Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-02-22
Says He Assails Graft Connected
With the Enterprise.
GOT HIS EVIDENCE IN PANAMA
Criticises Pending Treaties Whereby
Payment of $3.50, 900 Is to Be
Made to Colombia.

Asserting that his recent speech in the
House of Representatives relative to the
purchase by the United States government
of the Panama canal had brought upor
himself ''vilification. misrepresentation
and abuse almost without a parallel ir
the history of that body" Representative
Rainey of Illinois today delivered in the
House of Representatives a long speecf
in reply to the charge that the informa
ton upon which his remarks were based
was obtained from ''eX-cOnvlctS anC
blackmailers,'' this accusation having
been made openly in the House by Repre-
sentative Lowering of Massachusetts,.
Has Only Begun to Fight.
True loyalty to this great enterprise .
the representative said, means that you
must expose and denounce all kinds OF
graft in connection with it In order to
avoid the pitfalls in which the French
companies fell. and I propose to do this
whether it meets with the approval of the
next President of the United States or
not. l want to say to all those who are
spending so much time abusing me that
l have not yet commenced this fight.
have only trained my guns on some Of the
least Objectionable features in connection
with Panama matters.
did not attack the canal, but simply at
tackled the graft connected with the en-
terprise He asserted that Representa-
tive Lowering had not attempted to deny
single fact he had stated. but after
making his charges. proceeded to eulOgize
William Nelson Cromwell Il never heard
until he made his speech that any per-
sons were trying to get Mr.. Cromwell to
purchase any alleged evidence of the guilt
of Mr.. CROMWELL he said. Il knew moth
30 coll anU ctr
the democratic national committee until
the gentleman made his speech on this
floor"
Evidence Obtained in Panama.
Mr.. Rainey further stated that the evil
dence he produced In support of his
charge of graft in connection with the
buying of the canal nearly all was OBJ
tanned from Panama. Then he added:
THE attack I made was entirely unex-
pected and the next attack I make upon
unexpected by them when it comes"
Continuing, Mr.. Rainey said:
Mr.. Cromwell in the speech made by
him through Mr.. Olcott New York; has
seen fit to discuss HIS present efforts
to conclude a treaty between Colombia
and Panama, in which he refers to the
necessity for some contribution from
Panama to Colombia as her proportion OF
the public debt of Colombia
Referring to these as the proposed
Cromwell treaties Mr.. Rainey asserted
that Mr.. Cromwell proposes to so change
the Hay-Bunau Varilla treaty as to i'm
pose upon this country an additional bur-
den Of $1.2JOOO0.
Payment to Colombia.
And he proposes that this sum shall
be taken from our Treasury and paid.
not to Panama, but to Colombia. In adj
dition to that he proposes that for five
years after 1913 the s25O.OOO we agreed
to pay Panama shall be paid to Colon
bia direct. In other words. by the
treaties of which he Is so proud Panama
deprives herself for five years Of her
fixed source of revenue and consents that
it be paid to Colombia, and the United
contributes from its treasury $3.50. 600
and pays it to the treasury of Colombia.
l know of no precedent for Mr.. Crom-
wells treaties. No people In the world
after having successfully completed a
revolution have ever been called upon to
pay any portion of the debt, foreign or
domestic. of the country from which they
separated.
The situation Mr.. Cromwell is endeav-
oring to force by the treaties is that the
United States is to be required to increase
it's Treasury deficit and to pay to Colon
bia $1,2JOOOO: Panama impoverishes her
self by giving up the 81 ESQ 600 clearly be-
longing to her and gives up for five years
after 1913 the revenue we propose to pay
her. In return for this Panamans are to
be admitted to the lucrative positions on
the Canal Zone in our service and, ulti-
mately, in order to permit Panama to re-
coup her losses on account of the CrOm-
we'll treaties. she is to be permitted to
levy taxes upon the army Of Americans
and other employees we have sent to the
isthmus for the purpose OF building the
canal.
These treaties continued Mr.. Rainey
have already been approved by the ad-
ministration in this country. 1t remains to
be seen whether they will be ratified by
the general assemble of Panama and by
the Senate of the United States"