Heppner gazette. [volume] (Heppner, Morrow County, Or.) 1892-1912, 1906-12-13

mediately to send enough ships to Cuba tc
prevent the situation from becoming hopeless
In accordance with the .socalled Patt
amendment. which was Embodied in the con
sttution of Cuba, | proclaimed provisional
government for the island, the secretary OF
| war acting provisional governor until he
could be replaced by, MIR, Maeoon; troops
were sent to support them and to relieve the
navy, the expedition being handled with most
satisfactory speed and efficiency. The pro
visional government has left the personnel OF
| the old government and the old laws, so far
as might be, unchanged, and will thus ad
minister the island for few months until
tranquility be restored, new election
properly held, and new government inaugu-
| rated. Peace has come i'll the island; and the
| harvesting of the sugar cane crop, the great
crop of the island, is about to proceed
The United States wishes nothing of Cuba
! except that it shall prosper morally and ma
| terially, and wishes nothing of the Cubans save
that they shall be able to preserve order
among themselves and therefore to preserve
their independence II the elections become, a
comes confirmed in the island, it is abso-
lutey out of the question that the island
should continue independent; and the United
States. which has assumed the sponsorship be
fore the civilized world for Cubas career as a
| nation, would again have to intervene ana to
see that the government was managed in such
| orderly fashion as to secure the safety of life
and property.
! In many parts of South America there has
been much misunderstanding of the attitude
and purposes of the United States toward the
other American republics. An idea had be
| come prevalent that our assertion of the
| Monroe doctrine implied carried with it
an assumption of superiority and of a right
to exercise some kind of protectorate over
the countries to whose territory that doctrine
truth Yet that impression continued to be
serious barrier to good understanding, to
friendly intercourse. to the introduction of
American capital and the extension of Amer
r1u trade The imDTeSSlOn wide sDre1d
that apparently it could not be reached by any
ordinary means.
1t was part Of Secretary Roots mission to
dispe this unfounded impression. and there
is just cause to believe that he has succeeded.
| have just returned from a trip to Panama
and shall report to you at length later on
the whole subject OF the Panama canal
The destruction of the Pribilof islands fur
seals by pelagic sealing still continues. The
regulations have proved plainly inadequate to
accomplish the object of protection and preser-
this government has been trying in vain to
secure from Great Britain such revision and
modification of the regulations as were con
templated and provided for by the award of
the Tribunal of Paris.
The process of destruction has been accel.
Grated during recent years by the appearance
of number of Japanese vessels. engaged in
pelagic scaling As these vessels have not
been bound even by the Inadequate limitations
prescribed by the Tribunal of Paris. they have
paid attention either to the close season or
to the sixty-mile limit imposed upon the Cana
dians. and have prosecuted their work up to
the very islands themselves.
We have not relaxed our efforts to
agreement with Great Britain for adequate
protection of the seal herd, and negotiations
with Japan for the same purpose are in
progress.
In case we are compelled to abandon the
hope of making arrangements with other gov
ernments to put end to the hideous cruelty
now ircident to peagic sealing. it will be a
question for your serious consideration how
far we should continue to protect and main
tain the seal herd on land with the result Of
continuing such a practice, and whether it
IS rot better to end the practice by exterm
mating the herd ourselves in the most humane
way possible.
The United States navy is the surest guar
antor of peace which this country possesses.
profit by the teachings of history in this mat
ter. A strong and wise people will study its
own failures no less than its triunlphs, for
there is wisdom to be learned from the study
of BOTH of the mistake we'll as of the sue
cess
do not ask that we continue to increase
our navy. | ask merely that it be maintained
1t its present strength; and this can be done
only if we replace the obsolete and outworn
ships by new and good mes, the. equals of
any atloat in any navy. To ston building ships
for one year means that FOR that year the
navy goes back instead of forward. The old
battleship Texas, for instance, would be
Of little service in stand-up fight with
powerful adversary The old double turret
monitors have outworn their usefulness, while |
monitors. All these ships should
be replaced by others; and this be done |
by a wel-setted program OF providing for the |
building each year OF at least one first-class |
equal in size and speed to any that
any nation is at the same time building.