A PROTECTED STATE 255 States, as a practical protector of Panama, to be unfavourably criticised. There is more than one "guaranteed" state in Europe. Moreover, such guarantees in Europe are largely for selfish purposes and for the maintenance of a "balance of power," while ours over Panama is made with the disinterested design of maintaining peace and order and of facilitating the commerce of the world. If, in the episode I have described, the United States exercised a strong, perhaps a paramount, influence in the affairs of another sovereign state, at least it did so with the fullest regard for the liberties and the susceptibilities of the people of that country, and for the rights and interests of all nations. CHAPTER XIV A MISSION OF READJUSTMENT CLOSE upon the heels of General Huertas's vain attempt at revolution came another important episode. This was the visit of the Secretary of War of the United States, William H. Taft, to Panama, upon what may be called a mission of readjustment. Dissatisfaction had arisen in Panama, not with the Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty but with some features of the American construction and application of it, especially concerning the tariff and the postal service. For such dissatisfaction there was ample ground. In response to an unthinking demand in the United States, the full tariff rates of the United States were by executive order (see Appendix VIII.) on June 24, 1904, applied to the Canal Zone, not only against all foreign countries but also against Panama itself, and two collection districts were established. A Canal Zone port was also established at Ancon, adjoining the city of Panama. This resulted in little or no gain to the United States, but in a great hardship to Panama, depriving it of an all but indispensable market and also of a large part of its import trade. Again, the domestic postal rate of two cents was established between the Canal Zone and the United States, and nine United States post offices were opened in the Zone, while the old five-cent rate was maintained between Panama and the United States. The result was that the business men of Panama carried all their mail over into the Zone and deposited it in the American post office there, thus depriving the Panama post office of the bulk of its business. In doing this they not only got the sixty per cent. lower rates of postage, but also got far more trustworthy service. For the Panama post office had not yet been redeemed from the old Colombian methods, under which it SECRETARY TAFT'S PARTY 257 was necessary to mail a letter two or three days in advance to make sure of its being despatched by a certain steamer, and even then there was no assurance that the postmaster would not tear off the stamp, to resell to some one else, and throw the letter into the waste-paper basket. It used to be notorious that there was no use in inquiring for letters at a post office if you found the postmaster sitting down, for he would not get up to see if there were any for you, but would declare there were none, and remain seated! In order to adjust these and some other minor matters, which had been for some time the subject of diplomatic correspondence (see Appendix IX), President Roosevelt decided to send Secretary Taft to Panama, as his personal representative. This mission set out from the ancient port of Pensacola, Florida, on November 22, 1904, for Colon. It was conveyed in impressive state by the two cruisers Columbia and Dolphin, of the United States Navy, and its members and their companions included Secretary Taft and Mrs. Taft; Rear-Admiral Walker, U. S. N., the chairman of the Canal Commission; Charles E. Magoon, the legal adviser of the Commission; William Nelson Cromwell, the legal adviser of the old Canal Company and railroad company, and of the Panama Government; and Domingo de Obaldia, the Panaman Minister to the United States. Pensacola was an appropriate starting point for the mission. It would have been such had the errand been one of war, of aggresion, of militant expansion. Above all places in the United States that quaint old Spanish city, the very names of its streets still echoing the voices of Leon and Castile, is reminiscent of the strenuous forward movement of the American nation. It was there that an American army first invaded alien soil. From the Perdido to the Escambia is a short distance, but in marching it, ninety-odd years ago, a distinguished Democratic expansionist set for all time a most important precedent. In maintaining "the immutable principle of self-defence"-the self-defence of the republicJackson marched an American army for warlike purposes into the territory of a foreign Power with which America was at peace. Approved at the time by the "fathers of the Constitution," and confirmed by the experience and practice of four score and ten succeeding years, that epoch-marking precedent returns vividly to mind to-day, as the sanctioning authority of more than one subsequent act which the forgetful have in late years all too heedlessly challenged. Not now, however, was it necessary to follow that precedent, with force and arms. Though led by the Secretary of War, and transported in ships of war, this errand to and from Pensacola was one of peace. It was, no less than Jackson's, meant for the self-defence of the Republic; but it sought that end by means of conciliation and good will. It was to maintain "the immutable principle of self-defence," not only against foreign intrigues and whatever might to any extent menace the achievement of the great work of "an American canal under American control," but also against the insidious peril of misunderstandings between the United States and a sister republic, and against the possibility of reproach for having dealt ungenerously with a weaker and halfdependent nation. Nor was the port of departure less fitting in that view of the case. Peace and good will mean social and commercial intercourse; and the superb harbour of Pensacola may well become the great gateway of the Eastern Gulf and South Atlantic States opening upon the Gulf and Caribbean Sea, and leading to that world's gateway of commerce and travel at Panama. It was auspicious and appropriate, too, that the departure of the mission should have been effected under a sunny sky and upon a smooth sea, and that similar conditions, to an extent seldom experienced in these capricious regions, should have accompanied it all the way. The "stormy Caribbean" was, to the Columbia and the Dolphin, as calm and placid as the devotions of a universal peace congress. The reception of Secretary Taft and his party at Panama by the Panaman Government and people was unmistakably marked with cordiality and friendly expectation. There PANAMAN EXPECTATIONS 259 seemed to be none of the extravagant illusion which had been cherished; or which the Panamans had been reported to cherish. The Panamans were not looking for any radical reversal of American policy. Indeed, some things had recently happened which were well calculated to dispel such visions, if they had ever been cherished. General Huertas had made, only a short time before, his fatuous attempt at what would have been a revolution, and had been effectively suppressed through the good offices of the United States; and that episode had given much food for thought for all thoughtful men in Panama. More than anything else, since the revolution of a year before, it revealed with convincing emphasis the purpose of the United States to stand firm for both its rights and its duties under the existing treaty, to respect and to maintain the independence of the Isthmian republic, but equally to maintain, whenever necessary, the constitutional order of that country. The conduct of the United States in that crisis had, on the one hand, reassured the Panaman Government and had inspired it with feelings of confidence and gratitude, and had, on the other hand, given a stern but salutary and effective lesson of warning to whatever discordant and revolutionary elements there might be in the community. From such point of view we might almost say it was a good thing that the abortive conspiracy had occurred. There can be no doubt that because of it and its firm suppression the fulfilment of Secretary Taft's mission was materially facilitated through the formation in the minds of the Panamans of a more just and accurate appreciation of the United States and of its relations to Isthmian affairs. Secretary Taft did not delay to sound what we may call the dual keynote of his mission: to wit, that justice should be done to Panama, and that, in return, justice, order, and stability would be required of Panama. It was at noon of Sunday, November 27, that he reached the city of Panama, and an hour or two later he was received by President Amador at the Government House. In his address to the Presi |