Durango semi-weekly herald. (Durango, Colo.) 1899-1907, 1903-10-22
SEC. HAY
SCORES
BIC WIN


WASHINGTON Or, e,-creat cot.
isfaction with the victory of The MN.
ed States in tho A1aska horrd,rv ais
pute is EXPRESSED in yovarnront or.
cles. The United states carria, oy
cry important point The crn,,h ~
satisfaction which f,ro,t prI,,tr ,1
Canada get ont of tho doc;s,or-,,,,s,
session of pearse Ialopd In no por,
land canaI-ia Of small conso,,onco
The Sovereignty of tho ITnited states
over the disputed const and barhora
is affirmed. and tho trmmnh is com.
plete
The outcome ia anotber ,r,,un,, for
that American who ia now tho p,or,d,e
foremost diplomat-Iobp u,v Thia
method OF settling the ajsmte was Mr.
Hays own idea. He pressod n against
the advice of many other members of
the American government pna In ma
face of good deal of hostile com.
ment. The result indicates his iudp.
ment
1t was declared Inv tho cr,tica that
the British had no case stbat tbe INIT.
ed States held complete sovereIpntv
over the disputed territory bv virtne
both of treaty of cession and occuno.
ton for more than a third of n cen.
tury. Then why submit the ouestion
to n Joint tribunal? Mr.. Hay admit.
ted the first proposition to he true
In fact, no one has maintained II more
strenuously than he But he could
not admit the second-tbnt the limited
States government had no right TO
seek this means of settlement.
He was confronted with an i'm.
passe from the diplomatic point of
view. There was deadlock. The
United States was determined never
to yield. This government knew its
title was clear. Neither would II ey.
er consent to an arbitration of such n
question as the sovereignty of the
United States over territory which IL
held by so good a title. From the
'rst Mr. Hay set his foot down here
and rejected all proposals for arbit a
ton.
What, then, could be done? The
British government tacitly admitted
that the American case was much the
stronger, but IL did not dare yield be.
cause the Canadians were so stirred
up over 1t. II the British had sur
rendered out of hand there was dan
ger that the Canadians would rise In
a storm OF indignation against the
imperial government. The grayest po-
utical consequences might have fol.
lowed Thus the United States could
not yield and would not arbitrate. and
Great Britain did not dare back out
on account of the Canadians.
AT this juncture Mr. Hay suggested
n joint tribunal without any alien
members. In other words, one of the
representatives of Great Britain or
of the United States would have to
vote for the case for the other in order
to secure verdict. Lord Pauncefote,
then the British ambassador, agreed
to this and recommended 1t to his gov
ernment. 1t was adopted. and 1t is
probably within bounds to say that
Mr.. Hay Is the only American diplo.
matist who could have carried the
project through with the British gov
eminent.
The inner truth about the matter Is
this. Both the United States and
Great Britain knew the Canadian con
tention was untenable. Obviously the
best thing that could be done was to
devise scheme by which the Can
adams could be let down easily"
Tacitly, this was what was done.
though no British diplomatist ever put
that In words Just as lawyers who
understand one another and their
clients and the case sometimes ar
range friendly suit for the purpose
of securing Judgment and saving
the pride of the prospective loser, so
the diplomatists in this affair arranged
a Joint commission
There is the more satisfaction in
Washington with the result because
at one time 1t was feared the chances
of reaching settlement had been
jeopardized by President Rooseyelts
mistake in naming Senators Lodge
and Turner as two of the American
commissioners. They were not OBJ
jected to on personal grounds, but on
ly because they had declared in pub