The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1904-02-23
ELIHU ROOT AND EMORY SPEER
WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY SPEAKERS
They Addressed the Union League Club at a
Meeting Held at the Auditorium

Chicago, Feb. 22.-George Washing
| toms birthday was observed in Chi.
! cago to-day by the Union League Club
with two meetings at the Auditorium
/ Theater. one in the morning and the
/ other in the afternoon. A banquet
was given tonight to members of the
/ club. The principal service was held
in the afternoon, when Elihu Root,
formerly Secretary of War, delivered
an address on THE Ethics of the
} Panamanian Question"
Mr.. Roots speech was heard by an
audience that filled the Auditorium
/ Theater. He spoke, in part, as fol-
lows:
The Independence of Panama, the
grant to the United States of the right
TO construct the canal across the 18TH
mus, and the assumption by the United
States of the duty to construct the ca
nal and to maintain it for the equal
! benefit of mankind" he said, ARE ac-
complished facts. Nothing can do
away with them, unless it be some flu
ture war of conquest waged against
! the liberties of Panama, and at the
same time against the rights of the
United States held in trust for the
commerce of the world.
THE conduct of the United States
government in recognizing the indie
pendence of Panama, in making the
treaty, and in exercising police power
over territory traversed by the Pana-
ma Railroad and the partly construct
| ed canal, during the period of the revo-
! luton. has been severely criticised by
some Of our own citizens, who have
said, In substance, that in this bust
ness our government has violated the
rules of international law. has been
grasping and unfair and has. by the
exercise of brute force. trampled down
the rights of weaker nation. i'm vio-
lation of those principles of justice
which should control the conduct of
nations as of men,"
Mr.. Root presented his reasons for
saying that this criticism is unwar-
ranted. The stupendous fact that has
dominated the history and must con-
troll the future of the isthmus of Pan
anna" he said. sis the possibility of
communication between the two
oceans"
1.-THE Monroe Doctrine itself upon
which we stand so firmly" he recalled,
lis an assertion of our right for our own
interest to interfere with the action of
every other nation in those parts of
/ this hemis phere where others are SOW
ereignty or claim of sovereignty and
to say If you do thus and so, even by
the consent of the sovereign, we shall
regard it as an unfriendy act because
it will affect us injuriously. 1t is said
that the Monroe Doctrine is not rule
Of international law 1t is not a rule
at all 1t is an assertion Of a right
under the universal rule that all SOW
ereignty is held subject to limitations
in it's exercise arising from the just
interests of other nations.
by the rules of right and justice
universally recognized among men and
which are the law of nations the SOW
ereignty of Colombia over the Isthmus
of Panama was qualified and limited
by the right of the other civilized ma
tions of the earth TO have the canal
constructed across the isthmus and to
have 1t maintained for their free and
unobstructed passage"
Mr.. Root went at length into the
declaration of the Monroe Doctrine re-
iterated by President Polk, and the