The daily morning journal and courier., 1903-12-08

the trolley, accomplishes much toward
 lessening the isolation of farm life and
 making it brighter and more attractive.
 In the immediate past the lack of just such facilities as these has driven
 many of the more active and restless
 young men and women from the farms to the cities, for they rebelled at lone
 liness and lack of mental companion
 ship. It is unhealthy and undesirable
 for the cities to grow at the expense of
 the country, and rural free delivery is not only good thing in itself. but is
 good because it is one of the causes
 which check this unwholesome tenden-
 cy toward the urban concentration of our population at the expense of the country districts. It is for the same reason that we sympathize with and approve of the policy of building good roads. The movement for good roads is one fraught with the greatest benefit l to the country districts. l I trust that the congress will con- tinue to favor in all proper ways the Louisiana Purchase exposition. This exposition commemorates the Louisi- ana purchase, which was the first great step in the expansion which made us a continental nation. The expedition of Lewis and Clark across the continent followed thereon and marked the be- ginnig of the process of exploration and colonization which thrust our na- tional boundaries to the Pacific. The acquisition of the Oregon country, in cluding the present states of Oregon and Washington, was fact of im- mense importance in our history, first giving us our place on the Pacific sea- board and making ready the way for our ascendency in the commerce of the greatset of the oceans. The centennial of our establishment upon the western coast by the expedition of Lewis and Clark is to be celebrated at Portland, Ore, by an exposition in the summer of 1905, and this event should receive recognition and support from the na- tional government.
 IsTHMIAN CANAL.
 By the act of June 2S, 1902. the con- gress authorized the president to enter into treaty with Colombia for the building of the canal across the Isth- mus of Panama, it being provided that, in the event of failure to secure such treaty after the lapse of reasonable time, recourse should be had to build- ing canal through Nicaragua. It has not been necessary to consider this al- formative, as am enabled to lay before the senate a treaty providing for the building of the canal across the Isth- mus of Panama. This was the route which commended itself to the deliber- ate judgment of the congress, and we can now acquire by treaty the right to construct the canal over this route. The question now, therefore, is not by which route the isthmian canal shall be built, for that question has been definitely and irrevocably decided. The question is simply whether or not we shall have an isthmfan canal.
 When the congress directed that we should take the Panama route under treaty with Colombia the essence of the condition, of course, referred not to the government which controlled that route, but to the route itself; to the ter ritory across which the route lay, not to the name which for the mom ent the territory bore on the map. The pur- pose of the law was to authorize the president to make treaty with the power in actual control of the Tsthmus of Panama. This purpose has been fulfilled. TRANSIT ACROSS IsTHMUS or
 PANAMA,
 In the year 1846 this government en- tered into a treaty with New Granada, | the predecessor upon the isthmus of the republic of Colombia and of the present republic of Panama, by which treaty it was provided that the govern ment and citizens of the United States should always have free and open right of way or transit across the Isthmus of Panama by any modes of communica- tion that might be constructed, while in return our government guaranteed . the perfect neutrality of the above mentioned isthmus with the view that the free transit from the one to the , other sea might not be interrupted or embarrassed. The treaty vested in the ! United States substantial property | right carved out of the rights of sov- ereignty and property which New Granada then had and possessed over the said territory. The name of New Granada has passed away, and it's ter~ ritery has been divided. Its successor, the government of Colombia, has eeas- ed to own any property in the isthnius. A new republic, that of Panama, which was at one time sovereign state and at another time a mere department of the successive considerations known as