people who permit themselves to treat the people of other countries with discourtesy and insult are surely sowing the wind to reap the whirlwind, for a world of sullen and revengeful hatred can never be a world of peace. Against such a feeling treaties are waste paper and diplomacy the empty routine of idle form. The great question which overshadowed all discussion of the treaty of 1894 was the question: Are the people of the United States about to break friendship with the people of Japan? That question, I believe, has been happily answered in the negative.

THE CONVENTION OF 1907 BETWEEN THE UNITED STATES

AND THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC

On February 15, 1905, the president of the United States transmitted to the senate, with an accompanying message, the protocol of an agreement, signed eleven days earlier, between the United States and the Dominican Republic, providing for the collection and disbursement by the United States of the customs revenues of the Dominican Republic. On February 25, 1907, a little more than two years later, the senate ratified an independent convention between the United States and the Dominican Republic, signed at Santo Domingo City by the plenipotentiaries on the 8th inst. preceding, providing for the assistance of the United States in the collection and application of the customs revenues of the Dominican Republic. At this time of writing the new convention awaits only the approval of the Dominican congress to become operative.

Distinct in authorship and notably different in content, this second instrument nevertheless represents a rational solution of the difficulties -as modified by the progress of two years-which occasioned the first agreement. This will appear from a brief review of the conditions obtaining in the Dominican Republic two years ago and of the provisions of the original protocol, considered in the light of the working of the interim arrangement and of the important features of the new convention.

The recent history of San Domingo may be conveniently dated from the energetic movement to effect its annexation to the United States, in 1869-1870. The amazing political experiences of the republic in the thirty-five years which succeeded the annexation movement can only be described as a miserable sequence of revolution and anarchy, interrupted by ruthless and blood-stained dictatorships. From 1871 to 1882, Cabral, Baez, Gonzales and Luperon alternated in control, their struggles being marked by uprising, ravage and bloodshed, and terminating invariably in social demoralization and economic ruin. It was during this decade that the most vicious rules of the game of revolution

as it is played in San Domingo won acceptance. In 1882, Ulises Heureaux came to the fore in Dominican politics, and the next seventeen years form the story of his uncontrolled dominance. For a time his creatures were installed in the presidency to preserve a semblance of constitutional form, but throughout he was absolute dictator. Heureaux's rule was not even a benevolent despotism. Brutal cruelty, insatiable greed, moral degeneracy, were the man's personal characteristics, and they shaped his political conduct and his administrative activity. If San Domingo was at peace during Heureaux's time, it was the peace of a merciless terrorism, not the quiet of civil government.

A seeming well-being prevailed, but it was attained by bartering the resources of the country in prodigal concessions, and by discounting the future in reckless debt accumulation. With Heureaux's assassination in 1899 came the deluge and the next five years constitute a climax even in the history of Latin-American politics. Figuereo, Vasquez, Jimenez, Vasquez again, Wossy Gil, and Morales successively occupied the presidential chair, each attaining it by much the same means and holding it by as uncertain tenure. The ordinary crimes of the political decalogue became commonplace. The country was laid waste, the people crushed to hopelessness, the treasury left to stew in utter bankruptcy, and a host of creditors, foreign and domestic, after tightening their hold upon the future became more and more insistent in the present. In January-February, 1905, in face of the imminent likelihood of domestic convulsion and foreign intervention, the protocol of an agreement was concluded between the Dominican Republic and the United States, and this was made effective by a decree of the Dominican executive of March 31, 1905.

The protocol recited in preamble form that the Dominican government was menaced by intervention on the part of nations whose citizens held claims which it was unable to satisfy, and that the republic both desired to reach an agreement with its creditors and to assure for itself the regular receipt of revenues for internal administration, without interruption either by foreign creditors or by political disturbances; moreover that the United States, in compliance with the request of the Dominican government, was disposed to lend its assistance toward effecting a satisfactory settlement with all the creditors.

The agreement then set forth that

the United States government agrees to attempt the adjustment of all the obligations of the Dominican government, foreign as well as domestic; the adjustment of the payment and of the conditions of amortization, the consideration of conflicting and unreasonable claims, and the determination of the validity and amount of all pending claims. If, in order to reach such adjustment, it shall be considered necessary to name one or more commissions, the Dominican government shall be represented on said commissions.

In pursuance thereof, the United States agreed to assume control of the Dominican customs houses, to name the employees necessary to their management and to collect and take charge of all customs house receipts. Of the revenues so collected, the United States undertook to deliver to the Dominican Republic, in weekly installments, not less than 45 per cent for the support of the government, and to apply the other 55 per cent, after the payment of the employees of all the customs houses, toward the interest and amortization of the Dominican debt, foreign and domestic, accordingly as it should be fixed and liquidated.

The whole surplus remaining at the end of each fiscal year was either to be delivered to the Dominican Republic or to be devoted to the payment of its debts, as the republic should determine. No reduction was to be made by the republic in its existing tariff except in agreement with the president of the United States as long as the whole of the debt "of which the government of the United States takes charge" should not have been completely paid. Provision was also made that

the government of the United States at the request of the Dominican Republic shall grant the latter such other assistance as the former may deem proper to restore the credit, preserve the order, increase the efficiency of the civil administration and advance the material progress and welfare of the Dominican Republic.

The agreement was to take effect after its approval by the United States senate and the congress of the Dominican Republic, and was to continue in force during the time required for the amortization of the debt.

It will thus appear that the United States engaged, by this instrument, to do three things: (1) to adjust the Dominican debt, foreign and domestic, and to determine the validity and amount of all pending claims; (2) to administer the Dominican customs houses and to deliver

45 per cent of the receipts to the Dominican government, applying the net remainder to the interest upon and the amortization of the debts and claims so adjusted; and (3) to afford the Dominican Republic such further assistance as it might require to preserve orderly and efficient government.

The agreement was considered at length by the committee on foreign relations of the United States senate, and was reported favorably in amended form. Much opposition, however, developed against the measure, and the senate adjourned on March 18, 1905, without final action thereon.

In this juncture, in view of the certainty of domestic irruption and the likelihood of foreign intervention in San Domingo, the United States acceded to the proposal of the Dominican Republic for an interim arrangement. This arrangement provided for the collection of customs revenues by a person nominated by the president of the United States and commissioned by the Dominican government, and for the segregation of 55 per cent of the proceeds in a depositary designated by the president of the United States to be ultimately applied to the discharge of the debt. On April 1, 1905, this temporary arrangement went into effect and has since remained in actual operation.

The working of the interim arrangement was attended with complete success. From April 1, 1905, the Dominican Republic enjoyed a civil calm and an economic well-being such as it had not known for two generations. Insurrections ceased and uprisings became obsolete, simply because customs receipts were no longer available as loot. The small peasant proprietor, or squatter farmer, was allowed to gather his crop and to retain what he had realized from the sale of the surplus. Public officials received their salaries regularly, and current accounts were discharged promptly. Interior trade revived, and New York steamers brought increasing shipments into the country. Smuggling was eliminated as a demoralizing element in the commerce of the country; local merchants were protected against the fraudulent preferment of their rivals at the customs houses, and importers were encouraged to contract larger credit accounts. A new spirit spread abroad, halting only at the uncertainty of the future, to take shape in splendid prosperity.

This change was reflected in an astonishing growth of the customs receipts of the republic for 1906 as compared with those of preceding