The Washington herald., 1914-06-25
Therefor. we were in honor bound to
build II ourselves.
"corrupt Greea,' he Cali. II.

- n
Therefore we were in honor bound to
build It ourselves.
"Corrupt Greed'' He Calls IL.
I'VE were in honor bound not to per-
NIT the great enterprise. so essential to
our own well being and fraught with
such usefulness to all the nations Of
mankind. to be arrested by the corrupt
greed OF q government. impotent itself
to build the~ canal, impotent to keep or
der on the isthmus or to preserve 1t
from invasion and from the dominion OF
any world power. and at the same time
so ignorant Of the feelings ofithe Ameri-
can people and OF this government as to
believe that they would tamely submit
to extortIon and blackmail
Until the present proposed treaty was
negotiated by President Wilson and Sec
retary Bryan l had not supposed that
ANY American administration would thus
betray the honor and interest OF the
American people by submitting 10 black
mall. but at any rate the Colombian gov
ernment was in error when 1t INDUCED
in such a supposition about my admin
istration."
No Quarrel with Colombia.
II have no quarrel whatever with the
Colombian people and do not question
their fine private qualities but unfor-
tunately in international affairs a nation
must be judged by the government that
speaks for II.
Then the Colombian government was
embodied in the person OF a single man.
dictator. with absolute executive and
legislative power. He had been elected
as vice president. After a short time
he seized the president and put him IN
jail. He then published an edict saying
that under the constitution, IL was his
right to assume all the executive powers
Of the government in the absence of
the president
He refused to permit Congress to as
semble. He then published another edict
reciting that under the constitution II
was his right to assume all of the legis-
lative powers In the absence of Con-
Gress.
The absence Of the President soon be-
came permanent rs he died in jail.
Year after year went by and still no
congress was allowed to meet. So elected.
the vice president continued as absolute
entire government, all power OF Colom-
bia- While this was the situation, he
not only embodying. but being the CO.
lombia government he negotiated the
canal treaty with US. Ten million dol
lars was the sum stipulated to be paid.
Merely One Mnn.
Remember that the Colombian gov
power which negotiated the
treaty, Was the same that ratified or
rejected Il: II was merely one man in
two different capacities. And il was
partly in consideration of this treaty
that We abandoned the Nicaragua
route.
But when We had thus committed
that is, the Colombian government,
change. ne decided TO try to get more
money from us.
He had absolute power TO execute
the treaty without the consent of his
a little later he offered TO
execute 1t without the consent OF con-
gress.
But in order to give him a pretext he
Congress- Congress that
carried out his orders without altering
them In the smallest particular, which dId
nothing whatever except reject the treaty
and then adjourn. One Of the speakers
assigned the real reason for their action .
with much frankness. We had agreed to !
pay the French company So.ooo.oOo.
.'Better Make 1t $4,000, 900"
The Colombian government, in def |
anCe OF It's own leglSlaliNe act, prOpOsel |
to confiscate the property OF the French !
so as thereby to be in a bet |
ter position to negotiate with us; in other |
words, be able to get this S400O0.OOo from |
US
Incidentally I would call the atten- |
ton of President Wilson and Secretary |
Bryan to the fact that this slO.Ooo,OOO |
represents the exact sum which ColOm- !
bia lost when the United States govern |
ment of that day refused to submit to
bIackman. They now only propose to
pay IS, 10000 blackmail- They had better |
make the Job thorough while they are
about II, and give the whole Sh,OoO,oOO
Otherwise they will still leave an
opening for action by some future ad- !
of similar mushy amiability I
toward foreign powers that have sought
to wrong u.s.
The former President looked in better |
health than when he arrived from Brazil /
IN May but he still shows traces OF the /
hardships he encountered on his exploring |
expedition in South America He handed /
put a long statement prepared for the |
press in which he dealt with the Mexi- /
can situation and the Panama Canal
question.
When told of the effort Of some Pro-
yressives to force George W. Perkins |
put of the party. Col. Roosevelt's eyes |
snapped and he replied:
IF they read George W. Perkins out |
n the party they will have to read me |