Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1914-04-10

ton ebout it. We undertook the work
ami have finished il TO the admiration
Of the world. 1t has cost US about 400
million dollars and many lives. No
other nation contributed a dollar. 1t
is built on the strip of land we ac-
CURED Of Panama over which we have
complete sovereignty. 1t has changed
the map of the world. Ii has doubled
the value ef our war feet. Ii has
chez pened transportation from the At
lantic &c the Pacific It's benefits VIII
be reaped by millions Of American cit
liens yet unborn. It is the greatest,
most wonderful and most costly piece
of engineering work ever undertaken.
II is an extra ordinary monument not
only to tie enterprise and strength
cf this country, but to the efficiency
of the departments Of the Govern
ment. which built It.
Reing Wiling that all nations should
use the canal on reasonable terms we
es.ablished certain rules and rates Of
tell, the charges being Sl.20 per ton
as against $3.50 in the Suez Canal,
which cost only ene-third as much as
ours and which pays 30 per cent div
idends, whereas, based On the highest
through our canal, the earnings will
not pay the cost Of operation let alone
a cent Of interest on the investment.
IN 1912 Congress passed q law eX-
ernpting our coastwise vessels from
the payment Of tolls. When this law
was proposed, as you know, England
made a protest on the ground that we
had no right TO exempt our own yes
sells from tolls under the so-ealled
Hay-Pauncefcte treaty Of 1901. The
matter excited great interest and was
discussed at length. After great de-
liberation the Congress passed the
law and established the principle that
we had right TO pass our coastwise
vessels through free, il we so desired.
Now England asks us to reverse that
action. President Wilson seconds the
request. A bill repeating the exemp-
ton of our vessels is introduced in
Congress- and with the powerful inftu-
ence of the President is passed by
majority Of the Democratic House. 1t
is now up to the American people.
What 90 you suppose their answer
will be- IT appears TO be up to the
Senate, but it win be discussed there
for months and meanwhile the people
can be heard. L. S. senators are
great and powerful factors in the gov
ernment, but henceforth they will be
elected by the people and not by the
LEGISLATURE. We may yet save the
country from this fatal surrender.
Would Change Whole Result.
The question of our coast vessels
paying tolls or otherwise is not very
important to the vessel owners, be-
cause there is by law no competition
with foreign ships and if ours pay
tolls in carrying freight through the
canal they will simply charge 1t to
the shippers and it would be distribute
ell between them and the consumers.
Of course our vessels could pay Tolls
and the government could return them
in the form of subsidies, exactly as
England does in the Suez Canal, wnlch
would accomplish the same result as
free tolls and which England could
not object to. Those things are not so
important. Ships and subsidies may
come and go; but If we once abandon
the right to pass our shipping through
there we can never recover IL. 10 re-
peal the law under the present CIR
cumstances admits that we hadn't the
right to pass 1t. III auiullS ibdl VIC
haven't the control over the canal.
II changes the whole result OF the
stupendous work, smashes the Monroe
doctrine and will change the history
of this country.
Outside the question of any treaty,
no man in America would vote IN IA
vor OF any limitation of our complete
control of our own canal bulit
by our own money, on our own land,
for the development of our own coun-
try What is the reason that England
claims the right to restrict our free
dom Of control? Why does the Presi-
dent and his large majority in the
House of Representatives question our
right TO let our own ships through the
canal on any terms we see fit? 1t lies
in a treaty we have made with Eng
land IN 1901, called the Hay-Paunce-
fete treaty in which we agreed that
"the canal shall be free and open to
the vessels OF commerce and or war
of all nations observing these rules on
terms of entire equality"
IT is claimed by England that this
includes our own vessels. If the
treaty. fairly construed, in the light
of all the circumstances, includes our
-1.a.A Il