The age-herald., 1900-02-18

after settlement of the disputed boundary of our northwest Pacific possessions. In 1850, not more than 10000 inhabitans were on the Pacific coast. Our coastwise trade with that coast was insignificant in value or amount. Now we have millions of citizens living on that coast. We have hundreds of millions of commerce. We have thousands of milMonls of wealth. We have acquired Alaska Hawaii, the Philippine islands. There is no comparison between the me ager
 interests of fifty years ago and the colossal
 interests of today. The situation has so changed, the interests of our people now and then are diverse, the necessity of responding to these changed conditions are so overwhelming that the most censorious of those who lead in the formation of the worlds judgment would say that our pres ent action must be in harmony with these new conditions rather than the old. There is a law of self-preservation that should control the action of communities, no less than of Individuals.
 "Irrepealable statutes are not tolerated Even the most solemnly enacted constitu- tions must give way ito the demands of the later generations when 1t is found that their provisions are harmful to the public welfare. And we know of mo other form of enactment having sanctity above law and constitution that the overwhelming needs of the people may not with consistency and morality demand the repeal of
 Professor Lawrence Quoted
 In this ircumstance the report quotes Professor Lawrence in "Principles of Inter- national Law" where he discusses the ex- tent to which treaties are binding. The report then proceeds:
 "But we think it safe to say that neither the United States nor Great Britain have continuously regarded the Clayton-Bulwer treaty as in force. In 1868 the United States and Nicaragua exchanged notifications of treaty of friendship, commerce and navi- gation. It gives to the United States the right to send forces into Nicaragua to de- fend the citizens of the United States and their property, the property in contempla- tion being the Nicaragua canal. The use
 of a military force always implies the
 right to establish Qualifications for defens-
 i've purposes. ss.+e-az- sf'r@
 Now, is it possible that the United
 States would at that early day-seventeen
 years after the negotiation of the Clayton
 Bulwer convention-have secured from Nic-
 aragua the right thus to use her military
 forces If the authorities had not believed
 that the Clayton Bulwer treaty was abro-
 gated? But again at an earlier period, in
 1860, Great Britain herself concluded
 treaty with the state of Nicaragua, in
 which there was an article almost identi-
 cal with article 16 above quoted. This was
 eight years before our treaty with Nica-
 I9gua Will it be- contended that Great
 Britain had the right to secure from Nica-
 ragua an agreement that she might enter
 with her military forces tine territory of
 Nicaragua and use her military forces for
 the defense ofiser people and their prop
 erty, including the right to build such forti-
 fications as might be needed for her mili-
 tary forces, and yet the provisions of the
 Clayton-Bulwer treS ty be in force?
 "It is doubtless true that in 1850 Great
 Britain and the United States contemplated
 the speedy completion of the Nicaragua
 canal They proposed to have joint inter-
 bx,i iof,, tr9a. ffAnc to it I2,tt tba
 possibilities of Suez canal that followed
 years after 1850 dawned upon the maritime
 world changed the interests of Great Brit
 ain. She no longer desired the Nicaragua
 route for her own use. She directed her
 conduct with reference to the new condi-
 tion, yet still uses this ghost of dead
 treaty to frighten the people of the United
 States from securing the advantage flow
 ing to the United States of the construc-
 ton of the canal"