Greene County herald. (Leakesville, Miss.) 1898-current, 1904-01-08

ton of guarantor of the canal and Of
its peaceful use by all the world. The
guaranty included as a matter OF
course the building of the canal. The
enterprise was recognized as respond
ing to an international need; and il
would be the yeriest travesty on right
and justice to treat the governments
in possession of the Isthmus as having
the right, in the language OF Mr. Cass
to close the gates of intercourse on
the great highways of the world, and
justify the act by the pretension that
these avenues of trade and travel be.
long to them and that they choose to
shut them"
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 private enterprise, the time for
permitting any government of anti
social spirit and of imperfect devel-
opment to bar the work, was past.
The United States Had assumed in
connection with the canal certain re-
sponsibilities not only to it's own peo.
pie, but to the civilized world, which
imperatively demanded that there
should no longer be delay in beginning
the work.
Second. While it was settled that
the canal should be built without un.
necessary or improper delay, it was
no less clearly shown to be our pur-
pose to deal not merely in a spirit of
justice but in a spirit of generosity
with the people through whose land
we might build it. The Hay-Herran
treaty, II it erred at all, erred in the
direction OF an over-generosity toward
the Colombian government. In our
anxiety to be fair we had gone to the
very verge in yielding to a weak ma
tion's demands 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-Herran treaty were
for having granted too much to Colum-
bia, not for failure to grant enough.
Neither in the Congress nor in the pub
lie press, at the time that this treaty
was formulated, was there complaint
that it did not in the fullest and am.
plest 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 gen
erously responding to the pecuniary
demands of Colombia, in other re-
speets merely provided for the con-
struction of the canal in conformity
with the express requirements of the
act of Congress OF June 25, 1902. by
that act, as heretofore quoted, the
President was authorized to acquire
from Colombia, for the purposes of the
canal, perpetual control of a certain
strip of land; and it was expressly re
quired that the control" thus to be
obtained should include jurisdiction"
to make police and sanitary regula-
tions and to establish such judicial
tribunals as might be agreed on for
their enforcement These were condi.
tions precedent prescribed by the Con-
gress; and for their fulfillment suit
able stipulations were embodied in the
treaty. 1t has been stated in public
prints that Colombia objected to these
on the ground that they
involved REIMBURSEMENT of her SOW
ereignty''; but in the light of what has
taken place, this alleged objection
must be considered as an afterthought
In reality, the treaty, instead of re-
quiring eession of Colombia's sover
eighty over the canal strip, expressly
confirmed, and pre-
served her sovereignty over it. The
treaty in this respect simply proceeded
on the lines on which all the negotia-
tions leading up to the present situa-
ton have been conducted. In those
negotiations the exercise by the
United States, subject to the para
mount rights of the local sovereign,
of substantial control over the canal
and the Immediately adjacent terri
tory, has been treated as a. fundamen-
tai part Of any arrangement that might
be made. 1t has formed an essential
feature Of all our plans, and its neces-
sity is fully recognized in the Hay
Pauncefote treaty. The Congress, in
that such control should be
secured, adopted no new principle.
but only incorporated in its legislation
a condition the Importance and pro-
priety OF which were universally rec
ognized. During all the years of me-
gotiation and discussion that preceded
the conclusion of the Hay-Herran trea-
ty Colombia never intimated that the
requirement by the United States of
control over the canal strip would
render unattainable the construction
of a canal by way of the Isthmus or
Chartered Special Train.