The Birmingham age-herald., 1902-06-04
Washington Day by Day

dor who recently came to Washington and was relieved of Cffice.
 "Tbe South Americans have no respect whatever for citizens of the United States, whom they rob, outrage, repress and i'm prison We protect them in their self government against Europe and as re- turn they fawn upon Europeans, and sub feet us to every possible humiliation, in- justice and wrong. by preference trading with Europeans, and having as little as | possible to do with us. The contempt they show to such of our people as visit their countries and the disrespect with which they speak of our country are al- most unbearable. Yet if an American does resent such indignities he is thrown into a verminous jail to be constantly in suited by verminous jailers
 "Those people are so wretchedly unciv- ilized that a civilized person is an afrront to them; they hate him because he takes baths and demands clean bed.
 ''The time will come when the United States will have to resort to armed inter ference in order to maintain the common rights of it's citizens who visit or reside in those revolutionary lands Still we go on shouting about the Monroe Doctrine and proclaiming that the wings of our eagle cover all the continent. That is all true enough, but those people In South America hate us, and if we should become involved In war with a great European power on their account they would prob | ably do all they could against us.
 As the situation now stands. 5000 picked 1 Americans well armed could go down there and join with the rebels in the present revolution and gain absolute pos session of the entire isthmus of Panama | and with so much of Columbia and Ec- uador as they might desire thereby end ing all dispute as to rights and titles to the route of the Panama Canal and rail- road. As a private enterprise such an invasion of America would seem to be most profitable"
 Mir DeLeon, who Is well known and worthily esteemed in Alabama, Georgia and other states fell by that very virtue which Is most worthy in consuls and oth- CT foreign representatives of the govern ment He angered the corrupt oligarchy of Ecuador by insisting upon the release of number of his countrymen who were unjustly and outrageously kept impris- oned by the Ecuadorian government. That of course made him persona non grata, and his usefulness as consul gen. eral there was ended, unless our govern ment had manifested the courage to sus- | @( age. self-respect and national policy and doctrine of nationhood which the Ameri- can governm ent has never displayed since it sent old Admiral Decatur to shoot a few negroes on the coast of North Af- rica in the beginning of the last cen tury.
 The protection of its own citizens. trad ing or travelling in foreign lands. is one thing the United States will not do! No instance of the kind has occurred in ninety-seven years.
 Personally I have known more than twenty good Americans trading in east ern and South American countries who claimed to be subjects of Great Britain in order to secure the necessary pro- lection of the British flag, their own flag not being respected, and offering them no protection. On one occasion while travelling in eastern Europe I fell in with a half dozen travel-stained, hearty good fellows, whom I greeted as Englishmen. As was then sojourning in the British Isles, and was simply on a tour, and they had been away from home for years, they demanded to be told all their home news. This I rattled off to them, going so thoroughly over recent occurrences as to tell them of the latest murder in Whitechapel One of them then asked me for news from America, and his manner of saying America was instant proof that he was himself Amer ican; but that being no business of mine I did~not betray my conviction but told him American occurrences of great i'm portance for three or four years then past
 As we travelled 1t came out that all of us intended to stop in Vienna, the trav- elers for business and for two or three happy days in that happiest of Flu ropean capitals, which I had visited be- fore. In Vienna we put up at the same l hotel, where the AnericdI sooii mdoe occasion to take me aside. He then in formed me that he was an American and all of them were traders In precious stones; and in order to protect himself he had been obliged to assume to be,a British subject We further exchanged | condolences, and learned that his trad ing trip, which had been through remote countries of Asia, had proved to be re- markedly successful What is an Amer icans life worth in out of the way places?" he asked significantly. Moth ing" I replied.
 There must be thousands of such cases; and 1t was because he attempted to make the personal liberty of an American worth something in South America that Perry De Leon was relieved of of- flee as consul general to Ecuador.
 The President thoroughly understands the situation, and he has shown much personal kindness to MT. DeLeon since the latter's return to Washington.
 Yesterday Senator Thurston conducted Mir. Frederick c. Dunn and Mrs. Dunn, formerly of Birmingham. to the White House and presented them to the Presi- dent, who received them most cordially. In the course of the conversation, MT. Dunn who has been building railroads in Ecuador for several years took occasion