་ velt's description of Marroquin, the acting president, as an absolute dictator. He was, says Mr. Dubois, "a helpless and hapless old man placed in the midst of great national unrest and disorder" and not in accord with his Congress. The expression of regret, Mr. Dubois asserts, is not an apology and Colombia "distinctly understood" that it is not when ratifying the treaty. He also defends the $25,000,000 payment, maintaining that the valid claims of Colombia come to a total of $36,000,000; but he figures in a naïve way. Sixty-four annual payments remained to be made on the Panama railway, of $250,000 each. These Mr. Dubois reckons as aggregating $16,000,000, whereas a cash payment of $6,250,000 invested at four per cent. would take care of an indefinite number of annual payments of that size. He adds to this sum the total physical value of the railway at the time of the Panama revolt - $16,446,000 since the road was to revert to Panama in 1967. The cash value of a reversionary right of this kind would be nearer onefifth that amount. IN NOVEMBER, 1903, our Congress called for all the correspondence and official documents on the subject of the Panama revolution. These were furnished and were published. "Nowhere," says the Washington Post, "is there any indication that the United States acted in collusion with the revolutionists. The sole instructions to naval officers were to keep transit open across the isthmus in accordance with treaty obligations." The Post reprints extracts from the letters written by our minister at Bogota-Beaupre-showing that the revolt in Panama was being threatened by Panama representatives four months before it occurred. On September 10, 1903, nearly two months before, Beaupre wrote to Secretary Hay of the proceedings that day in the Colombian Senate, saying: "Gen. Pedro Nel Ospina, in a passionate and much-applauded speech, warned the government that should it persist in its present course, exhausted as the country was, a fresh Our foreign policy is certainly foreign to anything heretofore recorded in history.-Florida Times-Union. Oh, that Congress had a doctor who would prescribe the "rest cure"!-Washington Post. revolution was not far distant." On September 30, Beaupre wrote: "There is a project on foot to annul the arrangement entered into by the Colombian government and the French Canal Company in 1900, extending the franchises and privileges of that company. Even men good enough to be candidates for President are advocating this action with all seriousness and solemnity. It is urged that Congress has full power to either annul or ratify the action of the government in this matter, and that if the arrangement made extending the contract is declared null and void, the French company's rights and interests on the isthmus cease to exist, and Colombia could then arrange with the United States to receive not only the $10,000,000 offered her, but the $40,000,000 offered the company." TE Τ Taking the Canal Zone and What It Meant. HE most unsparing critic of Mr. Roosevelt for his course in regard to the Panama revolution is, as we have said, the N. Y. World. It has always maintained that that revolution was engineered in this country and that President Roosevelt "placed himself and his great office at the disposal of the lobbyists and traitors who planned it." Its charge is that the revolution was bought and paid for by the French canal interests, and that the money was sent to Panama from New York City. It says: "The plot was carefully laid, the 'revolution' was handled by employees of the Panama Railroad, and it was successful only because the Roosevelt Administration prevented Colombia from landing loyal troops to suppress it." It charges that secrecy was observed here, but admits that everything was done "openly and defiantly" at Panama, and that it was able to publish the plans in all their details four months before the revolution began. The extent of the complicity of our government officials, according to the charges of the World, seems to have been in preventing the Colombian troops from landing to suppress the revolt. This act is not in dispute and has not been at any time. It was this act, says Mr. Dubois, that "constituted an act of war" on our part. What, then, asks Paxton Hibben, formerly secretary of legation and later chargé d'affaires at Bogota, were the landings of American troops on the Isthmus on seven previous occasions to keep the way open across the Isthmus? Mr. Roosevelt justifies the act as one within our treaty rights and essential to the building of the canal. "Taking the action," he says, "meant taking the Canal Zone and building the canal; failure to take the action would have meant that the Canal Zone would not have been taken and the canal would not have been built." Secretary Bryan comes forward with an ironic observation to the effect that it is not necessary to discuss the action taken by Mr. Roosevelt. "It is not necessary," he says, "to discuss the events which gave rise to this estrangement, because it does not matter which party was at fault." It is our duty, he goes on to say, to do justice to Colombia and in case of doubt as to what is just it is our duty to "resolve that doubt against ourselves and in favor of Colombia." Which, as a rule of international policy, seems sufficiently altruistic to make more than one diplomat sit up and rub his eyes with surprise. There are times when we might feel despondent for the future of the country but for the assurance we receive from Mr. Hearst so frequently that when the pinch comes he will save it.-Houston Post. AFTER HUERTA—WHAT? A PAN-AMERICAN DIPLOMACY SUPERSEDING THE EUROPE had been brought to believe that the United 85 of all nations by the spirit of justice of which it has given proof." What it terms the Pan-American diplomacy receives the heartiest support likewise, from the Buenos Ayres Prensa, by many regarded as the most influential of all South American dailies. Pan-Americanism as a Menace to Europe. obtained what it deems a great triumph. "They have UNPLEASANT as the Monroe Doctrine has proved proclaimed and sanctioned by a diplomatic act, to which the United States adheres, the principle of non-intervention in the internal affairs of the nations of the new world." A twofold question had been submitted to the consideration of the plenipotentiaries, observes the organ of the French foreign office. On one side was Mexican pacification. On the other side was the American-Mexican dispute. In other words, the mission of the conference at Niagara Falls was a double one: to assure internal peace to Mexico and to assure external peace between the United States and Mexico. The second portion of this task is the only one accomplished so far. The action of the South American diplomatists at Niagara Falls seems to the French daily an indirect censure of the Wilson policy: "President Wilson, with some imprudence, had thrown himself bodily into a policy of mediation of a special kind, since from the beginning he had not concealed either his preferences or his antipathies. This policy degenerated very swiftly into military intervention, and this very intervention created an international situation which the conference at Niagara Falls has found a means of unraveling. What does it signify if not that in repudiating the consequences of North American policy, the representatives of Argentine, Brazil and Chile repudiate the principle of that policy?" How South America Regards the to certain European powers, the substitution for it of a Pan-American diplomacy, to judge from the Mexican precedent, is anything but palatable to the old world. The Bismarckian Hamburger Nachrichten points this out. This daily is annoyed by insinuations that Germany has been taking unfair advantage of the Mexican crisis to make trouble over Haiti. Haitian finance is in "a more than normally rotten state," and Germany is accused of arranging a loan secured by the customs and guaranteed further by the privilege of constructing a SOUTH AMERICAN opinion seems to regard the coaling station at Mole St. Nicholas. Whatever be the action of the A-B-C-negotiators at Niagara Falls as a severe blow struck on behalf of the Latin republics. In an authorized interview on the subject the Chilean minister of foreign affairs refers to the declaration of the plenipotentiaries as the "first great diplomatic triumph" of the three republics. This triumph, he adds, will profoundly influence the future of all American nations. The Jornal do Commercio (Rio Janeiro), a very influential paper, indicates with definiteness the implications in the attitude of the A-B-C-powers. "Everything possible has been done now to limit strictly the field of action of the mediation. To Mexico is left the task of doing the rest. Here should end the part played by the A-B-C-powers." To which the Noticia adds: "In this first battle, which gives Pan-Americanism its baptism of fire, it would be impossible to win a greater or more important victory." The United States. government has, moreover, by its acquiescence, given indisputable proof of good sense, according to the Buenos Ayres Nacion. "The United States has set a great example to the world and has merited the respect If only cutting off Mexico City's water would bother Huerta ?-Wall Street Journal. While there is no doubt that this Villa fellow is a thief, there are extenuating circumstances. Villa has two wives to support.Topeka Capital. facts, the Haitian difficulty emerges in German press comment on the events of the past month in Mexico, inspiring suspicions that a Pan-American diplomacy will turn out disadvantageously for Europe. It may have its unpleasant features for Washington, too, suggests the London Spectator. Behind the immediate services. of the A-B-C-group, it says, lies the uneasy feeling of the South American republics over the Monroe Doctrine: "For let us be quite sure of this, that ultimately, and very naturally, what the Southern Republics desire is not to glorify the United States, but to add to their own importance, security and prosperity. An attempt to create a kind of Concert of the Western World, in which theoret ically States of like authority would consult together to promote the interests and ensure the safety of North and South America as against the rest of the world, would be an extremely embarrassing scheme for Mr. Wilson. He is conscious now of a moral right to superintend the Republics; but if the Republics came in as his helpers and counsellors that moral right would be disputed at every meeting." The trouble with Carranza seems to be that he never gets mad until everybody else has forgotten the cause of the offence.-Washington Herald. The Villa-Carranza entente cordiale seems to slip about as often as the Cucuracha slide.-Chicago Evening Post. AN AMERICAN HAND NOW that he has resigned his post as United States WHY Trying to Avert Fresh Horrors HY has the first attempt to consolidate Albania- so dismal a failure? Why has the most docile and least intolerant people in Europe, who could be led as easily ing mountaineers who attach an importance that is perhaps exaggerated to "personal prowess in all who claim to be leaders of men." The patriotic Albanians, to turn to the Manchester Guardian's analysis, all had a year ago a "pathetic faith in the genuineness of the promises of the powers to help," but to-day they stand aghast at "the craft, treachery and greed with which the powers now strive to outwit one another at Albania's expense." This, in few words, is the situation to our liberal English contemporary. It does not share the contempt of Mr. George Fred Williams for the Prince of Wied. The Prince, left to himself, it thinks, slowly to disentangle the Albanian problem would have stood a fair chance of success. He has been hampered and bullied in every conceivable way. Hordes of Greek and Cretan soldiers have devastated territory undoubtedly Albanian. This is a piece of retaliation for Italy's failure to evacuate certain isles. France and Russia abet Greece in order that more of Albania may become Slav. Great Britain stands helplessly in the toils of the triple entente making her one with the Dual Alliance. Out of the tangle of forces emerges a furious tension between Greece and Turkey. Such words as the Greek Prime Minister employed in the chamber at Athens last month with reference to the expulsion of his countrymen from the Sultan's territory usually mean, according to the London Telegraph, that the government concerned has made up its mind to go to war. Peace Brought Nearer by a Sale of our Warships to Greece. as a flock of sheep, become turbulent, rebellious, split NEWS of the assent of the United States Congress into factions and partly fanaticized? The questions preface a study of the new situation in the London Telegraph by Dr. E. J. Dillon, the highest living authority on near eastern affairs. Analyzing impartially the incidents which began with the nocturnal attack upon Essad Pasha and culminated in the flight of the royal family, Doctor Dillon is forced to seek the principal causes of the failure in that "complicated system of checks and counter-checks by which all power was bestowed unstintedly upon those who are unacquainted with the population and language of the country and was denied to those who are conversant with them.' Foreigners ruled and were moved by considerations having little to do with the work of consolidating the primitive tribes of Albania into a primitive state. Europe acted through a commission which criticized without constructing and leaned upon Dutch officers who were politicians rather than administrators. Austria and Italy kept eyes of mutual suspicion upon one another at every stage. Young Turkey sent emissaries. Greece had her clergy inflaming the Epirotes. The land was harried. by bands from Servia and Montenegro. Ν to the sale of the battleships Idaho and Mississippi to Greece wrought an instant change in the Turkish mood, affirms the Constantinople correspondent of the Paris Temps. The acquisition of such powerful units by the Athenian government, in view of the efficiency of the Greek sailors and gunners, made certain a loss of command of the sea by the Sultan. Aggression on the part of Turkey became too hazardous an adventure, adds the London Times, "even for the intrepid spirits who to-day control the destinies of the Ottoman Empire." Ominous possibilities are involved, nevertheless, in the failure of the Ottoman government to treat the Hellenic population within its borders humanely. The persecution of Greeks in Turkish Thrace and Asia monious that the Sublime Porte may not recede from Minor has just led to an exchange of notes so acrithe position it has taken up, suspects the Paris Lanterne, though Mr. Venizelos bought the whole United States navy. The tension seems to the London Telegraph the outcome of the deliberate policy of the Young Turks. They aim not only at consolidating and strengthening the forces of Islam behind the new frontiers of the Turkish empire, but at driving from its soil "the very large population of Greek race which has always been an important element among the subjects of the Sultan." Since the close of hostilities in the Balkans, it appears from the reports of this careful newspaper, hordes of ruined Greek refugees have crowded the port of Salonika, bringing with them tales of oppression and violence which have gradually raised the fury of the Greek people to a white heat. OUR BATTLESHIPS ENFORCE A BALKAN PEACE Perils in the Tension Between Athens and Constantinople. URKEY has for the past six weeks been acting like TURK a power determined to fasten some sort of quarrel upon Greece, opines the well-informed Indépendance Belge (Brussels). Many a question of crucial importance remains unsettled between Athens and Constantinople, despite the accumulated treaties and pacts relative to the destinies of the isles in the Aegean. Turkey has pledged herself not to make war against Greece on the subject of these possessions. Upon that condition, in fact, Turkey was able to borrow heavily in Europe not long ago. The pledge, however, says the Belgian daily, is hateful to the sentiments of the Young Turks, who cherish dreams of the future of the Aegean and who can not reconcile themselves to parting with Chios and Mitylene. The young Turks thought they had the advantage of the Greeks at sea until the purchase of American warships by Greece. As it is, the balance turns against Constantinople, although our commentator thinks the Young Turks might not shrink from war even yet. The peril from a Greek standpoint is to be found in a growing Athenian conviction that war with Turkey is inevitable and that the sooner the blow is struck the better. For the time being there is a tacit agreement in the chancelleries to make light of any possible war between Greece and Turkey. Even the London Telegraph, fearing one morning that war between Greece and Turkey must come in a week, can revise that idea later somewhat: "It certainly looks as if the deciding factor in the controversy had been the authorization by the Washington government of the sale to Greece of the two American battleships, the Idaho and the Mississippi. The former of these is already in the Mediterranean; that is to say, she is within easy reach of Athens, and could be taken over by the Greek Admiralty some little time before the Turkish Dreadnoughts in the Tyne and at Barrow-in-Furness could become available for the Turkish navy. The late crisis arose in its acute form as soon as Greece realized that she was threatened with certain loss of the command of the Egean in the case of a war with Turkey, and while there was any doubt as to the willingness of the United States Congress to authorize the sale of the counterbalancing ships, Greece could hardly help seriously contemplating the necessity of a preventive war.' But the underlying causes of acute crisis remain just as strong as ever, and even if peace is patched up for the moment there is no knowing when the clouds may gather again." ITAL Italy and Essad Pasha Complicate the Balkan Crisis. TALY lives in perpetual dread of an Austrian success in Albania, a circumstance which explains to the ae liberal dailies of Europe many recent and obscure events. Rome, accordingly, blocks the path of Vienna by every diplomatic device, complains the candid Neue Freie Presse, even the Greek, as some Austrian dailies the fear, being welcomed in the disputed territory as a makeweight against the house of Hapsburg. "Italy's 72 87 marriage relationship with Montenegro, her detestation of Austria and her overpowering desire to retain the captured islands all drive her along the same path." Thus the liberal Manchester Guardian, which accounts on this basis for the protection given to Essad Pasha, a man denounced in dailies like the Socialist Berlin Vorwärts as Albania's evil genius. Ten years ago, we are told, for instance, when commander of certain troops in southern Albania, he made himself so detested that he was ordered away. At Scutari his reputation was such that when the Turkish constitution was proclaimed people rejoiced because they thought it would make an end of Essad. He emerged safely from that peril. What exactly were the terms by which, at the eleventh hour when relief was certain, Essad. Pasha handed over Scutari to Montenegro are as yet unknown. English organs incline to hold him responsible for the failure of the Prince of Wied in Albania, although it was Essad who made the tender of the crown to His Highness. The Albanians may not be scientific farmers but they know how to get rid of their Wieds.-Charleston News and Courier. "Seems as if the Dove of Peace ain't laying."-N. Y. Telegraph. Those who criticize the sale of battleships to Greece seem to forget that the 1915 models are already out.-Cleveland PlainDealer. William of Wied sits on his Albanian throne as if it had a tåck in it.-Cleveland Plain-Dealer. George Fred Williams seems to have missed the psychological moment for throat trouble.-Washington Post. We don't know the cause of it, but Greece is continually in a stew. Washington Herald. THE DYNASTIC TRAGEDY THAT BEGINS A NEW WITH the swift arrival in Vienna of that Archduke Charles Francis Joseph who, through the double assassination in Bosnia became immediate heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne last month, an era "new, strange and exciting," as the Paris Matin says, dawned in European world politics. The fate of the Triple Alliance trembles in the balance, to give the gist of hints in the Paris Gaulois. That modification of the dual monarchy itself into a federal system based upon wider recognition of the Slav, which Magyars anticipated with such dread, is deferred indefinitely. The social reorganization of the Hapsburg dominions upon a basis of Roman Catholic piety and a more democratic economics, the policy for which the murdered Archduke stood firmly, has become, in the light of the month's press comment abroad, an idle dream. The men about the new Hapsburg heir are suspected of hostility to the Slav and unless, as the London Times says, this racial question be treated with constructive statesmanship, its developments may render the reign of the next sovereign a series of such disasters as attended the unification of Italy and the unification of Germany-events fatal to the prestige of the Hapsburgs in Europe for years. The tragedy, again, that closed the career of Franz Ferdinand may not hasten the death of the Emperor, but the one catastrophe must follow hard upon the other. THE ASSASSIN'S FIVE VICTIMS The tragedy at Sarajevo overwhelmed not only the Archduke Francis Ferdinand and his consort, observes the Paris Gaulois, but brought its weight of woe to the three children of the hapless couple. The eldest son might, had his parents lived, have worn a crown, for his mother had ambitions inconsistent with the theory that her husband's morganatic marriage made her first-born ineligible to sovereign rank. FEW Sinister Suggestions Regarding the Assassination of Franz Ferdinand. EW assassinations have been so extremely convenient in their consequences to powerful parties in the state as the taking off of Franz Ferdinand proves to important elements in Vienna and Budapest. The fact does not escape the notice of Socialist dailies like the Berlin Vorwärts. Even the conservative London Standard must define the general sense of mystification sufficiently to refer to "features about this appalling catastrophe which seem to indicate something more than the crazed malignity of half-witted fanaticism." The progress of events from the opening of the maneuvers in Bosnia to the fatal setting out for the town-hall at Sarajevo suggests a plot laid not only with some care, but with a wealth of resources. "The insignificance of the instruments," as the British paper, confirming others, remarks, "is not in itself sufficient to negative the presumption of more serious figures in the background." There is something here besides an impression that the late heir to the throne succumbed to a conspiracy using fanaticism as its tool. There is a fear that the new heir-presumptive has fallen into hands seeking to shape him to purposes alien to those of the slain archduke. Character of the New Heir to the Hapsburg Throne. BORN some twenty-seven years ago, the Archduke The Succession to the Hungarian ONCE upon the throne, the Archduke Francis Ferdi nand, whose morganatic marriage made him so famous, would have raised his wife to the royal dignity, |