The San Juan islander. [volume] (Friday Harbor, Wash.) 1898-1914, 1902-12-04

| now penang WIN COlOmDld " SSSuiO nCi
| assent to our building the canal.
This canal will be one of the greatest
| engineering feats OF the twentieth CEN
fury; greater engineering feat than has
vet been accomplished during the history
| of mankind. The work should be carried
out as continuing policy without regard
to change of administration; and 1t
should be begun under circumstances
which will make it a matter of pride
for all administrations to continue the
policy.
Philippine Islands.
On July last, the one hundred and
twenty sixth anniversary of the declara-
ton of our independence, peace and am
nesty were promulgated in the Philippine
Islands. Some trouble has since from
time to time threatened with the Moham-
medan Moros, but with the. late insurrec
tionary Filipinos the war has entirely
ceased. Civil government has now been
| introduced. Not only does each Filipino
enjoy such rights to life, liberty and the
pursuit of happiness as he has never be-
fore known during the recorded history of
the islands, but the people taken as
whole now enjoy a measure of self-gov-
eminent greater than that granted to any
other Orientals, by any foreign power and
greater than that enjoyed by any other
Orientals under their own governments,
save the Japanese alone.
We have not gone too far in granting
these rights of liberty and self-govern-
ment but we have certainly gone to the
limit that in the interests of the Philip
pine people themselves it was wise or
just to CO. To hurry matters, to go faster
than we are now going, would entail ca
lamity Oh the people of the islands.
Taking the work of the army and the
civil authorities together, it may be ques-
toned whether anywhere else in modern
times the world has seen a better exam
pie of real constructive craftsmanship
than our people have given in the Phil
ippine Islands. High praise should also
be given those Filipinos, in the aggregate
very numerous, who have accepted the
new conditions and joined with our rep
resentatives to work with hearty good
will for the welfare of the islands.
Rural Free Delivery.
The striking increase in the revenues
of the Postoffice Department shows
clearly the prosperity of our people and
the increasing activity of the business
of the country.
Rural free delivery service is no long
er in the experimental stage; it has be-
come a fixed policy. The results fol-
lowing its introduction have fully justi-
fed the Congress in the larger appro-
extension. The average yearly increase
in postoffice receipts in the rural dis
tricts of the country is about per
cent We are now able, by actual re-
suits, to show that where rural free
delivery service has been established
to such an extent as to make COMPARE
sons the yearly increase has been up
ward of 10 per cent.
On November l, 1902, II, $50 rural free
delivery routes had been established and
were in operation, covering about one
third of the territory of the United
Statest available for rural free delivery
service. There are now awaiting the
action of the department petitions and
applications for the establishment of
10,74S additional routes. This shows
conclusively the want which the estab-
lshment of the service has met and the
need of further extending it as rapidly
as possible
1t is justified both by the financial re-
suits and by the practical benefits to our
rural population.
1t is to be hoped that the Congress
will make liberal appropriations for the
continuance of the service already es-
tablished and for it's further extension.
Irrigation.
Few subjects of more Importance have
been taken up by the Congress in recent
years than the inauguration of the sys-
Icuu VI irrigation IOr
the arid regions of the far West.
good beginning therein has been made.
Now that this policy of national irriga-
ton has been adopted, the need of
thorough and scientific forest protec-
tion will grow more rapidly than ever
throughout the public-land States.
Legislation should be provided for the
protection of the game, and the wild
creatures generally, on the forest re-
serves. The senseless slaughter of game,
which can by judicious protection be
permanently preserved on our national
reserves for the people as a whole
should be stopped at once. 1t is, for in
stance, a serious count against our ma
tional good sense to permit the present
practice of butchering off such a stately
and beautiful creature as the elk for it's
antlers or tusks.
So far as they are available for agri-
culture. and to whatever extent they
may be reclaimed under the national irri-
cation law, the remaining public lands
should be held rigidly for the home
builder, the settler who lives on his
land, and for no one else. In their ac-
tual use the desert-land law, the tim
Der and stone law. and the commuta-
ton clause of the homestead law have
| been so perverted from the intention
with which they were enacted as to per-
init the acquisition of large areas of the
public domain for other than actual
settlers and the consequent prevention
of settlement.
Moreover, the approaching exhaustion
| or the public ranges has of late led to
much discussion as to the best manner of
using these public lands in the West
which are suitable chiefly or only for
grazing The sound and steady develop
ment of the West depends upon the build
! ing up of homes therein
Much OF our prosperity as a nation has
been due to the operation of the home
i ha OIL hor