The Evening statesman. [volume] (Walla Walla, Wash.) 1903-1910, 1903-09-30

SAYS EDITOR Henry WATTERSON


Watterson. in the Courier Journal II
answer to an editorial IN the BlrmlnS
ham Ledger. makes the charge that
some O. the United States senators
sold out when the MOrgan-Hepburh
bill was up for consideration and that
the Panama canal route is the re-
suit of a gigantic job. He says
among other things:
The Morgan-Hepburn bill deslgna--
ing the Nicaraguan route, supported
by the report of commission and or
ample collateral testimony, had passed
the house by an overwhelming ma
jority, and was about to pass the SEN
ate by a two-thirds vote when, IN
| the person Of NJ. Edward Lampre,
Panama turned up at Washington.
The rogues in France who had got
possession Of the fag end Of the cid
| DeLesseps scandal and tragedy had
| first sent over one Hutin to spy out
| the lay Of the land. Hutin talked
about a hundred and a hundred and
| fifty millions. He was only "feeler.
| Having ascertained that forty mil
lions was about the figure that might
be made practicable-twenty millions
for the thieves in France and twenty
millions for the thieves in America
Hutin went home and Lampre came.
Lampre Begins Work.
!, ho CT q
| the scenes began to be shifted. First
one newspaper correspondent and then
another came out for Panama. Flr5t
one alleged expert and then another
came out for Panama. Public opin-
ion thus manipulated and supposed to
| be adjusted, the gray wolves OF the
senate began to show the whites of
their eyes. Then to wag their tails.
Then cautiously to come out into the
open. Finally, came the Spooner act,
setting aside the Morgan-Hepburn bill
and substituting Panama for Nicara-
| qua.
But. even here, the thieves had a
little care for the looks; they were not
wholly insensible of the fnalities.
and so, for appearance sake, they in
serted a clause setting forth that if
| there was any hitch in the ratification
OF the proposed treaty with Colombia,
| the president should use his discre-
| ton and select route. In other
words, the gray wolves, in selling out
to the French jobbers, who had moth
ing to sell, but a few pots and pans,
and lawsuit. were careful not to be
too conspicuously in the service of
the transcontinental railways, equal
ly opposed to every and any canal
project.
Columbia Wants Share.
Who could fOrsee that the thieves
in Bogota, getting a Whit of the
stealing from Washington, would con-
trive that before the delivery of the
goods, twenty millions should come
to them? But, so it came to pass. 90
lombia rejected the treaty. The sit
uation provided for in the Spooner act
has arrived The president is face to
face with the precise contingency
which even the thieves considered
necessary 10 secure their rear and to
save their bacon among tn people il
case there should be too great row.
And, what do we see?
Why, We see appeals for delay, urg-
ings for a new treaty, plans for Co
lombian revolution and the secession
of Panama-anything everything, to
make good the twenty millions to the
thieves in France and the twenty mil
lions to the thieves in America, com
pleting the sum agreed upon in the
Spooner act Of course, if these
avail, the twenty additional millions
for the thieves in Bogata must be
made good also, and will be inserted
in the next treaty.
If the president harkens to the
clamor and hesitates, it will not mean
that he is personally corrupt, with
a share of the sealings coming to
MIN, but it will mean that the power
behind the steal is, like the power Of
Quay in Pennsylvania and Addicks
in Delaware, too great for him-his
nomination and election-to resist
it.
Nicaragua's Advantage.
Panama has some engineering ad-
vantages over Nicaragua, but all
other advantages, and they are over
whelming, are with Nicaragua. Near
ly the whole of the Nicaragua route