The Panama Canal

by Frederic J. Haskin

S. B. WILLIAMSON
THE LOWER GATES, MIRAFLORES LOCKS

H. O. COLE
MIDDLE GATES, MIRAFLORES LOCKS

How little the President of Colombia respected the laws of his country is shown by a dispatch received by the Government at Washington after the secession of Panama, in which it was promised that if the United States would assist Colombia in putting down the Panama revolution, the next Colombian Congress would ratify the rejected treaty. Or, failing that, the President would declare martial law, by virtue of vested constitutional authority when public order is disturbed, and ratify the canal treaty by presidential decree. If the Washington Government did not like such a proposal, the President of Colombia would call an extra session of Congress and immediately ratify the treaty.

The real cause of the failure of the Hay-Herran treaty is not difficult to discover. The concession of the New Panama Canal Company under one of its renewals expired October 31, 1893. It was then extended for a year, and, in 1894, was extended again for a period of 10 years. Still another extension was granted, which carried the date of expiration to October 31, 1910. This last extension was granted by the President without the consent of the Colombian Congress. In 1903, when the Hay-Herran treaty was pending, the validity of this last extension was denied, and the assertion made that on October 31, 1901, all of the rights and property of the New Panama Canal Company would revert to the Colombian Government.

The United States had agreed to pay to the New Panama Canal Company $40,000,000 for its concession and property. According to Representative Henry T. Rainey, of Illinois, who for years led the attack in the United States Congress on the acts of President Roosevelt in connection with the Panaman revolution, the purpose of Colombia in defeating the treaty was to wait until the expiration of the concession, when all of the property of the canal company would revert to Colombia, and it could then sell it to the United States and get the $40,000,000, or any other amount it could persuade the United States to pay.

Of course, the New Panama Canal Company did not look upon such an arrangement with any degree of complacency. It felt that it was a deliberate scheme upon the part of the Colombian Government to mulct it out of its property and its rights. As a result it was naturally ready to lend aid and encouragement to any movement which would circumvent this purpose of Colombia. It found conditions in Panama just what it might have wished.

The people of Panama felt that they had the same sort of grievance against Colombia that the people of the American colonies felt they had against England in 1776. The governors of the province were, with few exceptions, sent there from Bogota, and were entirely out of sympathy with the people of Panama. The taxes collected at Panama were carried to Bogota, as a rule, and the voice that the people of the Isthmus had in the Government of Colombia was negligible. Furthermore, they felt that they were entitled to their sovereignty.

After the countries of tropical America had thrown off the yoke of Spain, Panama found itself too small to stand alone, and accepted an invitation from Bogota to put itself under the Government there with the understanding that it was to retain its sovereignty. It soon found that this agreement was not respected at Bogota. Almost immediately there were attempted revolts and, in 1840, the Isthmus again won complete independence. The Confederation of New Granada promised that the people of the Isthmus should have better treatment, and it was set forth in the constitution of New Granada that Panama was a sovereign state, and that it had full right to withdraw and set up an independent government at any time. In 1885 a new constitution was proclaimed by Colombia, which had succeeded New Granada, and this constitution deprived Panama of all its rights as a sovereign state, and made it a province under the control of the Federal Government at Bogota. Upon these grounds Panama claimed that she was a sovereign state temporarily under the duress of a superior government. After the defeat of the Hay-Herran treaty the inhabitants of Panama knew that if the treaty failed and no other steps were taken, the Nicaraguan route would be followed and Panama would become almost a forgotten region instead of a land of great opportunity.