The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1906-12-03
BY w. w. Jermane, Colorado Building,
: WASHINGTON. p, C.. % E

L..
s;o Wa Isl 1Gt FL Pee; 3-The short ses,
opened today, promises to be a great
sisting of the unpledged portion Of
the contents of the treasury Of the
United States. Congress, at this ses-
sion, appears. to be on the point of
crystallizing into two factions, one de-
voted to carrying out the president Is
world policy Of greater navy and a
rigorous, even desperate, effort to
hasten the completion Of the Panama
canal, and the other enlisted in an en-
deavor to pass a ship subsidy bill and
appropriate $60,000,000 for the i'm
provement of the rivers and harbors of
the United States.
care of all these projects upon the
scale their promoters desire, it is likely
congress would make short work Of
passing the necessary legislation. But
even a statesman who is poor at fig
ures can tell that some of these things
VIII -, haye to 60 without the millions
asked for. If congress appropriates
$60,OOO,O00 for rivers and harbors,
when the total surplus Of the treasury
during the present fiscal year is not
expected by even the most sanguine to
pc more than $50,000,000, it is plain
that the president cannot have the new
battleships he deems so necessary to
the maintenance Of the national pres
tlge in the international strife for
political and commercial supremacy.
And the advocates of big river and
harbor appropriation are not at all
| backward in saying the president can It
have the batt1eships. They say the
navy has cost the country more in the
past half dozen years than the rivers
and harbors have cost during the entire
history of the United States, and that
they have waited long enough to get
| their share Of the swag.
Look to the Pacific.
On the other hand, the men who take
the same view as the president say the
trade, and hence the prosperity, Of the
next century will depend upon the con:
troll Of the Pacific during the next
dozen, years. They say that the coun-
try which is the strongest on that ocean
Will come out victor in the greatest
contest the world has ever seen-mean-
ing the contest, for the trade with
China and the other countries of the
far east, but principally China
China, with it's enormous population,
promises under the undermining process
! ~" 1o.AS vi tuClc, W become the
largest. single consumer of foreign goods
on earth, and it is foreseen that before
the question as to who is to furnish
most of those goods is settled there
may be resort to arms If that comes
and finds tho United States unprepared
the people of this country, they tell US,
vii! have to be content to stay at home
with their goods and feed off each
! other, process which is warranted to
| induce thin blood and protuberance of
the ribs. So for that side of the argu-
ment it is the big navy and the speedy
completion of the canal, that the nav
may be used in either ocean at will.
The preparations for the fight in
congress are on a scale seldom seen at
short session, and the excitement
promises to be commensurate with the
size of the stake played for. The river
and harbor folks are to be here with
lobby Of more than 1000 men, who
are TO pose for some days as a river
and harbor congress and offer all sorts
OF arguments in favor Of their clutch
at Uncle Sam s money bags.
Among the chief engineers of their
! movement are representatives of the
, steel trust, who desire, above all things.
to be able to load those lO,OOO-ton ore
carriers on the Great Lakes to their full
| capacity. otherwise, what's the use
of having l0,000-ton ships there? But
the steel trust men are too wise to
| come here single-handed and alone, as
they used to do before these trust bust
ing times.