Part 29 (1/2)

”The reason that I advocate the action above outlined in regard to the Pana testimony of the experts that this route is the most feasible; and in the next place, the i such conduct as that to which Colombia see, not only that the Panaua route we may encounter some unpleasant surprises, and that it is far more difficult to forecast the result with any certainty as regards this latter route As for Colombia's attitude, it is incomprehensible upon any theory of desire to see the canal built upon the basis ofit and to Coloun by the French Government and to finish it Obviously it is Colombia's duty to help towards such coreement with her in which uard her interests and ours But we cannot consent to perreatly to our interest ih”

Shortly after this rough draft was dictated the Panaain until I was accused of having instigated the revolution This accusation is preposterous in the eyes of any one who knows the actual conditions at Panama Only the menace of action by us in the interest of Colombia kept down revolution; as soon as Colombia's own conduct removed such menace, all check on the various revolutionary movements (there were at least three from entirely separate sources) ceased; and then an explosion was inevitable, for the French company knew that all their property would be confiscated if Coloh her plans, and the entire people of Panaust with Coloua, they, the people of Pana the character of those then in charge of the Colombian Government, I was not surprised at their bad faith; but I was surprised at their folly They apparently had no idea either of the power of France or the power of the United States, and expected to be per with impunity, just as Castro in Venezuela had done The difference was that, unless we acted in self-defense, Colombia had it in her power to do us serious hardoing, therefore, recoiled on her own head There was no new lesson taught; it ought already to have been known to every one that wickedness, weakness, and folly combined rarely fail to , when joined to inability to carry the evil purpose to a successful conclusion, inevitably reacts on the wrongdoer

For the full history of the acquisition and building of the canal see ”The Panama Gateway,” by Joseph Bucklin Bishop (Scribner's Sons) Mr

Bishop has been for eight years secretary of the commission and is one of the most efficient of the many efficient men to whose work on the Isthmus America owes so much

CHAPTER XV

THE PEACE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS

There can be no nobler cause for which to work than the peace of righteousness; and high honor is due those serene and lofty souls isdo of the actual facts of life, have striven to bring nearer the day when armed strife between nation and nation, between class and class, between hout the world Because all this is true, it is also true that there are no noble or reater possibility of mischief to their country and to hteous peace as better than righteous war The hest in our history, as in the history of all countries, are those who scorned injustice, ere incapable of oppressing the weak, or of per their country, with their consent, to oppress the weak, but who did not hesitate to draw the shen to leave it undrawn

All this is so obvious that it ought not to be necessary to repeat it

Yet every rows by bitter experience to realize that there are plenty ofthose who h to praise as done in the past, and yet are incapable of profiting by it when faced by the needs of the present During our generation this see theuniversal peace by some cheap patent panacea

There has been a real and substantial growth in the feeling for international responsibility and justice a the past threescore or fourscore years There has been a real growth of recognition of the fact thatof one nation by another, and that ininternational difficulties But as yet there has been only a rudi of the development of international tribunals of justice, and there has been no development at all of any international police power Now, as I have already said, the whole fabric of municipal law, of laithin each nation, rests ultie and the policeman; and the complete absence of the policee, in international affairs, prevents there being as yet any real hoy between municipal and international law

Moreover, the questions which sometimes involve nations in war are far more difficult and complex than any questions that affect reat nation has inherited certain questions, either with other nations or with sections of its own people, which it is quite impossible, in the present state of civilization, to decide asthe last century at least half of the wars that have been fought have been civil and not foreign wars There are big and powerful nations which habitually commit, either upon other nations or upon sections of their own people, wrongs so outrageous as to justify even theto war There are also weak nations so utterly incoainst their own citizens, or to protect their own citizens against foreigners, that it becomes a matter of sheer duty for some outside power to interfere in connection with theetting international action; and if joint action by several powers is secured, the result is usually considerably worse than if only one Power interfered The worst infamies of modern times--such affairs as the massacres of the Armenians by the Turks, for instance--have been perpetrated in a time of nominally profound international peace, when there has been a concert of big Powers to prevent the breaking of this peace, although only by breaking it could the outrages be stopped Be it remembered that the peoples who suffered by these hideous massacres, who saw their women violated and their children tortured, were actually enjoying all the benefits of ”disarmament” Otherwise they would not have been massacred; for if the Jews in Russia and the Armenians in Turkey had been armed, and had been efficient in the use of their arms, no mob would have meddled with them

Yet amiable but fatuous persons, with all these facts before their eyes, pass resolutions de, and the disarmament of the free civilized powers and their abandon, solemn little books, or paazines or newspapers, to show that it is ”an illusion” to believe that war ever pays, because it is expensive This is precisely like arguing that we should disband the police and devote our sole attention to persuading crihway robbery and white slavery are profitable It is alue with these well-intentioned persons, because they are suffering under an obsession and are not open to reason They go wrong at the outset, for they lay all the ehteousness

They are not all of them physically timid men; but they are usually h sense of honor or a keen patriotism They rarely try to prevent their fellow country the people of other nations; but they always ardently advocate that we, in our turn, shall ta and insult from other nations As Americans their folly is peculiarly scandalous, because if the principles they now uphold are right, it means that it would have been better that Americans should never have achieved their independence, and better that, in 1861, they should have peacefully subling confederacies and slaveryto learn from their own history, let those who think that it is an ”illusion” to believe that a war ever benefits a nation look at the difference between China and japan China has neither a fleet nor an efficient are civilized elobe; and it has been the helpless prey of outsiders because it does not possess the power to fight japan stands on a footing of equality with European and American nations because it does possess this power China now sees japan, Russia, Germents of her eeneration seen her capital in the hands of allied invaders, because she in very fact realizes the ideals of the persons ish the United States to disarm, and then trust that our helplessness will secure us a contemptuous immunity from attack by outside nations

The chief trouble comes from the entire inability of these worthy people to understand that they are des that are mutually incompatible when they dehteousness I remember one representative of their number, who used to write little sonnets on behalf of the Mahdi and the Sudanese, these sonnets setting forth the need that the Sudan should be both independent and peaceful As a matter of fact, the Sudan valued independence only because it desired to war against all Christians and to carry on an unlimited slave trade It was ”independent” under the Mahdi for a dozen years, and during those dozen years the bigotry, tyranny, and cruel religious intolerance were such as flourished in the seventh century, and in spite of systematic slave raids the population decreased by nearly two-thirds, and practically all the children died Peace ca cahway robbery, and every brutal gratification of lust and greed came, only when the Sudan lost its independence and passed under English rule Yet this well- little sonneteer sincerely felt that his verses were issued in the cause of hue point of a score of years, probably every one will agree that he was an absurd person But he was not one whit more absurd than most of the more prominent persons who advocate disar the navy, and the pro those affecting our national interests and honor, with all foreign nations

These persons would do no harm if they affected only themselves Many of theood citizens They are exactly like the other good citizens who believe that enforced universal vegetarianism or anti-vaccination is the panacea for all ills But in their particular case they are able to do harn powers, so that other men pay the debt which they themselves have really incurred It is the foolish, peace-at-any-price persons who try to persuade our people toup the navy But if trouble comes and the treaties are repudiated, or there is a demand for ar; they will stay at home in safety, and leave brave men to pay in blood, and honest men to pay in shame, for their folly

The trouble is that our policy is apt to go in zigzags, because different sections of our people exercise at different tiovernment One class of our citizens clamors for treaties impossible of fulfilment, and improper to fulfil; another class has no objection to the passage of these treaties so long as there is no concrete case to which they apply, but instantly oppose a veto on their application when any concrete case does actually arise One of our cardinal doctrines is freedoners as well as about ourselves; and, inasht with complete absence of restraint, we cannot expect other nations to hold us harmless unless in the last resort we are able to ood by our deeds One class of our citizens indulges in gushi+ng proners, another class offensively and improperly reviles thehly ment of the American people as a whole The only safe rule is to promise little, and faithfully to keep every pro stick”

A prime need for our nation, as of course for every other nation, is to make up its mind definitely what it wishes, and not to try to pursue paths of conduct incompatible one with the other If this nation is content to be the China of the New World, then and then only can it afford to do aith the navy and the army If it is content to abandon Hawaii and the Panama Canal, to cease to talk of the Monroe Doctrine, and to adht of any European or Asiatic power to dictate what irants shall be sent to and received in America, and whether or not they shall be allowed to become citizens and hold land--why, of course, if A to say on any of these matters and to keep silent in the presence of arree to arbitrate all questions of all kinds with every foreign power In such event it can afford to pass its spare time in one continuous round of universal peace celebrations, and of s earned the derision of all the virile peoples of mankind Those who advocate such a policy do not occupy a lofty position But at least their position is understandable

It is entirely inexcusable, however, to try to coue It is folly to perners as well as ourselves--and the peace-at-any-price persons are much too feeble a folk to try to interfere with freedom of speech--and yet to try to shi+rk the consequences of freedom of speech It is folly to try to abolish our navy, and at the saht to enforce the Monroe Doctrine, that we have a right to control the Panaht to retain Hawaii and prevent foreign nations frorants, Asiatic or European, shall come to our shores, and the terms on which they shall be naturalized and shall hold land and exercise other privileges We are a rich people, and an unhted people But I know my countrymen Down at bottom their temper is such that they will not per run they will no more permit affronts to their National honor than injuries to their national interest Such being the case, they will do well to remember that the surest of all ways to invite disaster is to be opulent, aggressive and unarhout the seven and a half years that I was President, I pursued without faltering one consistent foreign policy, a policy of genuine international good will and of consideration for the rights of others, and at the same time of steady preparedness The weakest nations knew that they, no less than the strongest, were safe fro and the weak alike also knew that we possessed both the will and the ability to guard ourselves fro or insult at the hands of any one

It was underan eree to resort to it Those establishi+ng it had grown to realize that it was in danger of beco a mere paper court, so that it would never really co at all

M d'Estournelles de Constant had been especially alive to this danger

By correspondence and in personal interviews he i advances by actually applying arbitration--notby treaty to apply it--to questions that were up for settleue tribunal for this purpose I cordially sympathized with these views On the recoreement with Mexico to lay a ue Court This was the first case ever brought before the Hague Court It was followed by numerous others; and it definitely established that court as the great international peace tribunal By h the decision of a joint coe and Turner, and Secretary Root, ere able peacefully to settle the Alaska Boundary question, the only question re between ourselves and the British Empire which it was not possible to settle by friendly arbitration; this therefore represented the rereement between the two peoples We were of substantial service in bringing to a satisfactory conclusion the negotiations at Algeciras concerning Morocco We concluded with Great Britain, and with reat nations, arbitration treaties specifically agreeing to arbitrate all matters, and especially the interpretation of treaties, save only as regards questions affecting territorial integrity, national honor and vital national interest Wethe free use of the Panama Canal on equal ter to ourselves the right to police and fortify the canal, and therefore to control it in time of war Under this treaty we are in honor bound to arbitrate the question of canal tolls for coastwise traffic between the Western and Eastern coasts of the United States I believe that the Aht; but I also believe that under the arbitration treaty we are in honor bound to submit the matter to arbitration in view of Great Britain's contention--although I hold it to be an unwise contention--that our position is unsound I e universal arbitration treaties which neither theI no less emphatically insist that it is our duty to keep the limited and sensible arbitration treaties which we have alreadyit, but in keeping it; and the poorest of all positions for a nation to occupy in such a matter is readiness to make impossible promises at the same time that there is failure to keep promises which have been made, which can be kept, and which it is discreditable to break

During the early part of the year 1905, the strain on the civilized world caused by the Russo-japanese War becahtful Froly to believe that a further continuation of the struggle would be a very bad thing for japan, and an even worse thing for Russia japan was already suffering terribly from the drain upon herfurther to gain frole; its continuance ain, even if she were victorious Russia, in spite of her gigantic strength, was, in ment, apt to lose even le continued I deemed it probable that she would no more be able successfully to defend Eastern Siberia and Northern Manchuria than she had been able to defend Southern Manchuria and Korea If the ent on, I thought it, on the whole, likely that Russia would be driven west of Lake Baikal But it was very far froht havedisaster; and even if she had continued to hat she thus ould have been of no value to her, and the cost in blood and money would have left her drained white I believed, therefore, that the tireatly to the interest of both combatants to have peace, and when therefore it was possible to get both to agree to peace

I first satisfied myself that each side wished me to act, but that, naturally and properly, each side was exceedingly anxious that the other should not believe that the action was taken on its initiative I then sent an identical note to the ters proposing that they should h their representatives, to see if peace could not be made directly between the about such a , but not for any other purpose Each assented tothe place; but each finally abandoned its original contention in the matter, and the representatives of the two nations finally met at Portsmouth, in New Haations at Oyster Bay on the U S S Mayflohich, together with another naval vessel, I put at their disposal, on behalf of the United States Government, to take them from Oyster Bay to Portsmouth

As is customary--but both unwise and undesirable--in such cases, each side advanced clairant The chief difficulty came because of japan's demand for a money indemnity I felt that it would be better for Russia to pay soo on with the war, for there was little chance, inout favorably for Russia, and the revolutionary otiations entirely I advised the Russian Govern them to abandon their pretensions on certain other points, notably concerning the southern half of Saghalien, which the japanese had taken I also, however, and equally strongly, advised the japanese that in ravestthe war for the sake of ato give theer the war continued the less able she would be to pay I pointed out that there was no possible analogy between their case and that of Ger The Gerave up much territory in lieu of the indemnity, whereas the japanese were still many thousand miles froive up I also pointed out that in ment whereas the japanese had enjoyed the sympathy ofthe continuance of the war, they would forfeit it if they turned the war into oneet the money, and would sis prospered with the spent enormous additional sums of money, and lost enormous additional numbers of men, and yet without a penny of rened

As is inevitable under such circuot better terer ell past each side felt that it had been over-reached by the other, and that if the war had gone on it would have gotten et The japanese Governhout, except in thethat it would insist on a money indemnity Neither in national nor in private affairs is it ordinarily advisable to h--personally, I never believe in doing it under any circumstances The japanese people had been misled by this bluff of their Government; and the unwisdoreat resenth it was so beneficial to japan There were various mob outbreaks, especially in the japanese cities; the police were roughly handled, and several Christian churches were burned, as reported to me by the American Minister In both Russia and japan I believe that the net result as regardsthe people at large I had expected this; I regarded it as entirely natural; and I did not resent it in the least The Governments of both nations behaved toward me not only with correct and entire propriety, but with ood effect of what I had done; and in japan, at least, I believe that the leading men sincerely felt that I had been their friend I had certainly tried my best to be the friend not only of the japanese people but of the Russian people, and I believe that what I did was for the best interests of both and of the world at large

During the course of the negotiations I tried to enlist the aid of the Governments of one nation which was friendly to Russia, and of another nation which was friendly to japan, in helping bring about peace I got no aid from either I did, however, receive aid fro was the one Ambassador who helped the American Ambassador, Mr Meyer, at delicate and doubtful points of the negotiations Mr Meyer, ith the exception of Mr White, the most useful diplomat in the American service, rendered literally invaluable aid by insisting upon hi the Czar at critical periods of the transaction, when it was no longer possible for h the representatives of the Czar, ere often at cross purposes with one another

As a result of the Portsiven the nobel Peace Prize