Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1904-01-04
RECOGNITION OF PANAMA /.
OF GREATEST IMPORTANCE.

RECOGNITION OF PANAMA Ia
OF GREATEST IMPORTANCE.
This recognition was, in the second place,
further justified by the highest considers
lions of our national interests and safety.
In all the range of our international rela- 9
lions, do not hesitate to affirm that IL ere
Is nothing of greater or more pressing Inn
portance than the construction Of an inter
oceanic canal. Long acknowledged to be
eRseDtta. to our commercial development,
1t has become, as the result Of the recent
extension of our territorial dominion, more
than ever essential to our national self
defense. In transmitting to the senate the
treaty Of 1916, President Polk pointed cut
rs the principal reason for its ratification
that the passage of the isthmus, which 1t
was designed to secure, would relieve MS
from long and dangerous navigation Of
more than 5000 miles around Cape Horn,
| and render our communication with our
own possessions on the northwest coast OF
America comparatively easy and speedy"
The events Of the past five years have
f, given to this consideration an importance
UNNECESSARILY greater than it possessed In
1886 In the light OF our present situation,
| the establishment of easy and speedy COM
| munication by sea between the Atlantic
and the Pacific presents itself not simply as
something to be desired, but as an object
to be positively and promptly attained.
Reasons Of convenience have been super
seded by reasons Of vital necessity, which
do not admit Of indefinite delays.
10 such delays the rejection by Colon
Ola OF the Hay Eerran treaty directly ex-
posed u.s. AS proof Of this fact need only
refer 10 the programme outlined in the re-
port OF the majority of the Panama canal
committee read in the Colombian senate
| on the 14th Of October last. In this re-
port which recommended that the discus
sion OF a law to authorize the government
70 enter upon new negotiations should be
inoennitsly postponed, it is proposed that
the consideration Of the subject should be
deierred till Oct. 81, 1904, when the next
colombian congress should have met in
ordinary session. By that time, as the re-
port goes on to say, the extension of time
e.anted to the new Panama Canal COM
pany by treaty in 1898 would have expired.
ana the new congress would be in a POSI-
ton to take up the question whether the
company had not, in spite of further extern
sions that had been granted by legislative
acts forfeited all Its property and rights.
when that time arrives" the report sig
eincantly declares, 1.-The republic, without
any impeachment, will be able to contract.
ana Will be In more clear, more definite,
and more advantageous possession, both
legally and. materially" The naked mean
Ing OF this report is that Colombia pro-
posed to wait until, by the enforcement Of
forfeiture repugnant to the ideas Of JUS
tice which obtain In eveSF civilized ma
tlon' the property and rights OF the new
Panama Canal company could be conhs-
Gated.
Such Is the scheme to which it was pro-
posed that the United States should be in.
Vteo TO become a party. The construction
OF the canal was to be relegated to the in
definite future while Colombia was, by
reason OF her own delay, to be placed in
the more advantageous" position of claim
Ing not merely the compensation to be
paid by the United States for the priyi-
iege OF completing the canal, but also the
forty millions authorized by the act Of
1eH to be paid for the property of the
new Panama Canal company. That the
attempt to carry out this scheme woulh
nave brought Colombia into conflict with
the government of France can not be y
doubted; nor could the United States have
counted upon immunity from the conse-
quences OF the attempt, even apart from
the indefinite delays to which the con-
struction OF the canal was to be subjected.
On the hrst appearance Of danger to Co.
iomhia. this government would have been
summoned to interpose in order to give
eject to the guarantees of the treaty Of
1876: and all this in support Of a plan
which, while characterized In its first stage
by the wanton disregard Of our own high
est interests, was fifty to end In further
injury to the citizens of friendly nation,
whose enormous losses in their generous
EFFORTS to pierce the isthmus have become
q matter Of history.