New outlook Volume 55 - Softcover

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1897 Excerpt: ...however, that it is a mistake to make any exceptions to the operation of the treaty. Whatever questions may arise between Great Britain and the United States can better be settled by law than by war, by appeal to reason than by appeal to force. The objection that has been made, that in appeals to reason we have been and are likely to be worsted, is not very creditable to our understanding. If Great Britain can get the better of us in the court of reason, that might be a ground for improving our understanding, not for resorting to our fists. If it is true that in diplomacy she is our superior, as very likely it is, that would be an excellent ground for taking our diplomatic corps out of politics and appointing our ambassadors, ministers, and consuls, not as a reward for party service, but as a result of diplomatic training, not to represent a party, but to represent the country. But let us not shame ourselves by acknowledging that we are no match for the older country in the ability to present a cause before an impartial tribunal. The second amendment is well-nigh fatal to the treaty. All lovers of peace should make a common cause against it. Its necessary effect is to allow either party to the arbitration to withdraw the case from the court whenever the politicians in control think, or imagine that they think, that the case is going against them. It leaves the specter of war always close in the background, and an appeal to war always in the power of the Jingoes of either country. No doubt Lord Salisbury would instantly accede to this amendment, since it is quite in the spirit of his original proposal, which provided that either party might within three months after award protest against it and demand an appeal, and that on appeal no award should stand unles...