The Birmingham age-herald., 1902-06-25
Washington Day by Day

that the corrupt scheme Of the most powerful of sll lohbies ever assembled seems about to become law, and thereby the corstrueiion of a canal connecting the waters of the Atlantic and the Pa cifc oceans postponed for probably an- other generation, 1t is surprising that any person of ordinary general informa- ton should be deceived.
 There will be no canal.
 Senator Spooner, who Is and has been for twenty-five yecrs a professional -ail- oad lawyer ir constant practice and Is Senator for personal reasons and pur- poses of his own, unquestonably offered his amendment to the House Nicaragua bill with the prime object of preventing at all costs the actual beginning of work on a canal. He succeeded in the Senate, and 1t aT pears now that the House will re gister Its approval of his outrageous double dealing
 The Spooner canal law, if law this barefaced swindlc becomes, will not be worth the white paper and ink needful to print it. for under Its provisions there will be no work on canal undertaken. he thing Is fraudulent; 1t Is a sham.
 lnc GT6BluenI IS SiNch ticn to do certain things in his own time. If in his own Judgment he can do certain ether things "by treaty" which the con- stituticn itself denies him the power to make. And in tho rotten republic of Co., lcrlbia there is not TOW and hasn't been for three years ary power whatever to make a treaty concerning the Panama route or any other thing.
 There will be no canal The lobby has said it, and foIty-cne Republican Sena- tors and one Democrat, friends and sup porters of the lobby. have so decreed.
 Pending canal legislation at this mo- ment Is mere politics. The whole people demanded Q canal. The national ccnven- tions and platforms of he two great political parties in effect instructed their representatives in Cor gress to vote for canal, the Nicaragua route being named by the Democrats. With Spooner as chief trickmaster the Republican party In Congress is playing with the people as fools. Perhaps this Republican view or the people is correct. We shall sec
 Better the Panama canal than none' some persons say. But there will be no r
 Still there is no good reason why Dem ocrats in Congress should not vote to affirm the trick of the lobby: there may be some day some party advantage to be derived.
 It is extremely improbable that Presi- dent Roosevelt will report to Congress at any time within the remaining period of ht oF ha fo that he already knows-that he cannot comply with the requirements of the Spooner trick. He doesn't have to-
 When this formulated bargain with the lobby was on It's passage through the Senate, Senator Mallory offered an amendment requiring the President to reach a decision within six months. That was promptly voted down. Then MT Mallory proposed twelve months. and that shared similar fate, and when he proposed eighteen months that, too, was voted down. If the Florida Senator had proposed eighteen years as the period within which the President should arrive at a decision concerning condition all ready known to the President, that, too would have been rejected,
 In his annual message next December the President may refer to his new and great responsibility as to the isthmian canal, but he will not go so far as to report ''progress.' He will reserve pro gress" reporting till December next year. and then whoop loudly for effect upon the Presidential election. Why, the fraud ,f oil tho pIatupGt fbinpr in current politics.
 Henceforth and until the Republican national convention assemblies In 1904 every Republican gathering of every grade, high and low both mongrel, pup whelp and hound, and cur of low degree will most heartily congratulate the country" upon the determined efforts" of the Republican administration to carry out the wishes of the American people by providing for canal to connect the wa ters of the Atlantic and the Pacific!
 But there will be no canal!
 Let us appeal for enlightenment to the highest of all authority-Senator Morgan whose closing appeal for the Nicara- qua route will ring for many years in the ears of the people. The official report of that most masterly argument has just been made public in the Record. With reference to the Panama proposition Sem ator Morgan faid:
 colombia has no parliamentary gov ernmept and is engaged in a civil war. She can make no treaty because she has no congress to ratify 1t.
 ''The acquisition of a clear title to canal zone, or belt, to connect the oceans is, of course, the first question to be settled. Colombia can make no such grant until T law Is enacted by her con- gross to authorize 1t, and if accepted by the United States in a convention or treaty. such treaty must be ratified by the corgrt ss of Colombia These are con stitutional requirements that must be complied with end they cannot be com piled with unti, Colombia can assemble q congress, which she is afraid to at tempt. If the people of the United States arc to wait for authority to construct a canal in Colombia until these things are accomplished. the traDscontinental' rail- roads will get all the delay for which they have been paying so literally"
 Yet, as the senator points out, the Spooner plan contains the provision shall have obtained by treaty. control of the necessary territory from the re- public of Colombia.