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| Archbishop John Ireland. |
Cortland Evening Standard, Friday, December 14, 1900.
FAVOR ARMY CANTEEN.
Prelates Speak Before Senate Military Committee.
TREATY AMENDMENT ADOPTED.
Relates to the Defense of Our Rights on Nicaraguan Canal—Senator Hanna Speaks on Ship Subsidy Bill. War Tax Reduction in the House.
WASHINGTON, Dec. 14.—In the senate committee on military affairs yesterday the hearing on the army reorganization bill was continued, and in addition to a number of army officers, Archbishop Ireland and Bishop McGoldrick were heard. The two prelates spoke only on the provision of the bill prohibiting the establishment of canteen or post exchanges. Both of them pronounced the provision unwise and expressed that the canteen is in the interest of temperance and good morals in the army.
Archbishop Ireland based his remarks especially upon his observations of affairs at Fort Snelling, near his home at St. Paul. He said that he was sure from all that he had seen and heard among the soldiers that the canteen is a powerful factor in the protection of the soldiers from outside temptations of all kinds and he did not accept the theory that the canteen brings temptation to the troops that otherwise would not come to them.
The archbishop said further that judging from his observation and experience at Fort Snelling, "it is useless to try to prohibit absolutely the use of liquor. If you try to be too severe and do away with it altogether in the army, the men will find it in ways that are illegal and more harmful."
He added that since the canteen had been established at Fort Snelling fewer men are found drinking outside the reservation than formerly. In other times, after payday at the fort, many of the men would be found in St. Paul and the next day many of them would turn up in the police courts. He also spoke of what he designated "miserable saloons along the border of the military reservation which furnish the soldiers not only with liquor of the worst kind, but everything else that makes for iniquity."
He said: "I am myself a total abstainer, but when it comes to dealing with the people at large, I think the only satisfactory and successful way is to eliminate the danger as far as possible and to reduce drinking to the minimum—to advocate moderate temperance."
Senator Burrows asked a question concerning the canteen as a temptation to young men in the army who had never drunk before entering the ranks. "That sort of man in the army is rather a rare article," the archbishop replied, "but if the rare article does turn up, as it may, and if a man is found in the army who has been able to resist the temptations of the saloons in ordinary life, I think he will be able to resist the evils of the canteen."
Major Romeyn, a retired army officer, also spoke for the retention of the canteen. The officers who are now in the service who were heard were General Ludington, quartermaster general, who advocated provisions for the increase in rank in his corps; General Lieber, judge advocate general, who asked for an increase of the number of officers; General Greely, chief of the signal service, who asked for a company organization in the signal service, and Colonel Guenther, senior artillery colonel, who advocated a regimental organization for the artillery arm. Colonel Guenther also took a positive stand in support of the canteen.
TREATY AMENDMENT.
Provision Authorizing Defense of Our Interests In Nicaraguan Canal Is Changed.
WASHINGTON, Dec. 14.—In accordance with previous agreement the senate in executive session took a vote at 3 o'clock yesterday afternoon on the amendment to the Hay-Pauncefote treaty authorizing the United States to defend its interests in the canal. The senate did not close its doors until 2 o'clock and there was then left only one hour's time for discussion of the provisions of the amendment. The vote was taken by yeas and nays, 65 votes being cast in favor of the amendment and 17 against it.
After the amendment offered by the committee was passed upon various other amendments received the attention of the senate for a brief time, but none of them was acted upon.
The committee amendment which was adopted is a provision to be inserted after section 5 of article 2 of the treaty and is as follows:
"It is agreed, however, that none of the immediately foregoing conditions and stipulations in sections numbered 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 of this article shall apply to measures which the United States may find it necessary to take for securing by its own forces the defense of the United States and the maintenance of public order."
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| Mark Hanna. |
HANNA ON SUBSIDY BILL.
Ohio Senator's First Formal speech to His Colleagues.
WASHINGTON, Dec. 14.—For nearly three hours yesterday Mr. Hanna of Ohio addressed the senate upon the pending ship subsidy bill. While he has spoken heretofore on the floor of the senate, his effort yesterday really was his first formal speech to the body since he became a member of it.
Since coming to the body Mr. Hanna has devoted much time and labor to the preparation of the ship subsidy bill and as he is regarded by his colleagues as one or the best informed public men on the question his speech was given unusually close attention.
Senators on both sides of the chamber remained in their seats throughout the delivery of the address. He spoke without manuscript and his delivery at all times was forcible and intense. At the conclusion of the speech be received the cordial congratulations of many of his colleagues.
Featureless Debate on War Tax Bill.
WASHINGTON, Dec. 14.—The debate upon the war revenue reduction bill continued in the house yesterday. It was dull and featureless. Those who spoke were Messrs. Grosvenor, Bartholdt, Hill, Boutell, McClellan, Newlands and Underwood.
Mr. Bartholdt criticized the action of the ways and means committee in not making a deeper cut in the tax on beer and gave notice that he would offer an amendment to reduce it to $1.50 per barrel.
General debate upon the bill will close today and Mr. Payne, the floor leader of the majority, expects the bill to pass before adjournment.
The house adopted a resolution for a holiday recess from Friday, Dec. 21 to Jan. 3, 1901.
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| Charles Rufus Skinner. |
NEW YORK'S EXHIBIT.
State Board of Managers of Pan-American Exposition Discuss Various Matters.
NEW YORK, Dec. 14.—The state board of managers of the Pan-American exposition, to be held in Buffalo, held another meeting yesterday at the Murray Hill hotel. Applications were made for space by John M. Clark, Charles H. Peck, state botanist, and Abraham P. Field. Ten thousand dollars was set aside for these exhibitors, and the applications for space granted.
The matter of inviting the exhibits of New York city and state that are now at Paris was given considerable attention and discussion, but nothing definite was decided upon. The committee to meet Governor-elect Odell and ask him to consent to the change of the state camp for the National Guard from Peekskill to Buffalo for the coming season had been unable to see him, but Secretary Newton of the board had seen him and been assured that Mr. Odell would give the matter consideration.
F. J. H. Merrill, director of the State Geological Museum at Albany, and Charles R. Skinner, state superintendent of public instruction, called at the meeting. The latter urged the commission to grant space for the department of education exhibits. He suggested that a model of a modern schoolhouse be erected there, showing all the modern sanitary precautions.
It was said that it was the intention of the officers in charge to invite the governor and all the members of the senate and assembly to be guests of the Pan-American congress at the opening of the state building.
The New York state board of commissioners will act as hosts for all the exhibitors from the United States and South America.
No exhibits will be presented in the New York state building, as that is to be used exclusively as the representative building of the state.
Mr. Skinner, superintendent of schools, at the afternoon session of the commission said that in addition to the model schoolhouse he wishes to have the grounds for the same exhibited.
Mr. Skinner said he was in possession of information which indicated that the best features embodied in the New York state exhibit at Paris would be brought here for exhibition at the Pan-American congress. One of the features of the school exhibit would be the kindergarten system, including the pictures of the children taken by the biograph while leaving the schoolroom on the alarm of fire. These pictures have attracted the attention of the school authorities at Moscow and Berlin, and these cities have indicated their approval of that exhibit.
PAGE FOUR—EDITORIALS.
American Soldiers in the Orient.
The correspondent of the London Daily Telegraph with the allied army in China has sent to his paper a highly interesting comparative sketch of the characteristics and qualifications of the various troops that made up the Peking relief column. Summarizing national qualities, he said that the British and British trained troops were steady under fire, the Americans reckless, the Russians phlegmatic, the Japanese callous, the French composed. His conclusion seemed to be that the American troops differed more completely from the rest of the allied forces than the soldiers of any other nation. The Japanese had been organized and trained under the German system and so far as military discipline went did not differ greatly from their European allies. But, he says, General Chaffee's soldiers puzzled the English correspondents, who spoke of them with amazement, admiration and disapproval at the same time. On some occasions they felt inclined to take their hats off to every American soldier they saw, and on other occasions the American soldiers seemed no more than a mob of tramps.
There was no national contingent making up the international force which showed less traditional discipline, says the correspondent. Each man seemed a law unto himself, the idea being that the fighting unit was the man, not the section, the company or the regiment. He thinks that if there had been no fighting all of the foreign observers would have gone back to their homes with a poor opinion of the efficiency of the American troops. But, luckily for their reputation, there was fighting, in which the correspondent thus refers to the action of the American soldier:
You see an American private advancing under fire; you begin to think there is something in the idea that the fighting-unit of the future is the individual. Private Silis P. Holt acts by himself, for himself. He and his companions make for a common objective, not like stiff, trained soldiers, but like panthers stalking at prey. Their eyes flash; their lithe bodies swing forward; there are murder and deadly intentness in every movement. When the American soldier lies down to fire, he does so with the intention of killing somebody. Most troops fire, not at the enemy, but in the direction of the enemy. Not so the Americans. Allied to their feline stealthiness, the Americans in battle have a most reckless courage. At times they expose themselves with a strange contempt for death. An officer will take chances no European would care to take. The field battery was generally to be found in places where no one read in tactics would have dared to put it. General Chaffee and his staff always rode where the enemy was, most likely to see and shoot at them. Young and inexperienced correspondents were warned by older hands not to go during an action near prominent buildings, large graves or the American staff.
◘ While natural gas has passed as a fuel for many manufacturing uses, says the Pittsburg Dispatch, it will long continue to supply domestic wants. The fact that it is no longer burned in puddling furnaces makes the supply more lasting for the less extravagant purpose of manufacture and as a household luxury. The store now in sight in the opinion of competent experts, will last for 20 years.
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| Fredonia Normal School before the fire. |
FREDONIA NORMAL BURNED.
Origin of Fire a Mystery—Loss Will Approach $250,000.
DUNKIRK, Dec. 14.—The state Normal school at Fredonia was destroyed by fire at 6 o'clock this morning. Only one part of the building is standing, that the new dining hall and gymnasium facing Terrace-st. Of the other buildings nothing remains but blackened walls filled between with charred and still blazing fragments of floors, ceilings and woodwork. The loss will approach $250,000. What is left is a wilderness of walls, still steaming in the December snow.
The spirit of the school is in no way dampened, however, for at 7:30 this morning the various teachers, satisfied that all the boarding students were safe, were giving notice that the classes would meet at 10 A. M. in the opera house and continue their work.
The origin of the fire at 8 A. M. was a mystery. Charles Gibbs, who roomed in the building, acting as elevator man and janitor stated that the fire started in the basement but just where he did not know. He had a narrow escape as did many others. The furnishings, including desks, laboratory, library, art rooms, dormitory, fittings, etc., can only be approximated. Two libraries, one of free text books and other a very extensive reference library, probably cost $15,000.
The best Normal school chemical laboratory in the state is destroyed. It cost about $8,000. The insurance on the building is estimated at $90,000. The school will be rebuilt.
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| Cortland Normal School. |
Kindergarten Association.
The December meeting of the Kindergarten association was held Thursday afternoon in the [Cortland] Normal kindergarten and a most interesting Christmas program was enjoyed. Papers on the art of storytelling were read by members of the senior class, Miss Salem, Miss Birdsall and Miss Morse, followed by a Christmas story read by Miss Fiske. Christmas tree decorations were illustrated, and a description of Froebel's "Toyshop" pictures was given by Miss Hill after which new books for children were discussed. All present felt more than repaid for the hour spent in thinking over the little ones' Christmas.
On the Sidepath.
A complaint has been lodged with the chairman of the local [bicycle] sidepath commission, Dr. E. M. Santee, that teams attached to sleighs finding the road very rough were turning out and driving on the sidepath over its entire length between this city and McGraw. A like report was made concerning the Little York path. The doctor dispatched officers to the scene with instructions to arrest any and all offenders.
FIRE IN LITTLE YORK.
STANLEY RAYMOND HOTEL COMPLETELY DESTROYED.
Hotel, Barns and Dwelling Burned Last Night—Probably Caught from Furnace—Buildings and Furniture a Total Loss—Cash Register and Money Saved—Loss Estimated at $5,000—$1,000 Insurance.
The Stanley Raymond hotel, hotel barns, and house belonging to Mr. McNamara, all situated in the western portion of Little York were completely burned to the ground last night. At about 10 o'clock Mr. and Mrs. Raymond were about to retire when one of the employees notified them of the presence of smoke in the building. They began an investigation and Mr. Raymond went down stairs and as he opened a door he found the room completely filled with flames. He hurried to notify the occupants, who escaped with nothing but their night clothes. Within twenty-five minutes the roof fell in. In the meantime the large barn and dance hall and Mr. McNamara's house had caught from sparks and in a very short time they too were reduced to ashes. All that was saved from the hotel was the cash register money, piano stool and a few of Mrs. Raymond's jewels, It is supposed the fire started from the furnace, as the room in which it was discovered was directly over it. The illumination lighted the country for miles around.
The flames gained such rapid headway that no attempt was made to save the hotel barn and dwelling owing to a strong west wind that was blowing at the time and a bucket brigade of forty men was hastily organized. By hard work they saved the residence of Abram Nealey, who resides directly opposite on the east side of the street and the farm barns of Burdett Salisbury located directly south of the burning building.
The hotel and barn were partially covered by an insurance of $1,000, carried by G. J. Maycumber of Cortland. Mr. McNamara informed a STANDARD man his dwelling was not insured and he had been making extensive repairs on the interior ready for a tenant who was expecting to occupy it in a few days. He will not rebuild. Mr. Raymond is nearly prostrated as his furniture, which was valued at about $4,000, is an entire loss. The fine upright piano was valued at $800 and one of the collection of oil paintings imported from Venice was alone valued at $500.
Mr. Raymond is entirely undecided regarding his future plans but the probabilities are he will not rebuild. The hotel was erected in 1873 and Mr. Raymond has been doing business there since July, 1897.
AMATEUR AMERICAN DIPLOMACY.
To the Editor of The Standard:
SIR—The acquisition of California by the United States in 1848, as a result of the treaty which terminated the Mexican war, greatly intensified the importance to us of a maritime canal connecting the Pacific ocean with the Gulf of Mexico or the Caribbean sea.
In 1846 we had acquired by treaty with Colombia, then New Grenada, rights under which the Panama railroad across the isthmus was built, under which it has been operated since its completion in 1855, and under which we might have constructed and operated the Panama canal, had it been constructed in time.
To checkmate us in this enterprise, Great Britain interposed an objection in behalf of some of her subjects engaged in cutting timber on the Mosquito coast, under leases from the Mosquito Indians. Although Nicaragua claimed sovereignty over this coast, with apparent justice, and asserted the independence of the Mosquito Indians and her right of sovereignty and a protectorate over the territory they inhabited, this claim only led to hostilities, in which England, being the stronger, prevailed.
Out of these conditions sprang the Clayton-Bulwer treaty, negotiated at the close of the Mexican war, when the United States required a period of peace to enable her to recover from the strains incident to that war. This treaty had reference to the construction and operation of the Nicaragua canal, and pledged the respective governments of Great Britain and the United States not to acquire territory or sovereign rights in any of the territories contiguous to this canal.
Learning surreptitiously that negotiations were pending between Nicaragua and the United States for the construction of this canal, Great Britain procured herself to be substituted for the United States and affected a treaty with Nicaragua on nearly or quite identical terms with those which the United States had proposed to the government of Nicaragua, and taking advantage of the civil war then prevailing in the United States not only attempted to forestall her, but in violation of the Clayton-Bulwer treaty, erected the crown colony of Belize in territory forbidden by that treaty, as early as 1862. Great Britain was not then restrained by national honor, by respect for treaties, by good will toward the people of a nation having common ancestry, a common language and like free institutions with herself. That Shakespeare belonged to both nations counted for nothing with her. She deserves to be and is despised by all Americans for such conduct; and prejudice derived from school histories is not alone the source of that American sentiment of hostility to England of which she complains, nor is it due to the Irish ancestry of a large number of Americans. It rests upon and grows out of the logic of events, which a century of good will and good conduct can alone remove.
Returning to the Clayton-Bulwer treaty, in 1849 the American representative at Guatemala negotiated a treaty with the government of Nicaragua for a franchise to construct and operate the Nicaragua canal, and a little later our representative at Honduras negotiated a like treaty with the government of that country. The best location for such a canal had not then been determined, if indeed it is now. Both of these treaties conveyed to the government and people of the United States rights of a scope and import little short of sovereign. The authority to negotiate these treaties was denied and the treaties repudiated by Hon. John M. Clayton, then secretary of state, who rebuked the American representatives by whom they had been procured for exceeding their authority, probably to save his face from the consequences of being anticipated by his subordinates. Although he seems to have deemed himself affronted and compromised by the zeal of his subordinates, he cunningly proceeded to use these treaties as a means of inducing Great Britain to enter into the Clayton-Bulwer treaty of odious memory to which his name and fame are linked by a chain of historic ignominy, instead of renown, as an American diplomat.
A like destiny awaits the Hon. John Hay, who has followed in Clayton's footsteps and appears to have been actuated by similar motives, unless he withdraws this treaty from the consideration of the senate and ceases to employ the resources and instrumentalities of the administration in the effort to coerce the senate into ratifying the Hay-Pauncefote treaty, which revives and reaffirms the odious Clayton-Bulwer treaty and nowhere abrogates or disaffirms the most objectionable features of that compact, under which the United States could not acquire the right of way for the Nicaragua canal without Great Britain's consent to obtain which another treaty must be made, unless that is abrogated or disregarded.
In 1878 the government of Columbia granted to France an exclusive franchise to construct the Panama canal across its territory connecting the Caribbean sea with the Pacific ocean. In 1879 a French corporation was organized under the laws of France, to exercise this franchise by constructing and operating the canal thereby authorized; and M. de Lesseps, the eminent engineer under whose supervision the Suez canal was constructed, entered actively into the work of constructing the Panama canal for this French corporation. This corporation failed and went into liquidation in 1884 or 1885 and scandals were developed which profoundly agitated France and amazed the world. Meanwhile the government of the United States sought to make a treaty with Colombia whereby the former should guaranty to police the Panama canal and guaranty its neutrality to the commerce of the world, with the right to erect suitable fortifications under proper limitations and restrictions, to enable her to perform her proposed guaranty. Great Britain interposed and defeated the treaty, again displaying her accustomed partiality for the United States and the commercial progress and supremacy of others.
When France obtained the consent of Colombia for the construction of the Panama canal through the latter's territories, no one thought it necessary to secure the consent of Great Britain or any other nation in Europe or the Americas, though it much more nearly concerned the latter than the former. Nor would such a thought ever have been expressed but for the infamous Clayton-Bulwer treaty. Apart from that, no nation has any right to interfere outside of those whose territories are traversed by the canal and the nation which supplies the capital for its construction, and assumes to maintain it for the use of the neutral commerce of the world, upon equal terms for all and subject to the law of nations.
The desire to make it remunerative and increase its use is the strongest possible motive and inducement to render the nation which owns and operates it careful of the rights and interests of others. No other guaranty is required for its commercial neutrality.
Its use in war should be restricted to those nations whose territories it traverses and whose capital constructed it, for obvious reasons. Suppose, for illustration, that war breaks out between Russia and Great Britain at a time when the Russian squadron in the Atlantic is too weak to cope with the British squadron in those waters. The Russian squadron gains the canal, and knowing that the British squadron is in chase and will soon overtake them, the Russian squadron passes the canal into the Pacific ocean and leaves it disabled by blowing up a lock or dam or sinking a collier in the canal, as Hobson did at Santiago. The usefulness of the canal is destroyed, neutral commerce delayed, the owner of the canal is injured and affronted, and so likewise are the nations in whose territories this act of war has taken place. Other illustrations might be given in support of a rule excluding all contraband of war from the canal in time of war.
Great Britain has many fortified naval stations, the largest navy in the world, and holds strategic positions which constitute a more formidable menace to the neutrality of this canal than exist in any other quarter, which it is the interest of no other power on earth to perpetuate or preserve, and to support which no combination of the other powers can be formed. Therefore we should not hesitate to abrogate the Clayton-Bulwer treaty and reject the Hay-Pauncefote treaty and stand pat upon the justice of our course, prepared to deal energetically with any unpleasant consequences which may follow. No administration mindful of its chapter in history can afford to incur the weight of obloquy certain to accumulate as time advances as a consequence of the ratification of the Hay-Pauncefote treaty and the complications to result therefrom, unless that treaty be amended so as clearly to abrogate the Clayton-Bulwer contract.
The personal pride and ambition of a tyro in diplomacy, who has written acceptable humorous rhymes, are utterly insignificant compared with the consequences sure to result from the adoption of so deservedly unpopular and odious a treaty. The virile Americanism of the country will never approve it or cease to denounce it. Therefore abrogate the earlier treaty and reject the later—and then proceed to construct the canal if found practicable.
Dec. 13, 1900, IRVING H. PALMER.
[Mr. Palmer was a Cortland attorney, a Democrat, and a two-term mayor of the village of Cortland.]
The McGraw Postmastership.
The question of who is to be the next postmaster is the most important subject now being discussed, but the sentiment seems to be about unanimous in favor of the reappointment of Postmaster B. T. Burlingham. Those who were among his strongest opponents four years ago are now among his warm supporters.
He has been one of the most popular postmasters this place has ever had. Mr. Burlingham's opponents admit there is no fault to be found with him or the office, and if the business men and patrons of the office have a voice in the matter there certainly will be no change.—McGraw Cor., Syracuse Journal, Dec. 12.
Thermograph Out of Order.
The weather bureau thermograph from which The STANDARD takes its record of temperature each day stopped running at 5 o'clock this morning so that our temperature report to-day is necessarily incomplete. This did not, however, affect the maximum and minimum thermometers, which showed the lowest temperature during the twenty-four hours to be 4 degrees below zero.
CORTLAND CO. MEDICAL SOCIETY.
Semi-Annual Meeting in Supervisors' Rooms Thursday Afternoon.
The semi-annual meeting of the Cortland County Medical society convened at the supervisors' rooms in Cortland yesterday afternoon. The meeting, in absence of the president, Dr. Smith of Marathon, was called to order shortly after 2 o'clock by the vice-president, Dr. P. M. Neary. These members were present during the meeting; Drs. Dana, Didama, Neary and Reese of Cortland, Loope, Whitney and Green of Homer, Hendrick of McGraw, Emory of Virgil, also Dr. Dwight Murray of Syracuse and Dr. A. L. Powers of Blodgett Mills. Dr. Neary as vice-president gave the semi-annual address, his paper being entitled "The Doctor as a Business Man." The paper was an especially practical one and an interesting discussion followed.
Dr. Murray then gave a paper on "Chronic Constipation; Rational Treatment with Report of Cases." The paper was interesting and instructive and was discussed at some length by the members. On motion a vote of thanks was extended to Dr. Murray for his kindness in meeting with the society and for his very able paper.
Under the head of miscellaneous business the name of Dr. A. L. Powers of Blodgett Mills was presented for membership in the society. The matter was referred to the board of censors who retired and shortly afterward returned and reported favorably on the application. It was then moved and carried that Dr. Powers be accepted as a member of the society. The president pro tem appointed Drs. Whitney, Reese and Loope to present papers at the next meeting. No other business appearing the meeting then adjourned.
F. H. GREEN, Secretary.
BREVITIES.
—Ithaca thieves steal overcoats from the dummies in front of clothing stores.
—The ladies of the Moravia Congregational society netted about $200 by a rummage sale.
—The Sacred Literature club of the Baptist church will meet at the church this evening at 7 o'clock.
—An application has been granted for the organization of a National bank at Tully with a capital of $25,000.
—Eleven persons were killed and five seriously wounded and crippled for life by careless hunters in the Adirondacks during the season just closed.
—Mrs. D. Van Valen of Cortland, who has been visiting friends in town for some time past, returned home Wednesday afternoon.—Whitney Point Reporter.
—New display advertisements to-day are—Hudson, Gray & Co., Crockery, page 7; M. W. Giles, Special prices, page 7; Opera House, "Jack and the Beanstalk," page 5.
—The old fashioned spelling school at Normal hall this evening will be for the benefit of the intermediate library. An admission fee of 10 cents will be charged. The contest is open to all.
—The last day on which partridge can be legally killed or possessed this year is Saturday, Dec. 15. Sportsmen must finish up their grouse hunting this week. Last year the closed season was from Dec. 31.
—A petition for a free rural mail delivery from Cincinnatus via the Brakel [river community near Lower Cincinnatus—CC ed.] to Pharsalia, thence to McDonough and German, Five Corners, some 23 miles, is being generally signed along the route.
—The Congregational King's Daughters rummage sale on North Tioga-st. is starting off with a rush. People from various towns in the county attended the sale to-day and a large amount of clothing and underwear was disposed of, the receipts for the forenoon amounting to $75.—Ithaca Journal.
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