Page:Dramatic Moments in American Diplomacy (1918).djvu/278

258 The newspaper reporters were at the door. They had seen the head of the Treaties Bureau go in, and were expecting an historical event.

The Hay-Bunau-Varilla treaty was signed within a few minutes, just fifteen days after the birth of the new nation. It is recorded that the minister sealed the bond with John Hay's signet ring.

It gave the United States the use, occupation, and control of the canal zone in perpetuity for $10,000,000.

Next morning the committee arrived from Panama to palaver. It was too late.

On the following day General Reyes arrived from Colombia to intrigue. It was too late.

Prompt decisive action had at last given the United States an essential military control over its own waters, and the world the prospect of an inestimable boon.

Moreover it had saved the country from a most embarrassing position it would have been in toward the French Republic. No one knew better than Roosevelt that France could not