The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1903-12-29
FOR THE TREATY
Senator Simmons on the
Present Situation.
He Says the Tide is Turning Toward
the Democratic Party in the
Country and Success Can
be Achieved.

Raleigh, leaving in the afternoon for New
Bern on professional business. His
family is in Washington for the winter.
He will return to Washington on Satur-
day. The Senate reconvenes on Monday,
with the Hoar resolution on the Panama
treaty pending. The Senator does not
think the debate will be long drawn out
and predicts that a vote will be had
within a week Or two. He thinks there
will be enough votes to ratify the treaty
He will vote for the ratification. Senator
Cverman has not yet determined whether
he will vote for it or not and is waiting
the information expected from the Hoar
enquiry.
you ask me concerning the present sit
uation of the Panama Cana treaty in the
Senate" Senator Simmons said. "There
is considerable difference among Demo
cratic Senators as to the ratification of
the treaty, probably a majority will vote
against the treaty, but there is not di-
vision among Democratic Senators upon
the subject of the canal. Every Demo
cratic Senator. with the possible exception
of Senator Teller is earnestly in favor
of the immediate construction of the
canal, either by the Panama or Nicaragua
route. Those Democratic Senator's who
oppose the treaty, therefore. do not mean
by that action to put themselves against
the construction of the canal. They op-
pose the treaty because they do not ap-
prove of the conduct Of the administration
in connection with the revolution on the
Isthmus and the subsequent secession of
Panama from Colombia. They think the
action OF Mr.. Roosevelt in this matter
wholly indefensible, and they fear that
vote for the treaty, which he has nego-
tiated with Panama, would be acquien-
cence in the methods alleged to have been
employed by this government in connec
ton with the revolution. These Senators
also insist that the defeat of the treaty
will not obstruct or delay the construc
ton of the canal, if the President will
perform HIS duty and enter into negotia-
tions with Nicaragua and Costa Rica for
a canal by that route, as is provided in
the Spooner act.
THE Senators who are in favor of the
treaty condemn no less than those who
oppose it, the action of the President n
the matter OF the Panama revolutin, but
they insist that that is thing accom-
plished. That Panama is now an indie
pendent state and that vote for the
treaty is in no sense an endorsement of
any wrongful act in connection with the
entrance of Panama into the family of ma
tions. Whatever was done by the present
administration in this matter these Sena-
tors insist cannot be undone and the
present administration ard Republican
party is solely responsible for it. These
Senator's fear, if the treaty is defeated,
that it will indefinitely postpone the con-
struction of a canal They agree in that
event it would be the duty of Mr. Roose-
welt to at once begin negotiations for the
construction of canal by the Nicaraguan
route, but it Is the general belief among
them that the administration would not
do this, but would go to the country
claiming that the Democrats had prevent
ed the construction of the canal by the
route for which Congress had expressed a
preference.
"All of the Democratic Senators are in
favor of the demand made by the Hoar
resolution upon the President for full in
formation concerning the conduct of this
government in connectio with the in
surrection in Panama. 1t is believed,
while Mr.. German and many other Demo-
Gratis will vote against the treaty, no
effort will he made to bind Senators in
favor of the treaty by caucus action"
'To defeat the pending treaty would
subject us to all sorts of trouble. Hostile
railroad influence, mimical to the con-
struction of any canal, might delay any
canal for many years, while ratification of
Panama treaty ends contest and precludes
possibility of further delay The Repub-
licans contend that the defeat of the
treaty prevents the Presidents carrying
out the will of the people, expressed for
the Panama route in the Spooner act.
''It seems to me that it is the canal
with the treaty, or the loss of the canal,
at least for many years to come. 1t
seems certain that if defeated we would
go into the campaign at a disadvantage,
for the Republicans would say: we
would now have 5000 men at work dig
ging the canal but for the action of
Southern Democratic Senators defeating
the Panama treaty-the only way to get
the canal Of course we would have an
answer but our answer would be an
The people would see the fact
that the digging of the canal had been
postponed the responsibility would he in
the first place placed upon us, and it
would be hard to set the folks to listen
to an argument.
Political campaigns are not won On
issues growing out of things already ac-
The issues that decide cam
paigns are those that relate to things to
be done, and which the people are in
terested in having done or not done.