The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1904-01-27
GUDGER THE MAN FOR THE OCCA
SION.
Washington Post.

Washington Post.
There is a certain fascination in this
report, set in motion within the past few
days, to the effect that our new Minister
to Panama has resigned and that Consul
General Gudger Will shortly be appointed
in his stead. We can quite believe that
it is merely the child of hope, conceived
in fond, appreciative hearts, and that peo-
pie have accepted it as true because 1t Is
50 beautiful and good.
But certainly such an outcome OF the
situation would be OF almost superhuman
propliety and happiness. Mr.. Buchanan,
after all, really had nothing to do with
Che delivery OF the infant republic, where
as Gudger has been Johnny on the spot
from the very beginning. The circum'
stance that Gudgar happened to be IN
this country when the babe was actually
bern is a mere detail. So was Buchanan,
if you come to that. As matter OF tact,
Gudger has had as much to do with it as
the members OF the junta themselves. Be
sides, he reached the bedside as soon rs
possible, and brought Admiral walker
along with him. If anybody outside OF
the State Department, and the group OF
New York and Paris philanthropists who
are too modest to push themselves Tor
ward just yet, and need not, therefore, be
considered-if anybody, we say, can clam
the place of wet nurse to the isthmian
founding Consul General Gudger is the
Camp by every right Of precedence and
zeal.
We have always felt that it was Z
mistake to appoint Buchanan to this
particular mission. A good man, no doubt,
and, all things being equal, a diplomat
of special force, he is nevertheless
stranger down in Colon, as things stanu
in the emergency. How is he to find THE
people of Panama. by what sign can he
distinguish the government from tire
landscape? Gudger would know. Gudger
could steer straight for the patriot band,
no matter in what lair it might be hud
died. For him TO deliver his credentials
were the easiest of easy things. But in
Buchanan's case there is difference,
and mighty serious and perpleXing one
Even money that he doesn't know wheth-
er to approach Major Black, L. s. A, CT
to hire a dark-hued patriot in breech'
clcuts to show him the way to the pal
ace This republic of Panama has been
80 sudden. The uprising people are SO
likely to have forgotten all about it. The
pursuit and capture of feas is so much
more in the nature OIL c4H urgent ald
pressing crisis-hoW can any new arrival
be sure that he has found the Panama
government when he encounters citizen
il white cotton drawers and a straw hat?
We haven't the slightest doubt that
Buchanan is at this moment wandering
about the streets Of Colon looking for the
new cabinet and wondering why he was
so careless as to leave his Persian in
sect powder at home.
1t may be that the original arrange
ment will stand-that Buchanan will con-
tinue to be Minister Plenipotentlary and
Envoy Extraordinary, and all the rest OF
it, while Gudger remains plain consul
general. In such an event, however all
We have to say is that the ethics and
proprieties OF the situation will have
been brutality ignored. What the admins
tration now needs in Panama is diplo-
matte representative who knows down
trodden patriot when he sees one, ana
can tell the difference between the lea@-
ers of mighty popular ebuilition and
the besotted minions Of stagnation and
sloth. And, speaking in that spirit, we
say again that Gudgcr-not Buchanan
is our man.