Arizona republican., 1903-11-14
Presidents Message in AL fusion to ISthmian Canal
REWRITING NECESSARY
The Original Draft Urged That if Colombia Held Out This Country Should Proceed to the Building of the Canal Anyhow.

Washington, Nov. 13.-For several weeks President Roosevelt has had in ,rcparation his annual message to congress. to be presented at the open ing of the regular session on the hrst Monday of December That part Of the message in which the president discussed the negotiations between the United States and the government of colombia for an isthmian canal treaty, 1t is said, was completed about two weeks ago. Events which have oc- cured on the isthmus and in this country since that time have made 1t necessary for the president to com pletely re-write that part of the mes sage touching the canal negotiations.
 In the opening sentence of his discus sion of the negotiations with Colom- bia the president said:
 "I regret to report that, contrary to all expectations, the government Of the republic of Colombia refused to rat ify the treaty for building a canal across the isthmus of Panama"
 Then. after stating that the treaty had been negotiated at the earnest re- quest of the government Of Colombia and subsequently, was disapproved by the Colombian senate, the president said that the powers exercised by the United States under the treaty of 1Si6 were so large in the protection of tran sit across the isthmus that it some times had been questioned whether it was necessary now to obtain a treaty for the purpose of building a canal.
 Continuing, he wrote:
 High authorities on international law hold that the canal can be dug as an incident to exercising the power to prevent the obstruction of traffic across the isthmus. Nevertheless, in accordance with our settled policy of behaving with scrupulous fairness and generosity toward our weaker sister re- publics of the south, taking no position that can even by implication be treated as unfriendly. unless literally forced thereto we have endeavored to pro- vide for the building of the canal by treaty. In this treaty we went as far as it is possible for us to go in the direction of making concessions to the United States Of Colombia. No further concessions can or should be made by this government
 The president then stated that the circumstances of the canal case were peculiar. The canal, said he, must be dug. It was demanded by the inter ests of this nation and by those of the civilized world. The United States had solemnly pledged it's word that it should be free to the commerce of the world, reserving to ourselves merely the right to see that it shall never be used to cur military disadvantage.
 "A private company" said the mes sage, which in the past undertook 10 build the canal had failed. The events of the last few years warrant us in now saying not only that the canal shall not be constructed by any foreign government, but that it is not to be constructed by any private com pany. It must, therefore, be dug by the government of the United States"
 Adverting to the phrase of the SpCcner law, which says that the pres ident shall have a reasonable time to determine as between the Panama and Nicaraguan routes, the president wrote:
 "A reasonable time in the case of such an enterprise as this, an enter prise which has been thought of for nearly four centuries, which has been planned in detail and worked at for half a century, and which when com pletcd will endure for ages and will change the geography of a hemisphere and the trade routes of the world must. oi course, mean whatever time IS necessary to convince ourselves that the course we are following is proper
 Tt seems that in a matter such as ihis we should finally decide which is the better route, and if the advantages of this route over any other possible route are sufficiently marked, we should then give notice that we can no longer submit to trifling or insincere dealing on the part of those whom the acci- dent of position has placed in tempor- ary control of the ground through which the route must pass, that if they would come to an agreement with us Tn straightforward manner, we should m return act not only with justice. but with generosity, and that if they fail 10 come to such an agreement with us we must forthwith take the matter into our own hands"