Valentine Democrat. (Valentine, Neb.) 1900-1930, 1900-09-06
IN ALASKA.
ENGLISH FLAG PLACE OF OLD
GLORY.
FLAG HAULED DOWN
Administration in Four Years Has
OutgroWn the Historic Mon
roe Doctrine.

Washington, D. C.-(Special. 1.-The
status in brief of the Alaskan boun-
dary dispute is that the Mckinley ad-
ministration has decided in principle
that the United States shall surrender
to Canada the disputed strip of terri
tory, which has been in our possession
since Alaska was acquired from Russia.
This strip has been coveted by Can
ada ever since it's acquisition by the
Enited States on account of its great
mineral resources, but no British pre-
mier or Canadian statesman ever dared
to raise the question until the advent of
the Mckinley administration, with its
well known pro-British policy.
Cleveland sent what amounted to an
ultimatum to Great Britain over the
Venezuelan question involving precise
ly the same principle. England tried
to grab a slice of Venezuelan territory
which was known to contain valuable
gol ddeposits. The prompt action of
Cleveland and the bellicose talk in con-
gress over the sacred character of the
Monroe doctrine caused the British lion
to retire and ask for an international
board of arbitration to settle the dis
puted question.
DOCTRINE FOUR YEARS AGO.
To show what republican sentiment
was in 1896 in regard to the surrender
of territory on the western hemisphere
! so remote as Venezuela, Senator Davis
of Minnesota reported from the senate
committee on foreign relations on Jan
uary 90 1896, "a concurrent resolution
relative to the assertion and enforce
ment of the Monroe doctrine" which
declared:
1.-THE United States of America reaf-
firms and confirms the doctrine and
principles promulgated by President
Monroe in his message Of December 2,
1928, and declares that it asserts and
maintains that doctrine and those prin-
ciples, and will regard any infringe
ment thereof and particularly any at
tempt by any European power to take
| or acquire any new or additional terri
tory on the American continent, or any
f islands adjacent thereto, or any right
of sovereignty or dominion in the same
in any case or instance as to which the
United States shall deem such attempt
to be dangerous to its peace or safety,
by or through force, purchase, cession,
occupation, pledge, colonization, pro-
{ tectorate or by control of the easement
in any canal or any other means of
transit across the American isthmus,
whether under unfOunded pretensOn of
right in cases of alleged boundary dis
putes, or under any other unfOunded
pretensions as the manifestation of an
unfriendly disposition toward the Unit
ed States and as an interposition which
it would be impossible in any form for
the United States to regard with in
difference
This was the doctrine Of the senate
committee on foreign relations in 1896.
That committee included Frye of
Maine, Davis of Minnesota, CuIlom of
Illinois and Lodge of Massachusetts.
PRESTO CHANGE.
In the present dispute in which the
administration proposes to surrender 200
square miles of territory belonging to
the United States, every one of these
republicans will repudiate his solemn
findings of four years ago and support
the policy of hauling down the Amer
lean flag to please Great Britain, be-
cause it is necessary in the interest of
keeping up friendly relations with Eng
land under the Hay-Pauncefote-M
ley entente. 4 ,.,Fs
The state department says it is pre-
pared to defend the surrender before
the senate. That body must ratify the
delimitation of our historic boundary,
but there will be no difficulty in OBJ
tanning the concurrence and aid of such
men as Lodge, Davis, Cullom, Frye,
Foraker, Wolcott and Clark, all of
whom are for anything Salisbury may
require and who form the majority
of the foreign committee as now con-
stituted, and who, with Hanna, Elkins,
Beveridge and others of the same kind,
will sustain the Hay-Pauncefote COM
pact in any policy agreeable to Eng
land and acquiesced in by the president.