CHAPTER 22

New York, November 1901

Philippe began to read the New York Journal and felt like the world was coming to an end: the Walker Commission had chosen Nicaragua as the best route to build the American canal.

He found himself alone, because Cromwell had been dismissed by the Canal Company a few months earlier for trying to create an American company to which the assets of the French enterprise would be transferred. The lawyer’s plans had shocked his clients in Paris and naturally, generated a great deal of suspicion. While Philippe didn’t care for the lawyer, his dismissal was a significant loss to the project.

The assassination of President McKinley the past September had caused a major setback for the Panama Canal. Little by little, McKinley had accepted the possibility of a canal in a location other than Nicaragua, if it were determined to be in the best interest of Americans. After McKinley’s death, the young and fiery Theodore Roosevelt, who had recently been elected Vice President and who openly favored the Nicaraguan route, assumed the presidency of the United States.

The worst part was that, before announcing their decision, the Walker Commission made a formal request to buy the Canal Company, but Maurice Hutin and his friends hadn’t wanted to put a price on it. Without an official price from the French, the Walker Commission had to estimate the price the Canal Company would request for its assets and this estimation turned out to be higher than the Nicaraguan expense.

In the end, the Walker Commission’s report stated that technically, Panama was a better option, but that the estimated cost was too high and therefore, Nicaragua was the better route. In its evaluation, the Commission considered that the Canal Company franchise and its assets were hardly worth forty million dollars.

When Philippe, who had recently arrived in the United States, heard about this detail he took a steamer back to France to demand that the selling price be set at the forty million dollars determined by the Walker Commission. In a meeting of shareholders at the beginning of January, to which Philippe was entitled to attend, Maurice Hutin called out to him, “Philippe, for a Frenchman you make quite a fine American, wanting to give our assets to the United States with your proposal to accept that ridiculous sum.”

As always, Philippe had anticipated such a reaction and he firmly responded, “Gentlemen! France won’t be able to finish the canal alone, Russia can’t help and the only country that has the ability and interest in continuing what he have begun is the United States. The Walker Commission already chose Nicaragua as the best option and all seems to have been lost. There is no other option. What is better, to lose some or to lose all? I will remind you of King Salomon when his tribunal ruled that the true mother was the one who would rather see her son in someone else’s hands than to see him dead. That is the situation we are in. Now, decide!”

That day, Maurice Hutin was dismissed and the Canal Company sent an urgent cablegram from Paris to Admiral Walker confirming its willingness to sell everything for the forty million dollars that had been determined by the Commission, a price much lower than the cost estimated to build the canal in Nicaragua: 189 million dollars.

“This changes things…” Admiral Walker said, upon receipt of the lower offer from the French.

***

The news had hardly settled on Washington that the French had lowered the price to forty million dollars as requested by the Commission, when Mark Hanna, known for his innovative use of means of communication, issued a press release explaining that various “influential senators” were impressed by the technical advantages of Panama over Nicaragua and that, considering the new price Canal Company shareholders were asking, there was a possibility of changing plans in favor of the Panamanian route.

Politicians who were in favor of Nicaragua, headed by Senator Morgan, immediately took action. Reflecting on American public sentiment, ten days later the New York Herald published an article promoting the Nicaragua Canal as a national enterprise: a canal designed by Americans, built by Americans, and to be controlled by Americans.

On the 20th of January, almost three weeks after the French had sent their new proposal, President Roosevelt called on each member of the Walker commission to give him their opinion on the better route for the United States. It was obvious to all of them that now, for some unknown reason, Roosevelt preferred Panama. And so the Walker Commision changed their initial opinion and declared that Panama, not Nicaragua, was the best course.

But the Walker Commission’s new declaration wasn’t enough; the law that would allow the government to take possession of the canal and complete the construction had yet to be voted on. This entire process had caused a great deal of anxiety and depression for Philippe. He couldn’t tolerate the fact that he had no control over what would happen, especially when it came to “his” canal.