the United States is merely trustee. It shows that the sentence of the Hay-Pauncefote treaty:

"Such conditions and changes of traffic shall be just and equitable" obligates the United States to manage it as a public utility, that is, for the benefit of mankind "on equal terms to all."

This chapter alone makes the work one of merit and commends it to the considerate attention of the public.

The work as a whole makes a searching analysis of the data (historical and contemporary) bearing on the meaning of the Hay-Pauncefote treaty, and shows the meaning that the data reveal in forceful English. It makes effective use of the conclusions arrived at by others. Thus the reader will get a comprehensive survey of the whole question in a single volume.

The authors of this work are members of the Progressive Party. Their vigorous defense of an important policy of a President belonging to another party is remarkable, and shows a commendable spirit. They aim at the elimination of tolls-exemption from domestic politics. To further this object, they have quoted extensively from Republican addresses while recognizing the great merit of contemporary Democratic addresses in the Senate and the House. The Democratic Party is given paramount credit for the repeal of the tolls exemption clause of the Panama Canal Act.

The tolls-exemption clause of the Panama Canal Act is repealed due to the zeal, sustained effort of exalted moral purpose of the President, supported by the great majority of the members of his own party. Re-enact

ment of such a statute should be made impossible. This book is a sane, forceful and unanswerable statement of the case against the right of the United States to exempt any of its shipping, coastwise and foreign, through the canal, as was proposed in the foregoing statute which was declared to be repugnant to the Hay-Pauncefote treaty.

This work should contribute much to the formation of a sound public opinion on this extremely delicate international question and thereby aid in eliminating it from domestic politics. Tolls-exemption is a dangerous question because of its susceptibility to the uses of the political demagogue. We own the canal and are sovereign in the Canal Zone. It is, therefore, only right and proper that we should manage it as we please. Why knuckle down to England? Such half-truths as these are more misleading than deliberate falsehoods, and make this question an annoying political issue because wrong may easily gain ascendancy. Therefore, all good citizens, regardless of party, should aid in forming a sound public opinion on this question. This is an admirable handbook for use in this connection.

Candidates for membership in the House of Representatives and the United States Senate who are opposed to the policy of tolls-exemption will find this work a great help in conclusively answering opponents who favor tollsexemption. They can effectively point to its authorship by two members of the Progressive Party and quote therefrom unanswerable arguments taken from notable addresses in favor of the repeal of the tolls-exemption clause of the Panama Canal Act by members of the Republican Party.

Of the joint authors of this work, one is a distinguished member of the Bar of the Supreme Court of the United States, was a Federal Attorney under the McKinley administration and Special Assistant to the AttorneyGeneral of the United States in charge of important cases in that Court and elsewhere under the administrations of both Roosevelt and Taft; was an important Commissioner of the State of New York under the administrations of Governors Higgins and Hughes, and held an important commission to go abroad under the Taft administration. He is a member of the State Committee of the Progressive Party in New York, one of the organizers and principal supporters of that party, and its choice in the fusion movement of 1913 for Supreme Court Justice. The other, also a prominent Progressive, and a former Professor of Political Economy in Cornell College, is now statistician with the Public Service Commission for New York City and hence as well qualified to discuss the financial, economic as well as the public utility phases of the Canal tolls problem as any other authority in the United States. Both authors, therefore, are peculiarly qualified, professionally and politically, to prepare the history of this vital and lately menacing problem without bias toward the President or the party happening to be in power at the time of the repeal of the tolls-exemption clause of the Panama Canal Act complained of by practically all of the maritime nations of the world.

Having been a member of Congress in 1912 when the Canal Act was passed with the objectionable clause, and a member of the United States Senate in 1914 when the

same was repealed, and having heard the notable and exhaustive debates on the subject on both occasions, I am justified in saying, after an examination of the work, that the essence of the whole matter is contained in this volume. In my judgment it will at once become the authoritative work on this great question, not only in the United States, but in all nations interested in the use of the Panama Canal.

I may also add that the manuscript of this book was shown to President Wilson, who examined it hurriedly. He then stated that it appeared to him "to have been most intelligently conceived and well executed," and that "it would stand securely on its own merits."

Further commendation of this work-The Panama Canal Tolls Controversy-is unnecessary. It should be as widely circulated as possible by those who believe that the United States should manage the Panama Canal in accordance with the world-view design embodied in the Hay-Pauncefote treaty.

WILLIAM HUGHES,

United States Senator from New Jersey.

CHAPTER I

The Meaning of the Hay-Pauncefote Treaty

Early Spanish explorers ascended every river of Central America for the purpose of finding a passage through which their vessels might reach those lands of boundless wealth of which Marco Polo had given a vivid description. They were bent on finding the shortest route from Cadiz to Cathay, and thus sought a natural interoceanic waterway.

With the advent of settlements arose the idea of artificial transit across the Isthmus. A wagon road was built from Porto Bello to Panama in the sixteenth century. More ambitious projects flourished and decayed during the lapse of centuries. They furnish a history of failure and blighted hopes. Spain, Holland, Belgium, France and England were at one time or another interested in the construction of an Isthmian Canal.

The United States became interested in 1826. Henry Clay, Secretary of State, wrote to our representatives to the Panama congress held that year:

"A cut or a canal for purposes of navigation somewhere through the Isthmus that connects the two Americas to unite the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans will form a proper subject of consideration at the congress. That vast object, if it should be ever accomplished, will be interesting in a greater or less degree to all parts of the world. But