The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1903-09-15
A CANAL BY SEIZURE.


the United States should seize the 18TH
mus Of Panama and build the canal
| irrespective of the rights or wishes OF
| Colombia. Daring spirits among the
| correspondents of the press say that
! President Roosevelt favors this proce-
| dure as last resort believing that the
! little band of boodlers at Bogota should
not be permitted to stand in the way
of the canal enterprise. Seizure is
presumed to be justified under civil
izatio 's right of eminent domain
While 1t is doubtful indeed that Presi-
dent Roosevelt has ever expressed HIM
self in this incautious way. the thought
4 It the common interests of the world
would benefit by the removal of local
and Fictitious barriers to progress, does
not have to bark back to the period
of Suez canal negotiations to find dis
tinguished men who have entertain
II.
The truth is, as the Advertiser has
shown in formulating its objections to
the Monroe doctrine, that not only CO.
lombia but nearly all South America
constitutes n dull, inert mass standing
in the way of the worlds advance.
Mich idle sentiment inheres to the view
that possession of territory Is necessar-
ilv sacred. AS a matter of fact the
worlds riches should go to those VINO
can best use them to the worlds ad-
vantage. 1t is this principle which ac-
counts for the substitution of white
men for Indians and negroes in the
control of continental regions which
Indians and blacks were the first to
occupy; and it needs but little
stretching of the same principle to
Justify the control of regions now oc-
cupied by degenerate and irresponsible
whites by those other whites who would
brinp to them thrift and industry ana
make the best of latent or neglected re-
sources. This paper believes that the
partition of South America among such
power as the United States, Great
Britain, Germany, France and Italy,
woul add billions of dollars to the cur
rent wealth of the world, inspire CIV
iizltion in the midst of what are now
virgin forests and untenanted plains
and cfford relief for congested popula-
tiOns or n century to come. Perhaps
it may devolve upon the United states
to take the first step by anneXinS PAN
anna and opening n gateway between
tn Atlantic and Pacific oceans. There
Is at least justification by analogy as
u Argonaut points out In the form
ula: IF, as n nation, an lndlVlduai
NAV not block the construction of
railroad why, in world affairs, should
one small country lie permitted to block
a vaster enterprise and one more ne
cessary to civilizations welfare?" And
the Argonaut adds:
For such an exercise of power as Is
proposed there is plenty of precedent
A newspaper. the st. Paul pioneer
Press, cites, for example, the union Oh
European nations to establish order III
Egypt and preserve the Suez Canal;
the interference OF Europe in the
Turko-Graeco affair; the establishment
of the Congo Free State by the Euro
pean concert in territory as distant
from Europe as the isthmus from the
United States; and lastly the IN
Prevention of the United States
in Cuba. 1.-The non-use or mis-
use OF natural or chartered rights,
the exercise of which is essential
to civilization, has been from time I'M
memorial held to be just cause for their
forfeiture, made compulsory at the
hands of more capable peoples says
the Press; ION this principle rests the
whole history of civilizations con-
quest over barbarism and savagery. III
Is at the foundation of the present
possession of the territory of the Uni
ted States by the white race"
1t would be we'll for Colombia to pom
der these things and for all South
America to study the increase of the
worlds population and trade in their
relation to the complete mastery ana
best use of the earthe surface.