Akron daily Democrat. [volume] (Akron, Ohio) 1892-1902, 1902-12-15

PtOpOSeu' 10 redCn tne END prOteSSeu,
and the examples of what pacific
blockades" have run into in the past,
and 1t Is not an unreasonable Inference
that the vehement self-denying protests
of the two powers as to territorial
aggrandizement may have small mean.
ing.
The fact is that this claim of
pacific blockade" Is n misnomer and
fraud upon other nations. The sink.
ing of the Venezuelan fleet unmasks
the pretense and develops the proceed
ing into matter of reprisals, which
mean actual war, and such it is in
fact
That It is so is sufficiently humiliat-
ing to Americans of the strenuous"
class, who profess to regard the
Monroe Doctrine as the chip which it
is the peculiar province Of this country
to carry around on its shoulder, daring
| anybody to knock off.
Now Great Britain, in alliance with
Germany, enters upon war, the issue
and end Of which may be, and, unless
the former power bellies her South
African appetite for more territorial
plunder, will be. the permanent ac.
QUESTION of more or less Spanish.
American territory, and all this with.
out so much as saying to Mr.. John
Hay and our State department: by
your leave"
We are not of those who believe that
the Monroe Doctrine necessarily i'm
poses on ms the perpetual tutelage Of all
the Americas against European aggrcs
sion, but Mr.. Roosevelt and his strenu
ous following do, professedly nt least.
And now that actual warfare has be.
gun, and In n way which amounts to an
international affront to us IL the guar
dianship theory Of the Monroe Doctrine
II correct and II this initiative as
seems likely, Is to he followed up by
some more enduring and fragrant
breach of the time honored dicum Of
President Monroe, II will he curious
study to watch the state department at
Washington and see how II will act.
II Is safe to predict that It will do
nothing. How can Il? If It permitted
our ports to be used as n base Of sup.
plies for Great Britain while she was
engaged in crushing the Transvaal and
the Orange Free State, We can hardly
look for very vigorous protest against
the same power acquiring the territory
of n people who are not entitled to n
1.-THE OF the consideration that the
Beers and the Free-Statcrs were at our
hands
Then again, suppose that Mr.. Roosc.
Welt, responding TO the wish of at least
n large portion Of the American people,
should really. become strenuous" over
az undoubted violation of the Monroe
DOctrlne-if the impending movements
Of the powers shall so evcntuate
should bristle up to them, and assure
them, as he so lately has the rest Of the
world, that we are "the SONS of men
who had iron in their blood, and that
ours is not the creed of the weakling
and the coward" The powers would
be very likely TO say: you released
your guardianship of the Western
Hemisphere when you went to inter
ferng in the affairs OF the Eastern
Pluck the beam out of your own eye
before undertaking to pull the mote
from ours" In the court of intcrna
tlonal morals and conscience there
could he no answer intcrposcd to this
p Just retort, And so we say that II ON
) former history has committed us never
: So clearly to the maintenance Of thC
Monroe Doctrine In the entirety
claimed for IL by the class of men t
which President Roosevelt natural!
and 10y association clearly belongs, NJ
effective protest will be heard from
our government, even in the event tina
: tho occupation Of some portions o
! Venezuelan soil by the powers shall h,
made permanent The Monroe Doc
trne has hcen badly damaged sine,
Grover Clcvcland's time, and by nothing
50 much as our record of lust of con
quest in the Eastern Archipelago
, Grover Cleveland made Great Britain
retreat from her pretensions in rcgar,
10 the Venezuelan boundary and submit
to n peaceful solution Of the dispute
There Is no doubt that the presen
coercivc measures in regard to tina
country would not have been resorte,