THE PANAMA CANAL TOLLS CONTROVERSY

By

LOUIS TAYLOR MERRILL

A Thesis Submitted for the Degree of

MASTER OF ARTS

UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN

1921

Chapter II

The Clayton-Buiwer and Hay-Pauncefote Treaties 7

BACKGROUND OF THE FREE TOLLS CONTROVERSY.

There are those who have hailed the election of November,

1920, as the sunrise of a new national era.

It brought the re

publican administration into power by the greatest popular ma

jority in the history of the republic. The Wilsonian brand of beneficent internationalism, strikingly the plaything of imper

ialistic ambitions of the other powers at the peace table, has

been, temporarily at least, marked with an unmistakable taboo of disfavor. The current of the time is bearing the new admin

istration back into the narrow and more definitely prescribed

channels of nationalism,

The slogan "America first" will fur

nish the key to the manner in which many problems will be

Bolved by the majority in power during the next four or eight

years.

Among leading questions facing the administration are

those connected with the Panama canal.

The mollification of

Colombia for the manner in which she lost the territory on

which the canal was constructed is not the only Panama issue to

demand solution,

The question of tolls exemption for American

vessels thrusts itself prominently forward.

The republican

party unequivocally has pledged itself to a restoration of the exemption privilege that was incorporated in the original Panama

act of August 24, 1^12.

The plank in the national platform of

1020 on this subject reads:

" We recommend that all snips engaged in coastwise trade

and all vessels of the American merchant marine shall pass