The Washington herald., 1911-02-19
The Canal and Asiatic Trade.

The Pan-American Conference, re-
Gently in session in this city, did not
find IT necessary to discuss the relation
of the Panama Canal to the development
of our South American trade That was
a subject understood and accepted by all
delegates. The conference, however,
might well have considered a few ques-
tons as to the effect of the opening of
the canal upon our Asiatic commerce.
Since, in 1873 Nunez de Balboa first
sighted the Pacific, the idea of cutting
through the neck of land dividing the
two oceans has engaged the attention of
seafaring men. 1t was in the COS that
William H. Seward made his prophecy
that "the Pacific Ocean, its shores, its
islands, and the vast regions beyond, will
become the chief theater of events in the
worlds great hereafter" The opening
OF the Panama Canal will be the latest
of the incidents which mark the new
era in which the influence Of an awak-
ened Asia will make itself felt. and in
which the part to be played by the
United States is still matter of conjec-
ture. 1t is siXty-four years now since the
United States became a Pacific power
by the conquest of California. and only
forty-four years since, by the purchase
nf A1,Cl-, 3,,I &Ia p, l. IL.
territory of this republic reached to the
North Pacific, thus getting closer to
Asia. Since then Hawaii has become
OUTS, together with the great outpost of
Southeastern Asia, the Philippine Is
lands; so that twenty degrees below the
arctic circle and twenty degrees above
the equator the territory of the United
States is in close touch with the central
continent of the world.
If it is true that the principles and
motives underlying the assembling of
Pan-American conferences are found in
the Monroe doctrine, because they are
the logical result of the position which
that doctrine takes in regard to the
independence and interdependence of
the republics of the western henli-
sphere, it is also true that if the
expansion of the influence of the
United States has been pursued in ODE
dience to the call of manifest destiny,
it has been in and around the Pacific
Ocean. The United States has stood
for the principle of the open door in the
far East because any other policy must
lead to partition of the most
populous of empires and the richest of
all the undeveloped regions of the earth !
among the great powers of Europe, to
the exclusion of American influence and
enterprise. r---s-- -s-.7r,.--
President Roosevelt characterized the
Panama Canal as project of well-nigh |
incalculable possibilities. But it can1
only prove 50 if the ocean whose gate
way we are to open and to hold as, a
trust for the world is to be the scene
Of the rivalries of peace and not the
theater of war. The true danger to be
in the future of the Pacific
area, in which the influence of the United |
States ought to be a dominant factor,
is not only the peril of the military and
ambition of the white races,
but also the same ambition on the part
of the yellow men who arc accepting I
our culture
While the Panama Canal will be the
one gateway to the Pacific for the con-
tinuous carriage of freight, it is, after
all, merely an addition to the existing
doors of access Even after the canal
is completed main line for far Eastern
traffic viii be over the transcontinentaII
railroads, Across the isthmus of Tel
huantepee. a distance Of about I76 miles.
there is already in operation modern
railroad line. which IS said to be able