Waterbury evening Democrat., 1903-12-07

head these boards and bureaus do good l work they have not the authority of
 general staff and have not sufficient
 scope to insure proper readiness for l emergencies. We need the establish
 ment by law of body of trained off
 cers who shall exercise a systematic
 control of the military affairs of the
 navy and be authorized advisers of the
 secretary concerning it.
 l ISTHMIAN CANAL.
 1 By the act of June 29 1902, the con-
 gress authorized the president to enter
 into treaty with Colombia for the
 building of the canal across the isth-
 mus of Panama, it being provided that
 in the event of failure to secure such
 treaty after the lapse of a reasonable
 time recourse should be had to building
 canal through Nicaragua. It has not 1 been necessary to consider this alter
 native, as I am enabled to lay before
 the senate treaty providing for the building of the canal across the isth-
 mus of Panama. This was the route
 which commended itself to the delib-
 crate judgment of the congress, and
 we can now acquire by treaty the right LCs
 The question now, therefore, is not by
 which route the isthmfan canal shall
 be built, for that question has been
 definitely and irrevocably decided.
 The question is simply whether CT not
 we shall have an isthmian canal.
 When the congress directed that we
 should take the Panama route under
 treaty with Colombia, the essence of
 the condition, of course, referred not
 to the government which controlled
 that route, but to the route itself; to
 the territory across which the route l lay, not to the name which for the
 moment the territory bore on the map.
 The purpose of the law was to author-
 ize the president to make treaty with
 the power in actual control of the isth-
 mus of Panama. This purpose has
 been fulfilled.
 TRANSIT ACROSS IsTHMUs. In the year 1S46 this government en- 1 tered into treaty with New Granada l the predecessor upon the tsthmus of
 the republic of Colombia and of the
 present republic of Panama, by which
 treaty 1t was provided that the govern I ment and citizens of the United States l dlWdyS nave IICE duu OPCl HE'LL
 of way or transit across the isthmus of
 Panama by any modes of communica- 1 tion that might be constructed while
 in return our government guaranteed
 the perfect neutrality of the above l mentioned isthmus with the view that | the free transit from the one to the l other sea might not be interrupted or ! embarrassed. The treaty vested in the | United States a substantial property
 right carved out of the rights of sov- | ereignty and property which New 1 Granada then had and possessed over
 the said territory. The name of New | Granada has passed away, and it's ter
 ritory has been divided. It's successor,
 the government of Colombia, has ceas- l ed to own any property in the isthmus. A new republic, that of Panama, which
 was at one time a sovereign state and l at another time a mere department of l the successive considerations known as
 New Granada and Colombia, has now succeeded to the rights which first one
 and then the other formerly exercised | over the isthmus But as long as the | isthmus endures the mere geographical l fact of it's existence and the peculiar | interest therein which is required by
 our position perpetuate the solemn con- l tract which binds the holders of the | territory to respect our right to freedom | of transit across it and binds us in re- l turn to safeguard for the isthmus and | the world the exercise of that ines- timable privilege. The true intefpreta- 1 ton of the obligations upon which the l United States entered in this treaty of l 1S46 has been given repeatedly in the
 utterances of presidents and secretaries
 of state Secretary Class in 1858 off,
 cially stated the position of this gov | ernment as follows:
 1 s'The progress of events has rendered l the interoceanic route across the mar l row portion of Central America vastly | important to the commercial world. and especially to the United States, whose l possessions extend along the Atlantic 1 and Pacific coasts and demand the | speediest and easiest modes of commit l nication While the rights of sovereign l ty of the states occupying this region should always be respected, we shall expect that these rights be exercised 1 in a spirit befitting the occasion and l the wants and circumstances that have 1 arisen. Sovereignty has it's duties as we'll as it's rights, and none of these To- I cal governments, even if administered
 with more regard 10 the just demands 1 of other nations than they have been, would be permitted, in spirit of east ern isolation, to close the gates of in tercourse on the great highways of the
 world and justify the act by the pre- tension that these avenues of trade, and ! travel belong to them and that they
 choose to shut them or, what is almost equivalent, to incumber them with such | unjust relations as would prevent their general use"
 Seven years later, in 1865, MT. Seward ! in different communications took the following position: ''The United States have taken and
 will take no interest in any question of