The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1907-10-04
ARRIVES IN ST. LOUIS
CONTINUED from 1st page)

no question as to the work being 1eds-
ible, there are several elements enter
ing into the time problem which make
it unwise at present to hazard a proph-
ecy in reference thereto.
Now, gentlemen, this leads me up &c
another matter for national considera-
ton, and that is our navy. The navy
lis not primarily of Importance only To
the coast regions 1t is every bit as
much the concern of the farmer u
dwelIs a thousand miles from the sea
water as of the fisherman who make
his living on the ocean, for it is the
concern Of every good American VINO
knows what the meaning OF the worc
patriotism is. This country Is denn-
itely committed to certain fundament-
al poIicies-to the Monroe doctrine,
for instance, but, when it is built, Of
policing and defending the Panama
Canal. We have definitely taken our
place among the great world powers,
and it would be a sign of 1gnoble
weakness, having taken such a place,
to shirk IS responsibilities. Therefore,
uIltSoS VIC IL "lIIinS " 'A1"
place, to abandon our insistence upon
the Monroe doctrine, to give up the
Panama Canal, and to be content to
acknowledge ourselves a weak and
timid nation, we must steadily build
up and maintain a great fighting navy.
Our navy is already so efficient as to
be a matter of just pride to every
American. So long as our navy is no
larger than at present, it must be con-
sidered as an elementary principal
that the bulk of our battle fleet must
always be kept together. When the
Panama Canal is built it can be trans
ferred without difficulty from n
part of our coast to the other; but
even before that canal is built it ought
to be thus transferred to and fro from
time to time. In a couple of months
our feet of great armored ships starts
for the Pacific. California, Oregon
and Washington have a coast line
which Is our coast line just as emphat-
fcaiiy as the coast line of New York
and Maine, Of Louisiana and Texas.
Our fleet Is going to it's own home
waters in the Pacific, and after a stay
there it will return to it's own home
waters in the Atlantic. The best place
for a naval officer to learn his duties
is at sea, by performing them, and
only by actually putting through a
voyage of this nature, a voyage longer
than any ever before undertaken ID ,
as large a fleet of any nation, can
We find out Just exactly what is nee
esSary for us to know as to u naval
needs and practice our officers and en-
listed men in the highest duties of
their profession. Among all our citi-
zens there is no body of equal size
to whom we 1--WE quite as much as TO
the officers and enlisted men of the
army and navy of the United States.
and L bespeak from you the fullest and
heartlest support in the name of our
nation and of our flag, for services to
which these men belong
~--
IN conclusion | wish to say a word
TO this body, containing as it does SO
many business men,, upon what is
prominently a business proposition,
and that is the proper national super
vision and control of corporations. AT
the meeting of the American Bar AS
ISOLATION in this last August, Judge
: Charles F. AmidOn, of South Dakota
read a paper on the nation and the
Constitution so admirable that it is
deserving a world wide study; for
what he said was, as all studies Of
law in it's highest form ought to be.
"a contribution to constructive juris-
prudence as it should be understood
not only by judges but by legislators
not only by those who interpret AMI
decide the law, but by those who make
it and who administer or execute it
He quoted from the late Judge Miller,
of the supreme court, to show hat
even in the Interpretation of the con
stitution by this, the highest author
ity of the land, the courts successive
decisions must be tested by the way
they work in actual application to the
national life; the court adding to It's
thought and study the results of eX
%perience and observation until the true
solution is evolved by a process both
of inclusion and exclusion. Said JUS
tice Miller: "The meaning of the con-
stitution is to be sought as much in
the national life as in the dictionary.
for. as has been we'll said, government
purely out Of a law library can never
be really good government.
Now that the questions of govern
ment are becoming so largely como
mic, the majority of our so-called con.
sti.utionai cases really turn no upon
the Interpretation of the instrument
itself, but upon the construction, the
right apprehension of the living on
ditions to which it is to be applied.
The constitution is now and must re-
main what it always has been; but