The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-01-12
MUST STAND
 AS THEY ARE Roosevelt on Arbitration
 Treaties. MATTER OF OLD BONDS Impossible to Bring Them Up
 for Settlement. Convention. Have oniy Five rea.. te Ran and They wnI Net Be Dif- ferently Interpreted for
 That Period
NATTER OF OLD BONDS

washington. Jan. 11.--H the arbftra- ton treaties pending before the United States Senate are emasculated, tho President will withdraw them from consideration. President has let thia be understood clearly.
 At the conference last Saturday be- tween him and members of the Senate and House he informed the Senators that he desired the arbitration treaties to be ratified.
 In his opinion such action is of high est importance. He desired them to know that he would not permit tho pending treaties to be radically chang ed, as 1t had been, intimated they might be In the course of their consideration by the Senate. He says frankly that rather than have the treaties affected in principle by their consideration in the Senate. he would absolutely with draw them.
 List of the Treaties.
 The treaties now pending were nego- tiated by Secretary Hay with the reps resentatives of the powers and all of them were signed in Washington. Ths conventions entered into were with France. Great Britain. Germany, Italy, Portugal. Switzerland. Spain and Austria Hungary. The President and Secretary Hay felt in negotiating tho treaties that a long step toward uni versalp arbitration and confidence, uni versal peace had been taken. Both have expressed surprise that an attitude inimical to the conventions should have been assumed by some Senators.
 The President has expressed the hope that this attitude may not be naaintain- ed successfully as not only the people of America, but the people of the world, as represented in the conventions. arc anxious that these negotiations lock- ing to peaceful settlement of questions which otherwise might cause war should be concluded.
 The President has impressed upon members of Congress. particularly of the Senate that he regards the arbItra- tion treaties and formfdpable Amerf- can navyses the best assurance of peace the United States possibly could have He told several callers today, there fore, that he wanted the treaties ratified and the naval program carried out without serious modification.
 The Senate Committee on Foreign Relations today continued considera- ton of the arbitration treaties. sena- tor Bacon proposed an amendment pro- viding that the interests of a State shall not be arbitrated, but no action was taken. The treaties are opposes in their present form by Southern Sena- tors, who do not wish to have their States involved by reason of bonds held abroad and which have been repudiat- $d by the States. The treaties will be taken up again at the next meet ing of the committee.
 The Presidents Letter.
 In connection with the subject oe these treaties. the President has ad- dressed the following letter to Senator Cullom. Chairman of the Committee on Foreign Relations.
 White House,
 Washington. Jan. 10, 1905. My Dear Senator CuIlom:
 I notice in connection with the gen. eral arbitration treaties now before the Senate that suggestions have been made to the effect that under them it might be possible to consider as mat ters of arbitration claims against cer- tain States of the Union in reference to certain State debts. write to say what of course you personally know. that under no conceivable circum- stances could any such construction of the treaty be for moment entertained by any President.
 The holders of State debts take them with full knowledge of the constitu- tional Limitations upon their recovery through any action of the national Government, and must rely sorely on State credit Such a claim against a State could under no conditions be sub- mitted by the General Government as a matter for arbitration. any more than such a claim against a county or muni- cipality could be thus submitted for ar- bitration.
 The objection to the proposed amend ment on the subject Is that it Is a mere matter of surplusage. and that it is very undesirable when the form of these treaties has already been agreed to by the several powers concerned, needlessly to add certain definitions. which affect our own internal policy only; which deal with a matter of the relation of the Federal Government to the State, which is, of course, out of the question ever to submit to the ar bitration of any outside tribunal. and which 1t is certainly absurd and prob ably michievous to treat as possible to be raised by the President or by any foreign power.
 No one would ever think of such a matter as being one for arbitration or for any diplomatic negotiation what ever. Moreover, these treaties run only for a term of five years and until the end of that period they will certainly be in- terpreted in accordance with the view above expressed.
 Very truly yours.
 Theodore Roosevelt Hon. s. M Cullom. United States Sem