Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1914-07-02
DU BOTS CLASHES
WITH ROOSEVELT
OVER COLOMBIA
Ex-Minister Asserts $751;
600, 900 Is Just cIaim-Black-
mail Charge Untrue.

James l. DUBOIS, WHO was Juileu
States minister to Columbia under
the Taft administration, takes issue
with the views recently expressed by
Colonel Roosevelt and explains his
own reasons for supporting the
treaty. He also analyses the treaty
at some length. Regarding his diff
ference with Colonel Roosevelt on
this subject Mr.. Dubois expresses re-
eret at opposing "a great leader
whose fortunes / devotedly followed
for ten years" and states that mo
man will tolerate the thought that
any Of Colonel Roosevelts acts was
inspired BY tainted motives, but no
man is always right.
Negotiations for a treaty during
the Taft administration failed, he
says. because his instructions. out of
excessive care not to impugn the mo-,
lives Of President Roosevelt in TAX
ing Panama. failed to give Colom-
bia sufficient justice. The pending
treaty, he believes, should be heart
ily approved by the American peo-
pie.
Taking issue with Colonel Roose-
Welt regarding the character of the
public men in Colombia, Mr.. DUBOIS
declared that they compare well with
the nublic men of other countries in
intelligence and respectability, in
stead of being "blackmailers and
bandits" Quoting Mr.. Roosevelts
declaration that the people OF
Panama were a unit in demanding
The revoltion. he SAYS "a handful of
men. who were to be the direct bene-
ficiaries of the revolution, conceived
il and not the hundredth part OF the
inhabitants of the isthmus knew OF
the revolt until an American officer,
in the uniform of the United States
army. raised the flag of the new re-
public
Regarding the acting President,
Marrouuin. whom he quotes Colonel
Roosevelt as describing as AN abso-
lutte and uncontrolled dictator, MI
Dubois says:
He was a helpless and hapless olc
man. placed in the midst of great ma
tional unrest and disorder at tn"
close of the most disastrous civil war
in the history of Colombia. He was
not in accord with the congress and
the congress was alive with dtscorq
and five millions of innocent and
hapless people saw the true interests
OF their country destroyed by the
selfish disputes of less than one nun
ared men. II Theodore Roosevelt
had realized the true situation in Boz
gotta at that hour he would have re-
Enforced his patience with sympathy
for that helpless people who had
been for a hundred years our best
friends south of the Rio Grande.'
The claim made by Colonel Roose-
Welt that the Colombian treaty is a
matchmaking agreement is dealt with
hv Mr. Dubois in his Interpretation
Of the document.
Dubois Fathered Regret"
'While negotiating for q treaty
made the Colombian authorities un-
dersland that under no cireum-
stances would the United States
fpofUgfse- 10, any nation for political
act-that waSs our unwritten law that
never had been and never would be
broken. In purely informal CONVEX
stations, and in my unofficial memo-
fandum, | suggested that a chival-
rous expression of regret that our
friendship had in any way been
married, such as any real gentleman
would freely grant to another. might
later be embodied in the treaty as a
hahn for the wounded feelings of a
once friendly nation which had been
humiliated before the world, whose
credit had been destroyed in foreign
countries, whose borrowing ability
had been annihilated and whose per
sistent appeals for arbitration had
been ignored.
The opposition to this feature on
The ground that ii is an apology, is
not just and is not in the true in
ferests of the United States II the
Anglo Saxons are to live in harmony
with the Latins on this continent
they must treat them with absolute
Justice. just as we shall exact justice
from them"
Dealing directly with article III Of
The treaty providing a payment to
Colombia, which Colonel Roosevelt
attacked as blackmail. Mr.. Dubois
describes the claims of Colombia for
The unpaid annuities on the eession
OF the Trans Isthmian Railroad Com
pany, the reversionary rights in the
Panama Railroad and Panama's por-
ton in the Colombian national debt.
all of which in his opinion, should
be met by the United States.
''Under the contract of 1857" he
says, COLOMBIA coded the Trans
Isthn1ian Railroad Company to the
Panama Railroad Company for
period of ninety-nine years. and for
this she was to receive $250000 an
nually during the life of the contract.
At the time of the separation of
Panama there were remaining sixty
four annuities unpaid amounting to
SIG, 000, 900. The concession also in
sured to Colombia reversionary rights
in the Panama Railroad at the ex-
piration of the contract in 1867.
How CoIumbia's Claims Accrued.
1.-THE physical value of the railroad
shortly after the revolt, was placed at
claims that she is entitled to several
millions of dollars for that part of
her national debt incurred in the in
terests of Panama before the revou-
ton, a claim which was recognized IN
the treaty of 1909 made under the
Roosevelt administration Altogether
these claims total about $4,000 600"
Though Colonel Roosevelt asserts
that all of the civil rights, titles and
pecuniary interests of Colombia
passed TO Panama at the moment of
actual separation, Mr.. Dubois de-
clares that these rights had been
virtually recognized by the Roosevelt
administration itself Colombia" he
says, "by an agreement concluded in
1880, contracted a debt of $1,000 900
with the railway company amortiza-
BILE in twenty-nine years by the COM
pany's s250,000 annual payments. The
amortization actually proceeded and
the debt would have been liquidated
in 1909. - But, as the United
states prevented, by physical force,
the suppression of the instruction
on the Isthmus of Colombia six years
before the debt could be entirely
paid, and never attempted to exact
the six missing installments of the
amortization, they recognized Colom-
bias right of ownership.
"These and other material claims Of
Colombia says Mr.. Dubois, Justify
the Naturalization articles of the
treaty, to say nothing of the tremend-
Gus territorial loss and humiliation