The Savannah morning news., 1904-10-25
CANAL OR COLONY,

! out of the way Secretary of War Taft
is going to Panama as the representa-
! tive of President Roosevelt for the
| purpose of endeavoring to convince the
| government and people Of that country
| that what the United States desire on
the isthmus is a canal and not col
ony. The Panamaians, it seems, have
reached the conclusion that the Hay
Bunau-V arilla treaty gave the United
| States not only canal site but colon
ial rights and privileges as WELL of
which the United States have not hest
tated to avail themselvess The admin
istration at Washington insisted that it
must be IAN American canal under
American CONTROL" and Secretary of
State Hay proceeded to write into the
treaty such specifications and details
of authority ceded to the United States
by Panama as would insure the COM
plete domination of the canal zone by
the American government. And NJ
Bunau- Varilla, provisional minister of
Panama, having little if any other in
terest in the matter than to eff
feet the sale of the franchise and eff
fects of the old French company to
| this government, eagerly signed what
Secretary Hay had written, and re-
turned home to Paris.
The most valuable part of the new
republic of Panama lies within the
canal zone. a strip of ten miles, from
| ocean to ocean. ceded to the United
States for canal purposes. When the
Panamaians had recovered from the
delightful shock of receiving $4,000 900
| of American gold for their concessions
they began to canvass the situation to
see what they had given up along with
| those concessions: and what they dis
covered startled them. They had
counted on large customs receipts from
importations for canal work, but they
found the United States had establish
ed custom houses of their own and
stretched the Dingley tariff law to
cover the canal strip. They thought
their postal receipts We're going to be
swelled largely, owing to the official
and private correspondence that work
on the canal would bring about. The
Panama governments letter rate of
| postage is five cents. The Americans
had not been in the strip long before the
Panamaians found that they had
brought the American postal laws with
them and were selling letter postage
at two cents; and as a consequence the
Americans were doing all of the postal
business and the native establishment
was being starved to death.
The terminal cities of the canal are
Panama and Colon. Both are in the
zone coded to the United States. They
are the only municipalities of any con-
siderable consequence in Panama. The
Panamaians imagined that they would
be undisturbed in the exercise of polio,
power and the administration of jus
tice in these cities. But questions o.
jurisdiction have arisen that make Il
appear questionable whether the ma
tives are to have any voice in the ad
minlstration OF the affairs of the cities
For the foregoing and other reason.
the Panamaians are asking If II is no
the purpose of the United States t,
establish a colony in the midst of thei
republic. Secretary Taft is going dowr
to the isthmus TO reassure the peopl,
there. and Senior Obaldia, minister o
Panama at Washington. has hope
that the visit will result in the nego
tiation of a new treaty in which Pan
anna will regain some Of the rights anC
privileges that she apparently surren
dered in the Bunau-varilla treaty.