The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-06-20

commerce. unhampered by obstructive
 charges, develop and change according to Natures own laws as the skill and un-
 ending experiments of merchants shall
 that. directly or indirectly. the saving in the cost of transportation in the estab- lishment of new markets and in the sources of supply will be diffused over
 the United States. and its profits from the investment best and most largely secured.
 am. however, frank to say that I should he sorry to see any discrimination made in this respect between foreign vessels and American vessels. My wish that the tolls shall only sufflce for maintenance is no special benevolence of mine to American ship owners. So far as they are concerned, they should pay for what ever benefits they get. Nor do approve of making to them any subsidy directly or indirectly. But the laws of competi- tion will soon enough distribute, and equally, as I have suggested. the real benefit of new and free trade between the oceans. If foreigners reap some of this benefit. they cannot if they will, avoid sharing it with us. A policy die- tated by national dignity and generosity Is also, l believe, here dictated by the soundest maxims of political economy.
 So would I have our Government. as the owner of this benef1cent work, dedi- cate it strictly to the equal uses Of all nations of men and to the service Of every peaceful industry. If the United
 
 struction of the canal than that in time of war 1t might be of naval or military service to us. the cost of the construction would, l believe, be a wise investment. Since we are power on the Pacific as we'll as on the Atlantic, we need. in war, if war come--as God grant 1t may not the shortest possible waterway hetween them. That advantage the canal will give us. But because we have 1t we ought never to give 10 this peaceful achieve ment the aspect or invitation Of war. If we protect as we must protect, the canal-and by force if necessary-we shall protect 1t as a great Safeguard to inter-
 AFFECTS ALABAMA.
 And now may I return to the special promise which the canal brings to the States of our Union on the Mexican gulf? WfH you permit me also some deferential words upon our immediate concern which the citizens of Alabama must have with the Canal as 1t affects their own econ- omic future and we'll being? To an ex- perfenced traveller familiar with the ma terial conditions and outward physical phenomena of other highly civilized parts of the world the most striking impress sion the open windows of railroad cars bring him as he rides through Alabama or the States on either side is not so much of what you and the three genera tions before you have already done-great as that is. as 1t is of the future of we'll nigh illimitable industrial opportunity. When from sussex or Kent or DeVon In the south of England. or from Normandy or Brittany on the French side of the channel, with their fields and villages mellowed by a thousand years and more of cultivation and settlement. an fntelh- gent EEropean comes to the country about Boston or New York. he is likely to be impressed with a certain newness or relative absence of finish or detail. Much has been done: but there is the ma teriai for doing much more. So it is that he is also struck with the aspect of rapid and powerful growth and the promise of future wealth and empire. A like thing is true when a traveller from the older towns of New England or Pennsylvania rides through your State or Mississippi or Louisiana or Georgia. However great his respect for what the past has here achieved it is the inevitable and shining future which chiefly captures his atten- Hon. Tn your own State, for instance. the land vastly surpasses in prolific spos- abilities the scanty soil and reluctant