The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1914-06-17
DISCUSSES MANY QUESTIONS OF
NUAL CELEBRATION.
SPEAKS OF JEFFERTON
TWO SCHOOLS OF
AMERICAN STATES MA sHIP
AND DIPLOMACY-THos OF
JEFFERSON AND WEBSTER.

charlottesville Va. June j6,-Dr.
Albert Shaw. editor OF the Review of
Reviews. discussed number of
questions OF international import. in
! which the United States has or liz
destined to have fundamental in
/ terest, in a scholarly address before
the Washington and Jefferson literary
societies of the University of Virginia
!. at their annual commencement cele--
bration last night, His subject was:
| Craftsmanship: Intensive and Exten~
sive." He contrasted two schools of
American craftsmanship and diploma
cy--that of Jefferson which he said
was characterized by broad vision,
and that of Webster. to which he as
cribed the defect of opportunism.
Coming down to recent events, he
said:
ut is a timid husbandman. who
i having first bought a horse and then
wagon, shrinks from the further
( cost of buying harness, so that his
/ main purpose fails of accomplish
ment. With the successive acquisition
| of California. Oregon, Alaska, Hawaii
! and the Philippines. giving us great
| cumulative interests In the Pacific.
and with our new West Indian posses
/ sions added to the Florida, Louisiana
and Texas in expansion Of our ear
/ Her interests on the Atlantic and In
! the Gulf and Caribbean waters. It
would indeed have been timid states
| manship to have shrunk from con-
structing and controlling with fun SUI
premacy the interoceanic. waterway
( that should help at once to connect
/ our coasts and possessions, and also
/ to aid in their defense.
/ TT was plain enough TO one who
grasped tho full meaning of Ameri-
/ ~ ma syin hot fr,. ltpu
from the standpoint of principle and
theory was the securing of sovereign
! ty at the desired point, and the con-
! struction Of a defensive government
! tai waterway. The point Of princt-
| pie being omprehended. the theory
1 being clear, ii was the obvious task
! of craftsmanship to find practical and
workable means Aor carrying the thing
Into effect. We have built the canal
and the country has had true con-
/ ception of its purpose and meaning.
! But our engineering has been vastly
superior to our diplomacy. so that
! we now have the canal, at great cost,
and find that the diplomatists were
/ so unskillful as not to have thrown
! obvious and suitable safeguards
around the title,
1T is a case however, where the
4 larger right and the substantial inter-
est should dominate. and where tech
J nicalities ought not TO be permitted
10 outweigh realities. There is per-
/ haps no single spot in the western
/ hemisphere over which sovereignty
is exercised by any government with
such completeness of substantial
] right as our sovereignty over the ca
nal zone at Panama. AS against what
we have spent and accomplished
! there, in conjunction with our inner
itance of what our French predeces-
sors spent and suffered there. the
claims of others who have spent
nothing and borne nothing, who have
received. but have not given, are as
\ shadow compared with substance.
/ Those claims may have been unwit-
. tinEiy recognized in a way that COM
| mits us In some conformation of them,
/ but II Will be n weak and unstates
4 manIike solution that will perpetuate
I technical defects in title rather than
rectfy and remove them, We hold
the Canal Zone by a higher title OF
essential right than We hold Alaska.
/ or Porto Rico, or California itself.
; II is not merely the de facto title
that comes from possession. or the
( legal title of the international law
yers and diplomats, but the supreme
title that comes from the use We have
made of our years Of possession for
me Welfare or mIlHonS or people IN
both hemispheres."
i Referring TO the relation OF this
country with Canada. DR., Shaw said:
The craftsmanship Of new country
has great faith in itself, and hasten
ing to avail itself of opportunities to
acquire domain for its future popu-
lation, must indeed be Of the extern
sive or the expansive sort, The Ca
i madam dominion quickly seized the
opportunity which We threw away
; and added TO the little eastern prov
inces of Canada the glorious domain
of the Hudson's Bay company through
to the Pacific. If our Canadian neigh
hors may never wish in future to join
us in a continental political union.
we should encourage them at least to
cut loose from military and naval
empire that liz involved in all the af-
fairs of Europe Asia. Africa and the
South seas. They should become a
sovereign republic and rise to the SUI
preme craftsmanship of their opor-
tunity to lead the world into the flu
ture era of peace and disarmament
through close utilization with the adj
iacent and kindred republic of the
south"
Mexico, said DR.. Shaw presents
some problems that cannot well be
anticipated now. But here again"
he declared there must be the ideal
or theory of statesmanlke policy, and
the readiness to improve opportunities
for the practical evolution of sound
doctrine. So far as craftsmanship is
expansive, Mexico must come more
rather than less under our influence.
But the ends of expansive statesman
ship having been kneasurably full
filled, the ultimate object OF all states
nanship must not be forgotten; and
that we may describe by the word
Intensive The development and well
fare of the people and their interests
must be the ultimate object of the
true statesman.
whatever might be said or fet
regarding our military occupation of
Vera Cruz, 1t lis easy to discover
a universal satisfaction in the sani-
tary and police reforms instituted as
If by magic under the direction OF our
trained officials. And this would
seem to give the key to any possible
future mission we might have In the
troubled country to the southwark Of
u.s. Its teeming millions OF ignorant
and humble people are destined, in
due time. to be their own rulers They
have long had a nominal political