New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1916-12-19
Belated Expansion
honesty.

Belated Expansion
The people Of Denmark having approved
the sale to the United States of the Danish
West Indies, it may be assumed that with
in a wear the American flag will be flying
over st. John. st. Thomas and Santa Cruz.
Our flag ought to go up in 1917. Yet 1t
would be we'll for us when raising it to re-
member that only our own shortsightedness
prevented our raising it fifty years ago.
We had the opportunity to buy these
islands from Denmark in 1867. We had
Secretary Of State at that time with the
vision which grasped the needs of the fut-
ure. We could have bought for s7,50O,OOO
what we must now pay $25,OOO,OOO for.
Yet public opinion in 1861 was so insensi-
tive and Congress, representing the mental
limitations of the time, was so obtuse that
we threw over Denmark's offer to sell with
impatience-even with discourtesy.
Our acquisition of the Danish West In
dies, accomplished after so much unneces-
sary delay is, in fact, a signal tribute to
the craftsmanship Of William II. Seward.
He was an American eXpansionist who be-
lieved firmly in taking time by the fore
lock in acquiring bases and harbors needed
to maintain the dominance Of the United
States in the West Indies and the Caribbean
and in creating the means wherewith TO
enforce the Monroe Doctrine in the future.
But Congress would not follow him. 1t
was immersed in 1867, Just as it has been
immersed during all of the present world
crisis. in the relatively minor and trivial
concerns of domestic politics.
Mr.. Seward negotiated his treaty with
Denmark and the Danish Parliament glad
w ratified it. But our Senate, treating it
as the folly of snowy. splurging diplo-
macy, refused to act on il at all, thereby
snubbing Mr.. Seward and affronting
friendly foreign country. Denmark never
forgot this shabby treatment. Her Parlia-
ment defeated a second treaty of purchase,
negotiated in President Roosevelt's first
term and ratified by our Senate. In deal
ing with the pending convention Denmark
has also shown good deal Of wariness.
The popular verdict given last week does
not constitute an actual ratification. Par
lament still has to sanction the agreement
approved by the electorate.
Secretary Seward also negotiated
treaty acquiring SANTANA Bay, the great
military harbor of the Dominican Republic.
Grants Administration afterward eX
banded the agreement so as TO include the
annexation of the whole republic. But both
conventions were rejected by Congress.
which at that time could not interest itself
at all in the problem Of our future position
in West Indian waters and its relation 70
the maintenance of the Monroe Doctrine.
What Seward worked for when he bought
Alaska. tried TO buy the Danish Islands
and SANTANA Bay and sought to lay the
basis of a forward American policy in the
northern half Of this hemisphere we are
attaining mechanically. drifting into it
largely because we cannot help ourselves.
We have set up protectorates in Hayti and
in Nicaragua and are about TO take over
complete political control Of the Dominican
Republic. Yet our government is doing
these things more or less at haphazard,
without any clear realization Of their
meaning and consequences such as Secre-
tary Seward had arrived at half CEN
fury ago.
Stewards foresight and sense Of oppor-
tunity are recalled again and again in the
volume of Memoirs by his son, Frederick
". Seward, recently published. In a pas
sage dealing with the SANTANA Bay treaty
the author says: "Our experiences with
San Domingo furnish a fresh illustration
Of the old historic truth that nations often
solve their problems in the hardest way,
because they have blindly refused TO adopt
any easier one
That is a searching comment on our
happy go-lucky diplomacy. which is now
stumbling into acquisitions in the West
Indies which il should have gone after sin
gle mindedly and eagerly when on many
past occasions they were ready to fall into
our laps.