Evening star., 1904-02-23

waSeiuS du lHcreQ1Dle amount OF tredSurc
and after the sacrifice OF thousands of lives.
has abandoned hope of completing the un-
dertaking. No private company again will
grapple with the colossal enterprise Other
nations are excluded from the attempt by
the force OF our agreement with Colombia.
II the canal is TO be built. we must build
.The United States has answered that
ODiigation. Again upon the request of Col-
omoia. she entered upon the negotiation of
the further treaty described by the Gran
adian Secretary, MaIlerino. In 1846: as q
subsequent and supplementary convention.
IN which the transit OF the interoceanic
passage should be arranged and its per-
manent neutrality confirmed
COtompia stood to profit more by the
Duiioing OF that canal than any other nation
upon earth. Her territory stretching across
the northwestern end of South America
Mas without internal communication or
unity Her principal towns upon her At
iantic and her Pacific coasts were separated
Dy ranges of lofty fountains not traversed
Dy any railroad. and for the most part
without roads of any kind.
An Unjust Exaction.
Reluctantly, and with sense that 1t
was an unjust exaction. the United States
agreed to pay 100000 600 down and $4,000
per annum in tperpetuity-substantial the
entire amount exacted by Colombia We
were not going into the enterprise to make
money but for the common good. We did
not expect the revenues of the canal to
repay its cost, or to receive any benefit
from IL. except that which Colombia would
snare 10 higher degree than ourselves.
Against the hundreds of millions which
we were oblfgating ourselves to expend,
Colombia was expected only to permit the
use OF small tract of otherwise worthless
lahd already In substance devoted to that
purpose: we We're not seeking privilege
which Colombia was entitled to withhold.
put settling the method in which the ac-
knoWledged right of mankind over por-
tion OF her soil should be exercised, with
uue regard TO her special interests. 1t was
not Just That we should pay anything but
II was better to pay than to coerce a
weaker nation
Thought There Was No Limit.
The concessions made in the treaty 20
the government of Colombia, however,
seemed merely to inspire in that govern
ment belief that there was no limit to
the exsctions which they could successful
ly impose They demanded a further
$lo,Uo,oO0 from tie Panama Canal Com
pany and upon its refusal they rejected
the treaty.
ms rejection was substantial refusal
70 permit the canal to be built 1t appears
that the refusal contemplated not merely
Iurther exacticns from US but the spoIiation
OF the canal company. That companys
current franchise was limited by its terms
was an extension for six years granted by
the president and for which the company
had paid five million francs. These patriots
proposed to declare the extension void and
the franchise ended and to confscate the
S4c,eoooOO worth of property of the COM
pany and take from the United States for
themselves. in payment for it, the $40 Geo.
oOo we had agreed to pay the company
Conditions at Outbreak.
These were the conditions existing when
the revolution of November happened.
TO an understanding of that revolution
knowledge of the character and history of
Panama is essential. Some uniformed
persons have assumed that it was merely a
number of individual citizens of Colombia
living in the neighborhood of the proposed
canal who combined to take possession Of
that part of Colombian territory and set
up government of their own No concep-
tion could be more Inadequate
THE sovereign state of Panama was an
organized civil society possessed of a terri
tory extending over 400 miles in length
from Costa Rica on the west to the main
land Of South America the east. 1t had
a population of over 600, the greater
part of whom lived in the western part of
the country, toward Costa Rica, and farth-
est removed from South America. Between
| the inhabited part of this sterritory and the
| inhabited part of Colombia stretched hun
dreds of miles of tropical forest so dense
as to be impossible by the ordinary trav-
eler. so that there was no communication
by land between the two countries The
OILY intercourse was by long sea voyages,
as II Panama were a distant island; and
the journey from the isthmus to the capital
OF Colombia was longer in time than from
the isthmus to Washington.
Previous Efforts for Liberty.
"The people of Panama fought to exhaus-
ton in 1885 to prevent the loss of their lib
aYf and lAfaa
action Of the naval forces of the United
States. Three times since then they have
| risen in rebellion against their oppressors
In 1895 they arose and were suppressed
by force; in 1899 they arose again and for
three years maintained a war for liberia
tion. which ended in 1902 through the in
terposition of the United States by armed
force.
THE rising of November, 1903 was the
fourth attempt of this people to regain the
rights of which they had been deprived by
the usurpation of Nunez. The rejection of
the canal treaty by the Bogota congress
was the final and overwhelming injury to
the interests of Panama; the conclusive
evidence OF indifference to her welfare and
disregard of her wishes: and it also Gre
ated the opportunity for success in her
persistent purpose to regain civil liberty;
for it was plain that under the strained re-
lations created by that rejection the Unit
ed States naturally would not exercise her
authority again upon the isthmus, as she
had exercised it before, to aid the troops of
Colombia
Real Owners of Canal Route
1.-THE people of Panama We're the real
owners of the canal route; it was because
their fathers dwelt in the land, because
they won their ind dependence from Spain,
because they organized civil society
there, that it was not to be treated as one
of the waste places of the earth.
"They owned that part of the earth's sur
face just as much as the state of New
| York owns the Erie canal When the SOW
ereign state of Panama confederated itself
| with the other states of Colombia under
| the constitution of 1863 it did not part with
| it's title or it's substantial rights, but con-
| stituted the federal government it's trus-
| tee for the representation of it's rights in
| all foreign relations. and imposed upon
| that government the duty of protecting
them.
The trustee was faithless to it's trust;
| it repudiated it's obligations without the
| consent of the true owner; it seized by the
strong hand of military power the rights
which it was bound to protect: Colombia
| itself broke the bonds of union ard de-
| stroyed the compact upon which alone de-
pended it's right TO represent the owner of