Show THE COLOMBIA NEGOTIATIONS A considerably l more hopeful spirit la manifested In Washington recently In regard to the negotiations with Colombia Colom-bia for obtaining the necessary concessions conces-sions for the building of the Panama canal First of all the fiction that the Colombian Constitution forbids the alienation of any portion of the territory terri-tory of that slate Is i exploded there is no such prohibition And if there were the desire of this country for the lease and orderly control of a sufilclcnt strip at Panama to allow of the full facilities for the great trade that would be opened on the onstractlon of the canal I would e not violate it as permanent alienation Is not asked but only n cen turys lease with the privilege of another an-other centurys renewal for which vound millions would be paid Colombia Colom-bia Just now sees Itself at the close of an exhausting civil war and Is badly in need of money No doubt our Government Gov-ernment counts upon this need as a strong factor In the procurement oc the needed and proper concessions Colombia Colom-bia lot only has no money but It has out Jorge quantities of depreciated paper pa-per Doubtless this would be repudiated repudi-ated with the usual facility that tills operation Is conducted In the South American nations IViICn obligations become be-come too troublesome but with a fair Increase in the seven million dollars that this country has expected to pity for the concessions an easier and more honorable way could be found to take cal of the issued paper With this part of the negotiations taken care of as it looks probable that it can and will he money smoothing over the objections raised tho reVnalninr7 obtaclo of ratification ratifi-cation by tho Colombian Congress remains re-mains This will entail some delay The elections are to be In March The members mem-bers will bo the creatures of J Lf JIarroquin who usurped the Presidency July 31 1000 and has been dictator ever since he has never brooked any opposition opposi-tion In Congress and la not likely to In this case if he IB acting in good faith That he is so acting one may fairly Infer In-fer from his need of money and from tho fact that since his substitution of Ilerran for Concha the negotiations have proceeded with much more satisfactory satis-factory progress than before I Is fair to expect therefore that since President Presi-dent JJarroquin appoints all the Governors Gov-ernors of the provinces the required concessions will be made andthe Congress Con-gress to be returned will do what tho Government wants It to do |