Volume Vi Part 10 (1/2)

The Spooner act of Congress, approved June 28, 1902, authorized the President to build an isthmian ca.n.a.l. The Panama properties and franchises were to be bought if he could get good t.i.tle and also obtain the fee of a right of way from Colombia; otherwise he must pierce Nicaragua. The act provided for all necessary funds. The French company's claims were investigated, p.r.o.nounced valid, and in due time acquired by the United States.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Map of Central America from Nicaragua to Columbia.]

The American Isthmus, showing routes investigated for a s.h.i.+p-ca.n.a.l.

Solid Lines--Routes investigated by the Isthmian Ca.n.a.l Commission.

Dashed Lines--Routes investigated by others.

Effort to secure from Colombia the required territorial rights was made in the proposed Hay-Herran treaty, ratified by our Senate, 73 against 5, March 17, 1903, under which we were to pay Colombia, besides an annual rental $10,000,000 for the lease of a belt six miles wide from sea to sea. August 17, 1903, the Colombian Senate rejected this treaty, and, October 18, the government of that country proposed another, involving the payment by us of $25,000,000 instead of $10,000,000. If we offered this, would not the price rise to $30,000,000 or more?

Papers in the United States argued for a revolution in Panama. The isthmus, it was urged, was in time nearer to Was.h.i.+ngton than to Bogota.

All Panama interests centred in the ca.n.a.l. Should Nicaragua get the ca.n.a.l, Colon and Panama would be deserted. Both places owed their peace to the presence of our navy. On the principle that treaties concerning territory run with the territory, ignoring changes of sovereignty, our time-honored obligation to keep peace on the isthmus, bound us, if Panama set up for herself, to protect her even against Colombia. England would concur. English s.h.i.+ps would use the ca.n.a.l more than ours. Great Britain, risking and spending nothing, would gain incalculably. France, too, would acquiesce. The Frenchmen got some $40,000,000 if the ca.n.a.l crossed Panama but lost everything if it pa.s.sed to Nicaragua. Other European nations wished the ca.n.a.l built and felt that now was the accepted time. Latin-American States alone showed sympathy with Colombia.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Portrait.]

Photograph by Clinedinst.

M. Bunau-Varilla, Minister from Panama.

Revolution took place. On the afternoon of November 3, 1903, the Panama city council declared that city independent of Colombia. Colon followed.

A provisional Panama government was organized. November 6 we recognized Panama as an independent State. November 7 she appointed M.

Bunau-Varilla her diplomatic agent at Was.h.i.+ngton. November 13 he was, as such, formally received by President Roosevelt. November 18 Secretary Hay and M. Bunau-Varilla signed a treaty whose first article read: ”The United States guarantees and will maintain the independence of the Republic of Panama.” Articles II and III gave us, in effect, sovereignty over a ten-mile wide ca.n.a.l zone between the oceans. This treaty was ratified by Panama December 2, and by our Senate February 23, 1904.

November 16, 1903, Colombia protested to Great Britain against our action, and, November 28, offered us a ca.n.a.l concession free if we would permit her to subjugate Panama.

Both at home and abroad the administration was charged with sharp practice for its Panama coup, and the case made out by critics was prima facie strong--less, indeed, on its legal than on its ethical and prudential side. We had allowed ourselves to profit by Colombia's distress, encouraged secession in federal republics like our own, and rendered ourselves and our Monroe doctrine objects of dread throughout Central and South America. Still, Colombia had been so stiff and greedy and the settlement was in the main so happy, that censure soon subsided.

All the powerful nations speedily followed our example and recognized Panama's independence.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Three small buildings surrounded by debris.]

Copyright, 1900. by Underwood & Underwood, N. Y: Great heaps of wreckage piled high by the Galveston disaster.

In September, 1900, the city of Galveston was visited by one of the greatest disasters known in American history. A fierce storm swept the waters of the gulf over the island on which Galveston is situated, destroying property aggregating many millions of dollars and causing the loss of 6,000 lives out of the total population of 37,000. For a time it seemed that the site of the city would have to be abandoned, for the highest land on which buildings stood was but a few feet above the highest waves. It was determined, however, to build a stone wall three miles in length which should be ma.s.sive enough to protect the city from any similar attack. Its top, which is five feet thick, is three feet above the highest point reached by the water. The bottom of the wall is sixteen feet thick. This wall, which is built concave toward the gulf, is protected by earth and stone filled in for two hundred feet, thus providing a driveway thirty feet wide with walks on either side, beautified with trees and shrubs.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Large sea wall.]

Photograph by H. H. Morris.

The boulevard and sea-wall, Galveston. Built after the flood.

The management of public affairs during the rebuilding of the city was entrusted to a committee of experts. So efficiently and economically was the administration of the government, that the Galveston Plan, commonly spoken of as the Commission Plan, soon became a model for munic.i.p.al organization. A modification of this plan was soon put into operation at Des Moines, Iowa. This plan consists of government by five salaried persons, one of them acting as mayor. This body performs both legislative and executive duties, each member being in charge of a department of the city government. The arguments in favor of this type of government are: (1) Responsibility is easily located; (2) a few men receive such salaries that they may be expected to give their whole time to the duties of their offices; (3) more civic interest will be aroused.

All officers are subject to removal at any time by vote of a certain proportion of the people.

The Cuban government was organized in the spring of 1902. On May 20 of that year, Governor-General Wood for the United States turned over the government house at Havana to President Tomaso Estrada y Palma.

The ceremonies attending the transfer were impressive. A letter from President Roosevelt addressed to the President and the Congress of the Republic of Cuba was handed to President Palma. This declared the occupation of Cuba by the United States to be at an end and tendered the sincere friends.h.i.+p and good wishes of this country. At noon General Wood hauled down the American flag, which had floated above the Governor's palace at Havana, and a.s.sisted General Gomez in raising to the breeze the red triangle with central silver star and three blue and two white stripes const.i.tuting the flag of the new republic. All of the foreign s.h.i.+ps in the harbor likewise ran up the Cuban flag in honor of the occasion. Forty-five shots, one for each State in the Union, were fired as the stars and stripes were lowered from Morro Castle and the other fortresses. The American troops saluted the new emblem, fired twenty-one guns in honor of the new nation, and then embarked for the United States. Thus was kept to the letter--a n.o.ble example of public faith--the promise we made when invading Cuba, that we would not acquire territory.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Portrait.]