The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1906-01-08
NEED new OFFICE.
Senator Rayner Severely Criti-
cizes the Administration.
--
Declares That Taft Has Entirely
Too Much to Do.
ROOSEVELT DOCTRINE.
Has Taken the Place of Monroe
Doctrine, He Says.
Finds No Warrant in COnstitu-
ROOSEVELT DOCTRINE
Finds No Warrant in Constitu-
lion for Present Policy.

| Washington, Jan. s.=Santo Do
mingian affairs and their relation to
/ the United States were under discus
sion in the senate today. Mr. Till
mans resolution requesting the presi-
dent to inform the senate as to the ex-
isting status of Santo Domingo, which
was offered on Thursday last and went
over under the rules, was called up
and made the subject of debate. SEN
ator Rayner lCMd.) addressed the
senate.
Mr.. Rayner declared he had no
| power or purpose to bind his col
leagues to the acceptance of any views
/ he expressed. ct is not my inten-
ton, said Mr.. Rayner, ''in anything I
may say to cast the slightest refec-
| ton upon the administration of the
/ department of state. While the ques-
/ tions at issue require a knowledge of
constitutional and international juris-
prudence, we all agree that the late
| lamented occupant of this portfolio
upon the field OF diplomacy was at
/ least the peer of the brilliant line who
/ preceded and who have left the i'm
press of their genius stamped upon
| the institutions of the republic and
4 insofar as the president is concerned
/ feeling that he has been actuated by
1 the best and highest impulses in the
/ whole course of his administration and
1 believing in his sincerity and integrity
of purpose, no carping criticism shall
] come from me even in cases where he
may have challenged precedent and
/ strained authority to secure what in
/ his judgment appeared to be benefit
/ and advantage to his country.
I subscribe to every sentiment of
/ the Monroe doctrine; that Is, the gen
uine doctrine, the old text and not the
revised edition, the original document
and not the counterfeit presentment
New Monroe Doctrine.
The men who over three-quarters of
/ century ago rang a proclamation
/ through the world that at that time
convulsed the political fabric of CONT
/ mental Europe would never if living at
/ this hour, admit the construction that
/ is now placed upon it and its founders
and sponsors would never recognize it
/ in its defOrmed ao.H distorted shape
/ When the president issues a manifesto
that is the product of his own genius,
4 it ought to be circulated under the
| name of its author and in vindication
( of the memory of the dead and in de-
fense of their rights Of protest against
/ the use of their names to any instru-
ment that does not bear their sigma
/ lures and to any doctrine that was new
er promulgated by their authority
Mr.. RaynOr denied that the president
was enforcing a national policy and
| quoted from Jefferson, Adams and
/ Monroe to sustain his contention It
was never intended that we should as
sumo protectorate, political or fnan-
| cial over the islands of the Caribbean
or the Latin-American republics. Re-
ferring to the comments of Jefferson on
the Monroe message he asked:
WAS he contemplating the probable
/ bombardment of a Caribbean port to
| enforce the payment of a usurer's bond?
| Was his mind perplexed by a vision of
| a war conducted by bailiffs and con-
/ stables, and collectors in the interest of
/ foreign paWnbrOkerS whose weapons are
.1~I@a
Cling with each other for preferences
| and priOTities, in their insatiate chase
for plunder, sweep down upon the pitt
ful revenues of these bankrupt and i'm
| poverished republics until they become
PROSTATE supplicants at the exchequers
| of the world, and are willing to yield
/ their resources and concessions at any
price or sacrifice that may be dictated
| in the gambling dens of the European
stock market"
Tribute to Cleveland.
Mr. Rayner paid d high tribute to
former President Cleveland, but he
could not accept his views on the
Venezuelan boundary controversy.
He denominated the present policy
as the Roosevelt doctrine" which he
said embodied the following PROPOSE
tions:
'.First-The only way. except by
actual war that one nation can fOrci-
bly, collect money claim against an
1 other is by blockade, bombardment or
the seizure of its custom houses and
under the accepted law of nations for
eign governments are within their
rights, if they choose to exercise it,
when they actively intervene in sup
port of the cOntractual claims of their
subjects.
becomes a party in interests, so far as
American states are concerned, be-
cause under the Monroe doctrine it
could not see any European power
seize and occupy the territory of any
of these republics.
Upon the first proposition" con-
tinued Mr. Rayner, Z respectfully
deny that foreign nations are within
their rights when they actively inter
vene in favor of the cOntractuaI claims
of their subjects. With great defer
ence to the president this proposition
is at war with the elementary princi-
pies of international law. There are
some questions that sustain his state
ment in countries where anarchy and
a failure to administer justice prevail
| but with an exception in the cases that
are sui generis the rule is an in1exible
and unbendlng one precisely to the
contrary tenor of what the president
states it to be. In this country nearly
every secretary state, including Madi-
son, Adams, Clay, Webster, Calhoun
Mercy. Seward and Blaine, has given
the broad denial to suggestions of this
character, so that until this new doc
II trine was promulgated it was cOnsid-
cred pOstulate and a fundamental
maxim of international law that gov
ernments would not interfere in be
half of the cOntractua claims of their
citizens. except through the channels
of diplomacy and the proper presenta-
ton of the claims by their ministers.
Roosevelt in Error.
TT seems to me that the president
is equally in error if we are at all tC
be controlled by usage or precedent, in
:. stating that the seizure of q custom
house and blockade are equivalent
4 to the seizure of territory within the