East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current, 1914-04-02

communications, whether by canal or
railway. across the Isthmus which
connects North and South America.
and especially to the interoceanic
communications, should the same
prove to be practicable, whether by
canal or railway, which are now pro-
posed to be established by the way
of Tehauntepec or Panama"
This treaty was hailed at the time
as notable victory for American d.
plomacy. 1t ended all American mis-
givings as to the objects Of the Brit
ish policy on the Mosquito coast. and
1t was regarded as more favorable to
American than to British interests.
The United States was not prepared
to build a canal, and 1t was well sat-
isfied to have any canal that might
be built subject to the joint protec-
tion of the two English speaking ma
tions
After ratification the treaty went
to sleep, and for many years neither
ne United States nor Great Britain
manifested further interest in the
subject Of trans-Isthmian canal ex-
cept IN an academic way
Finally de Lesseps appeared upon
the scene and the question became
acute again. Hayes. who was then
president, declared that any canal
ought to be under American control
and the line of that canal should be
considered "a part of the coast-line
of the United States" A house COM
mittee reported a resolution March
8, 1880, that the United States was en-
titled to control any Isthmian canal
and authorizing the president to ter
inmate any treaty conflicting with
that principle. The resolution was
called up for the second time March
3, 1881, and failed to pass. Congress
thus refused to abrogate the CLAYTON
Bulwer treaty.
Garfield modified Hayes coast-line
dictum into an assertion that we did
not seek peculiar or commercial
privileges in any commercial route"
Frelinghuysen, who was Arthur's Sec
retary of state, undertook to put the
Cayton-Buwer treaty to the test and
negotiated treaty with Nicaragua
for the construction of canal entire
ly under American control. One OF
Cleyeland's first official acts after he
became president in 1885 was to with
draw this treaty from the senate.
/ The Spanish-American war made
the canal question a vital issue in
American politics, and John Hay, then
secretary of state, undertook to bring
about modification of the Clayton
Bulwer treaty. The first Hay -Paunce.
fote treaty was amended by the SEN
ate, much to Secretary Hays mortifi.
cation. A new compromise treaty was
then negotiated "to facilitate the con.
struction of ship-canal to connec,
the Atlantic and Pacific oceans b,
whatever route may be considered ex.
pedient," and to remove any OBJ.
lection which may arise out of tn,
convention of the 18th of April, 1850
commonly known as the Clayton Bull
wer treaty, to the construction O.
such canal under the auspices 70 tn,
Government of the United States
without impairing the general prin
. oiple of naturalization established il
; Article XIII. of that convention"
| This treaty, which was received a.
another brilliant achievement in Am
erican diplomacy, provides that:
The canal shall be free and opel
to the vessels of commerce ani O
war of all nations observing thes
: rules. on terms of entire equality. S,
, that there shall be no discrimination
against any such nation, or its citi
zens or subjects in respect of th
conditions or charges of traffic. o
otherwise. Such conditions an,
charges of traffic shall be lust an,
, equitable
If ever language was ciear. this Ian
! guage is clear. If this clause doe
does not mean what it says, it mean
nothing. Indeed. the whole histor
of the treaty relations between tn
United States and Great Britain in re
spect to an Isthmian canal goes t.
prove that such provision, evel
/. though 1t were as clumsily drawn a
this provision is plainly drawn. coul,
not mean anything else. Until tn
ccastwise-shipping monopoly saw
chance to grab million dollars or s,
a year at the expense of the nation
r al treasury ana of the national homo
, nobody ever pretended that it mean
> anything else.
Mr.. Hay is dead and Lord Paunce
= fote is dead; but Joseph H. Choate
, who was American ambassador t,
Great Britain helped negotiate tn
treaty, is still alive. No other livin,
man is so well qualified to give tes
timony as to the meaning Of this pro
vision, and this is what Mr.. Choat
says:
'As the lips of both these diplo
, matists and great patriots, who wer
, true to their own countries and eacl
: regardful of the rights of the other
( are sealed in death. think that |
l is proper that l should say what
: think both of them II they were her
today would say-that the clause il
the Panama Toll act exempting coast
A wise American shipping from the pay
I ment of tolls is in direct violation o
the treaty.
y Il venture to say that in the Who'll
1 course of the negotiations of this par
ticular treaty. no claim. no sugges
! ton, was made that there should b
any exemption of anybody"
: The whole civilized world is agains
r the United States on this issue. A
] Senator Lodge says. we are threaten
] ed with the stigma of an outlaw ma
til - A..