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Messages and Papers of William McKinley V.2. by William McKinley

W >> William McKinley >> Messages and Papers of William McKinley V.2.




General Pando was elected President of Bolivia on October 23.

Our representative has been instructed to use all permissible friendly
endeavors to induce the Government of Bolivia to amend its marriage laws
so as to give legal status to the non-Catholic and civil marriages of
aliens within its jurisdiction, and strong hopes are entertained that
the Bolivian law in this regard will be brought, as was that of Peru
some years ago, into harmony with the general practice of modern States.

A convention of extradition with Brazil, signed May 14, 1897, has been
ratified by the Brazilian Legislature.

During the past summer two national ships of the United States have
visited Brazilian ports on a friendly mission and been cordially
received. The voyage of the _Wilmington_ up the Amazon River gave
rise to a passing misunderstanding, owing to confusion in obtaining
permission to visit the interior and make surveys in the general
interest of navigation, but the incident found a ready adjustment in
harmony with the close relations of amity which this Government has
always sedulously sought to cultivate with the commonwealths of the
Western Continent.

The claim growing out of the seizure of the American-owned newspaper
"The Panama Star and Herald" by the authorities of Colombia has been
settled, after a controversy of several years, by an agreement assessing
at $30,000 the indemnity to be paid by the Colombian Government, in
three installments of $10,000 each.

The good will of Colombia toward our country has been testified anew by
the cordial extension of facilities to the Nicaraguan Canal Commission
in their approaching investigation of the Panama Canal and other
projected routes across the Isthmus of Darien.

Toward the end of October an insurrectionary disturbance developed in
the Colombian Republic. This movement has thus far not attained any
decisive result and is still in progress.

Discussion of the questions raised by the action of Denmark in imposing
restrictions on the importation of American meats has continued without
substantial result in our favor.

The neighboring island Republic of Santo Domingo has lately been the
scene of revolution, following a long period of tranquillity. It began
with the killing of President Heureaux in July last, and culminated in
the relinquishment by the succeeding Vice-President of the reins of
government to the insurgents. The first act of the provisional
government was the calling of a presidential and constituent election.
Juan Isidro Jimenez, having been elected President, was inaugurated on
the 14th of November. Relations have been entered into with the newly
established Government.

The experimental association of Nicaragua, Honduras, and Salvador, under
the title of the Greater Republic of Central America, when apparently on
the threshold of a complete federal organization by the adoption of a
constitution and the formation of a national legislature, was disrupted
in the last days of November, 1898, by the withdrawal of Salvador.
Thereupon Nicaragua and Honduras abandoned the joint compact, each
resuming its former independent sovereignty. This was followed by the
reception of Minister Merry by the Republics of Nicaragua and Salvador,
while Minister Hunter in turn presented his credentials to the
Government of Honduras, thus reverting to the old distribution of the
diplomatic agencies of the United States in Central America for which
our existing statutes provide. A Nicaraguan envoy has been accredited to
the United States.

An insurrectionary movement, under General Reyes, broke out at
Bluefields in February last, and for a time exercised actual control
in the Mosquito Territory. The _Detroit_ was promptly sent thither
for the protection of American interests. After a few weeks the Reyes
government renounced the conflict, giving place to the restored
supremacy of Nicaragua. During the interregnum certain public dues
accruing under Nicaraguan law were collected from American merchants by
the authorities for the time being in effective administrative control.
Upon the titular government regaining power, a second payment of these
dues was demanded. Controversy arose touching the validity of the
original payment of the debt to the _de facto_ regent of the
territory. An arrangement was effected in April last by the United
States minister and the foreign secretary of Nicaragua whereby the
amounts of the duplicate payments were deposited with the British consul
pending an adjustment of the matter by direct agreement between the
Governments of the United States and Nicaragua. The controversy is still
unsettled.

The contract of the Maritime Canal Company of Nicaragua was declared
forfeited by the Nicaraguan Government on the 10th of October, on the
ground of nonfulfillment within the ten years' term stipulated in the
contract. The Maritime Canal Company has lodged a protest against this
action, alleging rights in the premises which appear worthy of
consideration. This Government expects that Nicaragua will afford the
protestants a full and fair hearing upon the merits of the case.

The Nicaragua Canal Commission, which had been engaged upon the work of
examination and survey for a ship-canal route across Nicaragua, having
completed its labors and made its report, was dissolved on May 31, and
on June 10 a new commission, known as the Isthmian Canal Commission, was
organized under the terms of the act approved March 3, 1899, for the
purpose of examining the American Isthmus with a view to determining the
most practicable and feasible route for a ship canal across that
Isthmus, with its probable cost, and other essential details.

This Commission, under the presidency of Rear-Admiral John G. Walker,
U.S.N. (retired), entered promptly upon the work intrusted to it,
and is now carrying on examinations in Nicaragua along the route of
the Panama Canal, and in Darien from the Atlantic, in the neighborhood
of the Atrato River, to the Bay of Panama, on the Pacific side. Good
progress has been made, but under the law a comprehensive and complete
investigation is called for, which will require much labor and
considerable time for its accomplishment. The work will be prosecuted as
expeditiously as possible and a report made at the earliest practicable
date.

The great importance of this work cannot be too often or too strongly
pressed upon the attention of the Congress. In my message of a year ago
I expressed my views of the necessity of a canal which would link the
two great oceans, to which I again invite your consideration. The
reasons then presented for early action are even stronger now.

A pleasing incident in the relations of this Government with that
of Chile occurred in the generous assistance given to the war ship
_Newark_ when in distress in Chilean waters. Not alone in this way
has the friendly disposition of Chile found expression. That country has
acceded to the convention for the establishment of the Bureau of the
American Republics, in which organization every independent State of the
continent now shares.

The exchange of ratifications of a convention for the revival of the
United States and Chilean Claims Commission and for the adjudication of
claims heretofore presented but not determined during the life of the
previous Commission has been delayed by reason of the necessity for
fresh action by the Chilean Senate upon the amendments attached to the
ratification of the treaty by the United States Senate. This formality
is soon to be accomplished.

In view of disturbances in the populous provinces of northern China,
where are many of our citizens, and of the imminence of disorder near
the capital and toward the seaboard, a guard of marines was landed
from the _Boston_ and stationed during last winter in the legation
compound at Peking. With the restoration of order this protection was
withdrawn.

The interests of our citizens in that vast Empire have not been neglected
during the past year. Adequate protection has been secured for our
missionaries and some injuries to their property have been redressed.

American capital has sought and found various opportunities of competing
to carry out the internal improvements which the Imperial Government is
wisely encouraging, and to develop the natural resources of the Empire.
Our trade with China has continued to grow, and our commercial rights
under existing treaties have been everywhere maintained during the past
year, as they will be in the future.

The extension of the area open to international foreign settlement at
Shanghai and the opening of the ports of Nanking, Tsing-tao (Kiao chao),
and Ta-lien-wan to foreign trade and settlement will doubtless afford
American enterprise additional facilities and new fields, of which it
will not be slow to take advantage.

In my message to Congress of December 5, 1898, I urged that the
recommendation which had been made to the Speaker of the House of
Representatives by the Secretary of the Treasury on the 14th of June,
1898, for an appropriation for a commission to study the commercial
and industrial conditions in the Chinese Empire and report as to the
opportunities for, and obstacles to, the enlargement of markets in China
for the raw products and manufactures of the United States, should
receive at your hands the consideration which its importance and
timeliness merited, but the Congress failed to take action.

I now renew this recommendation, as the importance of the subject has
steadily grown since it was first submitted to you, and no time should
be lost in studying for ourselves the resources of this great field for
American trade and enterprise.

The death of President Faure in February last called forth those sincere
expressions of sympathy which befit the relations of two Republics as
closely allied by unbroken historic ties as are the United States and
France.

Preparations for the representation of the industries, arts, and
products of the United States at the World's Exposition to be held in
Paris next year continue on an elaborate and comprehensive scale, thanks
to the generous appropriation provided by Congress and to the friendly
interest the French Government has shown in furthering a typical exhibit
of American progress.

There has been allotted to the United States a considerable addition
of space, which, while placing our country in the first rank among
exhibitors, does not suffice to meet the increasingly urgent demands
of our manufacturers. The efforts of the Commissioner-General are ably
directed toward a strictly representative display of all that most
characteristically marks American achievement in the inventive arts,
and most adequately shows the excellence of our natural productions.

In this age of keen rivalry among nations for mastery in commerce, the
doctrine of evolution and the rule of the survival of the fittest must
be as inexorable in their operation as they are positive in the results
they bring about. The place won in the struggle by an industrial people
can only be held by unrelaxed endeavor and constant advance in
achievement. The present extraordinary impetus in every line of American
exportation and the astounding increase in the volume and value of our
share in the world's markets may not be attributed to accidental
conditions.

The reasons are not far to seek. They lie deep in our national character
and find expression year by year in every branch of handicraft, in every
new device whereby the materials we so abundantly produce are subdued to
the artisan's will and made to yield the largest, most practical, and
most beneficial return. The American exhibit at Paris should, and I am
confident will, be an open volume, whose lessons of skillfully directed
endeavor, unfaltering energy, and consummate performance may be read by
all on every page, thus spreading abroad a clearer knowledge of the
worth of our productions and the justice of our claim to an important
place in the marts of the world. To accomplish this by judicious
selection, by recognition of paramount merit in whatever walk of trade
or manufacture it may appear, and by orderly classification and
attractive installation is the task of our Commission.

The United States Government building is approaching completion, and no
effort will be spared to make it worthy, in beauty of architectural plan
and in completeness of display, to represent our nation. It has been
suggested that a permanent building of similar or appropriate design be
erected on a convenient site, already given by the municipality, near
the exposition grounds, to serve in commemoration of the part taken by
this country in this great enterprise, as an American National
Institute, for our countrymen resorting to Paris for study.

I am informed by our Commissioner-General that we shall have in the
American sections at Paris over 7,000 exhibitors, from every State in
our country, a number ten times as great as those which were represented
at Vienna in 1873, six times as many as those in Paris in 1878, and four
times as many as those who exhibited in Paris in 1889. This statement
does not include the exhibits from either Cuba, Puerto Rico, or Hawaii,
for which arrangements have been made.

A number of important international congresses on special topics
affecting public interests are proposed to be held in Paris next summer
in connection with the exposition. Effort will be made to have the
several technical branches of our administration efficiently represented
at those conferences, each in its special line, and to procure the
largest possible concourse of State representatives, particularly at the
Congresses of Public Charity and Medicine.

Our relations with Germany continue to be most cordial. The increasing
intimacy of direct association has been marked during the year by the
granting permission in April for the landing on our shores of a cable
from Borkum Eniden, on the North Sea, by way of the Azores, and also
by the conclusion on September 2 of a Parcels Post Convention with the
German Empire. In all that promises closer relations of intercourse and
commerce and a better understanding between two races having so many
traits in common, Germany can be assured of the most cordial cooperation
of this Government and people. We may be rivals in many material paths,
but our rivalry should be generous and open, ever aiming toward the
attainment of larger results and the mutually beneficial advancement of
each in the line of its especial adaptabilities.

The several governments of the Empire seem reluctant to admit the
natural excellence of our food productions and to accept the evidence
we constantly tender of the care with which their purity is guarded
by rigid inspection from the farm, through the slaughterhouse and the
packing establishments, to the port of shipment. Our system of control
over exported food staples invites examination from any quarter and
challenges respect by its efficient thoroughness.

It is to be hoped that in time the two Governments will act in common
accord toward the realization of their common purpose to safeguard the
public health and to insure the purity and wholesomeness of all food
products imported by either country from the other. Were the Congress
to authorize an invitation to Germany, in connection with the pending
reciprocity negotiations, for the constitution of a joint commission of
scientific experts and practical men of affairs to conduct a searching
investigation of food production and exportation in both countries and
report to their respective legislatures for the adoption of such
remedial measures as they might recommend for either, the way might be
opened for the desirable result indicated.

Efforts to obtain for American life insurance companies a full hearing
as to their business operations in Prussia have, after several years of
patient representation, happily succeeded, and one of the most important
American companies has been granted a concession to continue business in
that Kingdom.

I am also glad to announce that the German insurance companies have been
readmitted by the superintendent of insurance to do business in the
State of New York.

Subsequent to the exchange of our peace treaty with Spain, Germany
acquired the Caroline Islands by purchase, paying therefor $5,000,000.
Assurances have been received from the German Government that the rights
of American missionaries and traders there will be considerately
observed.

In my last annual message I referred to the pending negotiations with
Great Britain in respect to the Dominion of Canada. By means of an
executive agreement, a Joint High Commission had been created for the
purpose of adjusting all unsettled questions between the United States
and Canada, embracing twelve subjects, among which were the questions of
the fur seals, the fisheries of the coast and contiguous inland waters,
the Alaskan boundary, the transit of merchandise in bond, the alien
labor laws, mining rights, reciprocity in trade, revision of the
agreement respecting naval vessels in the Great Lakes, a more complete
marking of parts of the boundary, provision for the conveyance of
criminals, and for wrecking and salvage.

Much progress had been made by the Commission toward the adjustment of
many of these questions, when it became apparent that an irreconcilable
difference of views was entertained respecting the delimitation of the
Alaskan boundary. In the failure of an agreement as to the meaning of
Articles III and IV of the treaty of 1825 between Russia and Great
Britain, which defined the boundary between Alaska and Canada, the
American Commissioners proposed that the subject of the boundary be
laid aside, and that the remaining questions of difference be proceeded
with, some of which were so far advanced as to assure the probability
of a settlement. This being declined by the British Commissioners, an
adjournment was taken until the boundary should be adjusted by the two
Governments. The subject has been receiving the careful attention which
its importance demands, with the result that a _modus vivendi_ for
provisional demarcations in the region about the head of Lynn Canal has
been agreed upon; and it is hoped that the negotiations now in progress
between the two Governments will end in an agreement for the
establishment and delimitation of a permanent boundary.

Apart from these questions growing out of our relationship with our
northern neighbor, the most friendly disposition and ready agreement
have marked the discussion of numerous matters arising in the vast and
intimate intercourse of the United States with Great Britain.

This Government has maintained an attitude of neutrality in the
unfortunate contest between Great Britain and the Boer States of
Africa. We have remained faithful to the precept of avoiding entangling
alliances as to affairs not of our direct concern. Had circumstances
suggested that the parties to the quarrel would have welcomed any kindly
expression of the hope of the American people that war might be averted,
good offices would have been gladly tendered. The United States
representative at Pretoria was early instructed to see that all neutral
American interests be respected by the combatants. This has been an easy
task in view of the positive declarations of both British and Boer
authorities that the personal and property rights of our citizens should
be observed.

Upon the withdrawal of the British agent from Pretoria the United States
consul was authorized, upon the request of the British Government and
with the assent of the South African and Orange Free State Governments,
to exercise the customary good offices of a neutral for the care of
British interests. In the discharge of this function, I am happy to say
that abundant opportunity has been afforded to show the impartiality of
this Government toward both the combatants.

For the fourth time in the present decade, question has arisen with
the Government of Italy in regard to the lynching of Italian subjects.
The latest of these deplorable events occurred at Tallulah, Louisiana,
whereby five unfortunates of Italian origin were taken from jail and
hanged.

The authorities of the State and a representative of the Italian Embassy
having separately investigated the occurrence, with discrepant results,
particularly as to the alleged citizenship of the victims, and it not
appearing that the State had been able to discover and punish the
violators of the law, an independent investigation has been set on foot,
through the agency of the Department of State, and is still in progress.
The result will enable the Executive to treat the question with the
Government of Italy in a spirit of fairness and justice. A satisfactory
solution will doubtless be reached.

The recurrence of these distressing manifestations of blind mob fury
directed at dependents or natives of a foreign country suggests that
the contingency has arisen for action by Congress in the direction
of conferring upon the Federal courts jurisdiction in this class of
international cases where the ultimate responsibility of the Federal
Government may be involved. The suggestion is not new. In his annual
message of December 9, 1891, my predecessor, President Harrison, said:

It would, I believe, be entirely competent for Congress to make offenses
against the treaty rights of foreigners domiciled in the United States
cognizable in the Federal courts. This has not, however, been done, and
the Federal officers and courts have no power in such cases to intervene
either for the protection of a foreign citizen or for the punishment of
his slayers. It seems to me to follow, in this state of the law, that
the officers of the State charged with police and judicial powers in
such cases must, in the consideration of international questions growing
out of such incidents, be regarded in such sense as Federal agents as to
make this Government answerable for their acts in cases where it would
be answerable if the United States had used its constitutional power to
define and punish crimes against treaty rights.


A bill to provide for the punishment of violations of treaty rights
of aliens was introduced in the Senate March 1, 1892, and reported
favorably March 30. Having doubtless in view the language of that part
of Article III of the treaty of February 26, 1871, between the United
States and Italy, which stipulates that "The citizens of each of the
high contracting parties shall receive, in the States and Territories of
the other, most constant protection and security for their persons and
property, and shall enjoy in this respect the same rights and privileges
as are or shall be granted to the natives, on their submitting
themselves to the conditions imposed upon the natives," the bill so
introduced and reported provided that any act committed in any State or
Territory of the United States in violation of the rights of a citizen
or subject of a foreign country secured to such citizen or subject
by treaty between the United States and such foreign country and
constituting a crime under the laws of the State or Territory shall
constitute a like crime against the United States and be cognizable in
the Federal courts. No action was taken by Congress in the matter.

I earnestly recommend that the subject be taken up anew and acted
upon during the present session. The necessity for some such provision
abundantly appears. Precedent for constituting a Federal jurisdiction in
criminal cases where aliens are sufferers is rationally deducible from
the existing statute, which gives to the district and circuit courts of
the United States jurisdiction of civil suits brought by aliens where
the amount involved exceeds a certain sum. If such jealous solicitude be
shown for alien rights in cases of merely civil and pecuniary import,
how much greater should be the public duty to take cognizance of matters
affecting the lives and the rights of aliens under the settled
principles of international law no less than under treaty stipulation,
in cases of such transcendent wrongdoing as mob murder, especially when
experience has shown that local justice is too often helpless to punish
the offenders.

After many years of endeavor on the part of this Government to that end
the Italian Government has consented to enter into negotiations for a
naturalization convention, having for one of its objects the regulation
of the status of Italians (except those of an age for active military
service) who, having been naturalized in the United States, may revisit
Italy. It is hoped that with the mutually conciliatory spirit displayed
a successful conclusion will be reached.

The treaty of commerce and navigation between the United States and
Japan on November 22, 1894, took effect in accordance with the terms
of its XIXth Article on the 17th of July last, simultaneously with the
enforcement of like treaties with the other powers, except France, whose
convention did not go into operation until August 4, the United States
being, however, granted up to that date all the privileges and rights
accorded to French citizens under the old French treaty. By this notable
conventional reform Japan's position as a fully independent sovereign
power is assured, control being gained of taxation, customs revenues,
judicial administration, coasting trade, and all other domestic
functions of government, and foreign extra-territorial rights being
renounced.

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We do not know the women's names, but their voices are quite distinct. All are pregnant. But while the first woman awaits the birth of her baby with a moon-like serenity, the other two are not so lucky. One, whose previous pregnancies have failed to go to term, is experiencing a heartbreaking late miscarriage; the other is a young student whose accidental pregnancy will end in her child being put up for adoption.

Sylvia Plath's only play was never intended for the stage, being broadcast instead on BBC radio in August 1962. Less than six months later, Plath killed herself, but not before the burst of astonishing creative energy that produced her extraordinary, terrifying Ariel poems.

Anyone who knows Plath's poetry will see the connection between Three Women and Plath's subsequent poems, particularly in the way she talks about the agony of childbirth, the rush of love for this tiny alien being, and both the wonder and wounded rawness of motherhood. It is a beautiful piece, full of startling imagery that draws you in through the sheer intensity of its femaleness, and because it so precisely articulates the emotions that are often thought but seldom voiced by women - certainly not in the early 1960s - about men, motherhood and our relationship to our bodies.

It's been 20 years since there has been an attempt at a professional stage version and - in a theatre world that happily accepts the poetic offerings of Sarah Kane and Debbie Tucker Green, or the staged possibilities of The Waves, one of Plath's own inspirations for the piece, I see no reason why it shouldn't be brought to life. Sadly, it doesn't breathe here, in a production by Robert Shaw that is clearly a labour of love, but which never finds a way to give the internal a physical reality. Plath's poetry, like most babies, is more robust than it appears - and won't break if treated with a little less reverence and considerably more grit.

Instead, what we are offered is tinkling piano music, mournful mood lighting, an innocuous pale setting, as well as three perfectly good but indisputably ladylike performances that capture none of the wounded redness of Plath's poetry, and do her the disservice of making her sound bleached and somewhat prissy. It's a pity. What might have been a wonder ends up a mere curiosity.

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