OCR Text |
Show SENATE SHOULD VOTE. President' Wilson has asked the senate to take action on the treaty with Colombia Co-lombia before the present session of congress ends, and his request is reasonable. rea-sonable. The treaty was negotiated for the purpose of indemnifying Colombia for the loss of Panama, which was lopped off from the parent country about the lime the canal was purchased from the French company through the instrumentality of Roosevelt, then president, pres-ident, who has since boasted "that took it,'' thus giving the South American Ameri-can republic a valid claim for damages. The original treaty called for the payment pay-ment of $15.0()0,UUO anil it was ratified by the Colombia seuate. It hung fire in the United States senate, however, and the amount of indemnity to be paid was finally diminished by several million mil-lion dollars. The Colombians, although bitterly disappointed, signified their willingness to accept the smaller sum. Still no action has been taken by the United States and wc are being charged with bad faith in South America and the .Roosevelt method of treating small-; small-; er nations has provoked sneers upon the 1 part of tho European statesmen when-; when-; ever our own officials have sought to make it appear that our government does not want the territory of a neighboring neigh-boring state. It was an unfortunate piece of business from the very start and the confession of Roosevelt has placed us in a very awkward position. The present administration has ac-; ac-; knowledged the claim of Colombia by ; negotiating the treaty. But the senate ; has so far failed to take a vote upon it I and our good faith is being impugned. ! It would not be' true to say that the average citizen of this country, be he Republican, Democrat or independent, is enthusiastically in favor of paying these millions to Colombia. In fact, there is violent opposition to ratification of the treaty in many quarters. The opposition is very pronounced in the seuate. Nevertheless Nev-ertheless the treaty should be allowed to come to a vote and the whole matter definitely settled one way or the other. If the senators in their wisdom decide to ratify the convention there will be no outcry upon the part of the people, notwithstanding the implied admission of guilt. If all adverse verdict is returned re-turned it will be accepted and the matter mat-ter dropped. They should act, in auv event, and not keep Colombia upon the i anxious seat any longer. Courtesy would seem to require that much considera- j tion. ' |