The Clarksburg telegram. [volume] (Clarksburg, W. Va.) 1874-1926, 1911-10-12

aAtA AAA tl4GA SHbAllLsCuf aH SIdDVA ate
report thereon to Congress, would
have furnished the opportunity for
much mastery debate in Congress.
which would now be going on-and
the canal would still be fifty years in
the future.
The interests Of the American
people demanded that l should ac.
Just exactly as did act; and /
would have taken the action a tual-
ly did take even though l had been
certain that to do SO meant my
prompt retirement from public life
at the next election; for the only
thing which makes It worth while to
hoid;.a big office is taking advantage
Of the opportunities the office offers
TO do some big thing that ought to
be done and is worth doing"
Purchase Of Rights.
Concerning the purchase of the
canal rights from the French com
pany, Mr.. Roosevelt says:
Every step taken by the govern
ment in connection with its negotia-
tons with the French company and
the payment to its official representa-
tiyes in accordance with the agree
ment entered into was taken with the
utmost care, and every detail has
been made public. Every action taken
was not merely proper, but was car
ried out in accordance with the high
est, finest and incest standards uS
public and governmental ethics,
Doubtless in Paris. and perhaps to
lessor extent in New York, there
We're spectators who bought and
sold stock in the stock market with
view to the varying conditions ap-
parent from time to time in the
coure of the negotiations, and with
a view to the probable outcome of the
negotiations. This was precisely what
spectators did in England in con-
nection with the outcome OF the Bat
tie of Waterloo, and in our country
in connection with Abraham Lin
coins issuance OF the Emancipation
Proclamation and other acts during
the Civil war;
Concerning Columbia.
Concerning the opposition of Col
ombia, Mr., Roosevelt says:
q felt very strongly that the posi-
ton that the one-time secretary OF
state, Cass, had taken nearly fifty
years before, was the proper position,
and that the United States would be
derelict in its duty if it permitted
Colombia to prevent the building CT
the Panama canal. / was prepared,
if necessary, to submit to Congress
a recommendation that we should
proceed with the work in spite of
Colombia's opposition, and indeed had
prepared rough draft of a message
to that effect, when events ON the
Isthmus took such shape as to change
the problem.
THE people of Panama now found
themselves in position in which
their interests were identical with
the interests of the United States:
for the government of Colombia, with
aloborate care, and with a short
sightedness equal to its iniquity, had
followed out to its end the exact
policy which rendered it morally i'm
possible as well as morally improper
for the United States to continue to
exercise its power in the interest of
Colombia, and against its own in
terests and the interest of Panama.
There was no need Of an outsider
TO excite revolution in Panama.
There were dozens of leaders on the
isthmus already doing their best to
excite revolution. 1t was not a case
of lighting a fuse that would fire a
mine-thcre were dozens of such
fuses being lit all the time; it was
simply 4 case of its ceasing to be
the duty of the United States to
stamp On these fuses, or longer to
act in the interest of those who had
become The open and malignant foes
of the United states-and of ciyiliza-
ton and of the world at large
RoosevcIt's War Orders.
After detailing the various steps
taken by Colombia to oppose the
treaty, Mr. Roosevelt says:
Acting in view of all these facts,
! sent various naval vessels to tho
isthmus and, with that purpose, to
prevent the landing of armed forces
with hostile intent at any point with
in fny miles of Panama. These
/ orders we're precisely such as had