Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1902-10-27
An Interoceanic Canal and It's Influence.
Proceedings Congress

the Pacific. These are full OF WondrOus re-
sources and cabaple of marvellous devel-
opment. Alaska, Siberia, Mexico. Central
America, South America, Australasia are
vast continents capable of sustaining i'm
Inense populations, but now sparsely set
tied. Scattered over the Pacific and to the
west are thousands of islands, mostly
tropical, and thus representing great re-
sources. These are mostly occupied by
savages or semi-civilized, and are not yet
to be transformed by the magic touch of
civilization. On the west coast are the
swarming millions of China, whose stan
dards of living are so low AS these stan
dards must inevitably rise under quick
ening currents of our civilization, this
riseswill create new wants, new demands
to a marvellous extent. 1t takes but half
an eye to see that the events in the
worlds hereafter must inevitably cluster
around the Pacific, its shores, its Islands
and the regions beyond.
''In the days before Columbus the sea
was the great barrier to civilization. Now
It is that land divides and sea unites.
We are entering on an age of great in
dustrial competition. Our secretary of
agriculture says: Competition between
the sellers Of agricultural products in the
markets Of the world is becoming more
universal and intense from year to year.
This Is true of manufactured products
also. AS President Flanders said, in his
very able address this morning, the press
ing problem Of the future, yea of today.
is one of distribution. The market Of the
immediate future is not to be merely the
neighborhood country. 1t is to be world
free and untrammeled, even the shackles
of protection stricken off. The canal will
give US a decided advantage over other
nations of the world in the competitive
International struggle which is certain to
take place to secure and control the in
=, :, 80 de- Do Cff
Nor do 1 limit my conclusions to the
low plane of trade and traffic. There is
a higher and nobler plane. Together with
and behind these commercial develop
ments there will come a corresponding OPP
portunity to moral and spiritual influence
to be exercised over the rest of the world.
I'VE must ascend from the ground floor
of material industry to the higher regions
in which nobler purposes are to be
wrought out.
Centuries ago Sir Walter Raleigh said:
whatsoever commands the sea commands
the trade, the riches of the world; and
whosOever commands these commands the
world ITSELF The question assumes
spiritual aspect. The immortal destiny of
millions of souls depends upon who DOM
mates the Pacific ocean. There are only
| two continental races of great power Dor
dering the Pacific, and the great question
of the twentieth century is, whether the
Saxon or the Slav is to impress his civil
ization on the world. They now face each
other across the waters, and they are
equally confident.
Russia considers 1t her religious mission to
control Eurosia and then the world. That
whole nation Is deeply imbued with the dan
gerous notion that heaven especially favors
holy Russia and despises the rest OF the world
1 quote from recent Russian writer, de Bilin-
ski, on the future of Russia: The picture of
| the ultimate destiny of Russia must show
hos. IN fha rn1a z mis- of Of 1aae Amo
and Europe unified under the action Of the
Slav leaven. Russia is bound to attain extra
ordinary greatness. not only through the inter-
nal development of her existing empire. but
through further expansion. Her dominion in
any case. representing the whole slav race.
the Persian gulf and the Mediterranean, and
from the Pacific TO the Atlantic and the Oder
Nor is boast unfounded. Russia now practi-
cally has one-half of the Asiatic coast of the
Pacific. Her white Slav population is quoted at
121. OOO,O O0 which is equal to the entire Anglo
Saxon population of the world.
''Dr. Strong sums up characteristics OF the
two races about as follows:
assimilation, and they are the only races that
have. Allen peoples and characteristics sink in
them like snowfiakes in a river.
''2-Each race has genius for organization
and government, and they are the only races
that have. Their touch transforms chaos into
''s-Each race is in possession Of vast terri
tory capable of enormous increase of popula-
''And yet the slav is the supreme representa-
tive OF absolutism, both in church and state.
The individual is lost, has not rights. is merged
completely. Russian civilization depends upon
the suppression OF the individual.
1.-THE Anglo-Saxon Is the one civilization In
the history of the world based on the freedom
of the Individual. AS such we hold that 1t
typifies the gospel of the great Gallilean, that
each individual must work out his own solva-
ton.
THE struggle for mastery then is to be be-
tween eastern and western civilizations so d.
verse in fundamental principles, in spirit and in
ideals. Is the Anglo-Saxon OF Slav to COM
mand the Pacific and therefore the worlds flu
ture? Without a more ready access to the
ocean the Saxon cannot dominate. We have
gone laundering along. We did not want to
accept as a free gift the Hawaiian Islands,
but somehow they were forced upon u.s.
Porto Rico fell into our lap. Now. these are
natures best guardians of both ends of
isthmian canal, and Hawaii is the hub Of the
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