Page:Dramatic Moments in American Diplomacy (1918).djvu/272

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252
DRAMATIC MOMENTS

to Colon at our request." So they wired that the Colombian troops were arriving in five days and asked for the warship.

So it was up to this ingenious man to send a warship or to make them think he sent it. He boarded the train for Washington. He went to see every secretary, senator, and gossip he knew or could get access to, including Loomis. To all he said the same thing.

"Remember the date of November 3, 1903. That day will behold a repetition of what happened there on the 1st of April, 1885. The armed conflict which will be the cause of it is expected everywhere. It is spoken of publicly in the press. The only difference between 1885 and 1903 is that the blame will not be attributed to the captain of a man of war in the waters of Colon. It will rest on the Government of the United States itself."

If the papers were not full of it before, they certainly were after this announcement.

So both ends were played against the middle. There could be no revolution without a war-