Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1882-03-23
The French on the I.thmus.
Washington Cor. New York world

The French on the Isthmus.
Washington Cor. New York World
For some time hints have been cir
culated In Washington that the French
legation in Colombia has greatly plumed
itself over the discontinue of American
diplomacy in BogOta. The French
representatives there certainly compre-
bend the situation, and have both the
ability and the necessary instructions"
to profit by it. If they did not have.
the canal interests of France and Eng
land are to-day SO Identical, in fact if
not in name, that Earl Granville would
doubtless take early occasion to rectify
any short comings in this respect.
Certainly, the game is being adroitly
played to the end. Already Colon
bians are adopting French social and
commercial habits, and learning to look
up to France as the head of the great
Latin race. Frenchmen in very few
months have acquired so much infiu-
ence on the isthmus that they will soon
control it, if they do not already. We
are told that they even go out of their
way to jeer at the United States and
the Monroe doctrine" But-and mark
this-British, not French, men-of war
are lowering around the isthmus as
they never did before-as thew never
would have done under a democratic
administration. British en-of-war
are lowering about. and others are ex-
pected on the Panama line, but as vet
no French waT vessels appear.
The affair of the new French COLONY
now not only planted on this continent
but on the most important part of it.
and IN possession of the only transit
route, is very serious and embarrassing
Gross and scandalOus negligence during
the past five months on the parC of an
American administration is bearing
unwholesome fruit, and the people of
the United States will soon see with
anger and regret that the unwritten
law, the policy, and the honored ira
ditions of the country have been dan
gerOusly tempered with. Men ask
themselves is the Republican party ju-
dicially blind, or is all this permitted
for a sinister purposep And what is
the purpose? Is it to provide excuses
for wasting money on ''navy rings" or
is it to open the treasury vaults and
permit "Nicaraguan ring" to squan-
der millions of dollars on a ship-canalp
Unhappily, rumOrs connect men very
near to the administration with the
Nicaragua SANTANA scheme. Where
among the prerOgatives of this govern
ment is discovered its authority to en-
bark in canal building or owning di-
rectly or indirectly on a foreign soil
Of what practical use is this particular
connection in SANTANA? 1t is in the
region of the steady trade winds, many
hundreds of miles dead to windward
of the important points, the isthmus,
at which point coal can always be pro-
cured to steam to SANTANA or any other
West Indian port, and from the last to
go to the lSthmuS a vessel has but to
spread her canvas and keep before the
wind. If the political party in power
to day has brought shame on itself and
modification to the people by permit
ting affairs to reach point they never
would have attained under statesmen,
and where it now seems almost ncces-
sary to abandon forever the Monroe
doctrine and the pretentions so dear to
Americans, or else expect to submit
them in the not distant future to the
fate of arms, it is not yet too late for
the Democrats in congress to compel
change of course.
Even as this is written the news is
confirmed here that Costa RIGA is about
to transfer to an English company her
railroad and the vacant la Ids, and the
diverse consequences of the inexplicable
except on Nicaragua-Samana ground)
folly of our government are daily more
Had it done its simple duty
only, it would long ere this, by one
means or another, have secured posi- |
tions which would dominate at the least |
possible expense not one hut all tran
sits, and would then have quietly and
decorously, but firmly, notified France,
England and Colombia of what had
been done mot what it was going to
talk about doing). and that it was pre-
pared to and would fulfill its existing
treaty stipulatiOAS with the last cOun-
try to the very letter. The moral effect
Of the dignified ana manly course thus
adopted in time would net have been
ost either on the isthmus or with the
secret diplomatic influence now work
ing in Chilli against us.