The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-03-11
QUIET AT BoGoTA.

QUIET AT BoGoTA.
 All Is quiet at Bogota. Thereby hangs a tale if Washington gossip is to be ac- cepted. We know that Senator Morgan predicted that the sovereign people of Colombia would never. never tamey sub init without war to the gross indignity put upon them by the United States. They had a small army and small re- sources in the way of money to procure munitions of war. but they had the naughty pride of spaniards. a Castilian sense of honor and shielded by their mountainous. dense forests and engorged streams. they would so harass the Isthmians and the American army of oc- cupation that many years must go by before we could establish our hold upon Panama. Embittered pride. pestllence, nature herself were to do battle in the cause of the Colombians. Indeed such an event appeared more than probable Much weaker people and less proud have thrown themselves at a stronger race when these were looked on as shameless intruders and robbers. Japan has sprung upon Russia in this spirit and there Is little doubt this war would have come if the scales had been hung out of Heaven and had inclined in Russia's favor. The Japanese prefer annihIlation to base sub mission to Russia.
 All Is quiet at Bogota, however, the dispatches say. Tho reason for this the Washington gossip now gives and it is this. Tho trans-continental railways have been. as all know. steadily opposed to the building of any canal across the Isthmus. Their lobby had been able for years to delay and defeat. session after session. the proposition to adopt the | Nicaraguan route. Finally through the l dead weight of public opinion Congress was being driven to decision in favor of the Morgan-Hepburn bill and the lobby | with its back to the wall turned to Panama as a diversion. Senator Hanna was enlisted and a willing recruit he proved to be. Nothing more delighted his sense of statesmanship than to be- | friend powerful corporations with money | and votes. Led by him, the lobby bore down with all Its strength In favor of Panama against Nicaragua. That way there was more delay. for that way were greater complications. Between two suns. as 1t were Congress discovered they had been mistaken as to the advantages of the moro northern route. We are not saying Panama was not and Is not pre-
 
 about face in Congress we had to wit ness. A treaty Is framed and dispatched to the Colombian capital. Arrangements with the owners in France of the rights and property of the Panama Canal Com pany were speedily consummated. It looked as if the railroad people had over reached themselves Matters were nov | ing all too quickly. The lobby was transferred to Bogota. After a season of | strenuous labor there. the lobby to a man threw up their hands and with de- | jected ''havior and visage" returned to the United States, informing us through the Associated Press they had found themselves powerless to sway the de- Alterations of the patriotic Coombians Ten days later the treaty was all but unanimously rejected by the Colombian Congress. How was this marvel wrought In the absence of a vanquished and des- pendent lobby? The common theory has been that of a holdup for more money from the United States. The last gossip Is that the lobby left one and one half millions of dollars judiciously placed at Bogota. This the proud Congressmen of Spanish descent had securely in pocket and they might by rejection get still more. Then came tho coup at the 7 lsthmus. What were the patriots of Colombia to do? They had not had ) time to spend the railroads one and one. , half millions. They could only mako 3 wry faces and keep the peace
 1 If this Is not d true story 1t Is well in. : vented. It unlocks many mysteries ant . among others, why quiet reigns a Bogota.