The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1903-02-07
DELAYED Business.


upon itself the other day and passed the
bill to expedite the pending suits Of the
attorney general under the Sherman anti
trust law, SHES at the Cuban, the Alas
kan, the Newfoundland. the Colombian ca
nal treaties, and as the time Is getting
very short, there only being three weeks
more Of life for the fifty-seventh congress.
these "conscript fathers may have to
face an extra session.
In the Venezuela matter, which has been
dragging, Mr.. sBowen has, at length, by
robust assertion, brought the allies
down to a fiat decision to go before The
Hague tribunal on their claim for prefer
entail treatment. and allow the bills of
all the claimants to be adjudicated by a.
commission, payment to be made pro rata
out Of 80 per cent Of the Venezuelan Gus
tom receipts.
The isthmian canal treaty which, not
long ago, was thought to be on the verge
of ratification, is delayed by Senator Nor
gan who has made up his mind to oppose
the Panama canal project so long as he
has breath in his body He now claims
that Dr. Herran, with whom our state
department negotiated the treaty after
Concha withdrew, did not possess the
necessary authority to make the treaty
binding upon his country. He also de-
clares that the treaty should not be rati-5
fled because he has knowledge that the
Colombian government bought peace with
the revolutionists by promising to pay
them 100000 out Of the money it ex-
pected from the United States, il they
would lay down their arms and go home.
So far as this charge is concerned, the
United States government is not respon-,
sible for any terms Colombia may make
with the revolutionists, and the alleged
transaction of that government has moth
Ing whatever to do with the ratification
Of the treaty by the senate.
Another of Morgan's objections to the
treaty is that the president Of Colombia.
is dictator. AS the head of nearly ev-
cry Spanish-American republic in this
hemisphere is a dictator, there is nothing
surprising in the statement that Colombia
IS under dictator. Even the disth-
guished progressive president of Mexico
is p dictator and has been such ever since
he drove Lerdo de Tejada out.of the presi-
Dental chair in 1876.
Senator Morgans opposition is endan-
gering the ratification of the treaty at this
senate can, in view of the Importance of
the subject, temporarily at least, drop its
absurd courtesy tradition. Mr. Nor
gan holds that the public want the canal
constructed by the Nicaragua route, and
that they are deprived of it by some ma
lign influence skilled in the use of money
as vehicle Of bribery. ~.
He and his friends of like views remind
one Of Louis XVI who in one Of his notes
to Turgot, said that the more he thought
of it the more he was convinced that
there is nobody but you and that really
love the people The people Of this
country. however, are abundantly satisfied
with the prospect Of the completion Of the
Panama canal by our government and they
| obstruct action on the treaty at this stage
of the proceedings.
! The Cuban treaty is also one of the
| measures Of Importance, favored by the
| strongest kind Of public opinion, which is
suspended by the power Of special inter-
ests, and the Newfoundland treaty is held
| of by Senator Lodge, who claims that the
Gloucester fshermen's interests will be in
| jured by the treaty; but the fact is that
! If the treaty is not ratified there is a
| strong probability that Newfoundland
will abrogate the modus vivendi Of 1888.
under which the Gloucester men enter and
use Newfoundland waters for fishing pur-
/ poses.
| AS for the Alaskan treaty, there would
be no regret If the senate neglected to
ratify it, as it was a work Of supereroga-
ton on the part Of our government to ne
gotiate it, and that was done merely as
a matter of neghborly courtesy to Can
ada who needs to be convinced that mat
/ ter which has been adjudicated for nearly
a century and accepted by all the parties
/ Immediately and Indirectly interested,
cannot be reopened and reconsidered and
annulled, because the greed Of q. party
with no national determining power in
\ the premises demands it.
| The proposed congressional law to tax
i wheat 10th Of a mill q bushel so as to
| raise a fund to meet the cost of gathering
] correct wheat production statistics, may
Y s. :