Watauga Democrat. [volume] (Boone, Watauga County, N.C.) 1888-current, 1914-05-21
by buying up.a coptroling inter
est in the capital stock, Great

ny Dnylng up q cOptr0amR sMter-
est in the capital stock, Great
Britain secured the. management
OF that waterway 1t had aiwady
obtained Malta; Cyprus - nd
Gibraltar in the Mediterranean;
but tattergetting control Of the
canal, she also secnred Perrin, an
island at the Red Sea entrance,
and took possession ofEgypt.
Thus England secured theecon-
omical and political control Of
the Suez Canal, her main pur.
pose having been to use the canal
for the passage Of her warships
in cage Of war, while excluding
those OF her enemies. 1t is only
nominally neutral, IS Germany,
Russia, Franco, Italy and Aus.
tria will discover should the oc.
casion arise for the assertion OF
the fact that it. is neutral to the
extent Of restraining England,s
foes and all other nations, while
leaving her free to do as 8 b e
pleases with it and them.
When, therefore, the democrat
ic and progressives parties, in
their platforms of 1912, declared
for free tolls for the, vessels ofpur
domestic and coastwise trade, and
when the American people cast
14,72O, ,O37 votes for the randi.
dates for those two parties, we
were asserting our clear right to
manage a canal built by our own
money and on our own soil In
our own way. AS against these
affirmative votes, only 4,369,
800 were cast for,all other. par
ties having antagonistic orsilent
planks in their platforms on this
subject. But, as the democratic
platform contained also a
plank declaring against subsidies
to ships, and as free tolls would
be such a subsidy, the repeal oi
the free tolls act would not be
any denial Of our right to pass
and enforce such act, but only an
assertion that for our own reason
we do not wish to put it into ef-
feet at this time. This would be
equivalent to constituting the free
tolls plank into an assertion ol
our right to pass such an nc
whenever we SO desire whileatthe
same time insisting on theprinci.
pie that we oppose subsidies t q
shipping OF any kind.
England still owns all the land
in North America she owned wher
the Clayton-Bulwar treaty was
ratified, and while our title to tht
canal strip may be questioned by
Columbia, the countryfromwhicf
Panama seeded, we have pos
session, we have paid the price a
greed on, and have bought from
France all the rights and proper
ty it ever held in that enterprise
England can not dispute our tt
tie to the land, ,and indeed, sht
does not, for she at least has nc
,. possible claim to it. or any par
thereof. Our treaty negotiation
with Columbia, looking to t h,
! paymentof$15, 900. and express
ing regrets for what has happen
ed, will never be ratified by tn
Senate of the United States. w
shall stand by our purchase an
: treaty with Panama, which coun
try wehave recognized, land whic
has been recognized as q sovel
y eign nation by all the powers {
}, tho civilized world. Our it'll
therefore, is complete.
= AS our President, however
. placed his request for the repes
. OF the free tolls act squarely upo
y the fact that it is regarded by a
u nations as q violation of the Ha,
. Pauncefote treaty, we may b
y stopped from re-enacting it herr
9 after if the repeating act as
8 passed the House is not 60 d,
10 nended by the Senate as to sho
g that we thereby surrender nor
:, of our claims to manage an
= L