The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1910-05-30
A Lack of Red Blood.

Now that the insurgent forces in Nicaragua
are admittedly beaten, the world will watch with
amused interest the process by which Secretary
of State Knox will undertake to descend with
the maximum Of possible grace the tree up which
! he insisted climbing.
All the world, except Phiiander Chase Knox,
knows that there is Il government Of Nicaragua,
md even he can no longer escape the selfevident
truth There are American citizens and Amer
lean property in the country, and the Washington
administration must. Of necessity. have someone
with whom to deal Yet by reason of the peculiar
brand of Pennsylvania diplomacy it appears that
both sides in that unhappy country are insurging
against each other. The administration, accord
ing TO Washington philosophy, is non-existent;
and this notwithstanding the selfevident truth
that without government there can be no re-
bellion.
Indeed. were it not for the incident that the
little brown people to the South sufficiently
in earnest to lombard each other with cannon,
and TO amputate anotber's limbs with the
deadly machete, the condition in which Washing
ton has theoretically placed Nicaragua would be
practically identical with the condition of the
Republican party disclosed in the Senate anc
House. There is the same doubt from day to day
as 10 who is the party and who is not. The same
confusion az to who is loyal and who is in revolt
The same series Of hysterical White House de
nuncation on one day and alarmed and sudden
silence on the next. The same cabinet officer Of
none too limid motive, all thumbs in the effort
10 knit the cover of devious ambition. The same
squalid disclosures the patent hypocrisy, tho
same ridiculous pretension, and the morti
tying folly In short, in the Department Of tht
Premier, the same disgrace as in the Depart
ment of the Interior
1t was not without reason and entirely re
sponsive to a clear insight that Attorney BRANDED
fixed upon spineless indecision as the higf
vice of Ballinger. Irresolution, in fact seems II
I be the bane Of the administration One and all
from the President down. they seem to blow hot
and then to sbiver at their own temerity The ad
ninistration is rotten with cowardice
How many people to-day remember the high
crime by which Theodore Roosevelt despoiled
Colombia of the Canal Zone At least it wa.
4 mercifnl in its suddenness. 1t involved rob
berry, perhaps, but not murder. Compare that
quick decisive, brutal, but successful enterprise
with the backing and filling, the hating and
I pulling, the roaring and pulling which have char
acterized this entire Niearaguan travesty which
has left a country torn with war and handful
of demi-savages hacking All one another's throats
And all without result In the beginning. per
haps, Knox contemplated some sort Of return en-
gagement of the Panama coup. - If so, the shadow
Of INDIGESTION, the evil genius which paralyzed ths
brain Of LAiglon, stayed his arm and turned hi
4 shifting eye before he had done more than tc
! create confusion and prolong useless boodshed
Whatever happens to the future of the Cabinet
/ and whoever is next called to the White House
ono thing is certain; the American people arr
entitled to be served, well or I'LL by men Of red
bod!
The Men in the RanIx