The intimate papers of Colonel House arranged as a narrative by Charles Seymour.

192 INTIMATE PAPERS OF COLONEL HOUSE

remnant of an age that was past. What he wanted was some
sort of cooperative understanding with the great European
Powers that might help to preserve the peace of the world, in
which the United States had vital material interest. This
conviction was not lessened by his realization that the
European situation was critical and might at any moment
result in a general European war.
Such a policy implied a frank recognition that the factors
upon which American traditions rested had disappeared. If
it were to be developed successfully, a working understanding with Great Britain would be necessary, both because the
presence of the British in Latin America could not wisely be
ignored and also because the imperial power of Great Britain
was necessary to any feasible plan of international cooperation.
Anglo-American relations were not unfriendly at the beginning of the Wilson Administration, but a cordial and intimate understanding could not be reached until two clouds
were removed, of which the most important, at least in the
public mind, concerned the Panama tolls controversy. During the last year of Mr. Taft's Administration, Congress had
passed an act exempting vessels engaged in coastwise trade
of the United States from Panama Canal tolls, notwithstanding a clause in the Hay-Pauncefote Treaty of 1901
which provided that the Canal should be open to ships of all
nations on 'terms of entire equality.' Feeling in the United
States, especially in Irish districts, favored such exemption
warmly, on the ground that it was 'reasonable,' and made an
'open canal.' A plank in the Democratic platform approved
it. Feeling in Great Britain supported with equal warmth
the contention that, reasonable or not, such exemption directly contravened engagements taken in 1901; the issue was
not one of logic, but simply whether the United States
would keep its word.
Even before Wilson assumed office, he and House seem to