The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-09-26

the statute, n erect isi 10 De gwen 10 that part of the plan that relieves the country at large from ultimate liabil- ity.
 An Isthmian canal has long been the hope of our statesmen, and the avowed aim of the two great parties, as their platforms in the past show. The Pan- anna route having been selected, the building of the canal should be pressed to completion with all reasonable expe- dition.
 The methods by which the Executive acquired the Panama Canal route and rights arc 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 a sufhcient answer to the charge of violation of national good faith. They appreciate 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 shall be blind to the nature of the means employed to promote our wei fare. They hold that adherence to principle, whether it works for our good or i'll, will have more beneiceLt influence on our future destiny than all our material upbuilding. and that we should ever remember that the Idea of doing a wrong to a smaller, weake. nation that we, or even all mankind, may have a resultant good Is repugnant to the principles upon which our Gov ernment was founded.
 Under the laws of the United States the duty Is imposed on the Executive to proceed with due diligence in the work of constructing the canal. Tha. duty should be promptly performed.
 American Shipping.
 Our commerce in American bottoms amounts to but per cent of our total exports and imports. For seventy years prior to 1860. when the Republi- can party came into power. our mer- chant marine carried an average Of Io per cent of our foreign commerce. By 1s77 it had dwindled to 27 per cent. Now we carry but a contemptibly small fraction of our exports and imports.
 American shipping in the foreign trade was greater by over 100000 tons in 1S10--nearly a hundred years ago. than 1t was last year. In the face of the continuous decline in the record of American shipping during the last for ty-three years. the promise of the Re- publican party to restore It Is without announcement. The record of the Democratic party gives assurance tnd. the task can be more wisely entrusted to it.
 It is an arduous task to undo the ei' feet of forty years of decadence. and re- quires the study and investigation of those best fitted hy experience to md the remedy-which surely does not lie in the granting of subsidies. wrung from the pockets of all the taxpayers. Investigation of Government Depart-
 ments.
 Recent disclosures. coupled with the
 .A Vs sr4an A penditures, show a need of an investi- gatior~ of every department of the gov ernment The Democrats in Congress demanded 1t. The Republican majority refused the demand. The people can determine by their vote in November whether they wish an honest and thor ough investigation. A Democratic Con- gress and Executive will insure 1t.
 Army and Navy.
 We are justly proud of the officers and men of our army and navy. Both, however. have suffered from the per sistent injection of personal and polit- ical influence. Promotions and ap- pointments have been frequently based on favoritism instead of merit. Trials and court -martials have been set aside under circumstances indicating political interference. These and other abuses should be corrected.
 Pensions for Our Soldiers and Sailors.
 The National Democracy favors libe- ral pensions to the surviving soldiers and sailors and their dependents. on the ground that they deserve liberal treatment. It pledges by It's platform adequate Legislation to that end. But 1t denies the right of the executive to usurp the power of Congress to legis- late on that subject. Such usurpation was attempted bv Pension Order No. 7S, and effect has been given to 1t by Congress that dared not resent the usurpation, It is said that "this order was made in the performance of a duty imposed upon the President by act of Congress-" but the provision making the imposition is not pointed out. The act to which the order refers, which is the one relating to pensions to civil war veterans, does not authorize pensions on the ground of age. It does grant pensions to those "suffering from any mental or physical disability, or disa- bilities, of a permanent character, not the result of their own vicious habits, which so incapacitates them from the performance of manual labor as to rem der them unable to earn a support" This specified requirement of incapacity is in effect set aside by Order No. 7S as to all persons over sixty-two.
 The war closed nearly forty years ago. In the meantime many of our sol diers and sailors long survived the age of sixty-two, and passed away without receiving any pension. Skillful pen sion attorneys hunting through the statute failed to find there provision giving a pension to all who had reach ed sixty-two Many prominent veterans urged the justice of congressional ac- ton giving a pension to all veterans. Bills to that effect were introduced in Congress. And not until March of this year did anyone ever claim to have made the discovery that the President had power to treat the statute as if 1t read that when a claimant had passed the age of sixty-two years he is neees- sarily disabled one-half in ability to perform manual labor and therefore en- titled to q pension,
 The present pension commissioner in dicated his view of the order when in recent address he thanked the Presi- dent for what he had done. and advised his hearers to use their influence that q law might be passed to the same effect Full confidence after all seems not to have been placed on the defense of jus tification, for 1t is pleaded in mitigation that a former Democratic President did something looking in that direction Even if that were so--which is not ad- mitted-our present duty would be none the less plain and imperative. Our neonle must never tolerate the citation of one act of usurpation of power as an excuse for another The first may pos sibly be due to mistake: the second, be- ing based on the first. cannot be. In ,~1iooo+ton hOwever it should he said