Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1900-02-18

be used in this way, discriminating In
favor of our merchants and our ship
builders, and our labor tif such should
your committee are anxious to secure.
There are persons who say that We
are bound by treaty stipulating with
the government of Great Britain to re-
frain from carrying out this great en-
terprise.
This Statement We DO Not Believe.
We recognize the fact that fifty years
ago the United States and Great Brit
ain entered into an alliance to secure
the building of the Nicaragua canal.
Any person who dispassionately stud
les carefully that treaty must come TO
ohe conclusion that the primary stip-
ulatiuns in the Clayton-Bulwer conven-
ton looked to the immediate build
Ing OF a canal under the influences
that might be e1erted by the two gov
ernments, rather than to a prohibition
OF either TO build Il"
After quoting the treaty, the report
goes on:
No one can read that article with
out concluding that the Nicaragua
canal contemplated was an undertake
ing early to be completed through the
kindly ard OF the two governments.
Great Britain has allowed fifty years
to elapse without any movement on
her part TO carry out The provisions Of
that article. 1t has been a dead letter
from the day the treaty was signed to
the present moment. And the provis-
no - Hal -
necessarily in connection with the
seventh that neither government shall
have exclusive control over said ship
canal, being the ship canal that was
provided for in the seventh article and
which the two nations were to use
their friendly offices in Immediately Sc
curing. But suppose this is not true and
that we are bound as was Great Brit
ain bound not to secure the Nicaragua
canal. This Nicaragua canal can
properly be described in other words
by calling it the short route to the
east" and then properly paraphrasing
the sentence Great Britain and the
United States bound themselves not to
secure as against the other the short
route to the east" In 1850 the Mic
lOQkC Wd6 LILO OulJ
"short Route to the East,
that any man had in his thoughts and the
spirit OF the agreement was that Great
Britain would not secure the short route
to the east without the consent and CO.
operation of the United States. But IN
violation OF the spirit of tho contract Great
Britain has, through her control over the
Suez canal, secured for herself a short
route to the east, one is tina: CIR her ter
ritory as completely for all practical pur-
poses as though 1t was on the soil Of IRE
land; one that is completely under the
control of her guns at Gibraltar and tho
islands In the Mediterranean and the Red
sea. and yet we are blandly told that not
vdthsta2ding the failure on her part to
observe the letter OF the seventh article
and the spirit OF the first article that We
are baInd by treaty OF alliance entered
into fifty years ago.
The last nifty years has brought re-
markable change In our relations to a
waterway crossing the Isthmus.
In 1850 not more thsn 1000 inhabitants
were on the Pacific coast. Our coastwise
trade with that coast was insignificant IN
value or amount Now we have millions
OF citizens living on that coast. We have
hundreds OF millions OF commerce. We
have thousands of millions of wealth. We
have acquired Alaska. Hawaii, the Phil
fppins Islands. There is no comparison
between the meagre interests OF nifty years
ago and the colossal interests OF to-day.
The situation has so changed; the interests
OF our people now and then are so diverse ;
the necessity Of responding TO these chang
ed conditions
Are SO overwhelming
that tho most censorIous OF those who lead
In the formation OF the worlds Judgment
would say that our present action must be
in harmony with these new conditions
rather than the old. There Is law Of self-
preservation that should control the action
OF communities, no less than of indi-
viduals.
Irrspeaiable statutes are not tolerated.
Even the most solemHly enacted constitu-
tons must give way to the demands VI the
later generations when It is found that
their provis.ons are harmful to the public
welfare And we know OF no other form
of enactment having sancttty above law
and constitution that the overwhelming
needs of the people may not with conss-
tsncy and morality demand the repeal OF.