Elmore County Republican. [volume] (Mountain Home, Idaho) 1910-1915, 1910-12-03
SUPREME EPOCH
IN HISTORY
Address Delivered by Benjamin
lde Wheeler, President Uni
versity Of California.

The opening of the Panama Ca
nal marks a supreme epoch III the
history of mankind. The celebra-
ton Of that event, il there is to
be one, must pay heed to the his
torical meaning of what is being
celebrated. Otherwise it will all
be a perversion, a violence, and
vanity.
The canal means, first of all,
that our land joins the two oceans
and looks out Janus-faced toward
it's rights and it's risks on both.
For the exercise of its rights and
the facing of it's perils it must
unite the waters Of the two oceans.
1t is one nation and its two oceans
must become one highway. Our
existence hitherto has been sha-
pen by our position on the Atlant
lc facing Europe; it is likely that
the coming years in increasing
measure will take their form and
color from our position OH the Pa
cific facing Asia. The opening OF
the canal yields its significance in
terms OF our nation $ new out
look through the Golden Gate up
on the Western ocean, and it is
only at the Golden Gate that the
event can tell its meaning to the
world.
And there is second consider
alton. When Columbus started
across the seas he was seeking,
not America, but the old Orient
OF India and China and their gold
and spices. Men had always de-
sired the East and the gold and
the pepper. There was nothing
new about the object in search.
All that was new was the direc-
tion. Columbus went west. Jud-
ged in terms OF its original pur-
pose his voyage was a total TAIL
ure. lie started straight for Asia,
but ran upon the long broad dyke
of land we now call the Americas.
1t has cost more than four CEN
turies for him and those that
swarmed after him to traverse and
conquer the hlndering dyke which
arose in his path and forbade him
Asia. The opening of the canal
is the first cutting of this dyke
the avenging OF Columbus-the
end OF the four-century halt the
resumption Of the advance toward
the Orient. 1t would be a pity
and a shame to celebrate this
event from behind the bunker.
We have been there four hundred
years. Let us out now into the
open air OF the Pacific.
But there is third consider
alton weightier than all. The
civilization which we inherit, in
which we are shapen, and made
to be what we are and to do what
we do, had its origin in the valleys
Of the Euphrates and the Nile and
on the hillsides of Syria and Gree
ce. With its back turned toward
the Old Orient of India and Chi
ma, it pushed its way westward a.
round the globe. 1t passed from
Greece to Rome, to Spain and
France and Germany, to England
and to America across the seas.
The opening Of the Canal means
that it has entered the Pacific;
and this is the arena in which
the two ld-balves, the Orient
and the Occident, are to stand, no
longer back to back, but face to
face, and no man can foresee the
issue thereof. But every man
who sees and thinks, can know
that with the opening Of the Canal
the history Of the human races
passes to its last and final phase.
Such an event must be celebrated
at a place where it has signiflcan-
ce--where the races meet, where
the arena, be it mart or battle
field, is prepared and fixed, where
the look is straight out westward
not ayerted or askance, but strai-
ght out westward toward the du-
ty which awaits this nation.