Northern Wisconsin advertiser. [volume] (Wabeno, Wis.) 1898-1925, 1904-09-01
THE PANAMA CANAL.
OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES NO CRED
lTFOR PROPOSED WATERWAY.
Its Declarations Are Incorrect IN az
Least Two Particulars = Strenuous
Policy Advocated in Platform On
Which Buchanan Made His Race.

The Democratic platform undertakes
to make the party the guardian Of ma
tional and international honor by attack
ing the administrations Panama Cahai
policy. The platform says:
Our party having long and earnestly al
vccated the construction of an inter-
ocegar canal for. the purposes or nan"nai
defense and commerce between the .Ses
ard with foreign nations. we favor the
early completion Of the tsthmian calti "a
But. while making tins decardt.o ma
accepting the results as an accom-. sned
and irreversibe fact, We cannot too iarcl-
bly, xpress cur dsapproyal OF the 10y
DDS by which, in disregard OF the usaSes
and obligations Of international law ana
treaty obligations, the canal route has been
acquired. or too solemnly record our hope
that this precedent of defiant diplomacy
may never be used against US TO cur Ha-
initiation and injury.
If the Democratic party has ever ad-
v0cated the construction of an lsthinlah
canal its advocacy has been purely aca-
dcmic No Democratic administration
has ever taken step or lifted finger IN
that direction.
Democratic Platform of 1856.
AS to the question of methods the
party is on record in favor of the most
strenuous policy for the establishment
and maintenance of isthmian transit.
The Democratic platform of 1856, on
which James Buchanan was nominated,
contained the following:
Resolved, That the great highway
which nature, as well as the assent OF
States most Immediately Interested In its
maintenance, has marked out for free
communication between the Atlantic and
Pacific oceans, constitutes one Of the most
important achievements realized by the
spirit of modern times. In the unconquer-
able energy Of our people; and that re-
suit would be secured by a timely and
efficient eXertion of the control which we
have the right to claim over it; and no
power on earth should be suffered to I'M
pede or clog its progress by any inter-
ference with relations that may suit cur
policy to establish between our govern
ment and the governments OF the states
within whose dominions 1t lies; We can UNI
der no circumstances surrender our pre-
ponderance in the adjustment Of all ques-
lions arising out Of it,
When the resolution was adopted the
question of an isthmian canal was not
being agitated, as it never was IN any
practical way by the Democratic party.
The resolution refers to lie s:sssiatenance
of overland isthmian transit. which had
been interrupted by Nicaragua under a
pretense that her sovereignty was being
invaded. The resolution virtually asserts
the paramount right of tile United States
to maintain and control the transit route,
which was an important part of corr.
munication with California. against any
and all corners.
Buchanan's Message.
In his annual message of 1883 Presi7
dent Buchanan said the transit across
the sthmus was "a highway which
must be open to the world" ana that
THE commerce of other nations is not
to stand still and await the adjustment
of such petty controversies as hose
which Nicaragua had raised. The
government of the United States expect
no more than this, he added, and they
will not be satisfied with less.
These were brave and true utterances,
but no Democratic administration ever
did anything to make them good. Still
less did the Democratic party ever at
tempt to apply them to the construction
of an interocea canal 1t was left
for a Republican administration to do
that. President Roosevelt's Panama
Canal policy has moved steadily and
firmly towards assuring the construction
of the canal, and his methods have not
savored of a deficient diplomacy as much
as did those advocated by the Demo
cratic party in 1856.