PRESIDENT WILSON AND THE PANAMA_ TOLLS.
1.11 RESIDENT WILSON deserves well of his country-
men. In obtaining the repeal of the clauses in the Panama Canal Act which infringed the spirit of the Treaty made by the United States when the Bulwer-Clayton Treaty was abrogated be has done his nation a service of incalculable worth. We care little or nothing about the mere commercial question whether the United States coastwise shipping should or should not have a preference in the matter of Canal dues. The material point is not important. What is important, and what we as friends and admirers of the United States have troubled ourselves about very greatly, is the honour and good faith of that great Republic. The inviolability of the national honour is as vital to a democracy as to any other form of govern- ment. The popular leader who, risking his own popu- larity and refusing to obey what may seem omnipotent influences, obliges the nation to turn its attention to the point of probity and good faith, is worthy of the highest praise that men can give him. President Wilson, even if on the merits he was strongly against the Tolls Clauses, had plenty of excuses for leaving the matter alone. The Act was not passed by him or his party, but by his predecessor. He might very well have taken the line that he was sorry for Mr. Taft's action, but that it was no good crying over spilt milk, and that, with so many other great and pressing things to be done, he could not waste time over the invidious task of repealing an Act of Congress What made it specially tempting for him to take advan- tage of these considerations was the fact that the problem was one in regard to which it was easy to create prejudice. Nothing was easier or sounded more patriotio than to declare that the man who proposed to repeal the Toils Clauses was trying to ingratiate himself with the jealous, domineering power of England, and that repeal would merely be an act of international toadyism, a cringing to London, a humiliation of the American Eagle before the haughty British Lion, and so forth. Lastly— and this was a consideration which would specially more the party politician—the most vigorous opponents of repeal and supporters of preference, the most fervent upholders of the principle that what was favourable to England must be bad for America, were to be found in President Wilson's own party—the party which has the support of the Irish vote. It is an easy thing for a party politician to run counter to his normal political opponents and to call their white black. It is a very different and a much more difficult thing to quarrel with or stand up to his own friends. Fighting the enemy is good business. Opposing a large section of your own supporters is a thing which, whatever may be the merits of the question at issue, the modern political leader regards with special horror. Yet President Wilson, fully aware of all these considerations, and, as we have said, with every sort of excuse for doing the wrong rather than the right thing, faced a malevolent Press, a sulky party machine, and a cynical and suspicious Legis- lature, and with a steadiness and perseverance which are far more difficult to maintain than dash and daring, refused to rest till he could clear the national honour and uphold before all the world the sanctity of a Treaty. He was not content with letting it be known what his own views were or with sheltering himself behind his own good intentions. He never stopped working and exercising his influence in his party till he had obtained repeal. He did not want to vindicate his own virtue, but to maintain, at whatever cost to himself, the good name of his country.
That is a splendid record, one of which any leader of the people might be proud. We trust, then, that we shall not be thought impertinent if we offer our heartiest and most heartfelt, as well as our most respectful, salutations and congratulations to President Wilson on a personal victory so noble and so memorable. We have in the past said many hard things in criticism of President Wilson, not, of course, on personal grounds, but because we thought he was doing injury to interests which are, and we trust always will be, dear to us—namely, the best interests of the United States. Our doubts as to the wisdom of President Wilson's Mexican policy cannot, however, blind us to an act of true statesmanship such as we are now witnessing. Remember; too, that President Wilson's
act is not confined to his own country or to one particular event. He has set an example which it is not in the very least an exaggeration to say will echo round the world. Party politicians with good intentions, but tempted to play the small game and the mean game instead of the great game and the high game, will remember President Wilson's action, and how courage and good faith had their reward in what all politicians naturally and rightly desire— victory with honour. The thought of what President Wilson has dared and done and of how he made his countrymen, or rather, a thing infinitely harder, their representatives in two assemblies, steeped in political cynicism—all representative bodies are cynical at heart— do the right thing, will be a tower of strength to many a democratic leader in the future. When tempted to speak smooth things rather than true things to the people before whom he stands as shepherd and guardian be will remember Wilson and the Tolls.
We have dealt with President Wilson's achievement as an American, and with what the best Americans and the best friends of America owe to him in making known to the world that the plighted word of America is a rock upon which men and nations may build in safety. The friends of international peace as well as the friends of America must also feel deep relief at President Wilson's action. If the cause of peace is to make any real advance, it is absolutely essential that the good faith of States shall rest inviolate, and that treaties shall be regarded as sacred. Only on that basis will it be possible to build up a system of international arbitration and of public law which will be binding upon the States of the world. If treaties are not to be regarded as inviolable both in the spirit and in the letter, but can be circumvented by subtle pleas founded on what is supposed to be national self-interest, inter- national law and international instruments for peace become no better than waste-paper. The first thing, the essential thing, is that when a solemn treaty has been made it shall be observed, even if for the moment one of the signatories thinks that it will operate to his own hurt. By preserving the sanctity of the Hay-Pauncefote Treaty, and repealing legislation which infringed both the letter and the spirit of that Treaty, President Wilson has done more for the cause for which he cares so greatly—the cause of international peace—than any other statesman of our time. As we have said, we have criticized President Wilson severely in the past, and shall very probably do so again, but we shall never speak of him without a feeling of heightened respect for his character and his courage. He has proved himself above all things the man of honour, the man who has shown to the whole world that a democracy like America can be, and is, as careful of its good name as the most venerable and most punctilious of Old World States.
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