Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1903-02-13
ALASKAN TREATY.
Yankee Bargain With Great Britain
Just Approved by the Senate.


i Great satisfaction is being expressed
4 by the newspapers in this country
/ over the arrangement that Secretary
| Hay has made with Great Britain for
the settlement OF the Alaska boundary
!, dispute. This arrangement provides
that the dispute shall be left to joint
commission of six eminent jurists. ,hree
OF them American and three British. AS
there is no seventh commissioner a
deadlock is regarded as almost certain,
in which case the boundary vii! re-
main, until further negotiations, where
1t now is; ana it now is pretty nearly
where the United States claims it ought
+ to be. The British can win. of course,
by persuading one of our judges of the
righteousness of their case, or the
Americans can win by persuading one
of the British judges. The American
papers think that the latter is far more
likely to happen than the former. The
Brooklyn Eagle says confidently:
THAT the court will s,stain the
American claims is more than prob
able. The case for both sides is already
public property. We know in advance
of their submission the arguments that
will be employed to effect conversion
from one view to the other We know
that Great Britain, long before the ces-
sion or sale of Alaska to the United
States, admitted in public documents
and in official maps the Russian claim
to land which was afterward legally
transferred to us. We rely upon these
admissions to convince one or more of
the British members of the court that
our contention is well founded. We
rely upon them to accomplish with adj
INDICATORS what they could not effect
with high commissioners, who were po-
litioalIy and by natural prejudice pre-
cludel from asserting to any agreement
not based upon their own premises.
We rely upon them to convince the
world that in securing what belongs to
US we are not possessed by land hunger
nor by desire to profit unduly at the
expense of smaller people,
Great Britain has refused to enter
precisely similar arrangement on sew
eral previous occasions, we are told, so
that the present bargain is something
of triumph for Mr.. Hay. The New
York Press declares:
ut was victory OF tactics, dashing
stroke at exactly the right time. His
weapon was opportunity. Finding the
whole British people aroused against
the Balfour ministry for it's odious alli-
ance with Germany. which they feared
was sore tax on American friendship
for themselves, Mr.. Hay urged his
representations as to Alaska 1t was a
happy occasion for the British govern
ment to give evidence OF its attachment
and good will, at no cost to what In the
last analysis would be shown to be its
rights, and the Alaska treaty was
signed on the conditions laid down by
our secretary of state. This was really
magnificent strategy"
The whole dispute is. in brief,
whether the boundary line OF the Alas
ka panhandle" (Which lies between
Canada and the ocean for more than
500 miles) is thirty miles from the
coasts windings and indentations, or
lire, II the former, it cuts off Canada
from the water for all that distance, If
the latter, it gives Canada Dyea, Skag-
way Pyramid Harbor, and other ports
on Lynn Canal. 1t appears that until
recently the former course of the
boundary was undisputed. Frederick
w. seward VINO was assistant SScre-
tary of state under his father, William
II. Seward, and took part in the nego-
tiations for the purchase of Alaska,
points out in a letter to the New York
Tribune that the acceptance Of the
Canadian claim would cut that part of
our territory in two and give Great
Britain harbor that could be made
into an impregnable naval station. He
pronounces the Canadian claims alb
surd. and gives this interesting infor-
nation:
ION the table before me. as write,
are some copies of the maps-tlhe map
pre- pared at st. Petersburg in 1929 by
the Russian Typographical bureau; the
map compiled by the deputy surveyor
general of Lower Canada in 1881: the