The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-02-16
AFTER ROOSEVELT
NEW SECRET PROTOCOL WITH SAN
 DOMINGO IS REVEALED.
Senate Likely to Call Down Aamlnis- tration-CollectOrw tO be Recail- ed and Dominleans May Get
 Money for SuFrenderang
 Their Custom Houses.


 An entirely new phase of the San Domingo situation has been developsd, as a result of which the action Of the President in assuming to take charge of the customs houses In San Domingo will be certain to come in for swift condemnation by the Senate, and prob. ably result in some action which Will compel the United States authorites to withdraw from the island.
 The text of an entirely new protocol with San Domingo, which was negotiat" ed more than a year ago, has been sub- mitted to the Senate In conjunction with a resolution offered by Senator Bacon of Georgia. This presents questions of such grave chafacter that the Senate will not be likely to go single step toward a compromise with the President. clearly expressed here that the Presi~ dent and the Secretary of State. wheth- CT knowingly or not, have grossly violated the constitution Of the United States and have been conducting mat ters in a foreign country. modifying | treaty relations, and doing 1t all with out a shadow of authority.
 It was this which resulted in the re- jection of the arbitration treaty. but the more the San Domingo situation is inquired into the worse 1t appears. It seems inevitable that the President and the Secretary of State must be sub mitted to the humiliation of having their action publicly and pointedly disavowed by Congress.
 Curious Explanations Made. Some curious explanations recently have been made by the State Depart ment as to the operations fin San Do. mingo. A protocol was negotiated
 January 20 without any secrecy. and
 the Assistant Secretary of State imTne- diately issued an elaborate explana-
 ton of the document. He did not in-
 timate, and the protocol itself did not | provide, that the Senate should have any voice in the matter.
 This raised a storm in the Senate as l waiter of course. and the State De- pa artment was forced inside of twenty | four hours to disavow the protocol and
 declare 1t would not be ratified. Mean while agents of the United States were l'actually in control of certain custom
 houses of the republic of San Domingo After the protocol was disavowed,
 and before A new treaty could be nego- tiated, additional custom houses were taken over by officers of the United States, and the work of collecting the customs revenues and distributing the
 money between the local government | and the American claimant was ex-
 tended apparently in defiance of the Senate.
 This produced a commotion which re-
 suited in the defeat of the arbitration | treaties, because the Senate naturally l held that if the President and Secre- tary of State could of their own motion, and without consultation with the | treaty making branch of Congress. take possession of the custom houses of foreign country, they could in similar manner. if the arbitration treaties were passed submit to the court at The Hague any issue they pleased and the United States thereupon would be bound to execute and to submit to the award of foreign court. even if that went so far as to justify foreign na- ton doing to the United States what we have been doing to San Domingo
 Attempt to Quiet storm.
 To explain the situation in San Domingo and allay the excitement in the Senate the State Department gave out a statement nearly two weeks ago to the effect that the original oceupa- ton of the San Domingo custom houses and the additional occupation on or about February 1st were not under the provisions of the repudiated protocol of last month, but under the provisions of the award of court Of Arbitration which sat in this country and which decided the United States should act as disbursing officer for the republic of San Domingo Improve ment Company. an American corpora tion which for a long time has seemed to have the inisde track at the State Department and which has been in- AuentiaI enough to keep tlS United States gunboats in San Domingo waters, where they are Aoudy'
 For a time this statement that things were being done in San Domingo under an award of a court of arbitration was sufficient to pacify the Senate. Judge George Gray of Delaware, former Senator, a member of the Spanish American peace commission. a member of the Anthracite Coal Commission, federal judge, and a Democrat, was presiding judge of the court of arbi tratfon. His name carried a great deal of weight, and 1t was felt that court of which he was a member must have studied the situation with a good deal of care.
 and just why the United States felt justified in assuming such extraordina- ry duties in a foreign country the Sen ate did not exactly understand, but 1t was willing to take things for granted because of course the actual report of the court of arbitration had never been published for the benefit of Congress.
 BOmbshell in the Senate.
 Today a bombshell was exploded in the Senate by the introduction of the text of a protocol adopted January 3l, 1903, which never had been submitted 10 the United States Senate and which was the agreement under which the court of arbitration was created, The situation Is sensational one. The