The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1904-01-31

quire title thereto within reasona ole
time" The circumstances anteccdent t.
and eontemporaneous with this expression
of preference show that it was intended
! that this preference should be treated as
vital, the only condition of defeasancc
| being the failure to acquire title in reas-
onable time.
Manifestly, Mr.. President. by reason
able time as used in this act is not
meant the reasonable time of the court
house. That phrase when used in litiga-
| ticn, in civil controversies and transac-
tions between man and man has to do
with the recurring terms of the courts
and must be interpreted in the light of
the universal principle of swift pustice
and its corolIary, a speedy trial.
The phrase "reasonble time" used in
connection with this great transaction.
which considered in relation to the grea
transactions of the world today is easily
the greatest, the consummation of which
after half a century negotiation is still
in the future in which all civilized man
kind are profoundly interested, must be
interpreted in view of the supreme i'm
pcrtance of the subject t-matter and the
slowness with which nations move in mat
| ters of such high import.
| So interpreted, I cannot believe there
was no such lapse Of reasonable time
as would have made it the President q
duty to turn to the alternative route des-
/ lgnated in the statute. ! think that no
one will contond that the President
should have abandoned hope-broken or
negotiations and gone to Nicaragua
while the Colombian Congress was yet
in session and in any manner whatever
considering the treaty, and this did not
happen, as l understand, until the lat
ter part of October.
But, putting aside and out of eonsid-
Grafton the fact that a call had then
been issued for an early extra session OF
Congress, and putting aside and out of
consideration the Presidents claim tt
he thought, in view of this fact, it was
his duty to wait and refer the whole
matter back to Congress- the President
s.izl,ew, as everyone knew, that Colon bia
really and earnetly wanted the canal;
that if anything, she was more anxious
that it should be constructed across the
lsthmus instead of Nicaragua than we
ourselves. He knew that the secret mo
tive OF Colombia's tortuous and dilatorJ
diplomacy toward the treaty was directed
to coercing the canal company into pay
ing her for consentIng to the sale of its
concessions to this Government. He knew
that the property of that company would
become utterly worthless f the canal
went elsewhere, and in these circumstsn-
ces he might reasonably have concluded
that mutual interest in the spoils would
bring these traffickers together, and that
either Colombia, with the canal and ten
millions at stake, would abate her de-
E'and against the canal company or the
canal company, rather than lose its only
possible purchaser would yield to the
demands of Colombia, and that in this
manner and within reasonable time
the way might be made clear to give ef-
feet TO the preference expresses in the
Spooner law for the isthmian route.
But Mr.. President, let me return to
the recital of the facts of the case
Some time during the month of March
1903, the President presented to the Sen
ate a convention known as the Hay
Herran treaty, duly signed by the .ac
credited representatives of this Govern
ment and Colombia, granting to the
United States, on certain conditions and
terms not inconsistent with the Spooner
law, an easement to build canal across
the Isthmus. That convention was rat
fled by the Senate, although if all tho
Senators who voted for the Nicaraguan
route had voted against it, it would have
failed of the two-thirds vote necessary
for ratification.
l assume that those Senators who pre-
fcrred the Nicaraguan route voted to rat
ify the Hay-HerTan treaty not because
they liked it, not because its terms were
satisfactory to them, for. many OF
them some of these terms were notor1>
ously Objectionable, but because they
thought it was their duty to aid the Pres
ident in carrying out the law and VIII
of the majority as it was written in that
law. This convention was -eJected by
Colombia and for that reason became in
operative.
The President now presents to the
Senate another treaty, known as the
Hay-Varilla treaty, accomplishing the
same purpose as the one with Colombia
which has already been ratified by the
other contracting party, and therefore
cnly needs our ratification to make 1t
effective. With this ratification the hos
tile interests both in this country ana
abroad which have so often circumvented
our efforts to secure canal in the past,
which perhaps brought to naught our