Bryan daily eagle and pilot. [volume] (Bryan, Tex.) 1909-1918, 1914-03-05
THE PANAMA TOLLS.


there shall be no discrimination
In respect to the charges OF traf'
fic." So runs rule / OF the Hay
Pauncefote treaty. And 1t is highly
creditable feeling on the part OF many
Americans, reflected by President Will
son, that we cannot afford TO be unfair
or unfaithful to our promises simply
because we happen to be strong.
Volumes have been published about
this matter OF tolls through the Pana'
ma Canal, but the biggest book would
be the one containing what the people
don't know about 1t. We are begin
ming to suspect. at least, that the coun-
try generally will not profit by the
free-passage provisions of the law
signed by Mr.. Taft under exceptional
conditions, and that the exemptions
in favor OF our coastwise traffic will
serve only to take expenses off the
shoulders OF the American shipping
combine. This trust is based largely
on a monopoly of wharfage and steel
mills and shipbuilding. With free
steel, free ore and the wharf-buiiding
activity OF cities like New York, Bos-
ton and the Pacific ports, competition
may spring up in our coastwise trade,
giving consumers, sooner or later the
benefits OF a free canal. But, as
things stand, the trust will get the
benefit of free passage, and the United
States will only operate cheap water
way for the great captains of industry
to make money by. This is probably
the Presidents view-part OF 1t.
The whole free.tolls proposition is
as impoltic as 1t Is scaly. We have
more to ask OF Great Britain in the
way of unrestricted navigation of our
intercommunicating waterways than
she has to ask OF us at Panama.
Canada is about to build the Georgian
Bay Ship Canal from French river to
Ottawa, twenty-five feet deep and ca.
pacious enough to carry the greatest
lake freighters or standard ocean-go-
ing tramps. This system will flank
our whole lake and interior basin COM
merce. The Erie Barge Canal is a
tadpole ditch compared with It, Ships
sailing from Chicago, Milwaukee. Du-
luth or West Superior will be able to
reach the ocean via Montreal by this
route, and that too, without breaking
bulk on the mileage II would take to
reach Erie, Pa, by the present route.
Canada will then command n com
merce far more important to us than
that of the Panama Canal. She will
have the whip hand of us TO an extent
quite as great as that which we can
get on Great Britain by wrenching a
treaty from its plain meaning. And
she will be able TO say: "You made
a treaty agreeing to let the ships OF
all Nations through the Panama Canal
on equal terms. You broke that treaty
by letting your own coastwise ships
through free and refusing the same
treatment to our coastwise ships
| Now Wen use our advantage in the
Great Lakes outlet" Our treaty as to
the Great Lake passages Is that they
shall be open to the shipping OF both
Nations on equal terms. But what
will that mean, once we begin playing
fast and loose with the words ION
equal terms?"
We are wrong in this matter, and
the sooner we get right the better
We are wrong, not only as regards
Great Britain and our relations with
Mexico Colombia (both a Pacific and
an Atlantic power), and Canada, but
also with Germany. France and Por
tugal. We are wrong with the whole
world. Our case is like that OF the
private citizen who had done some
thing that was denounced as criminal
"Creeminal!" repeated a Frenchwom'
an. "Creeminal! Eet is worse zan
creeminal. Tet is positively silly"
Falseness to obligations, or a
squirmy, wriggling, pettifogging atti-
tude toward them on our part cannot
be justified by "precedents." If Eng
land drove a sharp bargain with us
long years ago, that is today neither
here nor there. A bargain is a bar,
gain. We are too big to WEIGH. More.
over - and therefore - the country
should support the President in his
determination to repeal the contro'
verted Panama tolls arrangement
The Adamson Joint resolution should
he nassed by ConRress-and passed