THE PANAMA CANAL

Evening Star, Issue 15065, 23 December 1912, Page 6

THE PANAMA CANAL

FORESTALLING THE DEMOCRATS.

A BELLICOSE CONGRESSMAN,

Press Association—By Telegraph—Copyright,

WASHINGTON, December 22. (Received December 23, at 8.5 a.m.)

Mr Taft has left for the Panama Canal. The object of his mission is to establish civil government throughout the canal zone before the Democrats assume power. Representative J. R. Mann, speaking before the Society for the Settlement of International Disputes, said it was impossible to submit the Panama question to arbitration. The interests of all other nations wero directly opposed to those of the United States. Congress had decided the question already, and undoubtedly they Avere in the right. He did not believe that truth and justice were enforceable amongst the nations of the earth unless they had battleships to back them. Representative Wheeler argued for the submission of the Panama Canal question to arbitration. It was inconceivable, he said, that the United States should refuse to place the tolls question before an imperial tribunal such as that of The Hague Judges. They had better lose thencase than act falsely to their plighted faith and the honorable traditions of the past 125 years.