The Jersey City news., 1906-03-07

what man in the Legislature is as clearly
commissioned to deliver the blow as Sen
ator Colby?
Many good people interested in bring
ing about reform in the Congo Free
State. where the slave-trade, almost
without disguise, is carried on. are great
" disappointed by the stand taken by
Secretary Root, that this country has no
right to meddle in the Congo affair. says
the Rochester Union and Advertiser
Members of the Congo Reform Associa-
tion have tried to show that this gov
ernment is bound by treaty Obligations
ito take steps toward ending the abuses
in the Congo State, but Secretary Root
points out that it is not so bound be-
cause 1--WE are not parties to the other
more commonly cited general act of the
Congo (signed at Berlin on February 2,
1885," The history Of that treaty. which
is very interesting, is thus related by the
Springfield Republican,
There was an international congress
at Berlin. which raised the territory pre-
viously ceded to the international associ-
tsation of the Congo to the rank of SOW
ereign state, under the administration of
the King of Belgium. The signatoroies
to that treaty included the great Euro
pean powers, which thereby assumed, no
doubt, various conventional obligations
and moral responsibilities The United
States was represented at the congress
by its minister to Germany, Mr.. Kasson,
who actually signed the. Congo treaty
Because Mr.. Kasson signed it, the argu-
ment has been advanced that the treaty
obligated our government as much as the
other signatories. But the point is with
out force because President Cleveland
declined TO send the treaty to the Senate
for its approval, and thus, lacking the
Senate's consent, the Berlin convention
of 1885, so far as the United States is
concerned, remains non-existent.
Mr.. Cleveland's act was certainly wise
and it has been yindicated by time. Mr.
Kasson was authorized to attend the
Berlin conference by the Arthur admin
istration without mature reflection and
probably without an expectation that the
result of the conference would be a
treaty of the sort that was made. Presi-
dent Cleveland, uDon entering office, i'm
mediately saw that the ratification Of the
convention might make the United States
in effect partly responsible for new
state, in a continent which is considered
wholly within the sphere Of European
influence, and thereby cause serious
violation of the well-established policy of
this country. 1t is now evident that if
the Berlin treaty had been ratified by
our government, the pressure upon it to
intervene in Congo affairs might now be
irresistible"
Certainly Mr.. Cleveland performed a
good service for the American people
when he refused to send the treaty Of
1885 to the Senate. We should keep out
of European complications, even though
they concern Africa, if we propose to
maintain the Monroe Doctrine. We can
not consistently uphold that doctrine and
meddle with Old World politics. The
Springfield Republican thinks that "in
sending a representative to the Algeciras
conference on the Morocco question our
government has made an error very like
the one that was made by the Arthur
administration in sending Mr.. Kasson to
the Congo conference at Berlin, and that