The Commoner
'APRIL, 1914
25
.of vessels of the United States in
such trade. In substance the propo
sition but asserts that because by the
law of the United States steam
vessels in the coastwise trade have
been exempt from pilotage regula
tions, therefore there is no power to
.subject vessels in foreign trade to
pilotage regulations, even although
such regulations anblv without dis-
crimination to all vessels engaged in
such foreign trade, whether domestic
or foreign."
In other words, the court held that
there could be no discrimination
where there was no competition, and
that as by the law of the United
States only American vessels can
'engage in the coastwise trade it was
no violation of the treaty in the reg
ulations applied to all vessels in the
foreign trade. The reasoning of that
decision applies equally well to the
present situation.
In his very able minority renort
tthe gentleman from California, Mr.
f J. R. Knowlands, thus elucidates the
'decision:
"The remarkable similarity of the
Jfacts and conditions in the Olsen
against Smith case and that under
consideration is apparent. In that
rcase as In this it was urced that a
jlaw of tho United States granting an
lexemption in favor of vessels en
gaged in the coastwise trade was in
violation of a treaty. The exenmtion
tin that caso was from pilotage
marges: in the present case it is
from toll charges. Certainly it can
not be contended that there is anv
distinction between the cases in that
regard.
"In that case the laneuaeri of t.hn
treaty bound this country not to im
pose any nigher 'duties or charges'
on British vessels than on vessels of
the United States in the same ports.
But under the local law British
vessels were required to Dav hilotacrR
I charges while American vessels were
completely exempt from such charges.
A plain violation of the treaty,', the
majority would say, but in effect the
supreme court said: 'No; for what
-we-do or omit to do with regard to
our coastwise trade is of no concern
to any nation, for they cannot com
plain with regard to a' traffic in
which they have no interest. No
regulation, exemption or privilege
wincji we see fit to grant to our coast
wise trade is a just, subject of .com
plaint, for it does not concern ves
sels engaged in the foreign trade ".
Certainly the president has never
read the Olsen against Smith de
cision by our court of last resort or
he never would have concluded that
the exemption of tolls on our coast
wise trade was in . plain contraven
tion of our treaty with Great Britain.
BOUND TO OBSERVE TREATIES
If we have entered into an engage
ment which forbids us to manage our
own affairs, then wo must abide by
it, however fooliBh or unnecessary
that engagement may have been. But
havo we? Here opinions honest
opinions differ, and, mind you, not
only American but British opinions.
His majesty's government is quite
certain now that exemption of tolls
on our coastwise traffic violates the
Hay-Pauncefote treaty, but it was
very far from certain when its ac
credited representatives wrote to our
secretary of state as late as July,
1912, that "if the trade should be so
regulated as to make it certain that
only bona fide coastwise traffic which
is reserved for United States vessels
would be benefited by this exemption
it 'may be that no objection could be
taken."
So far as our own judges are con
cerned, it is, I believe, quite safe to
say that, with the exception of the
learned senior senator from New
.York and our former. Highly respect
ed ambassador, Mr. Choate, the
weight of recognized legal opinion of
the highest merit; from Mt. Olney,
Mr. Taft, Mr. Knox, and to, my mind,
though I would make no invidious
distinctions, most important by far
of all, from the present chief justice
of the United States, in a precisely
similar case, is practically unanimous
to the effect that neither legally in a
broad sense nor technically in a
narrow application does this treaty
forbid us to regulate the transporta
tion of our own goods in our own
ships through our own canal between
our own ports.
Tho president differs from tho
judgment of these , and many other
men of like understanding. lie is
convinced that the statute as it now
stands does contravene our solemn
obligat'on and should thereforo bo
repealed. So believing, ho dtfefj tho
only thing that an honorable and conscientious-,
head of the nation could
do; ho asks us to reconsider our
action in view of his conviction that
wo have violated a pledge. What
ever may bo the difference of opinion
respecting tho merits of tho case, I
do President Wilson honor for his
act. If I were in his place and be
lieved as he believes, I should do as
he has done. Moreover, I have such
confidence in the president that I
have not the slightest doubt that, if
he were in my place and believed
what I believe, he would do as I am
doing. But I do not and cannot in
dorse his judgment in this matter. I
think he is wholly in the wrong, at
least so far as the treaty bears upon
our own domestic situation, and con
sequently offers no just cause for the
breaking of a well considered, party
pledge.
UPHELD BY TWO PRESIDENTS
Jn addition to tho supreme court
decision, as pointed out by Mr; Mann,
'the samo view is held by two presi
Identjs, by two secretaries' of state and
by the house Itself on three separate
occasions,
i While I have great respect for tho
opinions of the president and my
threo worthy colleagues aforemen
tioned, the weight of authority is
against them.
Tho plain, unvarnished truth of
history is that from tho beginning
to the present hour, what we do
about our domestic trade, which in
cludes the coastwise trade, we have
considered solely as our business,
and that foreign nations have abso
lutely nothing to do with it. It is
none of their business what we do
wi.th it.
.The repeal means the practical
abandonment of the Monroe doctrine,
which we forced into the code of
the international law and which the
American people will maintain at all
hazards. That is the only proposi
tion they ever agreed upon; and the
reason they agreed upon it was that
it was a genuine American pro
nouncement, one to warm the cockles
of the heart of every true American
betwixt the two seas. It was the doc
trine of self-defense. Touch that
doctrine and the bristles of the
American people rise instanter.
Those who assert that the Monroe
doctrine is dead reckon without their
host.
HOW CLEVELAND WON FAME
No one can forget how, when we
had our quarrel with Great Britain
over the Venezuelan question-, Presi
dent Grover Cleveland thrilled the
hearts of his countrymen, without
regard to political affiliations, by a
message on which his fame will refit
far more than upon all his other acts
and words in the coming time. His
famous and courageous declaration,
"Today the United States Is prac
tically sovereign upon this continent,
and its fiat is law upon subjects to
which it confines its interposition,"
made him for the first and only time
a' popular idol. Therein lie bluntly
and succinctly stated the opinion of
I
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James Monroe stated the Monroe
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till now lit is what Grover Cleveland
said it was; and surely nobody will
have the temerity to accuse him of
bqing either a demagogue or a jingo
' ,ftow may the God of our fathers
who nerved 3,000,000 backwoods
Americans to fling thefr gage of
battle into the face of the mightiest
monarch in the world, who guided
the hand of Jefferson in writing 'the ?
charter of liberty, who sustained :
Washington and his ragged and
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blood-stained heights of Yorktown,
may He lead members to vote so as
to prevent this stupendous folly :
this unspeakable humiliation of -theJ
American republic.
o'
