The Emmett index. [volume] (Emmett, Idaho) 1893-1925, 1912-12-26
AMERICAN GIANT
TO POCKET Them
French Authority Shows Why We
Must Take Little Republics.
SIGNIFICANCE OF THE CANAL.

SlGhlFlGAkCE Ut lit GAhAl,
In the Panama Waterway, Says Rondei
| Saint, Are the Elements of a For
midable Problem, Not to Say Con.
flict = Possible Clash Over Clipper
ton Island Held by French.
The Panama canal furnishes a text
for Rondet Saint, French authority
on political affairs, who makes a re
markable analysis of the United States
imperial policy and draws conclusions
that are being widely discussed in
Europe.
THE Panama canal was matter of
business with u.s." he says. For the
Yankees it is a matter of life and
DEATH"
He complains that insufficient impor-
lance is attached in France to events
now taking place in Central America,
where, he says, the United States is
moving, in the way foretold long ago
by all who gave themselves the trouble
to think and look ahead, in the carry
ing out of its policy of annexation.
This step he considers to be actuated
not by the luxury of Imperialism or
national ambition" but to be an essen
tial necessity. He says:
THE United States is pursuing two
aims-frst, by cutting through Pan
anna to insure the proper working of
its naval and merchant fleets of the
Atlantic and Pacific; second, to
strengthen pan-Americanism from one
end to the other of the new world IN
der the aegis of the great North Amer
lean republic"
Uncle Sans Capscious Pocket.
After setting forth recent events in
Panama. Colombia and Nicaragua the
writer continues:
THE United States is, according to
recent saying. like a giant who will
put In his pocket FIVE little children
the FIVE republics of Central America.
This event is almost mathematically
certain, and the rest of the world will
accept its accomplishment without pro-
test, since their interests in this par
hcular domain do not amount to one
tenth of the Yankee nations stake.
ct must not, however. be thought
that the question will be simple one.
1t is bound up with circumstances not
yet apparent. but profoundly troubling,
because inevitable and incalculable in
their consequences.
Il speak of the political. economic
and photographic barrier raised by
Mexico before the projects of the
Union
Here. then. is a serious considera-
ton But there Is another which
should be still more pressing in the
eyes of the Yankees. When the north
ern provinces of Mexico were annexed
the conquerors omitted. for some in
explicable reason. to take over the mar
row strip of land at the bottom of the
gulf of California, which joins north
ern California to the state of Sonora
The United States thus closed to itself
the outlet of the Sacramento basin.
which serves the whole southwest of
the Union. The outlet of this river.
so important. is a cul de
sac. the last American city in Arizona
being some distance from the hinter-
and. No Yankee expansion is percep-
No port has been created at the mouth
If this immense river, where mari
line metropolis would have command
ID the surrounding country and open
ID up the hinterland
Need the Gulf of California.
after the completion of the Panama |
anal will the United States consent |
to leave its southwestern |
states isolated from the sea and let |
he vast fiuvial network of the Sacra-
nento remain closed road when 1t |
hould be one of the most active vehi-
les of commercial movement of a
,reat part of the Union?
Moreover. the gulf of California
orms the natural access of the Unit
d States TO the canal and is also the
bvious route of the relations of the
United States with Central America.
lready partly occupied by it today.
I'VE have thus all the elements Of a
ormidable problem. not to say conflict,
7hich we should follow with particular
ttention, for our country is by no
leans disinterested spectator of the
ossible developments in that part OF
ne world"
The writer concludes his article by
yelling on the approaching impor-
lnce of Clipperton island. which. &C.
upied by the French when far from
ny trade route, will with the opening
the isthmus lie directly in the new
lrrents of the worlds traffic toward
lie east. The French occupation is
fective, he points out. since light
ouse. visible from fifteen miles, has
cen kept up for some time by the
rench government.
The fact that Mexico's claims to pos
SIS this island were entertained by
her nations and carried before The