The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-06-20

are gathered on its banks below" There
 fore, it was that he declaI cd that There is no sea in the world which is possessed
 Of so much importance as this southern
 sea of ours; that, with its succession of
 narvests from one or other of its river
 basins. there is a crop always on tho way
 to market" that 1t has for back country
 continent at the north and another at the south and a world both to the east
 and the west. He predicted that the Gulf | would out of It's relation to Panama se- cure a marvellous future; that by the con- struction of an 1sthmian ship canal the American people would Give vent to commerce. scope to energy and range to enterprise" and that by means of 1t "old channels of trade will be broken up and new ones opened" If we make the ut most allowance for the splendor of word painting in which your famous scientist, was and is, perfectly sober and statistical l justification for the elouuence in which he stated his serious conclusions. He pe- neved them to be true; we know them to 1 be true.
 You will I hope indulge me if. before T close. I return to the economic future of this South Land of our Republic. It is, believe me. the most important and deter nal. l venture first, however, to submit some rules of public policy which 1t seems to me that the American Government might well adopt in the administration of
  No body Of American citizens Is likely better to estimate the worth of the sug- sestions than those to whom, like your selves, the creation of American senti- been especially due. Nor, if they be sound. can any citizens be more inf1u- ential than yourselves in securing their | adoption.
 AMERICAN SUPREMACY.
 | do not. in what I say. distinguish be- l sweeH the Nlcaragua and the Panama | routes One cannot but be impressed with tne thorough and patriotic earnestness With which Senator Morgan has expressed preference for the former. Into that uiscussion however, l do not feel com petent to enter. So long as American su- premacy over the canal is maintained-it Is doubtless not unnatural to prefer that the many millions Of money already spent | at Panama and the large section of work aireaoy done there should be made use- ful and that some years of delay should pc saved. Nor Is the American people likely to wish to be harsh or unjust in oet~ing with the French investors. They Wee not indeed loyal to the United States m their investment; but they were Frenchmen and not bound to be- That can De no ground of offense to us nope and believe that President Roosevelt will treat Them scrupulously, and that the final glory of our achievement will not be dimmed by any aspect of unfair parsimony. So, doubtless, the adminig tration will be reasonably indulgent with the Colombian Republic; but such ;ndyl- gence should be no more than reasonable. 1T the world or the United States were smut up to the Panama route, neither one nor the other could ill loyalty to SSlvInzation S @ permit to that republic a not shut up to that route. Even if the treaty be not ratified. we need not con- Sder whether the Panama route could pc rightly acquired by other means For lI rntlfa deminstrated, many advantages. Public sentiment will, I believe, Support the l government to promptly yield or sliffsT 1 the calamity Of loss of the canal to Sr fhSeir Nicaraguan neighbor at the North. that before the winter frosts are here these difficulties will be out of the way and American work at Panama begun. then be to speed the work to the very uttermost which Is consistent with doing the work we'll and without wanton or opportunity for executive ability of the very highest order; and such ability, it IS & to be p presumed the President will se- best plant: timely foresight to prevent | the waste go common fin building enter Rrls,es s,st because of delays for necessary the very best sanitary protection to those engaged upon the work in so unwhole- son ths ane rsgon the dlstSu
 forces in relays so that the men not na- | lives of the tropics who are engaged in the work shall not be kept at if beyond their full yigor-all these surely viii not not be, overlooked. I should be very sorry i%gdeed % to suggest any failure in economy. be speedcd at larger but not unreason- able cost. l think the economy win con slst in saying time rather than in saving lars the value of the gain of two years or three or four Tn beginning the opera Hon ton of 2 great civlli5ing and peaceful not exceed four times the recent increase in the annual cost of our navy owing to our strenuous ambition that Amer{ can eign ports The total cost of the canal VIII be. perhaps. one-third the cost of SupS9uing Su Sni g the FMllipinos, III or perhaps three them in sui3ectlon now that they are sub dued. But the merely material benefit of poea rs say noshing g Hf moral and greater than any. We shall secure from our new fleets and steel cruisers or from the bloody enforcement of American SoV- ereignty ip the Philippines.
 NOT FOR PUBLIC REVENUE.
 Indeed. we shall do wisely not to treat the canal as an investment to bring direct income to our treasury. The accounts of the American postof1ce include no inter- in postoHce buildings. We keen no ledger account of investment in the Mississippi
 
 New York or Boston or Mobile or Gal weston. Seventy-fye years ago and more the State of New York expended 20OO. 900 vast amount for those days, in the Erie canal-a waterway 36S miles long which rises and falls by locks nearly FOO feet. in order to bring the commerce of the Great Lakes to tho Hudson river and thence to the port of New York. Upon that canal was in large part built tho commercial supremacy of that metropo- lis. Since then several times the original cost has been expended upon 1t; and to- day the people of the State seriously pro- pose to make of it ship canal. and for that purpose to expend an amount per hsps as great as the Isthmian canal Is to cost the United States Serious as was the investment for New York, and ac- ceptable as a direct income from it would have been, the State found 1t wise many years ago to make the canal free. To day the States contributes even the cost of maintenance. So in my own city of New York we expended Sl6OO0, 900 upon bridge across the East River from which It was at first intended to earn mainte- nance and interest charges; but 1t was finally thought best to make it free to foot rate which barely suffices for mainte- nance. Ipdeed it may be said in general that, whether it be a high road or a bridge or a waterway, every esta blish- ~ment of easy communication dtffiISes its benefit over the whole community, and may with great force be treated as a general public charge. The same ten dency is illustrated in the great improve ment of free roads in our country and the abolition of toll roads.
 Tn the numherless monographs and ar 1 A AA tr If..