The Grangeville globe. [volume] (Grangeville, Idaho) 1907-1922, 1914-04-09

man question and the heated conten- |
.ane ,airp ON in congress. the follow
.oA' .r,,cle taken from the Portland
,hs a paper that has stood with
yo 'a.,aent Wilson and his administration
or almost every pohcy aoNoca'eu' VIII
No read with interest:
commend an American canal on
.a,or,can soil to the American peo-
President U. S. Grant.
The policy of this country is
-, under American control The
RATED States cannot consent to sur
sander this control to any Europ-
san power.--President Rutherford b.
Hayer.
uy. have built q canal 1t is AN
.ner,can canal on American soil, and
- supposed it was chiefly for the
.nerican people, in short, the kind of
canal commended by President Grant
Orr right to control it is disputed.
Great Britain says we have not the
light of free tolls, that we have not
Tho right to grant subsidy equivalent to
free tolls, that we have no right to
grant free tolls to the shipping of the
ronublic of Panama, that we had no
r,ebt TO make a treaty granting free
tolls to Panama, that we have no right
10 give our president discretion in fix
ing tolls on American ships, and that
n & doubtful IL we have a right to for
bd passage of railroad-owned ships
through the canal Though Great Brit
ain exercises all these powers in her
control Of the Suez canal, and though
she did not contribute one penny to the
construction of the Panama canal, she
demands that we abandon our claim of
free tolls and the other functions to
which she has made objection.
Obedient to the British protest, the
American congress, 1t Is declared, is
about to repeal the clauses in the Pan
anna act to which Great Britain objects.
In August, 1912, the Congress of the
fote treaty. 1t officially put upon the
treaty the Interpretation asserted by
the United States 1t was forced to
make that Interpretation by the protests
Of Great Britain, and it made it. And
its Interpretation was that the United
States has the right of free tolls on
home ships in home trade.
Both houses were agreed and they
wrote their Interpretation in the Panama
act and it was a strictly American in
depreciation. Every member of Presi-
dent Tafts cabinet agreed with the
principle therein asserted and President
Taft proudly signed the bill. He said:
am confident that the United
States has the power to relieve from
the payment of tolls, any part of
our shipping that Congress deems
wise. We own the canal 1t is
our money that built it. We have
the right to charge tolls for its use.
William Howard Taft construed the
treaty in the same way that Congress
construed 1t.
He construed ii in the same way that
1t was construed by two members OF
President Wilson's cabinet, Redfiead anc
Wilson, who, as members of the house
voted for free tolls. He construed II
as President Roosevelt, in whose admin
istration the treaty was negotiated, con
srues 1t. Mr.. Roosevelt said:
/ think we have the right to free
bona fide coastwise traffic from
tolls l think that this does not
interfere with the rights of any
other nation, because no ships but
our own can engage in coastwise
traffic, so that there is no discrim-
nation against other ships when we
relieve the coastwise traffic from
tolls.
This is not all President Roosevelt
said. We quote again:
In all history, i do not believe You
can find another instance where
as great and expensive a work as
the Panama canal undertaken not
by private corporation, but by
nation, has ever been as generous
ly put at the service of all the ma
tons of mankind.
In provision under the British treat.
OF 1915. it was privided that:
No higher or other duties or
charges shall be imposed in any
ports Of the United States upon Brit
ish vessels other than those pay
able in the same ports by vessels
OF the United States.
The supreme court of the unite'
states construed this provision in de
clsion in 1904 in exact harmony witt
congress and Taft and Roosevelt as t.
the Hay-Pauncefote treaty.
speaking for the court. Justice White
now chief justice, said
Neither the exemption of coast
wise steam vessels from pilotage re-
suiting from the law Of the United
states nor any lawful exemption OF
coastwise vessels created by state
law concerns vessels I'm the foreign
trade, and therefore any such eX-
emption does not operate to pro
uuce discrimination against British
vessels engaged in such trade.
nut In spite of all this vast array o
authorities in favor of free tolls demo
cratic leaders in congress are headin
night to repeal free tolls and surrend
or TO the British nation. surrende
mat VIII be in defiance of the warnin
VI resident Hayes, that. 1.-The Unite
states cannot consent to surrender TN
eon'rol to any European power" Tn
tepeai OF free tolls would be notice I
Snristendom that we are no longer SOW
eiish as to the canal
IL we repeal the tolls exemption, W
s'eio principle we cannot reassert
we grant by repeal that free tolls l
a"'enabie, the right to reassert free toi
abandoned and can never again b