CHAME BEACH, PACIFIC COAST
Where sand is obtained for locks on the Pacific division
Briefly summarized the terms of the treaty thus expeditiously secured are:
1. The guaranty of the independence of the Republic of Panama.
2. The grant to the United States of a strip of land from ocean to ocean, extending for five miles on each side of the canal, to be called the Canal Zone and over which the United States has absolute jurisdiction. From this Zone the cities of Panama and Colon are explicitly excluded.
3. All railway and canal rights in the Zone are ceded to the United States and its property therein is exempted from taxation.
4. The United States has the right to police, garrison and fortify the Zone.
5. The United States is granted sanitary jurisdiction over the cities of Panama and Colon, and is vested with the right to preserve order in the Republic, should the Panamanian government in the judgment of the United States fail to do so.
6. As a condition of the treaty the United States paid to Panama $10,000,000 in cash, and in 1913 began the annual payment of $250,000 in perpetuity.
Thus equipped with all necessary international authority for the work of building the canal President Roosevelt plunged with equal vehemence and audacity into the actual constructive work. If he strained to the breaking point the rights of a friendly nation to get his treaty, he afterwards tested even further the elasticity of the power of a President to act without Congressional authority.