Waterbury evening Democrat., 1903-12-07
PUNISHMENT OF PUBLIC coRRuP-

public corruption is an honor to na- tion, not disgrace. The shame lies l in toleration, not in correction. No city or state, still less the nation, can be injured by the enforcement of law. As long as public plunderers when detect 1 ed can find a haven of refuge in any foreign land and avoid punishment, l just so long encouragement Is given them to continue their practices. If we fail to do all that Ill us lies to stamp out corruption we cannot es- cape our share of responsibility for the 1 guilt. The first requisite of successful l self government is unfiinching enforce 1 ment of the law and the cutting out of l corruption. ...
 For several years past the rapid de- velopment of Alaska and the establish ment of growing American interests ill | regions heretofore unsurveyed and imperfectly known brought into prom l thence the urgent necessity of a prac- tical demarcation of the boundaries be- | tween the jurisdictions of the United ! States and Great Britain. Although l the treaty of 1925 between Great Brit ain and Russia, the provisions of which
 
 whereby Russia conveyed Alaska to | the United States, was positive as to the control, first by Russia and later by the United States, of strip of ter ritory along the continental mainland l from the western shore of Portland canal to Mount St. Elias, following and surrounding the indentations of the coast and including the islands to the westward, its description of the | landward margin of the strip was in- definite, resting on the supposed ex- igtence of 8 continuous ridge or range of mountains skirting the coast, as l figured In the charts of the early. navi- l gators It had at no time been possi- ble fer either party in interest to lay down, under the authority of the trea- | ty, line so obviously exact according | to its provisions as to command the assent of the other. For nearly three fcurths of a century the absence of tangible local interests demanding the exercise of positive Jurisdiction on ei-, ther side of the border left the question 1 dormant. In 1878 questions of reve- nue administration on the Stikine river led to the establishment of provision al demarcation, crossing the channel between two high peaks on either side about twenty four miles above the riv- CT mouth. In 1899 similar questions growing out of the extraordinary de velopment of mining interests in the region about the head of Lynn canal brought about a temporary modus vii yendi, by which convenient separa- ton was made at the watershed di- vidss of the White and Chilkoot passes and to the north of Klukwan, on the Klehini river. These partial and tenta- tive adjustments could not, in the very nature of things, be satisfactory or lasting. A permanent disposition of the matter became imperative.
 ALASKAN BOUNDARY 5. CoMMIs- SION.
 After unavailing attempts to reach an understanding through joint high commission, followed by prolonged ne gotfations conducted in an amicable spirit, a convention between the United States and Great Britain was signed Jan. A, 1903, providing for an examina- tion of the subject by mixed tribunal of six members, three on side, with view to it's final disposition. Ratifica- tions were exchanged on March 3 last, whereupon the two governments ap pointed their respective members. Those on behalf of the United States were Elihu Root, secretary of war; Henry Cabot Lodge, senator of the United States, and George Turner an ex-sena- tor of the United States, while Great Britain named the Right Hon. Lord Alverstone, lord chief justice of Eng land; Sir Louis Amable Jette, K. c. M. G., retired judge of the supreme court of Quebec, and A. B. Aylesworth, K. O., of Toronto. This tribunal met in London on Sept. 3 under the presidency of Lord Alverstone. The proceedings I were expeditions and marked by a friendly and conscientious spirit. The respective cases, counter cases and ar guments presented the issues clearly and fully. On the 2Oth of October a majority of the tribunal reached and signed an agreement on all the ques- tions 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 inIets and sinuoSities of the coast is confirmed, the entrance to Portland canal, concerning which legitimate doubt appeared, is de fined as passing by Tongass inlet and to the northwestward of Wales and Psarse islands; line is drawn from the head of Portland canal to the fifty sixth degree of north latitude, and the interior border line of the strip is fixed by lines connecting certain mountain summits lying between Portland canal and Mount St Elias and running along the crest of the divide separating the coast slope from the inland watershed sne drainage i4dge appHfonaaches Ndss ths 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.