Greene County herald. (Leakesville, Miss.) 1898-current, 1911-09-15
Treaty RAPED BY
COLONEL ROOSEVELT
Proposed Arbitration Pact Is
Declared Deficient.
Word "Justici5ble" Used In the Treaty
Is Declared Confusing-Ex-Pres-
ident Would Not Cringe
to Other Powers.

MI Roosevelt, in an article in Out
look denounces as hypocritical and
wholly deficient the proposed arbitra-
ton treaty recently presented to the
senate. He declares there are certain
things in the proposed agreement that
the United States never wou,d attempt
to recognize and that the document is
constructed so loosely that it never
could be determined just what ce tain
pata OF it mean. The editorial says ir
parj:
at is one of our prime duties as 3
nation to seek peace II is an ever
higher duty to seek righteousness II
is also our duty not to indulge III
shams, not to make believe we are get
ting peace by some patent contrivance
which sensible men ought to know can
not work in practice, and which if we
sought to make 1t work might cause
ineiriyeable harm.
% sincerely believe in the principle
of arbitration. ! believe in applying
taac principle so far as practicable, but
believe that the elfort to apply it
where it 10 not practicable cannot do
good and may do serious harm. Con
fused thinking and a willingness to
substitute woids for thoughts, even
though INSPIRED by an entirely amia-
Bile sentimentality, does not tend to-
ward soun daction.
"We, the American eople, believe,
and ought to believe in righteousness
first, and IN peace as the handmade Of
righteousness. We abhor brutality and
wrongdoing, whether exhibited by ma
tons or by :@4ividuals. We hold that
the same law Of righteousness should
obtain between nation and nation, as
between man ana man.
81, for one, would rather cut off my
hand than see the United States adopt
the attitude either of cringing before
great and powerful nations VINO wish
to wrong US, OF Cf bullying small and
wea'5 nations, Who have done us no
wrong.
The American people desire TO do
justice and to act with frank generous
ity toward all the other natione Of
mankind; but ! err greatly in my iudg-
ment of my countrymen if they are
willing to submit to wrong, and MUS
tice Again and again in the past they
have shown. and rightly shown, that
when the choice lay between right
eousncss and peace, they chose right
eousness just exactly as they also
chose righteousness when the choice
lay between Righteousness and war"
Mr.. Roosevelt cites the revolutionary
war, the civil war and the Spanish
American war as instances in which
we put righteousness above peace
He also cites tho existing arbitration
pacts between the United States, Great
Britain AND Francs as better than the
proposed treaty. because they make no
false pretenses, and exclude questions
affecting our vital interests, independ-
ence or honor. He continues:
"'rhe proposed arbitration treaty is
defective in the first place, because it
is not straightforward IT sets forth
that all 'iusticiable' matters shall be
arbitrated The language 10th of the
opponents and the defenders of the
treaty shows that even amoung our
own people, and before a cause for ap-
plying the t.nnty Lad ec.sen. there is
hope. .ess conipsiih as TO what 'jus,icia-
bic means.
"Such being the case Il oa4. be imag-
ined how useless would be the effort is
define 'iusticiable,' when a serious CON
fiict had actually arisen, and blood was
up and passion high. The wording OF
the treaty is so loose, it so lac,s cx-
plcitness, as to allow one set of it's ad-
vocates to announce that it binds us TO
arbitrate everything, and another set to
say that under it We would not have to
aTbirate anything we did not wish to-
Nov, no moral movement is per
manently helped by hypocrisy. Dors
the proposal in the treaties if entered
into with various nations, bind us ia
arbitrate the Monroe doctrine, the
Platt amendment with Cuba, the paw
ment of state bonds TO European bond
holders, The question whether variols
European countries are entitled to the
same concessions that Canada is to re-
ceive under the reciprocity agreement
the rleht OF Other fOfelSn nations 10 IN
terfere in Panama, our own right to eX
clude any immigrants whom we choose
to exclude.
"1f these questions arose, ! am sure
our representative would, privately OF
publicly. inform foreign powers (and
indeed would have TO inform foreign
powers), that the American people
would never abide by an agreement to
arbitrate them; in which case the only
proper course 10 follow is that follow
ed by the senate committee, and to say
in honest ashton that there are GER
tain questions which this nation will
not arbitrate at the dictation of an out
side body. Critics of the senate in
this matter talk as if it had 'usurped
a right: in reality the senate has
merely performed a duty"