The Birmingham age-herald., 1904-09-26
Says if Elected He Will Re- yoke the Arbitrary OId
 Age Pension Ruling
.FAVORS BUILDING UP OF
 THE MERCHANT MARINE
Thinks, However, That it Should Not Be Built Up by Subsides-Asks the Support of All True
 Democrats.

 the view that the aim of its promoters was to secure the benefits of irrigation to private owners at government expense The aim of the statute is, however, to en- able this vast territory to reclaim US aIlo lands without calling upon the taxpayers of the country at large to pay TOT u. Whether the purposes of the Dill VIII pc fully accomplished must depend In large measure upon the ability, sobriety or judgment, independence and honesty ol the officers of the interior department having this great work In charge
 In 1902 the main canals and ditches in the region affected aggregated more than 59,000 miles, and the work of re- clamation Is but in it's infancy. The total cost of construction of the necessary head-gates, dams, main canals, ditches, reservoirs and pumping stations was at that time a little over S93,000O0O, which of itself suggests the hundreds of mil lions that may eventually be invested in the territory covered by the statute Ihe magnitude of the conception, and the enormous expense it's carrying out ln- wolves, make us realize the overwhelming importance of broad, capable and non est administration of the work authorized by the statute, if effect is to be given to that part of the plan that relieves the country at large from ultimate liability. PANAMA CANAL.
 An isthmian canal has long been the hope of our statesmen, and the ayowed aim of the two great parties, as their platforms in the past show. The Panama route having been selected, the build Ing of the canal should be pressed to com pletion with all reasonable expedition.
 The methods by which the executive acquired the Panama canal route ana rights are a source of regret to many. To them, the statement that thereby great public work was assured to the profit of our people Is not sunlelent answer to the charge of violation of na- tional good faith They appreciate that the principles and healthy convictions which in their working out have made us free and great, stand firmly against the argument or suggestion that We snail De blind to the nature of the means employed to promote our welfare. They hold that adherence to principle, whether 1t Works for our good or ill., will have more beneficent influence on our future destiny than all our material upbuilding, and that we should ever remember that the idea of doing a wrong to smaller weak CT nation that we, or even all mankind, may have a resultant good Is reQusnant to the principles upon which our govern ment was founded.
 Under the laws of the United states the duty IS imposed on Iue eAeCutiNO eO PAN ceed with due diligence in the work or constructing the canal. That duty should be promptly performed.
 AMERICAN SHIPPING.
 Aur commerce In American bottoms amounts to but 9 per cent Of our total exports and imports For forty years prior to 1861, when the republican party came Into power, our merchant marine carried an average of 50 per cent Of our foreign commerce. By 1877 1t had dwin- dled to 27 per cent. NOW we carry but contemptibly small fraction of our ex- ports and imports.
 American shipping in the foreign trade was greater by almost 10OOoO tons in 1siO- nearly hundred years ago-than 1t was last year. In the face of the continuous decline in the record of American ship ping during the last forty-three years, the promise of the republican party to re- store it Is without encouragement. The record of the democratic party gives assurance that the task can be more wisely entrusted to 1t.
 It Is an arduous task to undo the CT feet of forty years of decadence, and re- ouires the study and investigation or those best fitted by experience to ind the remedy, which surely does not He in the granting of subsidies, wrung from the pockets of all the taxpayers.