The Brunswick news. [volume] (Brunswick, Ga.) 1906-2016, 1914-03-15
WHY ALL THIS STIR.

%A~NAAffA
! pose Mr.. Page had SAID - his English
audience what he was alleged to have
said-what he seems not to have said,
at all-that although the United States
had built the Panama canal, the Eng
lish wculd get the best business re
turns from It, and TIA the Monroe
doctrine meant that the United
States would prefer that no Europe /
government should gain more land in
the new world" what g Ambassador
Page did say those things? Nobody
can tell what nation will get TIE best
Of the business Of the Panama canal,
but, since England h3s pretty much
the best Of It everywhere else in the
world, largely because Of her great
merchant marine, which is nurtur I'd
and supported in a practical way,
without putting too fine point upon
aDstTactionB, IL may be that she Will
get the best of the canal commerce.
If anyone thinks so. It Is no matter
of harm, and an American am5assa-
dor might chance to hold such an oDin-
ion as we'll as anybody else. Even the
restrictions that are about these high
diplomats do not prohibit their think
Ing once In while. As to the Mon
roe CCctrine, IT has been a,spIr,l OYER
and dissected a1d added to and inter
Dreted by practically every citizen Of
this republic, and an ambassador to
Great Britain might be permitted to
have his fling at IT, The definition of
the doctrine attributed to Mr.. Page
and which 1t seems he did not make
Us not wholly inaccurate. 1t does
mean that the United States would
prefer" that no European govern
ment extend its possessions in the
new wCTld. 1t also means that the
United States will insist upon regard
for It's preference in this matter, but
II is not necessary to say that now,
and certainly not for an ambassador
TO say 1t now, nor at any time unless
he should be entrusted with the duty
of making representation leading
up to war or something like that. The
declaration Of preference for certain
obserVances by other nations, when
pronounced by highly commissioned
envoy, is the equivalent OF u good deal
more, and is so understood. 1t is an
assertion of a determined national pol.
Icy, couched In deilcately scented
language II gets across Just as well
as a truculent declaration, and, per.
haps, little better,
An amba ssador has little enough TO
do nowadays. when he mag be reach
ed IN flash with Instructions from
his clhef at Washington. The only OK
ercise he may take which even ao
proaches service in the line of duty
and makes fair score against the
money he has to spend TO support his
dignity and state, Is the making oil
speeches. Mir. Page has done good
deal Of that. and he Is a pretty goot
hand at the job What IL he to tall
about but peace and amity and al
that? Ambassador Page, being a mag
azine publisher-~and mighty goot
one--must needs try to weave some
Originality or some real thought into
his remarks, and maybe he strays far
He Is an energetic person But he
does no harm. That is to say he has
done no harm. If Senator Chamber
lain doesn't like Ambassador Pages
definition CT the Monroe doctrine, ht
can make his own. That Is the priv
iloge of every American citizen. II,
Is AS likely TO be right as anybody
else on n matter Of this sort--any al
NEST as certain TO be wrong in The
opinion Of nearly everybody else
Meantime. no European government
nor any Asiatic one, either for tina
lmatteris going to try to extend 1t.
possessions IN the new world, and i
lst should there viii be nothing for tn,
American ambassador resident in III
boundaries, but TO come home an,
practice at the rifle targets.
ALASKAN DEVELOPMENT