The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1901-12-13
Senate Committee on lSthmian
Canal Endorses Senator Nor
CANS Bill Which Provides For
Nicaragua Route
PANAMA C0MPANY'S
STRANGE BEHAVIOR
It Is Claimed That French Con-
Germ in Order to Unload Its
Property Went to Unwarranta-
BILE Extremes in Hope of lnfIu-
enCing Legislation

SibOhiS -S6'Ss~NN~''
Washington, Dec. 1.-THE Senate
committee on the isthmian canal today
authorized a favorable report on SEN
ator Morgans bill providing for the
acquisition from Nicaragua and Costa
Rica of the right Of way via the Mica
ragua route. Senator Morgan later
presented this report to the Senate.
Action upon the bill providing for the
construction of the canal was deferred.
Senator Morgan's report covers more
,than 500 pages of printed matter and
deals with many Of the questions con-
nected with the construction of the
canal, including a thorough inquiry
into the attitude of Great Britain on
the subject and the different canal
routes. He also discusses the relation
ship Of the Panama Canal Company to
the construction by the United States
Of a waterway across the isthmus He
makes reference to a letter written by
President Hutin of the Panama Canal
Company to Secretary of State Hay.
He says:
THE letter to Mr.. Hay, with the
appendices thereto, and the memoranda
that accompanies it, is an attack on
the president of the commission, re-
plete with false assumptions and per
versions of fact, and is evidently in
tended to create a side issue.
This proceeding, and the placing of
the correspondence in the hands of
the President of the United States by
NJ. Hutin with a request that it be com
municated to Congress, is but con-
tinuation of the presumptuous and Of
fensive proposition previously made by
"a
1.-THE desperate financial straits of
the new Panama Canal Company COM
PEELED them to make overtures to the
United States to unload their enter
prise on the United States and their
agents became accordingly aggressive.
The report then proceeds to quote a
number of communications from M
Hutin and his attorneys to officers of
this government in 1899 and 1900, which
have heretofore been printed. After
quoting a letter from Sullivan ano
Cromwell, attorneys for the Penama
Canal Company, directed, TO the Pres
ident and dated April 30, 1900, in which
they ask the President to advise Con-
gress CT the attitude of the Penama
Company, the report says:
THE manifest purpose of this COM
pany to interfere with legislation. by
asking the President to inform Con-
BIeSS Oh a Stdle VI ldClS, DIS tlISStu, VI
which Congress is presumably without
knowledge, is an insult to the intelli-
gence of Congress. 1t is an insolent
invitation to the President to control
the action of Congress so that they
shall not act upon bills reported by
committees in both houses"
Senator Morgan again refers to the
letter tc Secretary Hay of last Novem-
Der, saying that M. Hutin previously
had made an unmistakable proposal
to sell the Panama property to the
United States, and adding:
yet Mr.. Hutin in his correspondence
with Admiral Walker and in his letter
and the accompanying memorandum,
sent to Mr.. Hay first assumes and then
states and argues and finally insists
that the United States offered to pur-
chase their property and that when
the company agreed to sell it the 18th
milan Canal Commission refused to en-
ter into a scheme of arbitration to as
certain the value of it. He imputes
bad faith to the commission and Sc
verely criticises their dealings with the
canal company"
Proceeding, the report says that Ad-
miral Walker did nothing more than
ask legitimate questions of NJ. Hutin
and that there was in them no intima-
ton of a proposition to purchase. In
this connection Admiral Walkers let
ter of Oct % last to NJ. Hutin is pub
lished, and of this Senator Morgan
says that lit utterly breaks down the
pretention of NJ. Hutin that the United
States, through Admiral Walker, was
engaged in the effort to purchase the
property of the Panama canal"
He adds that this letter dispels every
possible criticism of Admiral Walker
and of the commission of which he is
president. This letter the report ac-
cuses NJ. Hutin of failing to send to
the President. The conclusion with
reference to this point of the contro-
versy is set forth in the following Ian
guage:
THE motive for this unseemly and
unprecedented misconduct must be,
either that this canal company is des-
perate in its purpose to unload its
property upon the United States be-
cause the French stockholders have
lost faith in its success. or that It is
endeavoring to prevent the competi-
ton of any canal with its Panama
railroad. the shares of which they
value at $780, the face value being 500
per share, on account of its enormous
earnings"
The Introductory pages of the report
contain a general review of the i'm
portance of the construction of an
isthmian canal. and in the second
paragraph of the report it is declared
that the failure to accomplish this
work would create a feeling of ma
tionaI despair"
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