The Mena weekly star., 1916-05-25
HOW ROOSEVELT
 KEPT PEACE
By WILLIAM HARD
In METROPOLITAN MA GAziNE

 say: Now if Roosevelt were pres, dent. we would have been plungeu into this terrible war straight on. III truth heard this remark so irequeht ly that l determined to go over the diplomatic records of the two hoose' welt administrations.
 s4I find that Roosevelt had many bully opportunities to plunge the United States into foreign conflicts find that he was obliged to face and handle three great crises with three of the greatest countries in the world. find that he was obliged to take hand a decisive future-hxing hand Tn the affairs of three small countries small but nearby and turbulent and dangerous to the worlds peace. l ma that he was obliged to have dealings with many other countries in matters capable of bearing fruit either Of friendship or of hatred l find that he wrote on a visiting card the terms on which a violent European contro- versy was settled. l find that Tor eigners think of him as great his torical figure not because or the part he took in railway legislation or Tn pure-food legislation or in conserva' ton legislation or in any other activ- ity of domestic politics, but because of the part he took in international poll tics--in the politics of the world at large. I find that Europe and Asia regard him as having been primarily flor good or for ill--a diplomat.
 This is the Roosevelt least known to Americans.
 The Alaskan Boundary Question.
 His first difficulty was with Great Britain. It was acute. It had to do with the Alaskan boundary. The British put forth a claim which, as Roosevelt remarked, was just as in defensible as if they should now sud denly claim the island of Nantucket"
 Alaska is a kite It has main body and then, fiuttering southward along the Pacific coast toward the state of Washington, a tail The dimensions of this tail were determined, long be- fore Alaska passed from Russia to the United States, by treaty Of the year 1925 between Russia and Great Bri- tain. It provided that the boundary between Alaska and the British pos sessions should r-l alc1,g the crest of the mountains by wficM the coast was paralleled The United States accord ingly occupied the coast region with out resistance.
 In 1898. however, there was dis covery of a considerable quantity of gold in the Klondike. The Canadians immediately insisted on also discover ing a semi-submerged coastal noun tain range which spent a large part of it's time under the waters of the Pacific and which, when it rose to the surface, rose principally in the form of scattered headlands. Here was the boundary. along the crest of this ab- surd range. leaping from headiand te headland across great bodies of navi- gable water The United States would get succession of headland- tips and Canada would get a success sion of deep-water inlets, on one of which was situated Skagway. the best entrance to the Klondike goldfelds
 This line. calculated to fatten the part of any vaudeville performer, be treme Under Mckinley a Joint Commission" was appointed to con sider twelve topics in dispute between the British Empire and the American Republic. One of the twelve was the Alaskan boundary. The representa- lives of the Empire refused to come to terms on any of the others until their version of the Alaskan boundary had been conceded to them. It could not be conceded, and the Joint Com mission" collapsed.
 At this point Roosevelt became president. Quietly, in she routine of diplomatic intercourse, he refused ab- solutely to accept Great Britains am phibious mountain-rang line and re- fused also. with equal absoluteness, to arbitrate it. John Hay, as Secretary of State, pointed out the fatal tendency of arbitrators to compromise" This matter could not be compromised As Roosevelt said on another occasion, Uncle Sam does not intend to wrong any one, but neither does he intend, if his pocket is picked or his face slapped, to 'arbitrate' with the wrong doer." What then? 4 Commission was erected. It was not a Commission with third-party arbitrator on 1t. It was a Commission equally divided be- tween the two countries. The repre- sentatives of the United States were Lodge of Massachusetts and Root of New York and Turner of Washington. Ehe representative of the British Empire were two Canadians and one Englishman. The Englishman was England's Lord Chief Justice-Alver- stone.
 This Commission mot in London in 1903. Its purpose was indicated both by Roosevelt and by Hay Roosevelt said (through strictly diplomatic chan nels); T wish to make one last effort to bring about an agreement which will enable the people of both coun- tries to say that the result represents the feelings os the representatives of both countrles.'
 In the meantime Roosevelt moved United States troops into Alaska He let it be strictly Automatically known that those troops, if the Commission should fail, would be used "to reduce the country to possession" He paused.
 On October 20, 1903, the Commis- sion uttered its decision. Lord Al verstone voted with the three repre- sentatives of the United States against his own two Canadian colleagues. Great Britain bowed to the applause. of the world The Pacifists perceived that the honor Of a nation can easily be preserved without the slightest threat of force Roosevelt withdrew the United States troops from Alaska. The friendship of two great peoples had not suffered one moments pub lie interruption. The boundary of the United States in Alaska ran unmo- tested along it's lawful line
 The Dispute With Germany.