Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1904-02-25
MONROE DOCTRINE AND TREATY
OBLIGATIONS FACTORS.
ROOT TALKS ON PANAMA
Of War Addresses Union
League Club of Chioaeo-Reviews
History of Canal-Classifies Gov
eminent Crities-New lnterpreta-
ton of Principle.

Chicago, Feb. 90. International
commerce, treaty obligations, the
operation of the Monroe doctrine and
the necessity Of protecting the para
mount interests of the American
people were the principal reasons as,
signed, for the recognition of the in,
dependence of Panama and the sign
ing of the canal treaty, by ex-Sec-
rotary Of War Elihu Root in an ad.
dress delivered at the Union League
club of Chicago yesterday. He re.
ceved at length the history of the
on the isthmus and the many separate
steps leading up to the canal treaty
with the new republic. He said:
"In considering the charges against
the United States government we may
well thrust aside as carrying no weight
If authority, the expressions of those
who, while they condemn the conduct
Of our government, are in favor of the
treaty. They curiously reverse the
divine rule, and seem to hate the sin,
ner while they love the sin; and their
adverse criticism may fairly be
ascribed to the exigencies of the pend,
ing presidential campaign Some of
them may be sincere, but upon that
question they naturally invite the
comment made upon Lady Macbeth.
that she might be lady, but she did
not show 1t by her conduct We need
not pay very much heed either, to
that class of tempermental and peren,
NAL fault-fnders whom we have and
always will have with us, as an in.
c!dent of free institutions, who are
against every government of which
they do not personally form a part,
and in whose eyes everything done by
others is wrong. This class of our
citizens, with slight changes in per-
sonnet, would have condemned any
course of conduct by our government,
whatever it was, and their condemna-
tlon or the particular course followed,
merely announces their existence
nevertheless, there remain good and
sincere men and women who have
thought our course to be wrong, and
many others, whose CT racter and
patriotism entitle them to the highest
respect, are troubled in spirit. They
would be glad to be sure that our
country is not justly chargeable with
dlshonorable conduct. May the time
never come when such men and wom-
en- are wanting, or are constrained to
remain silent, in America! May the
time never come when the conscience
OF America shall cease to apply the
rules of upright conduct to national
as well as to personal life! when our
governments feel absolved from the
obligation to answer in that forum for
conformity to the rules of right, or
when material advantage shall be held
to excuse injustice! For if such a
time ever does come, the beginning OF
the end of our free institutions will
have come also.
The stupendous fact that has dom
mated the history and must control
ne future of the isthmus of Panama
is the possibility of communication
between the two oceans. 1t is pos,
slble for human hands to pierce the
narrow forty miles of solid ea"tb
which separate the Caribbean sea
rom the bay of panama, to realize
the dreams of the early navigators. to
make the pathway to the orient they
Vainly sought to relieve commerce
from the tolls and perils of it's 5000
miles of navigation around Cape Horn
through stormy seas and along dan
gerous coasts with its constant burden
OF wasted effort and shipwreck and
loss of life, and to push forward by a
mighty impulse that intercommunica