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THE ATLANTA SEMI-WEEKLY JOURNAL, ATLANTA, GA., FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 1913.
THE SEMI-WEEKLY JOURNAL
ATLANTA, GA., 5 NORTH FORSYTH ST.
Entered at the Atlanta Postoffice as Mail Matter of
the Second Class.
JAMES R. GRAY,
President and Editor.
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Atlanta, Ga.
Reducing Cotton Acreage.
A timely warning against the over-production of
cotton is sounded by Mr. E. J. Watson, commissioner
of agriculture for South Carolina and president
the Southern Cotton Congress. A glutted marke
as he declares, would spell low prices and would
react with distressing effect not only upon the farmer
hut upon every field of our economic interests. The
relations between the supply and the demand for
cotton are fortuitious; the need for food products,
on the contrary, is a certainty. The planter who
rests all his hope on cotton is building upon treach
erous sands; he who makes ample provision for corn
and other such necessaries chooses the solid rock.
The reduction of cotton acreage is important not
so much within itself as is its bearing upon the
broader interests of agriculture. The essential thing
is not to cultivate less land but to devote more land
and energy to the production of food crops. It is
the monopoly of cotton at the expense of other in
terests, which more directly concern the larder and
the home, that makes an excessive cotton crop peril
ous.
Georgia has been spending millions and millions
of dollars in distant sections for corn and live stock
and kindred supplies, which could bfe produced far
more cheaply and just as easily at home. The profits
of what has been regarded as the chief money crop
have thus been diverted to the purchase of food ne
cessities. Such a policy is shortsighted and extrav
agant. It neglects the State’s natural resources at
their pgist vital points and leads toward agricultural
slavery. ■ >
There are cheering indications, howeve'r, that the
appeals for prudence in the matter of cotton acreage
are finding a wider and heartier response. It is
natural that this should be the case as the gospel of
scientific j and progressive agriculture is, more and
more widely proclaimed. The diversification of crops
and the use of intensive methods are after all simply
good business and common sense- applied to the all
important problems of the soil.
The Balkan War Wears-to an End.
It now seems that the Balkan war must be fought
to a finish. Turkey appealed to the Powers some
weeks ago for mediation but at the same time it in
sisted that they support its claim to the retention
of Adrianople. This being one of the most impor
tant, if not the main, issue of the conflict, the Pow
ers naturally declined to commit themselves; and,
so, for the present at least the way toward peaceful
negotiations is barred.
The Allies are a- firm in their purpose to take
Adrianople as Turkey 1 is to keep it. They would
consider no terms of settlement which prejudged
their case on this point. They contend that since
the breaking-off of the London peace conference,
their strategic position is stronger than it was be
fore and that hence their claims are better warranted.
This logic of events, the Powers could not well deny;
and since Turkey is still unyielding they have no
avenue toward restoring peace.
There is small likelihood, however, that the war
will last a great while longer. As the dispatches
indicate, fighting is limited to skirmishes at points
along the front and the severity, of the weather
makes military operations 1 on an extensive scale well
nigh impossible. These circilmstances might seem
to favor the Turks, but whenever a decisive blow is
struck it will come from the Allies and any consid
erable stroke will probably be decisive.
The Ottoman treasury is exhausted, the Ottoman
army is disheartened and demoralized. The Gov
ernment faces sharp and bitter dissension at home.
Adrianople is cut off from reinforcements and the
ebbing strength with which it now withstands the
siege cannot be renewed. The fall of that city ap
pears to be simply a question of time and its con
quest will sweep away the last vestige of Turkey’s
claims before Europe.
A few months ago the larger Powers were eager
for mediation. They feared that'continued strife in
the Balkans would jeopardize their peaceful relation
ships. But this apprehension 1 no longer exists. Ger
many and England are on better terms today than
for many seasons past and whatever mistrust arose
between Austria and Russia has been banished. The
"Powers are, therefore disposed to let the Balkan
situation adjust itself, even though the process of
war be slow and tedious. They evidently foresee
that Turkey -will soon be forced to terms and then
through their concerted efforts this long-knotted
problem can be untangled. , -I
•The colonel is still given to the letter writing
habit.
Exploiting the Unknown.
A humorist predicts that American tourists, with
their insatiate desire for new sights and new wan
derings, will soon make the North Pole a famous
summer resort. Be that as It may, the arctic zone
is undoubtedly engaging popular interest and is re
garded with fewer shivers than it was a decade ago.
Far from being the insufferable region pictured in
old'tales of adventure, it is now represented as a land
of invigorating climate where the inhabitants live
snugly and contentedly enough and where the visitor
finds abundant cheer.
Among recent reports of the Eskimo country, those
by Stefansson, the renowned explorer, are particu
larly enlightening. Writing in the monthly bulle
tins of the American Geographical Society, he dis
pels "many prejudices that have clung to arctic life.
The weather, he declares, is less crabbed than that
of populous centers of civilization farther south, Man
itoba, for instance; and he has felt worse blizzards
in' western States of America than he ever encoun
tered in the arctic.
Furthermore, acording to his testimony, the social
condition of the natives is in no wise benighted qr
pitiable. ‘‘One who knows where to look for misery
in New York,” he writes, “can find more want of
food and raiment, more of the evils resulting from
dirt and foul air, within a fifteen-minutes’ walk of
Broadway than he can in fifteen hundred miles east
ward along the coast from Point Hope, Alaska.”
The houses of the Eskimo he describes as well
warmed and also as well ventilated. They are
heated to a temperature of seventy or eighty degrees
Fahrenheit and on the coldest nights the family,
dressed in flimsy negligee, lounge as comfortably as
they would in a modern’ flat or hotel. Food- is plen
tiful, or at least it was so in the territory which
Stefansson explored; he cites one point far in the
interior where for severity-five years there has been
riTVecord of a famine. The children are merry, the
dpeoft^as a whole are blithe and, though untouched
by civilization as we know it, their condition is any-
thiri§@»ut depressing.
There was never a time when geopraphy and its
related sciences- effered so tempting a field for re
search and speculation as today. No explorer need
weep for new worlds to discover. There are nooks and
by-ways which Sinbad himself would find well worth
a journey; for, though the brilliant era of voyaging
which possessed the world some five hundred years can
never again be matched, there are islands and
far-away lands still to be adventured; there are vast
spaces, now comparatively unknown, which civiliza
tion will yet turn to account.
It was not a great while ago when the tropics
were supposed to be for the most part uninhabitable
by northern races, and almost impenetrable. But
one after another the jungles are being cleared and
fitted for residence and commerce and government.
Even the Panama canal zone was regarded as a
well nigh impossible place of sojourn, except for peo
ple born and bred to its climate. It was infested
with perils to health and life. But medical and
sanitary science has converted it into a healthful
abode. Its fevers have been banished, its dangers
overcome and in time, It will be a populous and
thrifty corner of the earth.
The French and Italians and Germans are plan
ning to do in the northern and interior parts of
Africa what the Lnglish have already done in the
southern and northeastern parts of the Dark Conti
nent. Bold engineers go so far as to declare that the
Sahara itself can be reclaimed. Capitalists have been
interested in projects to build railway or trolley
lines through the dense forests and to establish new
qc.ean traffic connections between obscure Africafi
harbors and the countries of South America.
The continual press of civilization demands/ that
new resources, new opportunities for labor and en
terprise he exploited; arid of the crowded Old World,
tms Is particularly true. It may be long centuries in
arriving, but the development of the earth’s remote
places seems in time inevitable.
1
Slightly Reassuring.
So changeable and treacherous are conditions in
Mexico that the hopes of one hour may be belied
the next. The . resident of today may be the pris
oner of tomorrow and a seeming lull of peace may
be simply an interlude in which still fiercer acts are
being mounted.
In so far as outward appearances mean anything,
however, they are now somewhat reassuring. The
provisional government, though stained with the
blood of the unfortunate Madero, shows/ an iron pur
pose to restore order; and if there is one quality
above all others which a responsible Mexican govern
ment must possess in the present. crisis it is that cf
uncompromising firmness against outlawry and re
bellion. j
Whatever may have been the sins of the old dic
tator, Diaz, he had the one virtue that held property
fairly secure and enabled his government to do busi
ness with the wor.d. His methods were questionable
and his policies were not those on which a republic
can grow in freedom and prosperity. But Diaz, until
his last trembling season of authority, did one im
portant thing afi least—he “held down the lid.”
That is the immediate need in Mexico today. Be
fore the country can take thougnt or counsel con
cerning the future of its government, it must be
relieved of the imminent peril of anarchy. The ban
dits that have robbed and pillaged under the mask
of a revolution must be stamped out. The adven
turers who are seeking to prolong present conditions
for their own gain must he put out of the way, how
ever drastic the means required.
If the Huerta regime can accomplish this, it will
have rendered substantial service, however crooked
Its own path to power may have been.
Internal revenue reports indicate that the price
of drinking is still high.
“Why is Atlanta?” Because it’s the town that
took the dust out of industry.
Women are winning through the west, a dispatch
declares. Also in the east and south.
Improving the Parcel Post.
There is cause for keen interest and satisfaction
in the announcement that, beginning March the first,
the “immediate delivery” system will be extended
to parcel post mail. The fee for this special service
will be ten cents, the amount now charged for the
immediate delivery of letters.
This will add much to the convenience and gen
eral usefulness of the parcel post. It will prove par
ticularly valuable in the mailing of perishable com
modities; and in this connection it should encourage
direct interchange between producers and consuriiers.
The parch! post is by no means a perfebted serv
ice nor could it be expected to become so within
the first few months of its experimental stage. But
it is steadily developing. Awkward or unnecessary
rules are being dropped and new advantages are be
ing added; among the latter, the introduction of the
immediate delivery system is especially welcome.
THE
ESSENTIAL S
By
Dr. Frank
Crane
The most marked trait that distinguishes the
strong from the weak is the ability to see what is
essential and what is non-essential. The power of
the artist is first of all the
power of choice, his ability to se
lect from the bewildering com
plexities of life the one thing
that is meaningful.
The modern realistic novel
lacks this power. All facts are
of equal importance. The slop
jar in the house is as worthy to
b© described as a woman’s soul.
Hence the dreary, intolerable
commonplaces and tjie feeling of
ennui, tediousness aind cynicism
of the average novel published
by Tauchnitz.
The cheap reds and yellows of
Mrs. Holmes and The Duchess of
a former day were better than
the sick drabness, the hopeless
ness and sadness of many mod
ern authors. Th e former had at least some selee-
ti. . power.
Every great passion is selective. Love chooses,
emphasizes. Religion has the same blessed quality
of disproportion.
Homer, Dante, Victor Hugo, every undying au
thor, has been like the Parthenon at Athens or the
Catheral at' Cologne, not like the world is or was, but
like the world wants to be.
Men are inspired by soaring ideals; they are dead
ened by the pitiful commonplace.
The master* merchant differs from the peddler
chiefly in his power to grasp essentials.
And the strong, victorious life has the same gift,
the skill to choose what is worth while.
“The doctor’s o i the phone, Ben,” called the Plod
der’s wife from the dining room door, “and he seems
in a hurry.’* *
“What’s that?’’ the Plodder challenged sharply
in response to the doctor’s abrupt query. “Did I
figure out that what? Say! why don’t you tackle
somebody your size? What do you take me for—a
punchin’ bag? What the deuce do I care about )
Hello!” . There was no answer; the doctor had hung
l
up. •
The Plodder stood muttering until Molly sternly
reminded him that his remarks were not wholly ap
propriate for a mixed audience, mainly children, ,aud
it was not until after dinner that he found oppor
tunity to do the subject justice. “Why does that cuss
pester me with his tommy rot?” he demanded sav
agely. “ ‘Don’t you let any one fool you, Ben,’ he says,
‘that this our native land has no Fixed Foreign Pol
icy. It’s got the slickest scheme in that line of
crime since Noah cornered animal life!*
“I’m takin’ no chances, so I just sat and waited..
‘Other countries,’ he says, ‘sends goods across the
oceans on long-winded trips around the' world and
calls it Foreign Trade. But Uncle Sam beats ’em to*
a fricassee—he coaxes the world into his own little
paradise by the immigration route and trades with
it here!’
“I wasn’t anywhere’s near hep, but I looked wise
and he goes on. ‘Fourteen million foreign borns,’ he
says, ‘right on your own premises, buyin’ -goods of
your own “Company Store” at skylimit C. O. I).
prices beats fourteen huhdred million people located
all over the globe, buyin’ odds and ends at long-
range and short-competing figures and payin’ when
they please! Foreign tr^dej Gosh!’ he says, ‘Just
. add 4 to the value of stuff TTncle Samuel actually does
ship out every year as ballast* or by mistake the
gilt-edged, buy-or-l : reeze and buy-or-starve trade lie
does her© inside the barrier with the fourteen million
foreigners that have come over to take part in the
greatest show on earth and you’ve got something!
Figure it up yourself, J3en,’ he says, ‘at, say, two
hundred per, and—and you might add something
handsome for the twenty million more born here
while their foreign parents have been waitin' for
the show, to come off! Say! if all that bunch of
thirty-four million people'* now here were scattered
around across the sea somewhere and sent us as much
O. N. M. as they spend of our own dollars right here
in our own turnover—why, hang it all, Ben, ’twould
bankrupt the outside world in eighteen months!’
“‘What’s O. N. M.?’ he echoes, I havin’ meekly
asked. ‘O. N. M.,’ he says, ‘is the Knight Templar
grade of O. P. M. Othert People’s Money is velvet,’
he says, ‘but Other Nations’ Money is duchess lace!
And that’s where the slick work comes in in this
our special brand of Foreign Policy-—it’s noble, Ben!
Altruistic! Besides being ( as profitable as, according
to c) ur lights, it seems wise and prudent to make it!
The Emperor of Germany, the Czar of Russia, the
Pope, the Mikado, and all the other high muck-a-
mucks, together with their subjects, executors and
assigns, know that if Uncle Sam actually got busy
he could do just that very thing—bankrupt the rest
of the world—and he DON’T! And that, Ben Plod
der, is Altruism! Now, ain’t you glad to ante \your
four huhdred and four plunks a year in such a game?’
“Funny how I remember all that hot air,” smiled
the Plodder, “when I don’t tumble to its drift.”
*But his next problem was harder—winter outfits
for five! “Here’s where we cut out eggs till Janu
ary first, Molly,” he announced a few minutes later,
as his wife came in and sat down leaving the door
ajar to catch the first sound of restlessness from
the baby’s crib.
She looked at him steadily a moment with her
clear, blue eyes. “Good idea, Ben,” she said, cheer
fully; “eggs make us V>ilious-”
The Extra Session of Congress.
It has been known since early winter that an ex
tra session of the new Congress would be called to
deal with the tariff and perhaps with other important
matters of legislation. The corisensus of judgment
has been that the sooner this work could be under
taken and perfected the better would it be for the
country’s business interests. There is no reasonable
apprehension over the forthcoming readjustment of
tariff schedules, but until the details of the' new law
are known there will necessarily be a certain feeling
of restlessness on the part of industrial concerns.
Revision should therefore fie accomplished as speedily
as it can and the date when the new schedules are to
become operative should be announced as far as pos
sible in advance in order that all interests may he
adjusted accordingly.
Tuesday, April the first, the date announced by
President-elect Wilson for the convening of the extra
session seems well timed to these conditions. The
interim between March the fourth and April the first
will he required for conferences and general prepara
tion. The special session could scarcely be called
earlier and it could not wisely be called later.
There is at least nothing in.the weather to indi
cate snow or sleet before the end of the season.
Meanwhile the Balkan war seems to have become
a rather conservative affair.
The amateur cabinet makers are diverted to the
more spectacular task of telling the administration
what to do in Mexico.
(ourtTmr
rJOME
T1KELY
T0P1C5
C<wpoora>_Bir.ms. u HarajOA
THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER AND ITS LEVEES.
Every ‘congress appropriates a very large sum of
money to building high banks on either side of the
Mississippi river. Every year the floods break
through and cause immense destruction. The breaks
are called crevasses, and the raised up banks are
called levees. )»,
If this continued raising up of artificial banks
continues the mud in the channel will- also Continue
to deposit, and the “Father oL Waters” will be roli-
ing along on "Hop of a high embankment, and liable
every hour in the day and night to m^ke a break or
generate crevasses.
Of course, what I say has but little weight when
compared to what wise levee builders do say, but I
wonder how it was when the red Indian roamCd over
all the land, and there were no levees in the Mississippi
country! We understand from your pioneer histories
that the “Great Father of Waters” was rolling along
very pleasantly (just as the river Amazon rolls along
now (Without this levee expense) before congress be
gun to appropriate money to make artificial banks
and make a great trough or viaduct to keep or hold
the banks of the Mississippi on the top of Mother
Earth.
If the people who manage this government had
spent this levee money in ditching across the crooked
places, as General Ben Butler dug a channel at Dutcn
Gap in the James river during the Civil war, it seems
to me that the current of the Mississippi would haao
grown strong enough, to wash out its own trough and
plown down in the stiff clay until a channel would
have been made in the soil rather than, on top oi\
the soil. Now, we find only a mass of sand bogs,
some n%w and many rotting in decay, piled up on
either side of the river to keep the river in its place.
There was a crook in the James river that was five
miles round and about* a quarter of a mile across ana
wise old Ben Butler put an army cf diggers at work
and started Dutfch Gap. The government completed '
the ditch after the war and all vessels now c^tt across
and save four miles. The expense of levee work on
the Mississippi is like the great. pension octopus. ,Jt
promises to eat up all the spare' money of this na
tion.
THE HABIT OF SEEING THINGS.
The most of us have pondered over a verse in the
Holy Scriptures which says: “Eyes have they hut
they see not, having ears they hear nqt.” go .We may
naturally suppose those who sa^ and those wh^ didn't
see l^ave bt en remarked upon for manw long centu
ries of human history.
And we hear often of what is called a cultivated
intellect, but not so much concerning what might be
called a cultivated observation.
Everybody with human vision really sees, but there
are all sorts of people who do not observe. As some
one remarked: “There are a whole lot of, folks who
can hardly see enough to escape from being run over
in the street.” The'difference between'those who are
indifferent and not interested in things.and those whb
have keen powers of observation and reflection is sim
ply the difference between great minds and common
ones.
Some minds are dull as some soils are poor, Dut
it goes without saying that poor soils can be so culti
vated as to produce enormous results in farming.
Just so that same dull mind can be stimulated and
encouraged until it will produce great results.
As a rule a great genius is cometlike in its orbii-
It rushes and it dazzles, but the really great mind is
steady in' its growth and grows while its radiance in
creases.
The scholars in our public schools are too closely
confined to text books. They should be taught not
only to learn but to apply what they learn. They gang
along from six years to sixteen nad over, mainly in
tent on just being able to rise, and tens of thousands,
do npt gain enough in'that period of study to be able
to make a bare living. After they study from six to
sixteen they must then begin to observe, which means
to see things and to be able to do things. Happy !s
the child which enjoys an observing teacher, as well
as a school book teacher!
RUNNING AMUCK IN MEXICO. ,
Among Malay tribes there are run-mad people who
become so inflamed with rage, malice and, perhaps,
insanity, that they ran up and down in public places
and everywhere, armed to the teeth, and who cut and
gash, stab and torture every living thing that crosses
their paths, until some one or, maybe, dozens of in
dignant outsiders shoot down or otherwise kill such
disturbers of the public peace. These desperate per
sons have to be killed in self defense.
This was called “running amuck.” Nobody pitied
the demoniacs, and everybody felt relieved when they
met a well deserved fate.
The situation in Mexico is very similar. There ar6
a iot of political fanatics consumed by hate, rage and
vengeance, who are manifestly' too demoniac to be al
lowed to go loose much longer. They are running
amuck, and *it is plainly evident that they must be
curbed or possibly dispatched in quick order to pro
tect the public peape.
The assassination of President Madero and of his
brother was both inhuman and base, and the assassins
should have short shift and a short hanging robe!
Mexico disgraces herself in the eyes of the civilized
world. Baseness has gone the limit. Such people are
not fit to r.ssociate with; they have outraged decency
and violated every code of nonest and honorable deal
ing.
The American government should give that murder
ous gang the cold shoulder, and refuse to affiliate!
Huerta is demonstrating his ability as a good
marksman.
When a girl is learning to smoke cigarettes she
is apt to make herself sick; after learning to smoke
them she makes other people sick,
Jib Spicer says cards have been his ruin. Since
his wife got a lot of visiting cards engraved he has
to cook his own dinner and eat by himself.
* * * y
“Why does that man pay rent instead of owning
his own home?” “Some months he doesn’t.”
* * *
“I’ve got a new idea for your performance *>f
‘Hamlet,’” said the farce comedy manager who has
ventured into the legit. “What is it’” asked Mr.
Stormington Barnes. “Every time anybody drops
dead in the last act, let the man in the orchestra hit
the bass drum.”
* * *
The bird that sings up in the tree, exclaimed, “1
see I have no chance. If I a modern hit would be,
I’ve got to learn a classic dance!”
* * *
Some white people gave Mrs. Erastus Pinkly a
baby carriage. She says it will come in handy as
soon as the baby gets old enough to cart the laundry
in it.
* * *
No doubt a whole lot of fish are envious of the
one that succeeded in jumping clear out of the -water
and catching that magnificent trout-fly.
* * •
Hope springs eternal; but it’s hard to understand
how so many men who have practiced law or med
icine go ahead falling in love.
♦ * *
If you enjoy the simple life avoiding argument
and strife, content to sleep eight hours away and sit
down to your three per day, existence will be just a
song; a simple tune and not too long. But if you take
the shrfty chance with skirts and booze or high fi
nance, suspicion soon will turn your way and keep
you guessing day by day. Your nerves get sadly
out of kink and put you wholly on the blink, until ex
istence seems to be just on© perpetual third degree!
PHILANDER JOHNSON.
Panama Canal Tolls
IV. THE DISPUTE IN CONGBESS.
By
Frederic
J. Haskin
The dispute that has been going on in congress
with reference to the question of construing the Hay*
Pauncefate treaty has cj^vided that body into two
general camps—those who
think that the neutrality ol,
the canal as relates to tolld
Includes the United States, oil
the one hand, and thos e whd
think that it excludes up. on
the other. There are many
who feel that it applies to th«l
United States on general ship^
ping, but does not apply to usf
on coastwise traffic. The line
of cleavage is, in a general
way, between those who be
lieve in ship subsidies and
those who do not, although, o!
course, there are exception^
to this statement.
*• * •
But, as a rule, those who op
pose ship subsidies are to bd
found among those who oppose
the remission of tolls to Amer*
i^an coastwise ships on the ground that it contra*
venes the treaty. On the other hand, those who ard
for subsidies are, for the most part, in favor of thd
remission* of tolls to American coastwise ships, and
argue that such an act does not constitute a viola
tion of the Hay-Pauncefote treaty. There are those,
however, who favor subsidies in our foreign-going
shipping and none yn our coastwise shipping. In the
language of Senator Root, they regard the coastwise
shipping as the most highly protected special indus
try in the United States, with no further need ofl
protection, while on the other hand our foreign-going
vessels have to compete with the low standards of
wages and living to be found abroad, and therefore
is in need of protection the home-going ships do hot
need.
• • •
Party lines are not followed in this division. Thd
Democratic committee that drafted the original tollri
bill refused to exempt coastwise traffic and that pro-*
vision in the form of the Doremus amendment wad
voted on in the house and agreed to by the senate,
the vote in both houses being non-partisan but largely
Republican. On the very, day President Taft signed
the bill Representative Sims, of Tennessee, Demo
crat, introduced a bill to repeal the,, coastwise exemp
tion, and the same bill was later introduced in the
senate by Senator Root, of New York, a Republican*
Senator O’Gorman, of New York, a Democrat, is the
principal defender of the present law in the upi>ei*
house, and Representative Mann, the Republican
leader, is one of its chief champions in the house.
• • •
There is another angle to the controversy that had
led some men to vote in favor of free tolls to Ameri
can coastwise ships the while they have been op
posed to subsidies. That relates to the effect of
tolls on transcontinental freight rates. They believe
that the addition of tolls means just that much more
leeway the railroads will have in competing with thd
coast-to-coast shipping. They- believe that when a
toll of $1.20 a net register ton is levied it will give
the railroads th e oppprtunity to raise their rates by
just that much. This idea, on the other hand, is
repudiated by other men in congress. They insisU
that $1.20 a net register ton means an average of
about fifty cents a ton on actual cargo, and that fifty
cents a ton in tolls will no’t help the railroads to
compete on much shipping, and that on the other
hand its absence will not lower a single price to the
ultimate consumer. They contend that the shipping
companies will simply pocket th e difference, a dif
ference that ought either reach the ultimate con
sumer or the coffers of the canal.
• * . * *
All of these facts ar© cited to show that the atti
tude that most men have taken in congress with ref
erence to our controversy with Great BHtain has
been influenced largely by our own domestic situa
tions. When one comes to examine the several argu
ments produced'by both sides he will,(if he is in the
position of the proverbial man up a tree, readily
admit that there is good argument on both sides.
For instance, it is asserted by Senator Root that if
we have our coastwise traffic England also has hers,
and that to exempt our coastwise shipping from tolls
and not to exempt that of England and other coun
tries'is a violation of the treaty. He reminds the
.country that we once had the shoe on the other foot,
and that then we protested so vehemently that Can
ada receded from its position. Under the treaty of
1871, which gave to the shipowners of Canada and
the United States equal treatment in the canals of
the two countries, Canada, which had fixed a toll of
twenty cents a ton on freight, remitted eighteen cents
a ton on all freight destined to Montreal and beyond,
thus leaving but two cents a ton on Canadian'coast
wise shipping, while charging the full twenty cents
on American shipping. President Cleveland figura
tively jumped on Canada with both feet, saying in a 1
message to congress that for Canada to promise
equality and then in practice make it conditional upon
our vessels doing a Canadian business instead of their
own, is to fulfill a promise with a shadow of per
formance.
* * *
Those who combat this view cite the Bartlett 1
article in the English Law Magazine and Review, of
London. This eminent writer asserts that vessels fob*
lowing coastwise trade never have been placed on an
equality with those engaged in commerce with for
eign nations, nor could they be without violating na
tional laws or the Inherent right of a nation to
control its domestic shipping. He says that the prac
tice of restricting domestic commerce to American
vessels owned and operated by American citizens is in
harmony With the policy of every sea-bound nation.
He recalls thirty-one treaties made between the
United States and other countries providing for this ’
restriction. He adds that despite all pretense of uni
formity, mutuality, and equality of treatment, for
eign vessels are charged heavier port duties in Eng
lish ports than coasting trade vessels, and this in
spite of the most formal treaty stipulations to the
contrary. While the existing treaty of 1815 provides
•that no higher or other duties shall be imposed on
American vessels in the ports of His Brittannip Ma
jesty’s territories in Europe than is charged on Brit
ish vessels, yet, for instance, at the port of Bristol
foreign-trading vessels are charged twenty-seven
cents per register ton, while coastwise vessels are
charged ten cents per register ton. Furthermore, at
the pqrt of Liverpool the charge on foreign shipping
is thirty-three cents a ton, while on British coast
wise shipping it is from nine to twelve cents a ton.
• • •
It is pointed out that if England for a moment
thought that the w’ords, “British vessels” or “vessels
of the United States” applied to coastwise shipping
she would not have flagrantly violated the treaty of
1815 by making different charges for the two classes
of vessels. The claim is made, therefore, by those
who controvert the British view of the Panama toi
controversy, that if the treaty of 1815, still in force,
does not prevent England from discriminating in
favor of its coastwise trade, then certainly neitb er
does the Hay-Pauncefote treaty prevent us from dis
criminating in favor of our coastwise trade.
* * *
Summing up this phase of the matter it will be
seen that Canada once attempted to discriminate in
favor of its coastwise trade and the United States
protested. England, in the face of its general ship
ping treaty with the United States, has, without a
protest from us, discriminated in favor of its coast
wise trade for years oYi end. New we come to do the
same at Panama, and England protests, fs England
wrong in giving her coastwise ships better rate* In
her ports than are given to American ships, in the
face of tho treaty calling for absolute equality of
treatment? It is claimed that upon the answer to
that question hinges the answer at Panama.