The Savannah morning news., 1904-01-02
LEADERS INTERESTED
IN PANAMA'S FUTURE
This Interest Does Not Extend to the Great Body
Of the Indifferent People of the Isthmus.
BY MERRILL A. LEAGUE
Special Correspondent of the Morning News

ma, the junta and the cabinet and ali
others connected with the new order
of things on the isthmus are bestir-
ring themselves. They now declare
that within forty days from this writ
ing the details of organization will
have been disposed of, and everything
will be in readiness for the Inaugural
ton of the first president and the as
sembling of the first representative
congress.
Manipulation Is Necessary.
This is the determination of the men
who control, but it must be difficult
for an American at home to under
stand exactly how they propose to re-
alize upon it. One thing they have
done which will aid them in their pur-
pose is the decision to have the dele
gates to the constitutional convention
CHOSEN by the various municipal coun-
ellis in the several provinces, instead
OF by a popular election. This decf-
sion is certain to be misunderstood
In the states, for it bears all the ear
marks of a scheme to railroad
through plan fostered by bosses, .
instead of enabling the people to free
~ and unrestrictedly express their
WILL To the man on the isthmus, how
ever, the situation is plain; and it
may be taken as a fact that the di-
rectors of the republic have done the
pest and only thing possible for them
70 40 under the circumstances.
The explanation for this seeming
~ anomalous procedure in what pre-
TENDS to be republic lies in the fact
that the masses of the Panamaian
populace are wholly untitled to WELD
the ballot. Panama is peopled bv
INDIANS, native Colombians, negroes.
Chlnese and foreigners of all races and
classes. The population, save among
the very limited number of upper
CLASS people, is essentially a tatterde-
mallon aggregation-a "no-name" peo-
pie, traceable to promiscuous and
long-continued intermarriage of the
races. 1t is no uncommon thing to
see six or seven shades of color in
one family, while brothers and sisters
play together oblivious of the incon-
guilty offered by the presence of one
child with slant eyes, another black
hued, but with pigtails, and still an
other of yellow skin and kinky hair
grated on one family tree.
nalIOt and Semf-RepresentatiO
10 ask this population to vote on so
important question as choosing dele
gates to frame a constitution would be
inc committing the decision on a Ques-
uon of paramount Importance to a
BODY of imbeciles. The males in this
aggregation voted during the Colom-
pan regime, but elections then were
held with the polls manned by armed
soldiers, the only duty of the voter
being to take a ballot from a soldier
ana deposit it in a box. That method
IS to be abolished under the republic:
hence it is impossible to intrust a vital
issue to an uneducated unframed and
inexperienced rabble.
Another reason for this decision Is
that the population is almost entirely
concentrated in the cities and towns.
Thus in the province of Panama, PAN
anna is the chief city and embraces the
great majority of the people in the
province. In the province of Colon,
Colon occupies the same relation. In
Bocas del Toro it is the City OF Bocas
del Toro; in Chiriqui the cities of
Chiriqui and David; in Los Santos, the
City of Los Santos, etc. 1t follows,
therefore, that IL the municipal coun-
ellis of these several cities were prop
erly chosen in the first instance-and
they We're chosen according to the Co
lombian rule of selection In elections
that they are practically representative
bodies. They stand for the people OF
these cities. and consequently for the
people IN the provinces in which they
are located.
Tut even more potential than these
conditions in determining the control