The Birmingham age-herald., 1904-12-07

well can count upon our hearty friend ship. If a nation shows that 1t knows how to act with reasonable efficiency and decency in social and political mat ters, if 1t keeps order and pays it's ohl
 gations, 1t need fear no interference from the United States. Chronic wrong-doing. or an impotence which results in gem eral loosening of the ties of civilized so- ciety, may in America, as elsewhere. ul- timately require intervention by some civilized nation, and in the Western Hem isphere the adherence of the United States to the Monroe doctrine may force the United States however reluctantly, In fragrant cases of such wrong-doing or impotence to the exercise of an inter national police power. If every country washed by the Caribbean Sea would show the progress in stable and just civiliza- ton which with the aid of the Platt amendment Cuba has shown since our troops left the island and which so many of tho republics In both Americas are constantly and brilliantly showing, all questions of interference by tnls nation with their affairs would be at an end. Our interests and those of our southern neighbors are in reality Identical. They have great natural riches, and if within their borders the reign of law and jus tice obtains, prosperity is sure to come to them. While they thus obey the prim- ary laws of civilized society they may rest assured that they will be treated by us in a spirit of cordial and helpful sym pathy We would interfere with them only in the last resort and then only if 1t became evident that their inability or | unwillingness to do justice at home and l abroad had violated the rights of the United States or had invited foreign ag- | gression to the detriment of the entire l body of American nations II Is a mere {, truism to say that every nation, whether J in America or anywhere else, which de- | sires to maintain it's freedom, It's inde- pendence, must ultimately realize that the right of such independence cannot be | separated from the responsibility or making good use of 1t.
 1 In asserting the Monroe doctrine, in | taking such steps as we have taken In ; regard to Cuba, Venezuela and Panama, and in endeavoring to circumscribe the l theater of war in the far east, and to se- cure the open door in China, we have | acted in our own interest well as in the interest of humanity at large. There l are, however, cases in which, while our own interests are not greatly inVolVed' strong appeal Is made to our sympatnles. ] Ordinarily 1t Is very much wiser and more useful for us to concern ourselves Wlln striving for our own moral and material betterment here at home than to concern ourselves with trying to better the condl- tion of things in other nations We nave plenty of sins of our own to war against, and under ordinary circumstances we can do more for the general uplifting or hn- , manity by striving with heart and soul to put stop to civic corruption, 10 brutal ] lawlessness and violent race preJudlces here at home than by passing resolutions about wrong doing elsewhere. Neverthe- less there are occasional crimes com ! mtted on so vast a scale and ot sucn pe- l culiar horror as to make HIS doup'
 whether it is not our manifest duty to endeavor at least to show our dlsapproV-
 al of the deed and our sympathy wltn those who have suffered by 1t. Ihe case
 must be extreme in which such a course Ia iustifa ble There must be no enor'
 made to remove the mote from oni
 brothers eve If we refuse to remove tho
 beam from our own. But in extreme
 cases actlon may be justlfable ant
 proper What form the action shall tak'
 must depend upon the circumstances O
 the case, that ls upon the degree Of th
 atrooitv and upon our power to remed.
 it. The cases in which we could interfer bv force of arms as we interfered to pu
 a stop to intolerable conditions in Cub 1 are necessarily very few. Yet it is not t
 be exepected that a people like ours
 which in spite of certain very obviou l ShOrfPOn1nKS,
 shows by it's consistent practice It's belle
 in the principles of civil and religious lit
 erty and of orderly freedom, peopl
 among whom even the worst crime, lils
 the crime of lynching. is never more tha
 sporadic, so that individuals and nc
 classes are molested in their fundamenta
 rights-it is inevitable that steh natlo
 should desire eagerly to give expression to It's horror on an occasion like that Q
 4 l,1 rft lao. Iat In
 when it witnessed such systematic an'
 long extended cruelty and oppression 0 , which the Armenians have been the VIC 7 tins, and which have won for them tn' l, indignant pity of the civilized world
 RIGHTS OF AMERICAN
 CITIZENS ABROAD
 Even where 1t is not possible to secure 3 , in other nations the observance of th' l ] nrinciples which we accept as automatic if ,s necessary for us firmly to insist upor , ] the rights of our own citizens "ltnou | ,egard to their creed or race; without re [ gard to whether they were born here ol t horn abroad. It has proved very difficult to secure from Russia the right for oui
 TevIsh fellow citizens to receive pass
 ports and travel through Russian terri
 tory Such conduct Is not only unjus and irritating toward us. but 1t Is dini
 cult to see It's wisdom fro.l Russia standpoint. No conceivable good Is ac
 compllshed by 1t. If an American JeS
 or an American Christian misbehave
 himself in Russia he can at once b
 driven out; but the ordinary American
 Jew, like the ordinary American Chris
 tian, would behave just about as he be
 hayes here, that Is. behave as any goo
 citizen ought to behave; and where thi
 is the case 1t is a wrong against whic we are entitled to protest to refuse hir his passport without regard to his con ! duct and character, merely on racial an religious grounds. In Turkey our dfni ] cultes arise less from the way in whic | our citizens are sometimes treated tha | from the indignation inevitably excite , ] in seeing such fearful misrule as na