The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1904-01-06

and by the most cunning devices OF self
seeking and ambitious men, and by the
corruptions of vile men, whose vocation
1t is to gather wealth from the necessi-
ties of government and to make the no.
blest aspirations and hopes of the peo-
pie subsidiary to their frauds and cor
ruptions.
This they accomplished through COM
binations, distractions and schemes OF
blackmail.
We have encountered all these in our
honorable strivings to fulfil this great
national duty The willy Briton, sleep
less in vigilance and wise in forecast.
saw that we were preparing to cross the
sea with ships through dry land, and she
set herself across our path and held us
in check for fifty years. What we suf-
fered in that period it is useless now to
recount. In the time of waiting we grew
so strong that open opposition to US
by force became too dangerous to our
ancient kinsmen and Great Britain re-
tired apparently to gather the fruits OF
rich harvests at Suez, which she had
captured by strength, and she even be-
came our friend. She has so fallen in
love with us indeed that she gives us
encouragement In our raid on Colombia,
which is contra bonos mores, knowing
that Panama is a morass. In which our
strong limbs will founder and we will
sink like mastadon mired in a quick
sand.
If she looks at all, 1t is scarcely with
pity upon the hecatombs of laborers that
we will sink in that canal route, that is
well called 1.-The ditch of death" She
will not weep with us when we have found
that blind and reckless enthusiasm has
turned to national grief at the sudden
rush of the Chagres, when 1t will sweep
away the key of the cana1-the Bohio
DAM
We can outlive her pity and move on
other routes as we have outlived her OPP
position, but it will be costly.
France essayed to rid herself of a body
of death that she had created to take
the honors that belonged to us. but the
Panama canal died on her hands, and
France has been so long chained to its
cadaver that she is supplicating us to
relieve her of its pressure.
De Lesseps had been here, and had dis
tributed great wealth among the bankers
and easy-going officials in high places.
who learned that the presence of the
agents of the Panama Canal company
among us, old or new, was a certain in
dication of pay dirt"
These always welcome universal bank
ruptcy in markets and morals when they
are not caught in the fall, and they sur
render at once and at discretion. The
seed planted by De Lesseps, which cost
him the recorded degree of a convicted
felon, and is a bar sinister on the es-
cuteheon on one of the worlds foremost
benefactors, still terminates among us.
and our bankers and corruptionists of
high and low degree still dig around the
deadly crop in search of the pot of gold.
If they find 1t, they are glorious and i'm
mune from the singing arrows Of public
opinion, and that hope justifies the effort
and condones the disgrace.
These hosts are upon us now. McFSia-
ley's great policy has fallen beneath their
blows after he passed away. 1t lives in
our laws, but have we the vital force and
courage to enforce it? His successor fol-
lows this posthumous child of De Lesseps,
which bars the way to true American pro-
gress and still keeps closed the western
gate with wars and rumors of wars.