for ever offering it.
We do not like TO be driven to the con-
clusion that Mr.. Roots Monroe effort was
a bit of cheap political claptrap, but it is
hard to accept It as anything else. Ad-
ministration people are explaining with
much JUNCTION that it was intended to
warn Germany that her alleged designs
upon territory in South America cannot |
be carried out without violent collision |
with the settled foreign policy OF |
this Government, and, hence. with |
out war But why should such a |
warning be necessary. or even sane, |
under existing conditions? AS a faith |
full servant OF the Republican machine, |
Mr.. Root must be supposed to wish success |
TO the Pauncefote Treaty! Its ratih- |
cation, carrying as It would surrender |
of the Monroe Doctrine, would relieve the |
Kaiser from the possibility of any OBJ |
struction by this country in case he /
should decide TO build up a German CO. |
Ionial empire in Brazil, In fact, it has |
been widely suspected and not infrequently |
charged that one of the chief purposes OF |
the Hay Pauncefote agreement is TO end |
American opposition to the extension OF
British and German power in Central and |
can be proven. or not. the effect would be
by ratification Of the treaty. |
II should not be forgotten that the I'm
perial Chancallerie at Berlin is said TO
have been fully consulted regarding the |
text of the Hay Pauncefote Treaty. before |
its contents were known &c even a single |
member of the Senate Committee on For
eign Relations. So obvious a fact as its |
implied, If not expressed, abandonment of
the Monroe Doctrine could not have es
capped the trained intelligence of Count
Won Buelow and We may say with complete
confidence that the reason the agreement |
has been acceptable to every world power
except the United States, is because that
ancient Western prohibition would be re-
movea by its terms.
Why then. we ask again, do Mr. Nc
Kinley and Mr. Hay fight tooth and nail
with the American element in the Senate
to destroy the Monroe Doctrine. while Mr..
Root. presumably speaking for them, SOL
emily declares that we will never abandon
or hesitate TO do battle for it.
A Wise Plan.
The President and Fellows OF Harvard