The Tucson citizen., 1902-12-02
THE ISTHMIAN 6ANHL,.

A Washington dispatch printed in
The Citizen yesterday conveys the idea
that the conviction seems to have set
tied on the minds of the Roosevelt ad-
ministration that the present status OF
the Isthmlan Canal project does not in.
dicate the speedy settlement of the great
question which is involved. Under the
guise of fayoriDg such an undertaking
the Republicans have created obstacles
to its accomplishment, when there were
none already in existence. The move
ment of the Republican majority, re-
sulting in the acceptance of the Panama
route as substitute for that already
long decided on, offers an excellent IL
lustration of the operation of this plan
of proceeding. According to the reports
from Washington President Roosevelt
and his cabinet officers seem to have
about reached the conclusion that the
adoption of the Panama route will re-
suit in the utter defeat of it's immediate
ostensible purpose, and may jeapordize
the entire project of rans-Isthmian
Canal. N ##
The Republic of Colombia is now the
immediate object of denunciation OF
those who have so long played battle
dore and shuttlecock with the trans
Isthmian Canal movement. The COM
plant Is heard that the republic will not
consent to accept reasonable sum for
the necessary concessions, our govern
ment being of course the sole Judge as
to what is reasonable in that way. 1t
happens that Colombia can bring her
concession wares to better market
and her public men ayow their deter
mination to do SO. All of which is of
course objectionable, from the view
point of the administration politicians.
Were the purpose of Colombia confin-
ed to getting a better market for her
confessions in order to force US to accept
her conditions the situation would not
have assumed its present serious COM
plexion. We have put our stamp of ex-
cellence onlthe Panama route and as it
is quite natural people who have money
to invest in such undertakings see that
the Panama project is not the wild pro-
posal which it has been regarded as the
fruit Of DeLessep's ENHANCEMENT with
the corrupt 6nanciers and politicians
of France.
AS the immediate result, therefore,
of the political by-play of the Republi-
can majority in Congress, the situation
may be said to have evolved into this
shape The Panama Canal rights will
: pass into the control of some other ma
tion or OF some private concern, which
will complete the undertaking; where.
upon we will have been relegated to the
route which we have lately been assured
is beset by the dangers of earthquakes
and volcanoes; and is much the less
valuable Of the two, with the prospect of
Nicaragua doing precisely toward as as
Colombia seems now to have decided on
doing.
1t does not seem at all unlikely that
We may find ourselves between the tra-
ditional two stools, and will suffer the
usual fall as the result. II would have
been infinitely more to the National
credit that this whole scheme should be
allowed to rest than that such result
should bn achieved. Our present
option now appears to be between the
Nicaragua route and no route at all,
phich is our reward for the Congress of
the United States accepting the dictum
of Mark Hanna instead of the advice of
John T. Morgan.