Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1912-02-29
PERIL IN TREATIES
Senator Lodges View OF
Pending Measures.
HIS REMARKS CAUSE STIR
Objects to Ratification of Pacts With
France and England.
PANAMA CANAL Is INVOLVED
In Address Before Senate Speaker
Declares Doubts Should Be Re-
moved by Amendment.
PANAMA CANAL Is INVOLVED

The perils of submitting to arbitration
questions which affect the vital policies
and problems Of the nation were out
lined in the Senate today by Senator
Henry Cabot Lodge, a republican leader,
and for fourteen years member OF the
foreign relations committee.
Some of the senator's references to the
relation of the Monroe doctrine to the
arbitration proposed in the pending trea-
ties with England and France caused
stir. He pointed to the reported efforts
Of foreign powers to obtain coaling sta
tions and harbors near the Panama canal,
and declared there was now afoot an
effort by foreign power to gain pos
session of Magdalena bay. on the Pacific
side of Mexico. Efforts had been made,
he said, to buy the Galapagos Islands Of
Ecuador, near the western end of the
canal.
One statement which held the close at
tention of the Senate was that those
who had hoped to profit more than $780,
CC0.OO0 by the HayHerran treaty of 1903
were ''even now struggling through as
sistants in this country. who mean to
share the spoil, to secure by arbitration
what they had failed TO obtain by black
mail and could not seize by violence"
treaty with COLOMBIA.
The Hay-Herran treaty was a conyen-
ton between the United States and CO.
lombia by which the United States was
to pay s1OCO0.0Oo for the Panama canal
route and a rent of $25O.OoO a year. 1t
was rejected by Colombia. The Panama
revolution followed. Colombia is now
pressing for an arbitration Of her claims
The strained situation Of eight years cii-
NAKED few days ago when Senior Os-
pima, the Colombian minister, published a
letter suggesting that Secretary Knox
might find 1t "inopportune'' to visit Co.
lombia on his coming tour Of Central
America Minister Ospina was promptly
recalled by his government.
The tolls to be charged by us in the
Panama canal which we have built at
our own expense, might be brought be-
fore tribunal wholly or partly COM
posed OF foreigners, to be fixed and de-
termined by Them" declared Senator
Lodge. Worse than this our title to
our own canal might be called in ques-
ton. Three successive Secretaries of
state have refused, and properly refused,
to submit our title to the canal to arbi-
tratfon, and now under clause 3 Of article
;. as l interpret 1t. we might be forced
to submit that title to The Hague court
or some outside tribunal.
The men who rejected the Hay-Herran
treaty because they hoped to extort more
tudH from us 1Oc tnolr own
use are even now struggling, through
assistants in this country who mean to
share the spoil to secure by arbitration
what they failed to obtain by blackmail
and could not seize by violence. Our
title to the canal or to our territory
anywhere is not to be dragged before
any arbitral tribunal for examfna ton and
determination. and nothing should be sub
scribed to by us which by any twis ling
could be construed into q promise that
we would submit such question to any
Judgment but our own.''