117. The Varilla 1903 [475] www THE ROOSEVELT POLICIES The following text of the convention of 1903 between the United States and the new Republic of Panama for the construction of a ship canal through the Isthmus is taken from W. M. Malloy's "Treaties, Conventions, International Acts, Protocols, and Agreements between the United States and Other Powers," a compilation, in two large volumes, made in accordance with a resolution of the Senate, January 18, 1909. The Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty was ratified and proclaimed in February, 1904. In May, 1904, the "dirt began to fly" at Panama. Almost exactly ten years later the first ship passed through the Canal. The United States of America and the Republic of Panama being desirous to insure the construction of a ship canal across the Isthmus of Panama to connect the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, and the Congress of the United States of America having passed an act approved June 28, 1902, in furtherance of that object, by which the President of the United States is authorized to acquire within a reasonable time the control of the necessary territory of the Republic of Colombia, and the sovereignty of such territory being actually vested in the Republic of Panama, the high contracting parties have resolved for that purpose to conclude a convention and have accordingly appointed as their plenipotentiaries, The President of the United States, John Hay, Secretary of State, and The Government of the Republic of Panama, Philippe BunauVarilla, Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Panama, thereunto especially empowered by said government: who after communicating with each other their respective full powers, found to be in good and due form, have agreed upon and concluded the following articles. ARTICLE I. The United States guarantees and will maintain the independence of the Republic of Panama. ARTICLE II. The Republic of Panama grants to the United States in perpetuity the use, occupation and control of a zone of land and land under water for the construction, maintenance, operation, sanitation and protection of said Canal, of the width of ten miles extending to the distance of five miles on each side of the center line of the route of Canal to be constructed . . . with the proviso that the cities of Panama and Colon and the harbors adjacent to said cities . . . shall not be included within this grant [see Article VII] ARTICLE V. The Republic of Panama grants to the United States in perpetuity a monopoly for the construction, maintenance, and operation of any system of communication by means of canal or railroad across its territory between the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean. ARTICLE VI. The grants herein contained shall in no manner invalidate the titles or rights of private landholders or owners of private property in the said zone. . . . All damages caused to the owners of private lands or private property of any kind by reason of the grants contained in this treaty or by reason of the operations of the United States . . . shall be appraised and settled by a joint Commission appointed by the governments of the United States and the Republic of Panama, whose decisions as to such damages shall be final, and whose awards as to such damages shall be paid solely by the United States. ... The appraisal of such private lands and private property and the assessment of damages to them shall be based upon their value before the date of this convention. ARTICLE VII. The Republic of Panama grants to the United States within the limits of the cities of Panama and Colon and their adjacent harbors and within the territory adjacent thereto the right to acquire by purchase or by the exercise of the right of eminent domain, any lands, buildings, water rights or other properties necessary and convenient for the construction . . . of the Canal, and of any works of sanitation, such as the collection and disposition of sewage and the distribution of water in the said cities of Panama and Colon. ... All such works of sanitation . . . shall be made at the expense of the United States, and the Government of the United States . . . shall be authorized to impose and collect water rates and sewerage rates which shall be sufficient to provide for the payment of interest and the amortization of the principal of the cost of said works within a period of fifty years, and upon the expiration of said term of fifty years the system of sewers and water works shall revert to and become the properties of the cities of Panama and Colon respectively.... The Republic of Panama agrees that the cities of Panama and Colon shall comply in perpetuity with the sanitary ordinances whether of a preventive or curative character prescribed by the United States. . . ARTICLE IX. The United States agrees that the ports at either entrance of the Canal and the waters thereof, and the Republic of Panama agrees that the towns of Panama and Colon shall be free for all time, so that there shall not be imposed or collected custom house tolls, tonnage . . . or taxes of any kind upon any vessel using or passing through the Canal except such tolls and charges as may be imposed by the United States for the use of the Canal. . . . The United States shall have the right to make use of the towns and harbors of Panama and Colon as places of anchorage, and for making repairs, for loading, unloading, depositing, or transshipping cargoes either in transit or destined for the service of the Canal. . . . ... ARTICLE X. The Republic of Panama agrees that there shall not be imposed any taxes national, municipal, departmental or of any other class upon the Canal . . . or railroad and auxiliary works, or their officers or employees situated within the cities of Panama and Colon. . . . ARTICLE XI. The United States agrees that the official dispatches of the Government of the Republic of Panama shall be transmitted over any telegraph and telephone lines established for Canal purposes and used for public and private business at rates not higher than those required from officials in the service of the United States. . . . ARTICLE XIV. As the price or compensation for the rights, powers and privileges granted in this convention by the Republic of Panama... the Government of the United States agrees to pay to the Republic of Panama the sum of ten million dollars ($10,000,000) in gold coin of the United States on the exchange of the ratification of this convention and also an annual payment during the life of this convention of two hundred and fifty thousand dollars ($250,000) in like gold coin, beginning nine years after the date aforesaid. . . . ... ARTICLE XVI. The two Governments shall make adequate provision by future agreement for the pursuit, capture, imprisonment, detention, and delivery within said zone and auxiliary lands to the authorities of the Republic of Panama of persons charged with the commitment of crimes, felonies or misdemeanors without said zone [and vice versa]. . . .1 ARTICLE XVIII. The Canal, when constructed, and the entrances thereto shall be neutral in perpetuity, and shall be opened upon the terms provided for by Section I of Article III . . . of the treaty entered into by the Governments of the United States and Great Britain on November 18, 1901.2 ARTICLE XIX. The Government of the Republic of Panama shall have the right to transport over the Canal its vessels and its troops and munitions of war in such vessels at all times without paying charges of any kind. . . . ARTICLE XXIII. If it should become necessary at any time to employ armed forces for the safety or protection of the Canal... the United States shall have the right, at all times and in its discretion, to use its police and its land and naval forces or to establish fortifications for these purposes. ... 1 An extradition treaty in twelve articles was concluded May 25, 1904, between W. W. Russell, our chargé d'affaires in Panama, and Tomas Arias, secretary of the Panama government. It may be found in Malloy's "Treaties, Conventions," etc., Vol. II, pp. 1357-1361. 2 The Hay-Pauncefote Treaty, rescinding the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty of 1850. The section in question reads: "The Canal shall be free and open to the vessels of commerce and of war of all nations observing these Rules, on terms of entire equality, so that there shall be no discrimination against any such nation, or its citizens or subjects, in respect of the conditions or charges of traffic or otherwise. Such conditions and charges of traffic shall be just and equitable ” (Malloy, Treaties... and Agreements between the United States and Other Powers, Vol. I, p. 783). It was in obedience to what he believed our pledged duty in this section that President Wilson secured from Congress in 1914 the repeal of the law of 1912 exempting United States vessels from toll charges when using the Canal in their coasting trade. 118. Roose to the gov ernors, May 13, 1908 [471] ARTICLE XXVI. This convention when signed by the Plenipotentiaries of the Contracting Parties shall be ratified by the respective Governments and the ratifications shall be exchanged at Washington at the earliest date possible. . . . Done at the city of Washington the 18th day of November in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and three. JOHN HAY [seal] P. BUNAU-VARILLA [seal] As early as March, 1891, Congress had passed a Convelt's speech servation Act authorizing the President to withdraw from entry for public sale such tracts of forest lands as he saw fit, and Harrison, Cleveland, and McKinley had all availed themselves to some extent of this authorization. But Theodore Roosevelt was the first president to interest himself heartily and continuously in the policy of the conservation of our national resources. Addressing the Society of American Foresters on March 26, 1903, he said: Your attention must be directed to the preservation of the forests, not as an end in itself, but as a means of preserving the prosperity of the Nation.... In the arid regions of the West agriculture depends first of all upon the available water supply. In such a region forest protection alone can maintain the stream flow necessary for irrigation, and can prevent the great and destructive floods so ruinous to communities farther down the same streams.1 A little later he appointed an Inland Waterways Commission at the suggestion of Gifford Pinchot, chief of the National Forest Service. While engaged on a trip of inspection down the Mississippi River, from St. Paul to Memphis, October 1-4, 1907, this commission conceived the plan which was expressed to the President in the following letter: 1 Proceedings of a Conference of Governors in the White House, 1908, p. v Washington, Government Printing Office, 1909. |