the principle that when a canal is a connecting link in a longer route afforded by rivers or by sea, it must be open on equal terms to all. Every declaration made upon this subject in the earlier years when negotiations were under way for an Isthmian canal would condemn in the most decisive language any attempt on our part to discriminate in our favor in any canal connecting the two

oceans.

"The treaties pertaining to a proposed Isthmian canal are especially significant. In that of 1846 with New Granada there are two provisions. Article III contains the usual clause exempting the coastwise trade of either country. Article XXXV, which has to do with the ports of the Isthmus of Panama or any road or canal across the Isthmus that may be made by the Government of New Granada, or by the authority of the same, provides that there shall be no other tolls or charges levied or collected from the citizens of the United States than are, under like circumstances, levied and collected from the Granadian citizens.

"The Cass treaty of November 26, 1857, with Nicaragua, known as the Cass-Yrisarri treaty, in Article II reserves the coastwise trade; Article XIV grants transit on terms of equality to the Atlantic and Pacific, and contains the provision that no higher charges or tolls shall be imposed on the conveyance or transit of persons or property of citizens or subjects of the United States or any other country across said route of communication than are or may be imposed on the persons or property of citizens of Nicaragua. This treaty was not ratified.

Other treaties with Nicaragua and other countries make unequivocal reference to the coastwise trade.

"In the treaty with Panama of 1903 there is in Article XIX an exemption of the vessels of the Republic of Panama and its troops and munitions of war in such vessels from the payment of charges of any kind. This shows that when an exemption was intended it was regarded as necessary to state it. The Frelinghuysen-Zavala treaty, made in 1884 and recommended by President Arthur in his message of the same year, but withdrawn by President Cleveland in his first annual message of 1885, contained this provision in Article XIV:

The tolls hereinbefore provided shall be equal as to vessels of the parties hereto and of all nations, except that vessels entirely owned and commanded by citizens of either one of the parties to this convention and engaged in its coasting may be favored.

"Thus all of these treaties-that with New Granada, the proposed agreements with Nicaragua, and the treaty with Panama-show that in all our negotiations pertaining to an Isthmian canal when it was intended to exempt coastwise shipping or to grant any preferences it was specifically so stated.

"Now, the Hay-Pauncefote treaty of 1901 contained no exemption of coastwise shipping, but, on the contrary, the very strongest language to express entire equality.

"Is it to be believed that when, through a series of years in practically all countries near to the proposed canal, coastwise shipping was exempt from the provisions of the treaties in the most definite language it could have been intended to claim exemption or preference for our own coastwise shipping in this canal, built on soil acquired

from a foreign country and connecting the two great oceans of the world, without any language whatever on the subject? If it was intended to exempt our coastwise shipping, why did we not say so? This, too, in the face of our own 'traditional policy' asserted against Canada less than ten years before, and asserted contemporaneously, at least in principle, in negotiations with the nations having spheres of influence in the Chinese Empire.

"In opposing this bill for repeal nothing has been more frequent than an appeal to patriotism and to national pride. Any such appeal must necessarily be received with a responsive spirit, and if made with earnestness it stirs the heart. But patriotism does not mean that we shall disregard treaty obligations or swerve from policies which have been maintained with persistency and zeal through all our national life. It is our duty to maintain a scrupulous regard for national faith and to follow the rules which we have laid down for ourselves as well as for all other nations. To be consistent and to be fair to all the world, that is patriotism. If we retrace our steps from the ennobling record which has characterized us for more than one hundred years, let us beware lest the most inspiring notes of patriotism, though uttered with the tongues of men and of angels, may become as sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal."

SENATOR ROOT ON THE SOVEREIGNTY OF THE

CANAL ZONE

"Well, asserting that we were acting for the common benefit of mankind, willing to accept no preferential right

of our own, just as we asserted it to secure the ClaytonBulwer treaty, just as we asserted it to secure the HayPauncefote treaty, when we had recognized the Republic of Panama, we made a treaty with her on the eighteenth of November, 1903. I ask your attention now to the provisions of that treaty. In that treaty both Panama and the United States recognize the fact that the United States was acting, not for its own special and selfish interest, but in the interest of mankind.

"The suggestion has been made that we are relieved from the obligations of our treaties with Great Britain because the Canal Zone is our territory. It is said that, because it has become ours, we are entitled to build the canal on our own territory and do what we please with it. Nothing can be further from the fact. It is not our territory, except in trust. Article II of the treaty with Panama provides:

The Republic of Panama grants to the United States in perpetuity the use, occupation and control of a zone of land and land under water for the construction, maintenance, operation, sanitation and protection of said canal—

"And for no other purpose

of the width of ten miles extending to the distance of five miles on each side of the center line of the route of the canal to be constructed.

*

*

The Republic of Panama further grants to the United States in perpetuity the use, occupation and control of any other lands and waters outside of the zone above described which may be necessary and convenient for the construction, maintenance, operation, sanitation and protection of the said canal or of any auxiliary canals or other works necessary and convenient for the construction, maintenance, operation, sanitation and protection of the said enterprise.

"Article III provides:

The Republic of Panama grants to the United States all the rights, power and authority within the zone mentioned and described in Article II of this agreement

"From which I have just read

and within the limits of all auxiliary lands and waters mentioned and described in said Article II which the United States would possess and exercise if it were the sovereign of the territory within which said lands and waters are located to the entire exclusion of the exercise by the Republic of Panama of any such sovereign rights, power or authority.

"Article V provides:

The Republic of Panama grants to the United States in perpetuity a monopoly, for the construction, maintenance and operation of any system of communication by means of canal or railroad across its territory between the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean.

"I now read from Article XVIII:

The canal, when constructed, and the entrances thereto shall be neutral in perpetuity, and shall be opened upon the terms provided for by Section 1 of Article III of, and in conformity with all the stipulations of, the treaty entered into by the Governments of the United States and Great Britain on November 18, 1901.

"So, far from our being relieved of the obligations of the treaty with Great Britain by reason of the title that we have obtained to the Canal Zone, we have taken that title impressed with a solemn trust. We have taken it for no purpose except the construction and maintenance of a canal in accordance with all the stipulations of our treaty with Great Britain. We cannot be false to those stipulations without adding to the breach of contract a breach of the trust which we have assumed, according to our own declarations, for the benefit of mankind as the mandatory of civilization.