The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-01-22

h idek LII poNtI u dp lhAA of Congress nine years ago directed the President to do on the faith of whlct $500. O0o0o0 are being expended
 Right to Fortify Canal
 "The right of the United States to fortify the canal and to close II agaihst the use of an enemy in time of war being establishment what should be its policy?
 we build the canal to help us de- fend the country, not to help an enemy to attack 1t. Even if certain ana practical neutra lization of the canal by agreement of all nations could be se- cured to us. when engaged in var an enemy could then use the canal for transit to attack us In both oceans as we propose to us it to defend ourselves. After expending five hundred million dollars thus to make our national de fense easier are we to surrender hal1 the military value of the canal by giV- ing the benefit of 1t to a nation seek ing to destroy us?
 Tt seems to me that the very state ment of the proposition carries it's refu- tation.
 But 1t Is certain that we ought to defend the canal by our navy. l am not a strategist l am not a military or naval expert, but 1t seems to me as plain as one and one are two that q navy is for the purpose of defense, for the protection from attack and that If we have to retain a part of our navy in order to defend the canal on both sides, then the canal becomes a bur den and not an instrument of defense at all.
 Ought 10 Defend Itself
 "The canal ought to defend itself and we ought to have Qualifications there which will be powerful enough to keep off the navies of any nation that might possibly attack us. I am of the greatest naval strategists, in a communication to this mornings Tri- bune. confirms the view.
 Again. under our treaty with Eng land and other countries, 1t Is we who guarantee the neutrality of the canal It is not the other countries that guar antee 1t to us and we are bound if we conform to the treaty with Eng land to put ourselves in such a con dition that We can perform that guar anty. Suppose England is at war with some other country that is not bound to us by treaty rights at all. isn't it essential that We should have fortifi- cations to protect the canal, not only for our own use. and the worlds com merce. but for the use of England and her warships as means of passage?
 LII otHSi hoidSs Ht idNC u Pi ife that canal as a means of transit to belligerents in time of war as long as we are ourselves not gagged in the controversy.
 But it is said that we could induce all the powers to come in and consent to the neutrality of the canal as a treaty obligation. I should be glad to do this if possible but even if we do this, can We feel entirely safe by req son Of that injury to the canal by some irrespon- sible belligerent, at least under con ditions as they now are?
 Cost of Fortifications
 Then 1t is said that the Notifications error. The estimated cost of the forti- hcations for the canal Is SIP, COG, GOO That, l submit, constitutes hardly more than ? per cent of the cost of the canal-a first premium for insuring it's safety that Is not excessive.
 Tt is also said that the Notifications will cost $5,000,000 a year to maintain This is also an error. I have consulted the war department and they advise that the addition 10 the annual government cost of maintenance of Notifications and military estimate in time of peace due to the fertilization of the canal would not exceed S500000. an annual insurance rate after first cost of one-tenth of 1 per cent.
 The case of the Suez canal furnishes no analogy whatever In the first place, the Suez canal is nothing but a ditch in desert. incapable of destruction. and even when obstructed it can be cleared within very short time. The Panama canal by the destruction of the gate locks could, be put out of commission for two years and the whole commerce of the world made to suffer therefrom.
 Suez Canal Conditions
 Again, the land through which the Suez canal runs is not in the jurisdiction of England or any one of the five powers Many of the nations partake in the own ership of the canal, and it Is not within the control of any single nation. The cir oumstances under which the Panama ca- nal has been building, the ownership of the strip and one of the main purposes for which it was constructed. are very different and make it exactly as if it were q canal cut through the narrow part Of Florida. It is on American soil and under American control, and it needs our fortifications for national defense just as much as the city of New York needs for tifieations, and there Is the additional req son that we ought to have them in order to perform our international obligations.
 'I yield to no one in my love of peace, in my hatred of war and in my earnest | have made great strides toward peace within the last decade. No one that I know of goes further in favor of settling international controversies by arbitration than I do and if I have my way and am able to secure the assent of other powers, shall submit to the Senate arbitration treaties broader in their terms than any that body has heretofore ratified, and broader than any that now exist between the nations. In laying down my office could leave no greater claim to the gratitude of my countryman than to have secured such treaties, but I cannot per init myself in the enthusiastic desire to secure universal peace to blind myself to the possibilities of war. We have not reached the time when we can count on the settlement of all internationa con- troversies by the arbitration of a tribunal
 Advocates of Peace
 'I welcome most highly the rapidly increasing ranks of the advocates of peace. They help to form public opin- ion of the word that is, with apperciable progress forcing nations to a settlement of quarrels by negotiations or a peace tribunal When adjudication by arbitral court shall be accepted. the motive for armament will disappear But we can not hope to bring about such a condition for decades.
 Meantime, We must face the facts and see conditions as they are. Some earnest advocates of peace weaken their advo- cacy by failing to do this. War is still 8 possibility; and president, senator or congressman who ignores it as some- thing against which proper precautions should be taken subjects himself in time of peace to the just criticism of all req sonable men and when war, comes and finds fha nation unnrena red fo the ma r,-