The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1908-12-09

ton of contract I call your especial
attention 10 the bulletin of the bureau
OF laoors which gives a statement of the
Eropean countries, as this is a subject
winch In Germany. for Instance, is treat
ed W connection with making provision
Tor orn-out and crippled workmen.
The Courts
/ most earnestly urge upon the con-
inadequate salaries now given to our
judges On the whole there is no body
OF public servants who do as valuable
inadequate compared 10 their work Be
ginning with the supreme court the
bled- 1t is not betting the dignity of
the nation that its most honored public
servants should be paid sums. SO small
private life that the performances of pub
lie service by them implies an exceed
ingiy heavy pecuniary sacrifice.
method should be devised for doing away
with the long delays which now obtain
which operate with peculiar severity
against persons of small means. and IA
vor only the very criminals whom it is
most desirable TO punish These long
delays in the final decisions of cases
make II in the aggregate a CRYING evil;
Of this intolerable delay is due to inn
proper regard paid to techuicalities which
are mere hindrance to justice. In
|
gard for technicalities has resulted in
a striking denial of justice, and fragrant
wrong to the body politics.
If there Is any one duty which more
than another we owe 1t to our children
and our children's children to perform
country. for they constitute the first and
most important element in the conserva-
ton of the natural resources of the coun-
try. There are, of course, two kinds of
natural resources. One is the kind which
can only be used as part of a process of
exhaustion; this is true of mines. natural
oil and gas wells and the like. The other,
and OF course ultimately by far the most
important includes the resources which
use; the soil, the rivers and the forests
come under this head. Any really civil
lzed nation will so use all of these three
great national assets that the nation will
have their benefit in the future. Just as
farmer, after all his life making his
llying from his farm. will, if he is an ex-
creased value TO his son, so we should
leave our national domain to our chill
dren, increased in value and not worn
out There are small sections of our
own country, in tho east and in the west
IN the Adirondacks, the White mount aims
and the Appalachians, AND in the Rocky
mountains, where we can already see for
ourselves the damage in the shape -of
permanent injury to the soil and the river
systems which comes from reckless de-
torestation. 1t matters not whether this
ueIorestalon is due to the actual reck-
less cutting of timber to the fires that
ineTitapiy follow such reckless cutting of
timber, or TO reckless and uncontrolled
grazing, especially by the great migratory
bands of sheep, the unchecked Wandering
struction to forests and disaster to the
small home makers, the settlers of linn
tied means.
Inland Waterways
Action should be begun forthwith dur
Ing the present session of the congress
Tor the Improvement of our inland water
will
US not only navisable but navigated riv-
ers we have spent hundreds of mil
mons OF dollars upon these waterways
Yet the traffic on nearly all of them is
steadily declining. This condition is the
direct result of the absence of any com
prehensive and far-seeing plan of water
way Improvement. Obviously we can NOT
continue thus to eXpend the revenues of
the government without return. 1t is
poor business to spend money for inland
navigation unless we get it,
inquiry into the condition of the Missis-
slppl and its principal tributaries reveals
very many instances of the utter waste
caused by the methods which have fith-l
erto obtained for the so-called Improve
ment' of navigation A striking instance
is supplied by the Improvement of the
Ohio. which begun in 1924, was continued
under single plan for half a century
followed Tor quarter of a century In
1902 stu different plan was adopted
and has since been pursued at a. rate
which only promises navigabIe river in
from twenty to 100 years longer
Such shortsighted. vacillating and fu-|
tile methods are accompanied by decreas-
ing water-born commerce and increasing
traffic congestion on land, by increasing
Hoods and by waste OF public money The
which have so signally failed and adopt
ing new ones in keeping with the needs
and demands of our people
In report on a measure introduced a
the first session of the present congress.
the secretary of said: 1.-The chief
defect in the methods hitherto pursued
for originating comprehensive plans COW
erlng the country or natural divisions1
thereof In this opinion 1 heartily con-
cur The present methods not only fan
to give us inland navigation, but thew
are injurious to the army as well What
is virtually q permanent detail of the
sarily impairs the efficiency of our milf
tary establishment. The military engi-
work in actual construction. but thew
are necessarily unSuited by their train
ing and traditions TO take the broad view
and TO gather and transmit TO the con-
sress the commercial and Industrial fnfor-
nation and forecasts upon which, water
way Improvement must always SO large
~ rest TF'urthermore thev have faiIed
to grasp the great underlying fact that
every stream is a unit from its sourc,
TO Its mouth, and that all its uses are in
terdependent- Prominent officers of the
engineer corps have recently even gone
so far as TO assert in print that water
ways are not dependent upon the con-
servation of the forests about their head
waters. This position is opposed to all
the recent work of the scientific bureaus
of the government and to- the general
experience of mankind. A physician who
diSbelieved in vaccination would not bf.
the right man to handle an epidemic o.
smallpox. nor should we leave a doc
tor skeptical about the transmission of
yellow fever by the stegomyia mosuufto
in charge of sanitarium at Havana or
Panama So with the Improvement on
our rivers: it is no longer wise or safe
to leave this great work in the hands Of
men who fail to grasp the essential rela-
lions between navigation and general de-
velopment and TO aSsinilate and use the
central facts about our streams
Until the work of river Improvement isl
in a modern way il cannoti
have results that will meet the needs oil
this modern nation These needs should
be met without further dilly-dalIying or
delay
Denatured Alcohol
i had occasion in my message Of May
4. 1906. 10 urge the passage of some
law putting alcohol, used in the arts, In
dustries and manufactures, upon the free
list; that is. to provide for the with /
drawal free of tax of alcohol which is to
be denatured for those purposes The ]
law of June = 1906, and its amendment
Of March ,, 1907, accomplished what was
desired in that respect. and the use Of
denatured alcohol, as intended, IS making