Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1900-04-27
AN UNDERSTANDING
EXISTING Between ADMIN.
iSTRATlON AND ENGLAND.

IL SA0"btV
ISTRATlON AND ENGLAND.
Many Facts and Utterances Indicate 1.-THE
People of Our Nation Nay Find Themselves
Involved in Foreign Complications Before
They Realize that the Compact has Been Sc.
cretly Made-it is Time for Americans to Be
on Their Guard.
Baltimore Sun.
There is widespread apprehension
that the Mckinley administration,
from the outbreak of the war with
Spain through long series of secret
transactions to the present time, has
been entangling itself and, so far as it
can do So, entangling the United
States by a a"friendly understanding"
with the British government on q
number of subjects.
The Democratic party of Ohio has
given positive expression to this belief
by declaring in its platform that there
is ga secret and vicious alliance be-
tween England and the Republican
administration whereby this nation
may become involved in war with for
eign nations" OF course the trainers
of that platform did not mean to as
sert that this "secret and vicious ALI.
ance" is of formal character, reduced
to any form Of writing that can con-
stitutionally bind this country. That,
of course, is out of the question.
What they meant to charge, and what
the country at large seriously fears to
be true, is that the administration at
Washington has gone to the full ex-
tent of its discretionary power in CIV
ing verbal assurances and entering
into unwritten but none the less spe-
ciic understandings with the admin.
istration at London affecting our pol
icy in the far East and possibly in
other parts OF the world. The surface
indications all point strongly to the
conclusion that there is such tacit
agreement and concert of action be-
tween the executive branches OF our
government and the Queens govern
ment to which neither Congress nor
the American people is a consenting
party.
The danger is that events may at
any time flow from this secret under
standing between the Mckinley and
Salisbury cabinets which may make it
difficult, if not impossible, for this
nation to avoid being drawn into the
complicated web OF rival European
ambitions in Asia. And once we are
drawn into that web it is certain that
sooner or later we shall find ourselves
compelled to side with one or other
of the contending European nations
and support the partnership with our
men, our ships and our money. 1t lie,
therefore, no light or trifling matter
for the American people. They have
q clear right to ask and to have a
plain answer to the question. To
what extent has the Mckinley admin
istration departed from the historic
foreign policy of our country and en-
tered into understandings and obliga-
tions with the English government
involving mutual support in the far
East or elsewheref
We do not forget that Secretary
Hay, by way of replying to the Ohio
Democratic platform. wrote to Colonel
Dick and publicly declared that no
alliance exists or is in contemplation"
and that "none has been suggested"
But that does not cover the case. 1t
may be quite true, rs he says, that I" it
has never entered into the mind OF the
President or of any member of the
government to forsake under any in.
ducement the wise precept and ex-
ample Of the fathers which forbade
entangling alliances with European
That merely excludes the
idea of an actual, formal alliance.
Yet the President and his advisers
may have entered into such friendly
understandings" and tacit agreements
as in their practical operation and
may lead this nation
into "entangling alliances" and in
volve it in great wars to support
them.
Unfortunately for Secretary Hays
there has been a continu-
Gus chain of occurrences for the past
two years which tend to discredit it.
Many British statesmen Of the highest
rank, including several members OF
Salisbury government, have delivered
speeches in which they have not only
advocated an alliance with this coun.
try but have spoken as if such an alli-
ance, informal yet effective, already
existed. As long ago as May. 1898,
Mr.. Chamberlain spoke at Birming-
ham about the English and American
flags waving together over an Anglo
Saxon alliance" and declared that
cat the present time these two great
nations understood each other better
than they have ever done," &c. More
pointedly still, Mr.. Chamberlain de-
clared in speech at Leicester on No
vember 80 Of last year that Great
Britain's action toward us in the
Spanish war had "placed our relations
in an admirable position" And he
went on to say: "The union-the al.