St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1901-12-04
President RooseveIt's Message.
-Cor tinued from ed page

work for their own countries just a
railroads work for their termina
points. Shipping lines, if established t
the principal countries with which W,
have deslings, would be of political a!
well as commercial benefit. From ev
cry standpoint it is unWise for thu
United States to continue to rely upor
the ships Of competing nations for The
distribution of our goods, 1t should be
made advantageous to carry American
goods in American built ships.
At present American shipping is I'm.
der certain great disadvantages when
put in competition with the shipping
of foreign countries. Many Of the fast
foreign steamships, at a speed of four
teen knots or above, are subsidized,
and all our ships, sailing vessels and
steamers alike, cargo carriers of slow
speed and mail carriers of high speed,
have to meet the fact that the original
cost of building American ships is
greater thGa is the case abroad; that the
wages paid American officers and sea-
men are very much higher than those
paid the officers and seamen of foreign
competing countries, and thai the
standard of living on our ships is far
to the standard of living on
the ships of our commercial rivals. Our
should take such action as
will remedy these inequalities. The
American merchant marine should be
restored to the ocean.
Financial.
The passage of the act establishing
gold as the standard money has, it is
declared, been shown to be timely and
judicious The president adds:
In many respects the national bank
ing law furnishes sufficient liberty for
the proper exercise of the banking
but there seems to be need
If better safeguards against the de-
'anging influence of commercial crises
md financial panics. Moreover, the
currency of the country should be
made responsive to the demands of our
domestic trade and commerce.
Economy in expenditures is urged.
Of the interstate commerce
act is advised to insure the cardinal
provisions Of that act. The work car
led on by the department of agricul-
ure is next considered and praised
highly. The president then turns to
,orest preservation and irrigation of
lrid lands, saying that both are highly
necessary.
Irrigation.
The president continues by tracing
he connection between the forest re-
serves and the water supply. He says:
The forests are natural reservoirs.
By restraining the streams in flood
ana replenishing them in drought they
make possible the use of waters other
wise wasted. They prevent the soil
from washing and so protect the stor-
age reservoirs from filing up with
silt. Forest conservation is, therefore,
an essential condition of water conser-
walton.
The forests alone cannot, however,
FULLY regulate and conserve the waters
If the arid region. Great storage works
are necessary to equalize the flow of
streams and to save the flood waters,
Their construction has been conclu-
sively shown to be an undertaking
90 vast for private effort. Nor can it
le best accomplished by the individual
states acting alone. The government
should construct and maintain these
as it does other public works.
Where their purpose is to regulate the
low of streams, the water should be
urned freely into the channels in the
Try season to take the same course
lnder the same laws as the natural
dow.
The reclamation Of the unsettled arid
public lands presents a different prob
EN-. Here it is not enough to regulate
the flow of streams. The object of the
government is to dispose Of the land
% settlers who will build homes upon
It, To accomplish this object water
must be brought within their reach.
The pioneer settlers on the arid pub
lie domain chose their homes along
streams from which they could them
selves divert the water to reclaim their
holdings. Such opportunities are prac-
tically gone. There remain, however,
vast areas Of public land which can be
made available for homestead settle
ment, but only by reservoirs and main
line canals impractcable for private
These irrigation works
should be built by the national govern
ment The lands reclaimed by them
should be reserved by the government
for actual settlers, and the cost of con-
struction should, so far as possible, be
repaid by the land reclaimed. The dis
tribution Of the water, the division of
the streams among irrigators, should
be left to the settlers themselves in
conformity with state laws and with
out interference with those laws or
with vested rights.
The declaration is made that in the
arid states the only right to water
which should be recognized is that of
use. The president says that the doc
trine of private ownership of water
apart from land cannot prevail without
causing wrong.
Insular Problems.
lnsular questions are next treated.
In Hawaii our aim must be to develop