The daily morning journal and courier., 1901-01-26

italists who were entering into tht
 scheme would carry it out, but nothing
 was done and time ran on until the
 Suez Canal was completed in 1869 an6
 the substantial and really actual con-
 trol of 1t passed into the hands o1
 Great Britain in 1875. She had, as dip-
 lomatic correspondence shows, en-
 deavored to prevent the construction of the Suez Canal until stipulations
 should be made securing its neutrality
 for her benefit, and then, it having
 been built, she immediately became its
 chief owner by obtaining from the Khe-
 dive of Egypt transfer of almost a
 majority Of the stock.
 The Unittd States ought not to com
 plain of this action on the part of Great
 Britain in respect to the Suez Canal,
 for her interests in the East are so enormous and so much more extensive
 than those of any other nation that it is indispensable to her military sense that she should control that passage.
 In view of the conduct of Great Brit 1 ain and her contentious as to the mean- ing of the Clayton -Bulwer treaty, MT. Frelinghuysen, about 1880, when sec- retary of state to President Arthur, dis tinctly set forth in official correspon- dence on the subject the conclusion of the then administration that the canal clauses of the Clayton Bulwer treaty had become extinct Following this in 1883 or 1884. President Arthur, without think. asking the assent of the Majesty's government, negotiated a treaty with the republic of Nicaragua, providing for the construction of the canal by the United States, and it's op- eratlon by the United States, and with just and liberal provision securing the rights of Nicaragua and other Central and North and South American states, and leaving the future to determine, when occasion should arise, how far that canal should be neutral in time of war. etc.
 The treaty was sent to the Senate for ratification. It was thoroughly and ex- haustively discussed from time to time until January or February, 1885, The injunction of secrecy having been taken off, I may say that there were very few Senators who claimed that the United States, under existing conditions, were in any wy restrained in taking action by the terms of the Clayton Bulwer treaty. There was, however, good req son to believe that had vote been reached very few months earlier than 1t was. the treaty would have been ratified by at least three-fourths ma jority
 About February, 1885, the question of ratification came to vote, when it failed of receiving the requisite two- thirds, although change of three or four votes would ha-.,e ratified it. There was still reason to suppose that further consideration WouN result in ratifca- tion. The vote wes accordingly recon sidered and the s'Jeot left open for further action by the Senate, but upon the inauguration of President Cleve- land the treaty was withdrawn by the President for further consideration and was not again sent to the Senate.
 During ]n this period of negotiation and discussion of the treaty there was not, so far as ever heard, and objec- tion raised in respect to the honorable right of the United States to treat the Clayton Bulwer treaty as no longer of binding force.
 Since the withdrawal of the treaty with Nicaragua by President Cleveland, Congress has repeatedly attempted to act, but by combination of adverse j influences and interests such action has been so far delayed.
 The half century that has passed since the Clayton Bulwer treaty was con- cluded has so changed the situation in the circumstances of the great de- velopment of our Western coast and cities and in our increasing trade with what may now be called the Occident rather than the Orient, and the pos sesion by Her Majesty's government of Egypt and of the Suez Canal, that there is no just ground, it seems to me- for hesitation in regard to the imme- diate duty of the United States in ar- ranging with Nicaragua and Costa Rica for the construction of the canal absolutely free from any obligations to other countries other than those that | from time to time shall commend them selves to our sense of international | good neighborhood and justtce.-Ex- | Senator George F. Edmunds in Har- | par'ss Week1v