The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1911-01-27
OUR WASHINGTON LETTER

Mr. Editor:
There are indications that the most
Congress for score of years
has lost its dynamic force six weeks
before it's end; but little of the leglsla-
ton begun in December is likely to be
enacted. Some are predicting that the
appropriation bills will not be passed
by March the 4th. 1t is almost lmpos-
sible for a heterogeneous team OF over
three hundred patriots, statesmen
demagogues and cranks to pull together
as a harmonious whole. A majority OF
Congress knows that the country Is
demanding a lowering of certain tariff
schedules. 1t knows that the country
wants parcels post and many other
important measures, but with halt
dozen political factions and ten times
as many individuals pulling in sixty-slx
different directions, there is but little
probability of urgently needed legis-
lation.
Secretary Wilson and Assistant Secre-
tary Hays of the Agricultural Depart
ment were evidently not in harmonious
consultation before they went into
print. Mr.. Hayes says that the drift
of population to the cities makes it i'm
possible for low prices ever to return
while Secretary Wilson reports an in
creased production per acre, outstrlp-
ping the increase in population, and
predicts a decrease in the costs OF
food stuffs. 1t is difficult to see how
prices can come down when farm lands
and farm hands are going up. There
is, however, ground for expectation
that the denizens of American cities
may, like the inhabitants OF the
villages of Europe, turn farmer. Ii
is not unusual for Swiss and Russian
farm peasantry to live considerable
distances from the land which they till
Moreover, they walk to their places
of work. Possibly the time is not fan
distant when many thousands OF
American farmers will live in towns
and cities and be conveyed cheaply te
and from their fields by electric cars.
When the United States bought
Alaska about fifty years ago for sever
millions of dollars, and facetiou'
editor referring to its great distance
and to its Russian origin, progressed tt
call it 'Damlongwayoff" no ONT
imagined how inca lculably rich in golt
and iron and fisheries and coal, to sd!
nothing of vegetable productions, tina
country would become. There arr
people but little past middle age who
can recollect that that part of thu
country where Kansas, Colorado
Oklahoma and other prosperous state
are situated, was supposed to be de
sert utterly unfit for agriculture.
great part of Texas was at that time
regarded as sterile waste, but it Ii
now covered with cities, towns ant
villages. Within a generate Canad'
has doubled her population and multi phi
ed many times her wealth, and yet the
rich forests of Labrador and splendid
regions about Hudson Bay are almos
untouched. It is not improbable tina
the younger generation in America
will, during the next half century
witness such financial and industri
al power in the northern half of the
Western Hemisphere a. the world has
never before known.
There is just now much agitation of
the question of fortifying the Panama
Canal. Philanthropists, peace-makers,
or perhaps sentimentalists are opposed
to any step looking toward military
protection. Statesmen and militarists,
on the other hand, are unable to see
safety except in fortresses and big
guns. Congress has been memorable
ed by distinguished men and women
who made much of the argument that
the Suez Canal was without fortified
ton and that inasmuch as England had
left this Canal open and undefended,
there was no reason why the Panama
Canal should be fortified. This state
ment, however, appears to have been
presented without complete geographic
cal or political knowledge. A sum
equal to the cost of the Panama Canal
would not be sufficient to fortify it as
strongly as the Suez Canal is fortified.
The fortifcation of the Canal begins
on the west at Gibraltar, is continued
at Malta, at Cairo and Alexandria, and
on the east at Alden. In other words,
England has full and tight control of
the Mediterranean at Gibraltar and of
the Red Sea at Alden. No enemy can
approach within hundreds of miles of
Suez without accounting to Great Brit
ain. 1t is true that there are French
and. Spanish and Turkish and Austrian
ports on the Mediterranean or connect
ing waters, but their naval forces are
insignificant as compared to the fleet
that England constantly maintains in
what is substantially British lake.