Staunton spectator and vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1896-1916, 1909-12-17
WASHINGTON LETTER.
From Our Regular Correspondent,

w dS1luS COu, ~. "; LIEU. LII AC
first week of the Congressional session
has been uneventfuI. Both Houses
have adjourned from day to day and
next to no business of legislative
character has been transacted. The
fact that two large conventions, one
the Southern Commercial aud Indus
trial Congress and the other the Wat
erways Congress have been in session
in Washington has detracted from the
national Congress by drawing to its
sessions, Members and Senators, Cab
met Ministers, and the President him.
self, who made speech at the opening
of this convention. President Taft
spoke discouragingly with reference to
the scheme for the issue of United
States Bonds to the amount of half a
billion dollars to be used for the i'm
provement of the navigable water ways
of the United States. This phase of
the question, however, is SO dear to the
three or four thousand delegates of the
convention who are now in Washing
ton and is urged with SO much force
and earnestness by distinguished men
throughout the country that it is diff
fcult to understand how the bond issue
can be successfully oppt ID. The pres
ent generation can scarcely expect to
see the completion of an enterprise so
vast. The enjoyment of the advantages
of the Improvements in the waterways,
| undertaken now, must be mainly by
posterity, posterity that will be as
much weather. and ADLER to pay the
| half million of dollars as the United
States of today is weather. and ADLER
than it was before the civil war.
In the Presidents message to Con-
gress and in the departmental reports
of the various Cabinet officers much
stress and emphasis has been given to
the subject of economy. Economy is
no doubt good in national affairs as it
doubtless is in household management,
| but it is more beautiful and easier as q
theory than as practice. Every one
remembers recently the can't of the
simple life was on the lips of everyone.
1t was promulgated from the White
House; but Mr.. Roosevelt in the inter-
est of peace urged the building of
Dreadnoughts at the cost of many mil
lions of dollars. So it has been with
past Congresses and doubtless will be
with the present, that when the bud
get is finally made up in June, July or
AuSuob llCAb bl1C OOlldl llldTk
will have been passed.
The Secretary of the Navy is making
most commendable efforts to improve
conditions in the department over
which he presides and it is given out
that the young and brilliant naval Of
ticers who have graced the ball rooms
and salons and clubs in Washington,
New York, Boston and other naval
stations must actually go to sea. Naval
statisticians have just discovered that
Germany has taken the second place
among the worlds naval powers and
that this place which we appeared to
hold year of eighteen months ago
when our great fleet encircled the globe,
is ours no longer. 1t is further shown
that although we spend many more
millions than Germany in the build
ing and maintenance of our navy that
of Germany is stronger In ships and
guns and men than is ours. These are
not pleasant facts but they are stub
born ones and we would better face
them now than after it will be too late.
With the information that the Pan
anna Canal will be finished in proba-
bly, less than five years arises the i'm
portance of its proper defense. Mill
tary engineers have recently reported
that its protection will not be difficult.
1t will not be necessary to build fortf-
fcatiOns on the island or break alters
extending at one and into the Pacific
and at the other into the Atlantic. 1t
is thought that it will be only necessa-
~ to dredge the approaches to the
canal so that they will be narrow, not
more than five hundred feet in width,
permitting the approach of not more
than two ships abreast and these if I'M
friendly war ships would be able to
tire not broadside discharges but only
with the stem guns. Batteries could
be placed commanding the long and
narrow approaches to the entrance of
the canal so as to be destructive to YES
sells coming within five or six miles OF
any part of the canal that might be in
Jured by them.
Another question of interest with re-
gard to the canal relates to the petty
republic of Columbia through which
the canal passes. Columbia is, of
course, Republic or nation only in
name or as the French would say pour
rlre. The real government there is the
government of the canal zone. All
that there is of law of order of SANTA
ton or of prosperity is an Importation
from the United States. Before the
canal enterprise TRANSPORTED it it was
yellow fever pest hole, neck of land
over which travellers hurried fearing TO
breathe. Now it is as healthy as any
place in the United States The Amer
lean Minister, Mr.. Squires has been re-
called and tits said that any diplomatic
relations of the Tinted STATES with Col
ombia have been permanently discon-
tinued. The petty local government is
not only not helpful to the United
States it is annoying in that it is
claiming the acres of land that have
been built up in the sea and lagoons
frcxsa fbc l.