Panama Canal Tolls Question

Panama Canal Tolls Question, a dispute between the United States and Great Britain regarding charges for use of the Panama Canal.

One of many steps in the lengthy contest between the United States and Great Britain for preeminence in the Caribbean and control of the canal, the U.S. Panama Canal Act of 1912 angered the British government because it exempted U.S. ships engaged in the coastwise trade from canal tolls. As the world's leading shipping nation, Great Britain protested the legislation as a violation of the Hay-Pauncefote Treaties (1900–1901). In accepting exclusive jurisdiction by the United States over the Panama Canal, this accord stipulated that the canal should be open to the ships of all nations on equal terms.

While U.S. President William Howard Taft rejected these protests, President Woodrow Wilson violated his own Democratic Party platform to use the tolls question in the Anglo-American dispute regarding the Mexican regime of General Victoriano Huerta. The British granted Huerta de facto recognition, seeking stability to continue oil development in view of the impending European conflict. Wilson, who sought to secure the overthrow of Huerta, hinted at concessions if the British were to withdraw support for Huerta. After the British modified their Mexican policy, Wilson proposed repeal of the tolls exemption, which was approved after stormy Senate debate on 15 June 1914.

See alsoHuerta, Victoriano; Panama Canal.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

J. Lloyd Mecham, A Survey of United States-Latin American Relations (1965).

Kenneth J. Grieb, The United States and Huerta (1969).

Additional Bibliography

Fitzgerald, Luis I. Historia de las relaciones entre Panamá y los Estados Unidos. Panamá: Editorial Universitaria, 2001.

Lindsay-Poland, John. Emperors in the Jungle: The Hidden History of the U.S. in Panama. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2003.

Pearcy, Thomas L. We Answer Only to God: Politics and the Military in Panama, 1903–1947. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1998.

                                    Kenneth J. Grieb