Show TWO ARTHURS On the Venezuela controversy we may say England has her Arthur Balfour Bal-four and the United States her Arthur Wheeler True the English Arthur is a politician first lord of the treasury too in the British cabinet while our American Arthur is only a professor at Yale colIege Both of the Arthurs according to yesterdays dispatches succeeded in making themselves ridiculous in their remarks on the Venezuela Question According to Mr Balfour Great Britain is so far from desiring any part of Venezuelas territory terri-tory that if the whole republic was offered to England for annexation the statesmen of England would decline to receive it He ridicules the idea of the two countries going to war affirms that England had heartily concurred in the Monroe doctrine seventy years ago and disclaims for English policy in either South or North America anything any-thing like a forward policy that is a policy that seeks to extend the boundaries boun-daries of its American possessions The gradual extension of British claims upon Venezuela territory since 1814 is a sufficient contradiction of the English Arthurs utterances especially I when considered in connection with Englands well known aggressive policy In every other country in the world where she has colonial posses uO sions The British spirit is not likely to be different In South America than I it is in other countries There Is one British characteristic that is the same under all climatic influences British I greed for empire the ambition to enlarge en-large British territory That passion is just the same in South America as it is in South Africa and Mr Balfour Bal-four is mistaken when he thinksif he does thinkthat British statesmen would not annex Venezuela if there was any opportunity for doing it England would annex Venezuela with her newly discovered gold district as quickly as her statesmen would annex the Transvaal and its gold fields But Germany stands in the way of the accomplishment of the latter as the United States stand in the way of the accomplishment of the former The English Arthur has most probably taken this into account and declares England would not have even the whole of Venezuelathe English Arthur has perhaps never read the fable of the fox and the sour grapes Our American Arthurs failings consist con-sist also in a misrepresentation of facts with an offensive manner of statement added The dispatches represent re-present him as saying in a lecture at New Haven Conn that the Monroe doctrine was divided into two parts The first enunciated by President Monroe Mon-roe and a bogus doctrine developed and perfected by President Cleveland Of the latter he said It is the embodiment em-bodiment of insatiate greed Inordinate selfishness and collossal bumptiousness of a large part of the American people peo-ple In the course of his lecture he referred to Henry Clay as a man who talked like an angel and acted like a buccaneer with hemorrhages of eloquence elo-quence The dispatches conclude the account of the lecture thus Professor Wheeler said further Spain through the special dispensation dispensa-tion of Pope Alexander the vicere gent of the Almighty became the possessor pos-sessor of the destinies of threefourths of the world I dont know that we have a patent from the Almighty unless un-less it came lately througH Pope Grover Gro-ver I He declared that the act of the president presi-dent in shaking his fist under Queen Victorias nose was the act of a bully and said America need have no ad prehension of trouble through contact with England Much criticism is sometimes indulged in by the more conservative element in American communities about the bombast of political speeches and about the intemperate and overwrought over-wrought language of the American press But can there be room for much surprise at this if many of the professors of our colleges are of the same reckless temperament as Professor Pro-fessor Arthur Wheeler Such remarks are alike unworthy of New England and of a professor of Yale Professors of such standing are supposed to discuss dis-cuss questions of the character of the Monroe doctrine as academic questions ques-tions in a style alike free from passion pas-sion and prejudice and above all free from the phraseology of the lowest order of political spouters Professor Wheeler should be taught a few lessons on the proprieties of academic treatment of great national questions and Yale professors should set a better example to American party politicians and the American press than is furnished in this instance in-stance |