The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-08-21

When Germany, or France. or The Netherlands, or any other European nation has an account against Latin American republic and threatens to | send warships instead of constables to | collect the blll there is always talk about the Monroe Doctrine. This talk is generally to the effect that the Uni ed States will not permit any effete eastern monarchy, or any effete east ern government of any kind. to be rude enough to shoot at any of our dary-eyed sisters of the South. More 1 dark eyed sisters of the South. More hovers over Venezuela.
 Thirteen years ago the United States government. in behalf of Venezuela and in support of the Monroe Doctrine. did invite a third war with England. Re membering how much the United States risked upon that occasion. Amer jeans are inclined to be more than impatient with the attitude of the Ven ezuelan government under Castro-an attitude showing rather more of con tempt for the pigs of North Ameri- cans" than of gratitude to the pro- tecting elder sister among western re- pubIics.
 While the United States will never abandon the Monroe Doctrine as long as 1t has power and influence enough to. enforce 1t, it does not followe that this country will interfere in every quarrel between a Latin-American re-
 public and a nation of Europe. The
 Monroe Doctrine 4s- that settled prin-
 ciple which binds the United States
 to resist the efforts of any European
 country to, acquire or exteu6 territory
 in the Americas. If The Netherlands
 in the present instance, desires to shoot
 fa.- -ga-. -..kns aar4N
 tive measure, the Monroe Doctrine does
 not reply. But if the Dutch should
 take advantage of that act of war to
 extend their te. iitory in South Aneri-
 0a-that would be a different matter.
 and the United States would be cer-
 tain to interfere.
 Nobody has seriously considered the possibility of war between the United States and The Netherlands. But Ven-
 ezuela and Brazil have been the bases of more than one war with Germany, fought in ward rooms of American bat tleships and in officers clubs of Amer lean navy posts. Tn fact. until Japan loomed large over the western horizon. the jingoists fresh from Annapolis and West Point expected a brush with the Kaiser every morning on account of some German-Latin quarrel on this side of the Atlantic
 Smile as we may at these rumors of wars, the Venezuelan boundary ques- tion presented a very roal and ex- tremely grave situation in which war with Great Britain was actually immt- nent In that case. the British Elm pire was attempting to extend the lim- It's of it's territory in South America without regard to the insistence of the claims of Venezuela. The question of as.~f nA Cleveland had pursued any othtr course than that which he did. the Monroe Doctrine would now be dead as the Missouri compromise or the alien and sedition laws.
 Venezuela became independent of Spain in 1911. and twenty years later was organized under its present form with approximately its present bounda- ries. At the beginning, its territorial limits were described as those Cf the old Spanish captain -general'sy, of Cara cas--an extremely vague description, In 1874 England became possessed of what is now the colony of British Guiana, adjoining Venezuela on the east. Englanfs title was derived from the Dutch, the transfer being made at the same time as that of the Cape of Good Hope. The limits of the Dutch possessions were but vaguely determined. The boundary dispute with Venezuela began in 1s41. when British troops occupied positions claim ed by Venezuela. That was the begin ming of a long series of disputes. in which the British lines were extended from time to time, until. at last. the English laid claim to an expanse of territory as large as Ohio which was not included in their original claim.
 Venezuela first appealed to the Uni- ted States in 1876. when Hamilton Fish was Secretary of State. All eff forts In induce Great Britain to submit the question to arbitration were fu- tilc. Again in 1881. the Venezuelan government appealed to Washington for protection from British ships at the mouth of the Orinoco, presumably there to enforce the British boundary claims. William M. Evarts was then Secretary of State, and he wrote to the British government that this govern ment cannot look with indifference upon the forcible acquisition of such territory by England, If the mission of the vessels now at the mouth of the Orinoco should be found to be for that end" Other Secretaries of State who intervened with appeals to Eng land to grant Venezuela's requests for arbitration were James q. Blaine, in 1881, Frederick T. Frelinghuysen in 1882, and Thomas F. Bayard, in 1886.
 The quarrel was becoming more bit ter each year, and in 1887, during the first Cleveland administration. the British attitude was so aggressive as to give rise to grave fears. The Ameri- can government made formal tender of It's good offices as a mediator in the dispute but this friendly advance was repelled by the British government. In 1894 VenZeula again appealed to Sec retary of State Walter c. Gresham. MT. Cleveland having come to the White House again. Conditions were assum- ing the aspect of a crisis when Mir. Gresham died, and was succeeded at the head of the Department of State by Richard Olney. MT. Cleveland and Mir. Olney reached the conclusion that Great Britain would never admit that the United States had a right to be concerned in the dispute with Venezuela so long as the American government continued to act in the capacity of 6 friendly mediator,
 Therefore. on July 20. 1895. the American Government despatched a note to England declaring that the United States had taken Venezuela's place in the controversy. The note outlined again the Monroe Doctrine, called attention to the fact that Eng land was attempting to acquire terri tory claimed by an American republic and had refused to submit It's claims ao an impartial tribunal for adjudica- aion. There wasn't anything mealy- about that note for it harked