OCR Text |
Show OUR FOREIGN RELATIONS, ' Senator Cuilom delivered yesterday a noteworthy speech on tho relations of this country with foreign powers. These relations havo always been important, and havo usually In the President's) messagoti, from the first, been given tho opGnlng place.. Of recent years thla has not been so murked, but still their high importance has always been recognized. And In the past few years tho International position of this country coun-try has been so enormously enhanced that tho relations of the United States with other nations have been radically changed. The United States is no longer a nation na-tion In Isolation. Her Interests touch upon those of every other nation; In all parts of tho world. And whereas in former times, the nations of Europe arrangod their affairs and inado their mutual agrcementa as to' the world at largo without any . reference to or thought of tho United States, this Is no longer done. On the contrary, the effort on the part of all of them now Is first to find what the United States thinks oi any given move or programme, pro-gramme, and defer to it, whenever it is found really to be positive and so expressed. ex-pressed. At the same time, so rich is the United Slates, so powerful and irresistible irresist-ible are its people In industrial and productive Industry, and so widespread have been their commercial and trade invasions of other countries, that M-.tr- '..(.-., 1.n II IK 11.. Jealous rago of all Its rivals. The consequence con-sequence Js that they liavo tried to form combinations to bar out American products; some nations have established estab-lished regulations which to a largo extent ex-tent do this. And Internationally we havo not a friend among the nations; every one (with at times the possible exception of Great Britain) would be glad lo see the United States humbled, and In any opportunity .whlclf tho European courts might have to defeat the United Slate's, it would-be used mercilessly to that end. Consequently, wo regard that portion of Senator Culloin's speech (admirable in every other respect) which commends com-mends efforts at international arbitration, arbitra-tion, as disadvantageous to this country. coun-try. Any Inlematlonal arbitration would necessarily, almost, havo to include as arbitrators one or more of the chief nations na-tions of Europe; perhaps tho arbitration court would be made up entirely from those nations. That is, tle open and pronounced enemies of this country would havo its Interests put in tlieir hands to make or to mar. (Can there be the slightest hope that our interests would be in tho least degree protected? Does a man put his case before his enemy, trusting trust-ing that his honor will be stronger than his prejudice? The man who does it always suffers. And so would the nation na-tion in like case. International arbitration, arbi-tration, so far as Uncle Sam Is concerned, con-cerned, would he international fieecing, a collection of the eagles to divide the prey. The less the idea of International arbitration ar-bitration takes hold in this country, the better it will be for tho country, and for Its people. |