Page:The Panama Canal Controversy.djvu/28

 an observation on the alternative routes proposed, because it has been sometimes argued that the Panama route was in a different position, on the ground that the preamble and the first seven articles of the Treaty refer, as you will have noticed, to the Nicaraguan project only. In my judgement there is no distinction of substance. The eighth Article covers the Panama route, and states that the arrangement between the two Governments was not limited to the Nicaraguan route (although at that time that project was the one thought most practicable), but was to extend to any other communication by any route eventually adopted. At the outset of the negotiations there had been some question as to the desirability of a survey of the Isthmus, in order to definitely fix on a route before entering into a Convention, but the United States representative had replied that it would be better to leave this to the capitalists concerned, and that the desire of the United States was 'to see completed at an early day great commercial highways from ocean to ocean protected by ample guarantees of neutrality from the selfishness of great nations, and the factiousness of such nations, and open alike to all&apos;. This gives added force to the passage of the President's message now before you, in which he describes the Treaty as applying to the Panama route, as well as to every other interoceanic communication which might be adopted to shorten the transit to or from the United States territories or the Pacific, and says that his policy is the same as that of President Polk and of President Jackson, that any ship-canal across the Isthmus should be open to all nations on equal terms. The conclusion is, as I submit, that the parties to the Treaty intended to apply the condition of equal treatment to the Panama or any other route which might be adopted as well as to the Nicaraguan project. It is impossible to contend that either of