The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1899-03-16

southern terminal, thus giving to the
United States weekly mail connection
with Manila. Our lines then running to
the east coast of Asia will be superior to
those on which Great Baitain, Germany
and France are now expanding about 81
600, 600 each annually. 1t will then be
possible to post letters in Berlin, Lon
don and Paris, and send them more quick
ly to Yokohama, Shanghai and Hong Kong
by American steamships and American
railroads than they can be carried by the
heavily subsidized lines of Great Britain,
Germany and France, which run through
the Suez Canal. In addition we shall have
in operation an adequate fleet of cargo
steamships for the transportation of flour,
cotton and other American products to
Asia. There will be mail service to
Australia nearly equal to that of Great
Britain, and more complete connections
with the lesser islands of the Pacific than
are possessed by any other nation.''
But some of the readers of The journal
might say, it will cost our government
S115, 900, 600 to build this canal, and we
already have big deficit on account of
our late war with Spain, and it will not
be wise policy to run our people heavily
in debt in time of peace. Now, thorough
ly believe it is not wise to take millions out
of the treasury in excess of the national
revenue in time of peace but we must
bear in mind that this canal is great
national need and unless the present Con
gress, or an extra session of Congress after
March 4th, shall provide for its construc-
ton, this government will lose its oppor-
tunity to build any canal in Nicaragua,
perhaps forever Have We stopped to
consider what a great drawb back it will be
for this nation, now entering upon new
era, not to build this canal? Do our peo-
pie not know that when this mighty IN
dertaking is completed that it will dwarf
the Suez waterway and more than pay for
itself in the short period of thirteen
years: Here | must close, but before
doing so desire to refer briefly to Presi-
dent Mckinley's recent great speech in
twice, and in my opinion no speech since
Lincoln spoke at Gettysburg has SO stirred
the hearts of our people. The paragraph
| in his speech where he refers to civlizing
the Filipinos impressed me more wildly
( than any other, and here quote it:
81 have no light or knowledge not com
mon to my countrymen. l do not proph-
esy; the present is all absorbing to me,
but | cannot bound my vision by the
blood stained trenches around Manila,
| where every red drop, whether from the
veins of an American soldier or mis-
guided Filipino, is anguish to my heart,
but by the broad range of future years,
when that group of islands under the i'm
pulse of the year just passed shall have
become the gems and glories of those
tropical seas, land of plenty and of in
creasing possibilities people redeemed
! from savage Incidence and habits, devoted
| to the arts of peace in touch with the
} commerce and trade of all nations, enjoy
/ ing the blessings of freedom of civil and
religious liberty, of education and Of
homes, and whose children and children S
children shall for ages hence bless the
American Republic because it emancpat-
ed and redeemed their father land and set
them in the pathway of the world best
| civilization"
These eloquent words spoken by our
President will become immortal in the
history of our country like those of Patrick
| Henry and other great American orators.