The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-12-26
WISE ACTION
Taken by the Legislature of
 Louisiana

The action of the Louisiana Legislature in
 instructing the two Senators from that State
 to vote for the ratification of the Canal
 Treaty is distinctly to the point. and should be copied by other Southern States, whose Senators may be embarrassed by MT. Cor
 mans attempted hold-up. Where legislatures are not in session, it would pay the people to have them called together for weeks
 time for the express purpose of securing &C., tion as to Panama. Where this may not be done, members should be sounded at their homes and informal deliverances obtained in that way. Where this may not be practicable. chambers of commerce, boards of trade and other commercial bodies having the material interests of the South at heart, and intimate
 knowledge of what those interests require
 should put themselves on record for the in formation of their representatives in the Up- per House of Congress.
 The fate of the treaty rests with the South She wants it, and may have 1t. She should not permit herself to be misled by partisan clamor. The question is not, in a true analy- sis, partisan in any sense. Both parties have declared for a canal, and Cenghress, by a
 vote practically unanimous, has authorized the construction of canal at Panama. The treaty
 that has been negotiated provides for the
 work upon reasonable terms, and deals with a government whose existence has been widely recognized by other powers. That Government is doing business with the outside world, and
 is enjoying both the sanction and protection of this government. Why, then, should not
 the treaty be ratified? Why should not the
 South support it?Washington Star.
 The course taken by the Louisiana Legisla-
 ture does not prohibit preclude contrary action by the two Senators. But 1t makes such action unwise and unlikely, even If we suppose that there exists inclination on the part of Mir. McEnery or Mir. Foster to run counter to their constituency. Instances can be recalled where United States Senators have
 disregarded or dehed the wishes of the Legis-
 latures that made them, but in this case the emphatic nature of the declaration leaves no
 determined to make itself heard with effect on
 lana is the first expression of state opinion
 the Federal government. It is douby signif-
 cant because it comes from a Democratic
 State and because it is the voice of a section
 where the popular choice not long ago swung in favor of the Nicaragua route. Not
 only in Louisiana but in Florida. in Georgia
 and in other parts of the South opinion is Crystallizing in favor of the Hay-Varilla
 treaty That is fact of which the Democrat ic representatives in the Senate must take account. The country, South and North, East
 and West, wants a canal between the Carib-
 bean and the Pacific and the country usually
 gets what 1t wants and in its own way, which
 in this instance, is the way of the govern
 ment. Those who would butcher the Panama
 treaty to make a campaign issue for 1904
 being summarily reused to the fact that De-
 mocracy is for the present inclined to be con structive rather than destructive. affirmative
 rather than negative.-Brooklyn Eagle.