184 AMERICAN DIPLOMATIC QUESTIONS 



under the protection and control of the sovereign power 

 whose territory they traverse. A great transcontinental rail- 

 road might be considered necessary to the world's commerce, 

 yet no one would seek to invest such a route with an inter- 

 national character. Should the nations of Europe claim a 

 voice in the management of our transcontinental railroads, we 

 should at once resent the suggestion as an assumption wholly 

 without reason or law. If railroads are subject only to the 

 municipal law, why should canals when substituted for roads 

 become international in character? The approaches to a 

 canal are a part of the territorial waters of a state, and the 

 waters of the canal must necessarily be under the jurisdiction 

 of the territory within which they lie. 



Again, no ship canal necessarily involving great labor and 

 cost ^"construction will ever likely be built by any one 

 nation for philanthropic reasons, and the builders must of 

 necessity have the right to levy tolls. If it were a natural 

 waterway, no nation could derive profit in such a manner; 

 nor could a company of stockholders frame a constitution 

 for its government. There can be no rules or regulations 

 conflicting with the freedom of vessels upon the high seas ; 

 therefore, if the waters of a canal are a part of the high seas 

 there would naturally be no need of treaty regulations govern- 

 ing them. 



Again, no nation or even combination of nations has the 

 right to construct a ship canal through the territory of 

 another without the latter's consent. This fact necessarily 

 implies the right of a sovereign to construct a canal of his 

 own, for he could not well transfer to another a right he him- 

 self does not possess. If he constructs a canal through his 

 own territory, it would seemingly then belong to him, and 

 not to the world at large ; and if he transfers such a privilege 

 to another, the latter should stand in the place of the seller. 



In the municipal law, the government is authorized, under 

 certain restrictions, to condemn private property for the use 

 of the state. International law has not reached in its de- 

 velopment so advanced a state ; yet it may reasonably be sup- 

 posed that at some future time there will be an understanding 



