Would Make Canal Free.

New York Times 100 years ago today, October 2, 1912:
English Writer's Suggestion as Solution of Panama Dispute.
Special Cable to The New York Times.
    LONDON, Oct. 1.— A novel suggestion in regard to the settlement of the Panama Canal difficulty appears in the October number of The Nineteenth Century and After. In an article by J. Ellis Barker, a well-known writer on political subjects, Mr. Barker presents the American case very fairly, and concludes:
    "In view of the fact that the canal is not likely ever to become a paying investment to the United States, it would perhaps be cheapest to make it free for all nations. It cannot, of course, be expected that the United Plates will make a free gift of the canal to the nations of the world.
    "The most sensible course for all parties concerned seems to be to free the Panama Canal from dues in the same way in which last century, through America's initiative, the Danish Sound dues were abolished — to call an international conference and arrange for the extinction of Panama tolls by the payment of a lump sum capitalizing the averaging income to be derived from the canal. In this Great Britain might take the initiative.
    "The cost of working and maintaining the canal might perhaps be shared by the United States and the British Empire, which are the most interested in the undertaking."