The San Francisco call., 1898-08-20
URGED ID BUILD
 THE WATERWAY Nicaraguan Canal Now
 a Necessity. LESSON TAUGHT BY THE WAR OF VITAL IMPORTANCE AS A DISTANCE REDUCER. Eloquent Plea by Judge Grosscup for a Policy of Expansion-Domi-
 nation Over Asio Our
 Future Destiny.
LESSON TAUGHT BY THE WAR
OF VITAL IMPORTANCE AS A
 DISTANCE REDUCER.
Special Dispatch to The Call.

SARATOGA, N. Y, Aug. 19.-The National Conference on the foreign policy of the United States was opened here to-day with an address by Henry Wade Rogers of Chicago, chairman of the committee of arrangements. Mr. Rogers said that the conference was called to consider some of the most rnomentous questions in the history of the republic.
 He referred to the close friendship between the Americans and British, which would probabl lead to interna- tiunaI arbitration and finally to uni versal peace. The speaker spoke fa- vorably of the Nicaragua canal, which, he argued. should be built and con- trolled by the United States Govern ment That canal will shorten the distance by water to San Francisco by 10 600 miles. A reference to the trip o. the battleship Oregon elicited hearty applause MT. Rogers said that the principal problem before the present conference was that of territorial eX- pansion, on which many distinguished men of national reputation hold widely different views
 Commercial interests urge that we should adopt a colonial system, sald MT. Rogers, but business alone ought not to control our COIuuCl.
 The question of the Nicaragua canal was taken up and Warner Miller of New York took the platform. He briefly spoke of his persistent advocacy of the canal. Events of the past three months demanded it's immediate con struction, and he believed all Amerl- cans were now universally in favor Of +. as was also all of Europe He spoke of the numerous surveys made or every proposed route to pierce the 1sth-
 ms and said the route by the way or the Nicaragua canal has received the greatest consideration as being both feasible and desirable. He added:
 "T' 9 canal can be built for rom s1oO.t 1000 to s14O,000,000, as shown by staten, nts made by experts. Is the canal uesirable? That 1t would re- duce the distance between New York and San Francisco 10000 miles IS alone a sufficient answer to the affirmative.
 ''The Nicaragua canal would De great outlet for those States on the Pa | cific Coast The continent Is grid ironed with transcontinental roads, but these do not alone afford the adven- tages that could be secured by canal. It Is a question of cheap transporta- l ton. and the Nicaragua canal would solve the problem. Within ten years after its completion the population or the Pacific States will have increased
  | of the Spanish American war Is that It will compel the building of the NC aragua canal
 The entire morning session was de- voted to a discussion of the Nicaragua canal.
 The annexation problem was taken
 un at the afternoon session. Carl 1 Schrrz of New York spoke at length, | giving the views of the anti-expansion- | ists whose cause he advocated. He was opposed by Judge Grosscup of Chi 1 cago. who Is an earnest expansionist. l Iudee Grosscup said in part:
 "I am among those who believe that 1 the neople of the United States, with ont breach of faith to the promises of l our mast or serious danger to the ex- nectattons of our future, should hold | permanently all, or portion, or the | territory that has been occupied by our | +roons during the progress of the war. am ready to go a step farther and asear+ that the obligations of our duty toward mankind, and especially toward | +ba narticular peoples who have been drawn within the sphere of our opera lions and toward the future usefulness 1 oF ourselves, demand that we should ,1aar,nanentIy Da retain so much of these, inc captures of war, as are needed to ,n,1rd out the moral purposes for which i+ was inaugurated and the greater destiny on which, as a nation, We are az ,tThe immediate question, the one +bat by it's solution. will either bring 'Is rls' in or bar us out of this larger na- tional G sphere. relates to the perma- nent occupation of our Spanish con- | onests The true question Is not WHbether Porto Rico, Hawaii and the PbiIiDpines are intrindcally worth the resnonsibilities incurred by their occu-
 patton: whether their commerce and resources will counterbalance the new 1 dangers that their requirement would introduce into our political system. For | I see behind them, in the horizon | toward which we are heading. looming up from the Pacific. in mountainous