PAG3 4
G6j NcbraoZicw Indopondcnt
SEPTEMBER 7, 1905
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Current Comment on Leading Topics q
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CONCLUSION OF PEACE
The peace Agreement concluded by the Rus
sian and Japanese envoys has been the main
tcplc of editorial comment during the past week,
ft furnishes food for a wide variety of opinions,
but the writers unite in paying tribute to the
efforts of , President Roosevelt:
The terms of peace contain nothing which
- Is humiliating to either belligerent.1 Russia
has lost much its navy, Manchuria, Port
Arthur, the Chinese Eastern railway, and its
prestige in the orient but has saved its
"honor." Japan has gained much and has
saved its "honor." It has not been humiliat
ed as it was after the conclusion of the
Chinese war, when the European nations
compelled It to give up Port Arthur. Each
nation will be free now, thanks in part to
the generous efforts of President Roosevelt,
to devote itself to the arts of peace. A year
, more of fighting would have exhausted both
financially, and an irredeemable paper cur
rency would have taken the place of gold in
both empires. They have escaped that
danger. The Russian government can de
vote itself to the restoration of internal peace
and that of Japan to the restoration of do
mestic industry and the exploitation of Corea.
" Each has been so much worn down by war
and is in such need1 of rest that they are like
ly to remain at peace for many years Chi
cago Tribune.
There is perhaps some exaggeration, but
rather pardonable exaggeration, in the ex
treme laudation that is pouring upon Presi
dent Roosevelt from, all quarters of the
world for the part he is considered to have
taken in the consummation of peace. There
is entire agreement, apparently, among both
public officials and private citizens .of the
utmost distinction in all the leading countries
that he is the man to whom is principally to
be credited the gratifying result that has
been reached, if not that without his inter
vention peace would have been impossible.
This gives Mr. Roosevelt a distinction per
haps without parallel in history, and fully
warrants the suggestion that the next Nobel
peace prize should be given to him. . Be
fore this honor can be conferred, however,
there will be needed an official statement of
exactly what the, president really did in the
matter a point upon which we are yet quite
In darkness, and darkness that is, to say
the least, not illumined by Baron Kaneko's
latest statement, contradicting himself, that
he had ao personal connection with the ne
gotiations at Portsmouth, and that his visits
to Oyster Bay were only social. Providence
Journal.
.. A few weeks ago the kaiser and the
czar met on a yacht and held a long con
ference. What they said to each other is
known only to themselves. Russia's pleni
potentiaries came to the peace conference
with a determination to yield very little to the
representatives of Japan, and a feeling of
confidence that they would be able to practi
cally dictate the terms of settlement of the
war. They have been' successful. Is Japan
afraid of the mailed fist of the kaiser?
Buffalo Evening Times.
He gains immensely thereby in renown
and popularity. When the time comes for
further honors he will be almost invincible.
Whether he sought it or not, by this last
act he has fixed himself more firmly in the
popular regard. The opposition was already
broken and disorganized. He has swept it
away. What he now protests that he will"
not seek or accept he finds himself forced
to take if it is thrust upon him by the over
whelming sentiment of - the country. New
York World.
( Messrs. Witte and Rosen probably con
sider it a great diplomatic victory because
they did not have to give up their socks and
Undershirts. New York Press.
proach of accepting what he regarded as hu
miliating terms, and has gained by his diplo
matic skill exceptional conditions of peace
for his country. He goes home with his
reputation as a statesman and diplomat
greatly enhanced. Baron Komura . has won
for Japan all the objects for which the war
was fought and the approval of the public
St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
Everybody will incline to agree that the
Marquis. Ito, the same statesman who
brought the war with China to so wise a
political conclusion, is the chief of the elder
statesmen by whose advise the Mikado has
brought to an equally wise conclusion the far
greater war with Russia, He can well af
ford to disregard the passing anger of the
Japanese jingoes, being assured ojf the ap
proval of time and of the world. He may
say of his action what a .great western
statesman said of his when it had made
him temporarily unpopular. r '1 was bound
to serve my constituents. To be pleased with
my service was their affair, not mine. New
York Times. .
Russia, on the other" hand, comes out
of the struggle with a great loss of prestige
and of property. Her navy is destroyed;
her military, political and commercial estab
lishment in Manchuria is wiped out, only a
single ice-bound port remaining in her pos
session, and her plans for the rounding out
of her empire in the orient are forever nulli
fied. Estimated in money, the aggregate of
the Russian losses probably reaches 1 bil
lions of dollars. It will be seen,, then, that
Japan, while abandoning much on which she
might have insisted, has actually made a very
profitable settlement. There is, therefore,
no just ground for the cry set up by certain
elements among the Japanese that the honor
of their nation has been sacrificed nor yet
for the assumption advanced on the Russian
side that the outcome is a victory for Rus
sian diplomacy. As a matter of fact, ' the
outcome demonstrates, above ' all else, the
weight of the influence ' which the United
States has come to exercise in international
affairs. It was President Roosevelt who pre
vailed upon the belligerent nations to pro
Vide for the holding of the peace conference
at Portsmouth. When ' apparently insur--mountable
difficulties arose, it was President
Roosevelt stepped into the breach, suggested
means of compromise and finally persuaded
the Japanese government to adopt , the con
clusions which , rendered peace possible. By
what he has thus accomplished, our presi
dent has raised this nation to the dignity of
being the potential peacemaker of the world,
an achievement the glory of which will out
shine in history the greatest of triumphs
achieved by force of arms. Honor is due
to Japan for her magnanimity exhibited in
an emergency wherein she had the right to
be dictatorially exacting; honor is due to
the Russian, De Witte, for his statesman
like handling of a situation bristling with
difficulties, but, above all, honor is due to the
sturdy, manful, resourceful American, to
whonrHbelongs the credit of securing a suc
cessful issue to the peace conference, in spite
of seemingly insuperable obstacles. Theo
dore Roosevelt is the real hero of this epoch
making occasion. Pittsburg Leader.
Both nations have won In the negotia
tions from their respective standpoints. M.
Witte has saved his emperor from the re-
NO GRAFT IN EUROPE
Former Consul Frankenthal makes the as
tounding assertion that there is no graft in
Europe. The St Louis Post-Dispatch thinks the
statement true and states the reasons why
European countries presumably Russia is ex
cepted do not suffer from dishonesty in office:
Former Consul : Frankenthal, who repre
sented the United States in Berne for many
years, has made a study of the class of
immigrant who are pouring Into America,
and he makes the assertion in an interview
in the Post-Dispatch on Sunday that twenty
per cent of them have police records which
render them undesirable. Mr. Frankenthal
has evolved a method of . barring this crimi
nal element. He would demand of each im
migrant a certificate , of character from the
authorities of his native fown In reply to
, the question whether such certificates could
not be obtained fraudulently the consul said:
"There is no graft in Europe." Astounding
assertion! Yet those who have lived long-
; est over there are as one in certifying to its
truth. There are two reasons for absence of
graft. Officials are in most cases appointed
or elected for life and are thus removed
from political influence or the fear of it. And
the secret service system, which enables the
police to produce at a moment's notice the
record of any man or woman; complete to the
most minute details, makes corruption so
dangerous that only the most daring scoun
drel would fall under the temptation.
WATSON ON POPULISM
Tnm term 9 a 1UTa cro a C-v U
iwvu a iuubUAmr x l r ririii.i'.iiiiii'r ill
tains this illuminatine' OYnnfiitirm tmuifcm
, vMO VW4VlVU : VJL A UllOiU
which is described as a protest as weir as a
creed: ... .. " .
In its last analysis Populism is a pro
tost S)P9net ATl'cHTIir airllo nnl 1 ,a
o"" vaiiiu6 c i tie , auu nil ui gcuuiccu
effort to restore the government system of
our iainers. xne enemies of reform indict
us as disturbers of the public peace, and, as
foes to the best interests of society, attempt
to set the conservative elements of the coun
try against us. This is nothing new; the ene
mies of reform have always 1 tried to over
whelm with ridicule and abuse those whose
attacks upon social, political and ecclesiasti
cal evils could not otherwise be met. In
every society there are those who seek to
fatten upon special privileges; speak against
special privileges, ..and you incur the bitter
hatred of those who enjoy them. - They who
dared to say that the public lands of Rome
should be restored to the public were
butchered by the privileged few who had
seized the lands. When Turgot, in France,
and after him Calonne, proposed to avert na
tional bankruptcy and revolution by laying
a tax ;upon the colossal property" of the
church and nobility, they were howled out
of office by the blind selfishness of the priv
ileged classes, who drifted madly into bloody
revolution rather than concede' the just de
mand for reform. When the Chartists in
England demanded annual parliaments, man
hood suffrage, secret ballot, the laying off of
regular parliamentary districts ' and the pay
ment of stated salaries to the members, a
storm of indignation, backed by the fixed
bayonet of the British soldier, drove the
Chartists into the outer darkness of politi
cal defeat, and; another generation had to bo
m, born and educated before the reasonable
demands of the Chartists became .with one
exception) the law of Great Britain. So the
: Populists, asking nothing that shrinks from
- the test of full and fair discussion, have
- been pitilessly assailed as a: lqt of cranks
fanatics and hoodlums, -whose alleged prin-
ciples were unworthy of serious considera
tion. The very essence of Populism is an-
. tagonism to class legislation and to - special
; privilege. Its constant text is "Equal and '
t exact justice to all men," its constant pur
pose to check the tendency which concen
. trates the political power and all material
prosperity into the hands of .the few We
arraign existing conditions, and we say that
the worst features of the European system
which our forefathers came here to escape
are creeping into our government and findine
secure footing in our statute book. Our cor
porations Jiave become a privileged order
armed with the power to tax the unprivileged'
and thus we have an aristocracy.' , Our
wealth has been exempt from taxation mad
secure from the ordinary chances of com
. .petition by laws which tend to make the rich
richer; and thus' by legalizing the advantages
of the millionaire we make certain that th
numbers of those who must remain penni
less shall ever, increase. Wealth, after all
is but a common fund from which all mutt
derive existence, , If a few have seized upon
Jbf n t?ey " are legally and equitably
entitled to the, many, will get less than thev
need and less than they legally and equit
ably deserve. Populism would remedy thP
disease by removing the cause. We trTcl
every evil of our present situation to some
departure., from,, the true principles upon