The Washington times., 1903-09-02
The Canal Treaty.
The Reasons for Its Rejection Accurate
ly Foretold by The Times.


Dispatches received by the 'New
York Herald" from Bogota indicate
that the canal treaty was rejected "be-
cause of the imperative nature of the
notes received from Secretary of
State Hay and United States Minister
Beaupre." "These notes." saws the
'Herald's" correspondent at Panama,
"were regarded as offensive and con-
sidered highly humiiating even by the
senator's who supported the treaty
without amendments and were friend
ly to the United States"
The treaty was rejected by an
unanimous vote of the senate on
August u. News of It's rejection was
received IN this country five days later
August IT, On August IS we ven
tured to say, IN discussing the reasons,
then unknown, which probably deter
mined the action Of the Colombian
senate:
Another fact which probably had some weight,
and which, in our Anglo-Saxon assumption Of
superiority over the despised 'Dago" we ig-
nored, perhaps, was the unceremonious manner
4 OF our making the proposals to buy land and
people at so much and skull, just as
we had done in the Philippines, where, accord
ing TO the late Thomas B. Reed, we established
the market rate for yellow bellies at 50 each
Now. strange 10 say, the despised "Dago'' has
=, Co r,I al II = Il
wishes to be treated with consideration, and
want of it on the part Of people who wish TO
do business with him aro1ses his ire. He
doesn't like you 10 make formal call upon
him in tan shoes, any more than he would
think Of attending afternoon tea in pajamas,
and ne resents 20 be bought and sold in sight
OF the world. But this is precisely what the
Hay-Herran compact did.
We were correct, then, in our inter
probation of the seemingly incompre-
hensible attitude of the Colombian
senate. In our brutal Anglo-Saxon
way-the way which made England
say to Russia, before she had been
taught manners in South Africa,
"You shall not have an ice-free port
on the Pacific" and which compels
her now to eat humble pie in seeking
poor, little Japan as an ally IN peace
and war, and in begging this country
to assist her in keeping the door open
II China-in our brutal AnglO-Saxon
fashion, we say, we told these much
despised ''Dagos' bluntly, while jing-
Ing the money in our pockets, ''You
miserable half-starved rats, here IS the
chance Of your lives; now, ratify this
treaty and do 1t p. d. O., too, and
don't you dare to tell us that it can
be improved upon; we won't stand
for that-not for a single minute"
That's the attitude of your purse
proud bully. He knows it all. and
knows it blamed sight better than
anybody else. Suppose Colombia had
ventured TO do what we did, and had
sent a message TO our Government
through her minister, DR.. Herran
saying, "You must do so and so, and
If you don't why
Dr. Herran, interviewed by a cor.
respondent of the Herald" supplies
the answer. "The chances are" says
he, "that I would have received nay
passports"
Nations, no less than individuals
must learn the saving grace Of man
ners. Nothing Is more offensive
nothing is more cowardly, we might
say-than a bully with an I-can-buy-
and-sell-you-ten-times-over air about
him Nothing arouses the passionate
resentment Of a decadent race more
quickly than an attempt, in plain
slght Of the world, 10 treat It's power
ty as a negligible quantity. Can We
pound our chest and, swelling Will