The Washington times., 1915-07-27
SENATOR SMITHS SIDE OF 1T

In anOCneT COluInn OH tHlS page
The Times prints today a letter
from Senator Hoke Smith, replying
to some editorial adversions on his
campaign to get this country into
controversy with the allies over the
cotton issue. Senator Smith charges
The Times with overlooking the dis
tinction between a blockade and a
contraband list. AS matter of fact
the Senator himself is the victim of
confusion on that point. In the civil
war the Federal Government seized
and condemned cotton wherever
found. Whether the word contra
band" was properly applied to the
legal status of cotton when seized
on land is not very material; the es-
sential fact is that it was seized,
and was destroyed when it could not
be taken back of the Union lines
to the home port, as it were.
AS to seizures of cotton on the
sea, they were carried out under the
general authority which nations at
war claim to confer on themselves
when they create blockade. The
Senator says that "a blockade is an
entirely different thing from list
of contraband of war. A blockade
applies to particular ports, and it's
effect does not prevent delivery of
goods to ports not blockaded." Per-
fectly correct; but when the "par-
ticular ports" include all the ports Of
the blockaled country, as they did
during the civil war, blockade be-
comes quite a little affair; a good
deal more effective than contra
band list, for the list concerns only
things named, while the blockade
forbids any articles passing through.
The greater efficacy and rigor of a
blockade are admitted by the Sena-
tor, when he observes that "there is
long list of commodities specified
in the declaration of London which
under no circumstances are to be
made contrahand of war, yet any of
these goods may be stopped from
going into or out Of an enemy's port
if blockade is being conducted"
Surely Senator Smith will not in.
sist that the allies blockade of Ger.
man ports is; ineffective, when ir
fact there is not German mer'
chantman on any of the worlds
seas; when half a million tons OF
German mere liant shipping is in
termed in this country alone; wher
the only significant supplies going
into German Eprts are going in y!
way of neutral ports.
~ have criticised the conduct O.
, Great Britain" proceeds Senator
: Smith, because that country is Ell
deavoring to canduct, and is con
, Quoting, az blockade of neutra
ports" The Senator admits, then
that the blockade is an effectiv
blockade. Has Britain the right t.
r blockade neutral ports? The case
of Nassau and Matamoras, block
, AIDED by the Federal Government il
our own civil war, answer that ques
tion. This country wrote into inter
e national law the present construc
tion of the doctrine of the continu
: Gus voyage, and made it stick. l
: did blockade Nassau, and Britain i
S doing the same thing at Rotterdam
but with a good deal less rigidity i
n it's treatment of seized cargoes tina
the United States employed.
: Finally, Senator Smith says tina
o "this course on the part of Grea
c Britain is cutting off market fo
v about 100000 bales of cotton ar
v nually." The Senator will be save
d from repetition of this error if
n will examine the figures prepared
l. the Department of Commerce an
published day or two ago by Th
e Times. They show that in the frs
e ten months of the war period El
Y rope took from us 7,269,073 bales {
Al cotton, while in the correspondent
Is months of the yes.r Immediately b,
S. fore the war it took 8,008,3OO bale