The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-10-05
NEW HAVEN MORNING JOURNAL AND COURIER SATURDAY. OCTOBER so

public lands commission well said, is that the amount of public land pat ented by the government to individu- als Is increasing out of all proportion to the number of new homes. It is clear beyond peradventure that our natural resources have been and are still being abused, that continued abuse will destroy them, and that we have at last reached the forks of the road. We are face to face with the great fact that the whole future of the nation is directly at stake in the momentous decision which is forced upon us. Shall we continue the waste and destruction of our natural re- sources, or shall we conserve them? There is no other question of equal gravity now before the nation.
 It is the plain duty of those of us who for the moent are responsible to make inventory of the natural re- sources which have been handed may the needs of the future, and so to handle the great sources of our prosperity as not to destroy in ad- vance all hope for the prosperity of our descendants.
 As 1 have said elsewhere, the con- servation of natural resources is the fundamental problem. Unless we solve that problem it will avail us lit- tie to solve all others. To solve 1t, the whole nation must undertake the task through their organizations and associations, through the men whom they have made specially responsible for the welfare of the several States, and finally through congress and the Executive. As a preliminary step the inland waterways commission has decided with my full approval, to call a conference on the conservation of natural resources, including, of course, the streams, to meet in Wash 1 ington during the coming winter. This conference ought to bc among the most important gatherings in our his- tory for none have had more vital question to consider.
 There Is a great national project already under way which renders the Improvement of the Mississippi river and it's tributaries specially needful. mean the Panama canal The digging of that canal will be of benefit to the whole country, but most of all to the States of the Pacific slope and the Gulf; and if the Mississippi is proper l ly improved, to the States through which it flows. The digging of the Panama Canal Is the greatest en- gineering feat which has yet been att tempted on this globe, The work has been going on most successfully and with fewer drawbacks and difficulties than I had dared hope. When under our treaty with Panama we took possess sion of the Canal Zone was confident that we should be able to build the canal, but I took 1t for granted that we should meet many unexpected dif- ficulties, not only in the actual work, but through, and because of, the dis eases which had made the Isthmus a byword of unhealthfulness. The work done in making the conditions on the Isthmus healthy, however, has been so successful that at present the date rate among the thousands of Americans en- gagged in the canal work is lower than in most localities in the United States. The organization has been perfected, the machinery installed, and the actual work, of the dredges, the steam shoveis and the dirt trains, is- going on with constantly increasing rapidity and eff fectlveness In the month of August over twelve hundred thousand cubic yards of material were removed, chief ly from the Culebra cut.-the record removal-and if this rate can be kept up, as I believe it will be kept up, the work of digging will be through in halt dozen years. The finishing of the locks of the great dam may take little longer; but 1t begins to look as though the work will be completed even soon- CT than we had estimated
 Remember, gentlemen, that any work like this entails grave responsibilities The one intolerable position for self respecting nation, as for self-respect' ing man, Is to bluff and then not bt able to make good We have accepted the Monroe doctrine as cardinal fea- ture of our foreign policy. We have un. dertaken not only to build but to po- lice and to guard the Panama Canal This means, unless we are willing to accept the humiliation of being treated some time by some strong nation as a vain and weak braggart that we must buili and maintain our navy at the highest point of efficiency. When the canal is finished our navy can move from one ocean to the other at will for, remember that our doors open on both oceans Until then our battle fleet which should always 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 ant fellow-Americans most earnestly hope all our people will remember that in the fundamental questions mos deeply affecting the life of the natior
 there can be no proper division on par : ty fines. Matters of such grave mo ment should be dealt with along thu lines of consistent and well thought
 out policy without regard to any change of administration or of party
 at Washington. Such questions as tn upbulding and maintenance of tn, United States navy, the completion o
 the Panama Canal in accordance witf the plans now being carried out, ana
 the improvement of the Mssissipp river, are not party questions. I ar striving to accomplish what I can il l af. welfare of the nation imperiously de