Jasper County Democrat, Volume 5, Number 43, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 31 January 1903 — CANAL PACT SIGNED. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

CANAL PACT SIGNED.

UNITED STATES GETS PANAMA WAY BY TREATY. Lease in Perpetuity on Route and Power to Police It Granted by Colombia— Bignatures Are Affixed at Home of Secretary of State Hay. The treaty between the United States and Colombia for the construction of the Panama canal by the United States was signed Thursday afternoon at the home of Secretary Hay in Washington. No details of the signature of the treaty were obtainable, but at the presidential reception at the White House in the evening the news that the treaty at last was an accomplished fact was told and later was confirmed authoritatively on inquiry in official quarters. Fears had been entertained that Colombia w<euld not be willing to accede to the wishes of the United States in the canal matter and that recourse to the Nicaraguan canal project might be forced on the government of the United States. But events have taken a more favorable turn and Colombia transmitted Instructions and authority, to Dr. Herran, Its representative in the United Stales, that made possible a conclusion of the long negotiations. 1 he principal obstacles for some time to the conclusion of the treaty, it is un- ■ derstood, was the price that the United States was to pay in the way of annual < rental for the strip of territory along' each side of tire canal right of way. Some time age there was a hitch over the question of the extent to which control by the U fitted States over this strip of land should go, Colombia objecting on the ground that the provisions requested in the treaty by the United States* l would mean n relinquishment of sovereignty by Colombia over part of her territory. This matter, however, was amicably I adjusted, as was a difference as to the ! length of the lease of the strip of land in question, the final result being a prac-1

tlcal cession in perpetuity of the strip to the United States for canal purposes and Incidental police control and protection of the canal right of w«y. The treaty goes to the Senate for ratification. The estimated cost of completing the Panama canal is $144,233,358. The total length of the Nicaragua canal route is 183.66 miles; that of Panama 46.09. It will take a steamship of the nverige size and speed twelve hours to pass through the Panama canal if one with locks is constructed, or four hours if the canal is at sea level.

SNAPSHOT OF WRECKED EXPRESS NEAR ST. CHARLES.