Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1904-12-06

in social and political matters, il it
keeps order and pays its obligations, il
need fear no interference from the
United States. Chronic wrongdoing or
an impotence which results in general
loosening of the ties of civilized so
ciety may in America. as elsewhere.
ultimately require Intervention by
some civilized nation, and in the west
ern hemisphere the adherence Of the
United States to the Monroe doctrine
may force the United States. however
reluctantly, in fragrant cases Of such
wrongdoing or impotence to the ex-
-ercise OF an international police pow
er. If every country washed by the
Caribbean sea would show the progress
in stable and just civilization which
with the aid OF the Platt amendment
Cuba has shown since our troops left
the island, and which so many OF the
republics in both Americas are con-
stantly and brilliantly showing. all
question of interference by this nation
with their affairs would be at an end.
Our interests and those of our south
ern neighbors are in reality Identical.
They have great natural riches. and il
within their borders the reign of law
and justice obtains prosperity Is sure
to come to them. While they thus
obey the primary laws of civilized So
ciety they may rest assured that they
will be treated by us in spirit OF
cordial and helpful sympathy We
would interfere with them only in the
last resort. and then Only if it became
evident that their inability or unwill-
ingne;s to DO justice att home and
abroad Lad violated the rights of the
United States or had invited foreign
aggression to the detriment of the en-
tire body Of American nations. 1t is a
mere truisin to say that every nation,
whether in America or anywhere else.
which desires to maintain it's freedom.
its independence. must ultimately re-
alize that the right Of such independ-
ence cannot be separated from the re-
sponsibility 0f making good use of it.
In asserting the Monroe doctrine. in
taking such steps as we have taken in
regard to Cuba, Venezuela and Pana-
ma and in endeavOring to circumscribe
the theater of war in the far east and
to secure the open door in China we
have acted In our own interest as we'll
Us in the interest of humanity at large.
There are, however. cases in which,
while our own interests are not great
ly involved, strong appeal is made to
our sympathies. Ordinarily it is very
much wiser and more useful for us to
concern ourselves with striving for
our own moral and material better
ment here at home than to concern
ourselves with trying to better the
condition of things in other nations.
We have plenty of sins of our own to
war against. and under ordinary cir
we can do more for the
general uplifting of humanity by striv-
ing with heart and soul to put stop
TO civic corruption, to brutal lawless-
less ana violent race prejudiceS here
at home than by passing resolutions
about wrongdoing elsewhere. Never
theless there are occasional crimes
on so vast scale and OF
such peculiar horror IA TO make us
doubt whether 1t is not our manifest
duty to endeavor at least to show our
of the deed and our SYM
patty with those who have suffered by
It. The cases must be extreme in which
such course is justifiable. There
must be no effort made to remove the
mote from our brothers eye if we re-
fuse to remove the beam from our
own. But i'm extreme cases action may
be justifiable and proper. What form
the action shall take must depend up
on the circumstances Of the case-that
Is, upon the degree of the atrocity and
upon our power to remedy it. The
cases I'm which we could interfere by |
force of arms as we interfered to put |
a stop to intolerable conditions in Cuba !
are necessarily very few. Yet 1t is
not to be expected that q people like
ours. which, I'm spite of certain very |
obvious shortcomings, nevertheless as
a whole shows by it's consistent 'prac-
tice its belief in the principles Of civil |
and religious liberty and Of orderly |
freedom. n people among whom even |
the worst crime, like the crime OF !
Iynching, is never more than sporadic, |
so that individuals and not classes are !
in their fundamental rights.
It is inevitable that such a nation
should desire eagerly to give express
sion to it's horror on an occasion like
that of the massacre Of the Jews in
lAlSn1nen or when IL WITNESSES SUCH
systematic and long extended cruelty
md oppression as the cruelty and op-
preston of which the Armenians have
been the victims and which have won
Tor them the indignant pity Of the
civilized world.
Rights Of American Citizens Abroad.
Even where 1t is not possible to Sc
.ure in other nations the observance
# the principles which we accept as
lxiomatic it is necessary for us firm
y to insist upon the rights of our own
itizens without regard to their creed
n race, without regard to whether
hey were born here or born abroad. 1t
las proved very difficult to secure from
Russia the right for our Jewish fellow
itizens to receive passports and travel !
Trough Russian territory. Such con-
Iuct is not only unjust and irritating
oward us, but 1t is difficult to see its
wisdom from Russia's standpoint. No
nm hln rOo6 so ;ch hv IL |