Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1903-12-07


lands of different character and ex-
tending through various sections of the
country, have been dishonesty acquir-
| ed. 1t is hardly necessary to urge the
Importance of recovering these dishon-
est acquisitions. stolen from the people,
and of promptly and duly Furnishing
the offenders.
Through frauds. forgeries and per-
iuries and by shameless briberies the
laws relating to the proper conduct OF
the public service in general and to the
due administration of the postoftice
department have been VIGOROUSLY vio-
lated. and many indictments have been
found, and the consequent prosecutions
are in course of hearing or on the eve
thereof. For the reasons thus indicat-
ed and so that the government may
be prepared to enforce promptly and
with the greatest effect the due pen
alties for such violations of law, and
to this end may be furnished with suffi-
cient Observation-Disclosures and competent
legal assistance for the Investigations
and trials which will be necessary at
many different points of the country,
urge upon the congress the necessity
of making the said appropriation avail
able for immediate use for all such
purposes, TO be expended under the di-
rection of the attorney general.
Need For Treaties Making Bribery
ExtraditabIe.
Steps have been taken by the state
department looking to the making of
bribery an eXtraditable offense with
foreign powers. The need of more eff
fective treaties covering this crime is
manifest The exposures and proSecu-
tons of official corruption in st. Louis,
Mo-, and other cities and states have
resulted in Il number of givers and tax
ers of brides becoming fugitives in for
eign lands. Bribery has not been in
cluded in eXtradftion treaties hereto
FORE as the necessity for it has not
arisen. While there may have been
as much official corruption in former
years, there has been more developed
and brought to light in the immediate
past than in the preceding century of
our countrys history. 1t should be the
policy of the United States to leave no
place on earth where a corrupt man
fleeing from this country can rest in
peace.
Alaskan boundary.
4 fter unavailing attempts 10 reach an
understanding on the Alaskan bound
airy question through joint high COM
mission, followed by prolonged negOtia
tions, conducted in an amicable spirit,
a convention between the United States
and Great Britain was signed Jan. pa,
1908, providing for an examination of
the subject by mixed tribunal of six
members, three on Il side, with view
to its final disposition. Qualifications
were exchanged on March last,
whereupon the two governments APP
pointed their respective members.
Those on behalf of the United States
were Elihu Root, secretary of war;
Henry Cabot Lodge, a senator of the
United States, and George Turner, an
ex-senator of the United States. while
Great Britain named the Right Hon.
Lord Alverstone. lord chief justice of
England; Sir Louis Amable Jette, X.
c. NJ. G., retired judge of the supreme
court of Quebec, and A. 3. Aylesworth,
n c., of Toronto. This tribunal met
in London on Sept. under the presi
dency of Lord Alverstone. On the Goth
of October Il majority of the tribunal
reached and signed an agreement on
all the questions submitted by the
terms of the convention. BY this
award the right of the United States
to the control of a continuous strip or
border of the mainland shore, skirting
all the tidewater inlets and sinuosities
of the coast, is confirmed; the entrance
to Portland canal concerning which
legitimate doubt appeared, is defined
as passing by Tongass inlet and to the
northwestward of Wales and Pearse
islands; line is drawn from the head
of Portland canal to the fifty-sixth de-
gree of north latitude, and the interior
border line of the strip is fixed by lines
connecting certain mountain SUBMITS
lying between Portland canal and
Mount st. Elias and running along the
crest of the divide separating the coast
slope from the inland watershed at the
only part of. the frontier where the
drainage ridge approaches the coast
within the distance of ten marine
leagues, stipulated by the treaty as the
extreme width of the strip around the
heads of Lynn canal and its branches.
While the line so traced follows the
provisional demarcation of 1873 at the
of 1899 at the SUBMITS of the White
and Chilkoot passes, it runs much far
Their inland from the Klehini than the
temporary line of the later modus vi
vendi and leaves the entire mining
district of the Porcupine river and Gla-
cier creek within the Jurisdiction of the
United States.
[The president here recapituIates the
details of the imbroglio between Euro
pean powers and Venezuela and the
reference of certain points of the con-
troversy to The Hague tribunal
through the influence of the United
States. This he calls a victory for
American diplomacy and triumph for
international arbitration. He advo-
Gates an extension of international law
TO exempt all private property at sea
from capture of destruction by forces
Of belligerent powers.]