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“It is easy to see that the people in Panama are jealous of the success of the Americans,” commented the young man.

“Naturally; the United States has always advanced at the price of Latin-America.”

“How so?”

“Study your history. When the Thirteen Original States branched out, first came the ‘Louisiana Purchase,’ land originally settled by the French; then Florida, first settled by the Spanish, was bought by the United States. Later still, Texas seceded from Mexico, settled also by the Spanish; then came the Mexican War, and Latin-America lost the territory now known as New Mexico, Arizona, and California.”

“Seems to me it would have been better if Colombia had accepted the original offer of the United States for the Panama Canal Zone.”

“Why so? The United States only offered a beggarly ten million. By waiting a year the French concession would have expired, and the Colombian Government would have received the sixty million which the United States eventually paid the French Company.”

“Instead of which you got nothing,” remarked the American dryly, “and lost Panama into the bargain.”