The evening star and Newark advertiser., 1907-10-02

transportation of its products Our inter
ests are all closely interviewer, and In tie
long run 1t will be found that we go Up
or go down together
'"Take. for instance, the Panama Canal
If the Mississippi is restored to its former
place of Importance as highway OF COM
merce, then the building of the Panama
Canal will be felt as an immediate ad-
vantage to the business of every city and
country district In the Mississippi Valley.
I think that the building Of that canal nal
States that lie along the Pacific and tne
States that lie along the gulf; and e.,
after ALL, | feel that the advantage will
be shared in an only less degree by ,he
States of the interior and of the Atlantic
Coast In other words, 1t is a thoroughly
national work. undertaken for and re-
bounding to the advantage of all of us
to the advantage of the. nation as a
whole. Therefore 1 am glad to be able
to report to you how well we are doing
with the canal. There is bound to be q
amount of feeling our way, in task so
gigantic-a task greater than any of its
kind that has ever hitherto been under
taken in the whole history of mankind;
but the success so far has been aston
ishing, and we have not met with a
single one of the accidents or drawbacks
which | freely confess l expected we
should from time to time encounter. We,
in the first place, laid the foundation 1or
the work by securing the most favorable
possible conditions as regard the health,
comfort and safety Of the men who were
to do it; and now the canal zone is In
point of health better off than the aver
age district of the fS9 same nsdSS size at home
actual digging and lam building. For
over year past we have been engaged
in making the dirt fly. in good earnest,
and the output of the giant steam shovels
has steadily increased. 1t Is now the
rainy season, when work is most difficult
on the isthmus, yet in the month of Aus
gust last we excavated over. million
and two hundred thousand cubic yards of
earth and rock a greater amount than i'll
any previous month. II we are able 10
heep t6a qp now o6tana we the nsS
actual digging within five or six years;
though when we come to the great
there are several elements entering into
the time problem which make 1t unwise
at present to hazard prophecy in refer
Now, gentlemen, this leads me up to
another matter for national consideration,
and that is our navy. The navy is not
regions. 1t is every bit as much the con-
Germ of the farmer who dwells thousand
miles from sea water as of the fisherman
who makes his living on the ocean, for it
Is the concern Of every good American who
knows what the meaning of the word pa
triotism is This country is definitely COM
mitted to certain fundamental polieies-to
the Monroe doctrine, for instance, and to
the duty not only of building, but. when 1t
is built, of policing and defending the
Panama Canal. We have definitely taken
our place among the great world powers,
and 1t would be a sign of ignobe weak
ness, having taken such a place. to shirk
its responsibilities. Therefore, unless we
are willing to abandon this place, to aban-
don our insistence upon the Monroe doc
trine, to give up the Panama Canal, and
to be content to acknowledge ourselves q
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 Ameri-
can. So long as our navy is no larger
than at present it must be considered as
an elementary principle 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 one part
of our coast to the other; but even be-
fore that canal is built it ought to be thus
transferred to and fro from time to time.
In couple of months our fleet of great
armored ships starts for the Pacific. Cal
ifornia, Oregon and. Washington have a
coast line which is our coast line just as
emphat1cally as the coast line of New
York and Maine of Louisiana and Texas.
our fleet is going-to its own home waters
in the Pacific and after a stay there it
Will return to its own home waters in the