Catoctin clarion. [volume] (Mechanicstown, Md.) 1871-1940, 1909-12-16
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 1s, 1909
WASHINGTON LETTER.
(FRoM OUR REGULAR CORRESPONDENT

oA~ A@A|A - ->-~'
(FRoM OUR REGULAR CORRESPONDENT
WASHINGTON. D. c., DEC. H..
The first week of the Congressional
session has been uneventful. Both
Houses have adjourned from day to
day and next to no business OF leg
islative character has been transacted.
The fact that two large conventions,
one the Southern Commercial and
Industrial Congress and the other the
Waterways Congress have been in
session in Washington has detracted
from the national Congress by draw
ing to its sessions Members and Sen
ators, Cabinet Ministers, and the
President himself, 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 billion dollars to be
used for the improvement of the
MANAGEABLE 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 Washington and is
urged with 80 much force and earn
estness by distinguished men through
out the country that ii is difficult to
understand how the bond issue can
be successfully opposed. The present
generation can scarcely expect to see
the completion of an enterprise 90
vast. The enjoyment of the advant-
ages of the improvements in the
waterways, undertaken now, must be
mainly by posterity, a posterity that
will be as much Weather and ADLER
to pay the half billion OF dollars as
the United States of today is wealth.
Ter and ADLER than it was before the
Civil War.
The Secretary of the Navy is max
ing most commendable efforts to i'm
prove conditions in the Department
over which he presides and it is given
out that the young and brilliant naval
officers who have graced the ball
rooms and salons and clubs in Wash
ington, New York, Boston and other
naval stations must actually go to sea.
With the information that the Pan
anna Canal will be finished in proba-
lily less than five years arises the i'm
portance of its proper defense. Mil
itary engineers have recently reported
that its protection will not be diff
cult. 1t will not be necessary to
build Notifications on the island or
breakwaters extending at one end in
to the Pacific and at the other into
the Atlantic. 1t is thought that it
will be only necessary to dredge the
approaches to the Canal SO they will
he narrow, not more than five hun
dred feet in width, permitting the
approach of not more than two ships
abreast and these if unfriendly war
ships would be able to fire not broad
side discharges but only with the stem
guns. Batteries could be placed COM
lnanding the long and narrow ap-
breaches to the entrance of the Canal
50 as to be destructive to vessels COM
ing within five or six miles of any
part of the Canal that might be in
jured by them.
Another question of interest with
regard to the Canal relates to the
petty republic Of Colombia through
which the Canal passes. Colombia
is Of course a Republic or a nation
only in name or as the French would
say pour rire. The petty local gov
eminent is not only not helpful to the
UniIed States it is annoying in that
it is claiming the acres of land that
have been built up in the sea and la
goons surrounding the mouths of the !
canal, from the millions OF cubic
yards of earth and stone taken from
The canal prism.