The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1883-04-28

labor and true honorable enterprise and
genius, urged and guided by proper self.
interest, kindness and love for unfortunate
humanity, and love for the great, supreme
and all.wise soul of the infinite universe,
who forblds war, who commands US to Ia
Dor aud to love one another, and in whom
only we can hope for better life and a
better world than this.
This is what is needed; but what do we
find? Looking to England, Russia, and
indeed nearly all Europe, what do we see
Why, fearful and deadly duel doing on
contest of men hidden from public view,
UNPARALLELED in the annals Of the human
race. Never before was the inherited and
often abused prerogative Of earthly power
over fellow.men assaied by such peculiar,
hidden, deadly and mysterious forces.
Dynamite and death Turk in the shadows
OF London, Moscow, and st. Petersburg,
and these shadows extend over most of
Europe, and assassination has even been
made political power IN our own
| land.
But here bribery, intrigue, treachery, in
competence, time-serving demagogism,
narrow fanatcism, atheism, false pretense,
apathy and neglect of duty are the dan
| SCibuS poIitito' iiaPpii1, wv
twin monsters, partisauship and sectional
ism, that have ridden upon our backs and
faltened upon blood and plumber, are now
weakened from natural decay. And a
grand and safe pathway Is now open for
America, and in following it she can aid
herself, all her children, and all the world.
II is the path Of practical utility.
| Here American practical science and
! American practical sense and enterprise
should JON hands. Here they can WIN and
keep the favor and love of each other, the
favor anu love Of humanity, and, let US rev.
erently hope, the favor and love Of God.
AS the full record OF The physical works
OF Christ himself, the Great Father, 10 re.
leve the suffering, and minister TO the ply
seal necessities OF those about him, would
| form probably hundred fold larger book
than his grand sermons and perfect neral
and religious teachings, which are really
brief; so To-Day the W Ord wants more praC
! tical, DenetCent and profitable work, and aid
tor the suffering, and less talk, and less OF
| the rule of force. And the world wants a
better use of Its natural resources. And
| this brings us squarely to the great ques
tGas Of navigation and tlOods--lhe work
that must now he dOne-the errors of the
past work IN Europe and America, as to
rivers, their urgent needs, and also the
needs of China and South Amerlca--all
correlatlve with ours, and also with our
common, commercial and general interests
But first let As glance backward over the
worlds navigation, as It appears in history,
lnterlOCked with human wants, industries,
commerce, civilization, knowledge, power
and Advancement
The Mediterranean and the rivers and
| inland waters connected with it, was the
seat Of nearly all the navigation on this
| planet, until long after the Christian era,
! and until after the dGclluC OF Rome.
Situated between Europe, Asia and AT.
RIGA, winch comprised all the known world,
these inland waters connected and separ.
atcd Greece, Rome, Palestine, Egypt, Syria,
| Byzanlium, Carthage, Tyre, Troy, Spain,
Pn0caiCla, and the various great seats OF
human power, CIVILIZATION, knowledge and
advancement The greatest parts OF Eu.
rope, ASIA and Africa were in every rCspcC!
far behind these favored portions Of the
earth, that by commerce and intCrcOmmu
niCauOn could borrow light and know
edge from one another, as well as exchange
their surplus products for things OF which
they mad need. Then famine was often
warded oil by commerce. And even now
the leading gram merchants of England,
and OF The world, are Greeks
Take from ancient history that which re.
latcs to the vicinity of the Mediterranean
and is closely allied with its navigation
and commerce, and what would remain OF
the old world history? What then could
be more fitting than that there our Great
Father on this planet should appear, and
that there the grand doctrines Of devotion
to the lntiuitc soul of the universe, and It's
incarnation tor our planet. Love and I'M.
morality should be promulgated in the
Greek, the Latin, and the Hebrew Ian
guages, and 50 fixed in the best forms of
literature of the world, and at or near the
center Gifts thought, genus, learning, COM
mcrce, civilization, industry, wealth and
power:
Navigation, from the very dawn of his
tory to the present hour, has been inter
locked with the advancement and welfare
of mankind. And all the evidence we have
indicates that SO 1t will continue to be.
That the great oceans, will in the near fu-
ture be to the world what the inland seas
once We're; that the vast basin of the Mis-
slsslsSlpp Will be to the world (as to TODD
ouIpilCS) Nu6L tuC udiEOW valley Oh inc
Nile once was, and that the great Pacific
will most nearly represent the Mediterra
mean. Is it then wise or prudent for our
country TO allow her Navigation, ocean and
inland, to decllney
The Darien canal has been talked of for
three hundred years. BY it our ports will
be brought nearer to half the world by an
average Of abont ten thousand miles, thus
giving Us the whole world tor markets, and
Tor all benefcent intercourse far more than
ever yet known. And is it not our plain
duty, and also for our best interests and
our honor, ID every way, that we should
aid DeLesseps and France in this work,
by all proper means, as to construction, il
help is needed from Us, and evet after in
maintaining Its neutrality invlolste Surely
great errors have been busy IN our country
To defeat this work And they are of the
same class that have placed thousands of
wrecks in the channel of the Mississippi
between St. Louis and Cairo, and prevented
the suitable connection of the NJ ississippi
and the Lakes.
/ hope To demonstrate satisfactorily TO
this ASSOCIATION, aud many others, that the
question of floods on the Illinois, the Mis-
sssippi the ONO, the Seine, the Rhine,
the Danube and elsewhere can be SUCCESS