The Washington herald., 1911-07-02
CALIFORNIA WOULD
GIVE SEAPORT TO ARIZONA
How We Might Acquire Big Peninsula to Our Ad-
vantage for Future Growth
By ROBERT STEIN.

| transporting troops over the proposed
railway. For their own safety, the Cana
dians cannot allow a foreign power 10
gain a foothold in Alaska, and thus the
mere existence Of the railway would suf-
fee to preclude attack.
The railway and its proposed branches,
vastly increasing the value of adjoining
property, would mean a fortune to every
property-holder in the Panhandle, whose
ports would in five years develop into i'm
portant cities. The twenty-year period
of free trade would mean that Seattle,
Portland, and San Francisco would con-
tinue unhindered to benefit by the snor-
nous expansion Of the trade Of the
Panhandle and its hinterland, due to the
building Of the railway in two years.
The British West Indies. In the pos
session of the United States, would serve
as a protection to the Panama Canal
and to the entire gulf coast and as a
bridge of commercial expansion toward
South America. The French, Dutch. and
Danish West Indies could doubtless be
acquired either by purchase or by ex-
change, for which purpose the Philip
pines, providentially. would furnish am
pie material. The Bahamas and Antilles
form continuous chain from Florida to
Venezuela, with interstices so narrow
that. If We chose, we could so fortIfy IL
that no hostile ship could get through.
The commercial crisis endemic In the
West Indies proves how unnatural Is
their connection with distant European
lands. Their acquisition by US would be
for them a veritable baptism OF prosper
ity. as IT has been for Porto Rico.
BY acquiring for Canada a seaboard
containing an embryonal Glasgow and
half a dozen embryonal Dundees. with
immediate railway connection, and thus
abridging by some twenty years the time
required by the Dominion to equal the
mother country in population Britain
would strengthen her land Of hope and
gain a new claim on its devotion.
Actions speak louder than words. One
or two mutual concessions will advance
the cause of Anglo-American reunion
more in a day than fine speeches will in
many years. The proposed concession
from US to Canada would be equivalent
to virtual treaty of alliance, confirmed
by the strategic railway and the tacit
Canadian appendix to the Monroe Doc
trine in favor of Alaska On the other
hand, by surrendering to US the ap-
proaches OF the American Mediterranean
and OF the Panama Canal, Britain would
virtually declare that she considers her
interests as safe in the hands Of her tacit
ally as in her own, and would thus ac-
custom that tacIt ally to consider him
self once more as q member Of her fam
lily. Thus by giving up the Alaska Pan
handle to Canada, we should shortly get
II back with all Canada attached to II.
When the United States bears to Canada
the same relation that Australia does
now, there will of course be no longer
any excuse for a tariff wall between
them. When we have free trade from
Key West to Point Barrow, we may
soon have It from Point Barrow to Cape
Horn. And when trains are running
from the Arctic circle to Panama, they
may soon continue to Santiago and
BuenOs Ayres.
So long as the fiddler holds the drum
sticks while the drummer holds the bow,
neither of them will feel at ease. Let the
bow go with the fiddle, the drumsticks
with the drum.