The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-10-05

Q ural resources. including. of course, the streams to meet in Washington du- ring the coming winter. This confer ence ought to be among the most ins- portant gatherings in our history, for none have had a more vital question ito consider.
 There Is a great national project ai- ready under way which renders the improvement of the Mississippi River and its tributaries specially needful. of that canal will be of bcneflt to the whole country, but most of all to the States of the Pacific slope and the Gulf: and If the Mississippi Is properly improved. to the States through which
 The digging of the Panama Canal is the greatest engineering feat which has yet been attempted on this globe. The work has been going on most snccess- fully and with fewer drawbacks and under our treaty with Panama we took possession of the Canal Zone I was confident that we should be able to build the canal. but took 1t for grant ed that we should meet many unex- pected difficulties. not only in the &C., tuai work, but through. and because of the diseases which had made the 18th mus a byword of unheaithfulness. The work done in making the conditions on the Isthmus healthy. however. has been so successful that at present the death rate among the thousands of Americans engaged In the canal work is lower than in most localities In the United States. The organization has heen perfected. the machinery install ed. and the actual work, of the dredges, the steam shovels. and th dirt trains. Is going on with constantly increasing rapidity and effectiveness. In the month of August over twelve hundred thousand cubic yards of material were removed, chhief1y from the Culebrn cut--the record removal--and If this rate can be kept up. as believe 1t will be kept up. the work of digging Tho finishing oi the locks of the great dam may take little longer; but 1t begins to look as though the work will be completed even sooner than we had estimated.
 Grave Responsibilities.
 Remember. gentlemen. that any work like this entails grave responsibilities The one intoierable position for a self respecting nation, as for self-respect- ing man. IS to blun and then not be
 We have accepted the Monroe doc- Urine as a cardinal feature of our for- eign policy. We have undertaken nos only to build up but to police and guard the Panama Canal. This means. un- less we are willing to accept the hu- initiation of being treated some time by some strong nation as a vain and weak braggart that we must build and maintain our navy at the highest finished our navy can move from enc ocean to the other at will; for, re- member that our doors open on both oceans. Until then our battle fleet. -wiilitir ii BfIut5i ii Hi wHys be kept and man- euvered as unit ought now to ap- pear in our home waters In one ocean and now to appear in our home waters in the other
 And. oh. my friends and fellow Americans, I most earnestly hope all our people will remember that in the f,fnAamental questions most deeply af- fecting the life of the nation there can be no proper division on party lines Matters of such grave moment should be dealt with along the lines of consistent and well thought-out policy, without regard to any change of ad ministration or of party at Washing ton.
 and maintenance of the United States navy the completion of the Panama Canal in accordance with the plans now being carried out, and the int- nrovennenf of the Mississippi River, are not party questions am striving to accomplish what can in such matters as these because the welfare or the nation imperiously demands the action that am taking It IS acton m tns interest of all the people, and the need for it will be as great long after I have passed out of public life as 1t Is now. On these great points that nave mentioned, as on others could Mnsn- M tion. from the standpoint of the nation inc nolicy is everything. while it Is pr little importance who carries It out go Ionp as 1t actually Is carried out. rsherafore hope you will see to 1t. according to your best endeavor. that the policy is accepted as psrmaanena ,,ss ss snmething to be persevered IT because oS inc interest of the whole reopie' and without. regard to any possioie political changes.
 Before closing let me say woro upon the subject of the regulation ol the railways by Congress under the interstate commerce clause of the Con stitntion. In my judgment the old days of happy go o-lucky indifference on the part of the public to the conduct of the have passed. The Amer. the conditions of modern industriaiism