The Sentinel=record., 1914-06-25

in consideration of this treaty we
 abandoned negotiations with Nica-
 ragua. We acted in good faith and
 the course of action we thereby en- tered upon was conditioned upon their proposal, their promise. It was our right and also our duty to our
 own people and to the rest of the
 world to exact the performance of this promise.
 For four hundred years there had
 been conversation about the need of the Panama canal. The time for fur. ther conversation had passed, the time to translate words into deeds had come. If l had followed Presi- dent Wilson's policy of 'watchful
 waiting it would have insured half a century of additional conversation and the canal still would be in the dim future, and it Is only because the then administration acted precisely as it did act that we now have the Panama canal"
 Colonel Roosevelt said that until the present treaty negotiations were entered into he did not believe it pos sible that an American adminstra- tion would thus betray the honor and interest of the American people by
 submitting to blackmail.
 Colonel Roosevelt says he has no
 quarrel with the people of Colombia and does not question their fine pri-
 vate qualities" But" the statement continues, unfortunately in interna-
 tional affairs a nation must be judged
 by the government that speaks for it."
 Colonel Roosevelt, mentioning the
 proposal of the Colombian govern ment to confiscate the property Of the French government in Panama for which the United States had of
 fered to pay $40,000,000, said it sim
 ply was scheme on the gart of Co- lombia to get $40,000000 from us.
 Incidentally" Colonel Roosevelt continued, q would call the attention
 of President Wilson and Secretary
 Bryan to the fact that this $40,000.000
 represents the exact sum which Co., lombia lost when the United States government of that day refused to submit to blackmail. They now only
 propose to pay 25.000,O00 blackmail. They had better make the job thor
 Ough while they are about it and give
 the whole forty millions. Otherwise they will still leave an opening for hotion by some future administration tof similar ability towards foreign powers that have sought to wrong Us. As president, l declined to allow llUncle Sam to be blackmailed. Presi- dent Wilson now desires the black
 mail to be paid. His attitude can be liillustrated by a hypothetical case. lThe present administration has, with regard to Mexico, pursued a course wavering between peace and war. ex- quisitely designed to combine the dis |iadyantages of both and feebly tend ing first towards one and then to- wards the other. Usually it has per mitted free ingress of arms into
 Mexico, however, it has undergone Bpasms of understanding that these arms might ultimately be used against our own troops.
 It has then prohibited the landing of arms, sometimes wabbling back again to it's original position. as when it took Vera Cruz to prevent the land ing of weapons and munitions of war and shortly afterward permitted the very same arms and munitions to be landed. Well, if some future admin
 istration of similar views on interna- tional relations should offer Mexico Twenty-Five million dollars as atone 'ment for intermittently refusing to allow the landing of arms that might be used against our own people, it would be behaving precisely and eX- actly as President Wilson's adminis- tration is behaving about Colombia. "The conduct of the United States government throughout the entire proceeding which resulted in the ac- quisition of the canal was open and
 straightforward, absolutely in accord lance with the principles of the high Eest international morality. Only by acting precisely as we did act could live have secured the right to build | the Panama canal. It is hypocrisy to | claim credit for the canal and at the ! same time to attempt to discredit the course which alone rendered the l canal possible. It will be a grave wrong to the republic, reflection on l the honor of this nation in the past and a menace to it's interests in the future, if this treaty for the belated payment of blackmail is ratified at | Washington"
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