Plentywood herald. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1908-current, 1928-04-20
Momtama's North Boundary
ON 10Th Parallel,
LONG Source of Annoyance

zenith telescope could. the 49th parallel
would not come to terms.
"Doggedly M determinedly it kept its
own course, and, utterly regardless OF
big-wig or diplomatic fogie, it formed an
offensive and defensive alliance with the
sun and the pole star and
struck out for itself an independent line.
Beyond the Mississippi there lay q
vast region, a region where now millions
(soon TO be tens of millions) draw from
prairie and river fiat the housekeeping
richness OF the soil. Then it was a great
wilderness, over which the dusky bison
and his wilder master roamed. in that
fierce freedom which civilization ends
forever.
"To the big-wigs at the council board
this region was a myth-a land so far
beyond the confines of diplomatic geog-
raphy that its very existence was ques-
toned. Not SO TO the shrewd solicitor,
a%uctioneer, general conveyancer. and
Observation-Disclosures in one, who guided the
foreign policy of the United States.
"Unencumbered by the trappings of
diplomatic tradition. he saw, vaguely
perhaps, but still with president knowl-
edge, the empire which it was possible
to build in that western wild: and as
every shifting scene in the oucside
worlds politics called up some new oc-
casion for boundary Encouragement. or
treaty rectiication. he grasped eagerly
at a fresh foothold. an additional scrap
Of territory. in that land which was to
him an unborn empire, to us a half-be-
gotten wilderness.
"Cut of from the Mississippi, isolated
from the Missouri, the unlucky boun-
Diary traversed an arid waste until it
terminated at the Rocky mountains"
Here is an English view of the ques-
ton. 1t gives Benjamin Franklin credit
for even more knowledge than he had of
this great west. Were he as wise as rep
resented. the boundary line would not
have been so cratic in it's course.
Sir William is right in censuring his
own government that was blind on this
subject because it did not choose to see.
Time and again, officials Of the Hud-
sons Bay company or of the Northwest
company had done their best to enlight-
en- far away England concerning this re-
gion. but those in power there absolute
ly refused to listen. Two able men who
strove to show them how desirable was
all this western country. were DR.. Nc
Loughlin and David Thompson. The lat
ter had discovered the source of the Co.
lumbia, and followed it's curse to the
Pacific, claiming the country for his
king.
The Oregon dispute again resurrected
the boundary question. This leads Sir
William to express himself as follows:
Discovered by a British sailor, explored
by British subjects, it might we'll have
been supposed that the great region
along the Pacific slope. known to us as
Oregon. belonged indisputably to Eng
land; but at some new treaty 'rectih-
cation the old story was once more re-
peated, and the unlucky 49th parallel
again selected to carry across the noun
tains to the Pacific ocean, the same rec
ord of British bungling and American
astuteness which the Atlantic had wit
messed go years earlier on the rugged
estuary of the st. Croix."
Another British writer does not hest
tate to say in more brutal terms that
u requirement of Oregon was due to
Yankee cunning n British stupidity.
Later, the boundary question was des-
tined to come once more to the front.
The Americans claimed as theirs what is
known as the De Haro canal, the widest
and deepest channel between the numer-
GUS islands west of the state of Wash
ington. The British thought we should
have the Rosario channel. rThe De Haro
channel would give Us the San Juan, and
other islands valuable as positions for
defense. The British wished to arbitrate
the matter, but this the Americans re-
fused to do. 1t was finally left to the de-
cision Of the emperor Of Germany, who
gave his ultimatum in our favor, and
the Canadians congratulated themselves
that they were able to retain Vancouver.
They must have begun to think, by this
time, that whatever those "astute"
Americans demanded, they were quite
sure to obtain n that they-the Cana
dians-were fortunate to conclude as
good a bargain as they did, in settling
the boundary line for all time.