Newport weekly independent., 1904-01-08
SPEC|hL MESSAGE
 0N PANAMA CANAL
President Roosevelt Transmits His
 Views to Congress.
TREATY SHOULD BE RATIFIED
Says There Was No Complicity on Part Ot This Government in Revolution Charges Colombia with Greed
 All Interests Demand Canal.

velts special message to the senate on the subject of the Panama canal treaty treats largely of the Panama rebellion the in- cidents leading up to it and the part of the United States in it.
 He refers to the previous legislation au- thorizing the president to conclude a treaty with Colombia for the building of the canal, and if after a reasonable lapse of time it was found impossible to secure the necessary territory from Colombia to revert to the Nicaraguan route for the construction of the canal. The later alternative, he says, is now unnecessary. as the control of the necessary territory at Panama has been secured. Referring to the rejection of the treaty with Co., lombia by that nation, he says:
 This act marked the climax of the ef- Tort on the part of the United States to secure, so far as legislation was con- eerned, an interoceanic canal across the isthmus. The effort to secure treaty Tor this purpose with one of the Central American republics did not stand on the same footing with the effort to secure a treaty under any ordinary conditions. Under the Hay -Pauncefote treaty it was explicitly provided that the United States should control police and protect the canal which was to be built, keeping 1t open for the vessels of all nations on equal terms. The United States thus as- stunned the position of guarantor of the canal and or it's peaceful use by all the world. The guaranty included as a mat ter of course the building of the canal ine enterprise was recognized re- spending to an International need; and it would be the veriest travesty on right and justice to treat the governments in pos session of the isthmus as having the right to close the gates of intercourse on the great highways of the world, and justify the act by the pretension that these ave- HuSS Of trade and travel bel0nU them and that they choose to shut them.
 Position of United States.
 When this government submitted to Colombia the Hay Herran treaty three things were, therefore already settled
 one was that the, canal should be built. The time for delay, the time for permitting the attempt to be made by privat. enterprise the time for permitting 2 any government of anti-social spirit and or imperfect development to par the work was past The United States had assumed in connection with the canal certain re- ,pons.oiiiIies not only to it's own people, lively demanded that there should no longer be delay in beginning, the work:
 second-Wh nile It was settled that the canal should be built without unnecessary or improper delay, it was no less clear ly shown to be our purpose to deal not m merely in a spirit of justice but in spirit whose land we might build it. The Hay Herran treaty. if it erred at all, erred in Ai4t uiittl4OH OI all ONtT-RenerOStY to- wards the Colombian government in our anxiety to be fair we had gone to the very verge Tn yielding to weak nations de- mands what that nation was helplessly unable to enforce from us against our will. The only criticisms made upon the administration for the terms. of the Hay much to Colombia. not for failure to grant enough. Neither in the congress nor in the public press, at the time that this treaty was formulated, was there com piaint that it did not In the fullest and ampiest manner guarantee to Colombia everything that she could by any color of title demand
 Nor is the fact to be lost sight of that the rejected treaty, while generously re- spending to the lA cuniary demands of Co., lomb,a, in other respects merely provided for the construction of the canal in con formity with the express requirements of the act of the congress of June 2S, 1902 By that act as heretofore quoted. the president was authorized to acquire from Colombia, for the purposes of the canal, perpetual control of certain strip of land; and t was expressly required that include Jurisdiction to make police and sanitary regulations and to establish such for their enforcement. These were con- oitions precedent prescribed by the con- gress; and for their fullfllment suitable supulatlons were embodied in the treaty It has been stated in public prints that Colombia objected to these stipulations on the ground that they involved relin- NN.9hAisthA Ol llcI SoftISlSnlys put Tn the Eight of what has taken place, this alleged objection must be considered as an after thought. In reality the treaty, instead of requiring cession of Colombia's sov- ereignty over the canal strip, expressly acknowledged. confirmed, and preserved her sovereignty over 1t. The treaty in this which all the negotiations leading up 10 the present situation have been conducted Tn those negotiations the exercise by the united States, subject to the paramount rights Of the local sovereign, of a sub- stantial control over the canal and the immediately adjacent territory. has been treated as fundamental part of any ar rangement that might be made. It has formed an essential feature of all our plans. and its necessity is fully recognized gress. in providing that such control should be secured. adopted no new princi- ple. but only incorporated in It's egisla- ton condition the importance and pro priety of which were universally recog- mixed During 9S the years of negotiation sion of the HayHerran treaty. Colombia never intimated that the requirement by the United States of control over the ca- nal strip would render unattainable the construction or canal by y-of the lsthmus of Panama: nor were We advised during the months when legislation of 1902 was pending before the congress- that the terms which it embodied would render nee gotiaticns with Colombia impracticabis IL IS plain that no nation could construct with a less degree of control than was stipulated for in the Hay -Herran treaty refusal to grant such degree of control was necessarily refusal 10 make any practicable treaty at all Such refusal therefore squarely raised the question whether Colombia was entitled 10 bar the transit Of the worlds traffic across the tsthmus. '
 That the canal itself was eagerly de- manded by the people of the locality through which lt was to pass, and that the people of this locality no less eagerly ionged Tor US construction under Amer ican control, are shown by the unanim- ity of action in the new Panama repub- lie. Furthermore. Colombia. after having rejected the treaty in spite Of our pro- tests and warnings when it was In her power to accept it, has since shown the utmost eagerness to accept the same treaty if only the status quo could be re- stored One of the men standing highest in the official circles of Colombia, on No- vember 6, addressed the American min ister at Bcsota. saying that lf the gov ernment of the United States would land troops to preserve Colombian Sovereignty and the transit. the Colombian goVerl- ment would declare martial law. and by virtue of vested constitutional author fly. when public order is disturbed lwOuldl approve hy decree the ratifica- ton of the canal treaty as signed. or 1T the government of the United States prefers. lwouldl call extra session of the congress-with new and friendly mem