Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1900-03-05
AMER1cAN1sM VS.. ANGLoMANIA.

The Washington Post is an admins
tration paper, but it cannot stand the
attitude of the administration in the
Hay-Pauncefote Nicaragua Canal
treaty. This waterway the admins
tration practically proposed to turn
over to England. 1t contrasts the ut
terances of James G. Blaine on the
control of an interoceanic canal with
the Anglomaniacal utterances of Sec
rotary Hay. Our Washington contem-
porary points out that in the very in
ception of the Panama canal project,
Mr.. Blaine, then Secretary OF State,
took occasion to communicate to our
minister to Great Britain some vigor-
GUS ideas, and, in order that there
might be no misunderstanding on the
part of the other powers, he sent
COPY of his communication to every
American minister in Europe. In this
dispatch Secretary Blaine said that
the great powers of Europe might
possibly be considering, in connection
with the proposed Panama canal, the
subject of jointly guaranteeing the
neutrality of that waterway. He served
notice on the world that such joint
action was entirely unnecessary, call
ing attention to the fact that in the
treaty between the United States and
New Granada, now Colombia, this
country guaranteed positively and eff
ficaciously" the perfect neutrality of
the, isthmus and of any interoceanic
communications that might be con-
structed upon or over it. This Ameri-
can guarantee was, in the opinion of
Secretary Blaine, neither to be inter-
fered with or supplemented by any
other nation. Here is his emphatic
declarations;
IN the judgment of the President, this
guarantee, given by the United States of
America, does not require reinforcement,
or accession, or assent from any other
power"
Not only this, but Secretary Blaine
Instructed Minister Lowell, in case the
foreshadowed action of the European
powers should assume tangible shape,
to bring the provisions of the treaty
to the attention of Lord Granville and
ito intimate to him that any move
ment in the sense of supplementing
the guarantee contained therein would
necessarily be regarded by this gov
eminent as an uncalled-for intrusion
into a field where the local and gen.
eral interests of the United States of
America must be considered before
those of any other power"
THAT was good, American doctrine"
says our Independent Washington con-
temporary. Its utterance would have
been in itself a cause for congratula-
ton, even if Mr.. Blaine had laid down
his pen without another word. So
saturated was Mr.. Blaine with Ameri-
He did not, he said, object to the con-
struction of the Panama canal with
foreign money, but he wanted it dis
tinctly understood that, no matter by
whom built or by whom owned, the
United States would take possession of
the waterway in time of war. Prop
erly regarding the canal as an extern
sion of the coast line of the United
States, he penned these memorable
words:
During any war to which the United
States of America or the United States of
Colombia might be a party, the passage of
armed vessels of a hostile nation through
the canal of Panama would be no more adj
m.ssible than would the passage of the
armed forces of a hostile nation over the
railway lines joining the Atlantic and Pa
cific shores of the United States or of CO.
lombia And the United States of America
will insist upon her right to take all need
full precautions against the possibility of
the isthmus transit being in any event used
extensively against her interests upon the
land or upon the sea-
1t is refreshing to read these virile,
splendid American sentiments from a
true American after the miserable sur
render to England Of American rights