s agreed
that we should build a canal, allowing all other nations to use it.
Meantime, spite of the fact that the Walker commission had recommended
Nicaragua route, public sentiment began to favor Panama. Even the Walker
commission changed to this view.

The Spooner act of Congress, approved June 28, 1902, authorized the
President to build an isthmian canal. The Panama properties and
franchises were to be bought if he could get good title 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, pronounced valid, and in due time
acquired by the United States.

[Illustration: Map of Central America from Nicaragua to Columbia.]
The American Isthmus, showing routes investigated for a ship-canal.
Solid Lines--Routes investigated by the Isthmian Canal 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 Washington than to Bogota.
All Panama interests centred in the canal. Should Nicaragua get the
canal, 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 ships would use the canal 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 canal
crossed Panama but lost everything if it passed to Nicaragua. Other
European nations wished the canal built and felt that now was the
accepted time. Latin-American States alone showed sympa