The "Taking" Of Panama.

New York Times 100 years ago today, April 21, 1913:
New Administration Expected to Do Justice to Colombia.
To the Editor of The New York Times:
    I have read with keen interest the various articles that have recently appeared concerning the negotiations for effecting a settlement of the question pending with the Republic of Colombia for the "taking" of Panama. No one could have been better animated with the importance of a proper settlement of Colombia's claim than was our Minister, James T. Dubois. But Minister Dubois was fatally hampered by the exigencies of an Administration that attempted to sustain the validity of the acts of Theodore Roosevelt, which, in the case at point, necessarily involved insincerity and hypocrisy. Minister Dubois was authorized by his superiors to offer a sum of money to Colombia, which under proper circumstances possibly might have been effective as an indemnity, but Mr. Dubois was compelled to make his proffers as a subterfuge, and was manifestly trying to beg the question but pay the price.
    Those of us who are familiar with Colombia fully realize the entire absurdity of an offer of anything approaching $10,000,000 for the Island of San Andres as a supposed coaling station, or for the option for an interoceanic canal via the Atrato-Napipi route, involving a six-mile ship tunnel. Colombia's refusal of our Minister's proffer was not in any measure due to an exaggerated idea of the importance of either the so-called coaling station or canal route, but was manifestly owing to the fact that this offer of cordiality on the part of the United States condoned the theft of the Isthmus without offering the slightest moral satisfaction for the insults heaped on Colombia by the American Executive. Colombia has done nothing in regard to the Panama question which was not her legal and moral right. I make this statement after a careful perusal of the American official record, on which Colombia is more than willing that her case should be judged. I know without the intervention of any hearsay evidence that Mr. Taft was most anxious to have our difficulties with Colombia equitably and finally settled, but Mr. Taft, in his desire to do justice, was hampered by the bonds of friendship and fidelity to his party. Judging from their public utterances, it is probable that neither Mr. Wilson nor Secretary Bryan is less anxious to do justice to Colombia than was Mr. Taft, but their efforts will be hampered by neither party nor imaginary personal ties, and their sole purpose can be to do justice in the fair, frank, and equitable manner that prevails among honorable men and nations, to requite the wrong done in a way that, while compensating the damage, shall soothe the outraged pride of a sister nation.
            HENRY G. GRANGER.
            New York, April 19, 1913.