Arizona republican., 1912-05-08
Tells Them One of Their Duties Is to Uphold
 Hands of the
 Administration
TALKS ABOUT
 PANAMA CANAL
Secretary Delivers Address Which Is Replete With Wisdom and Good
 Sense

SAN r FkA\tlSCO, May t--- IS IS the people of the Pacific coast to pre- pare now for the trade opportunities in Central and South America which the opening of the Panama canal will bring them. Secretary of State Knox, in an address here tonight, al the annual banquet of the California development board. declared that three duties con frOnteJ the people of the west; to strengthen their commercial standing in the countries of the Caribbean through the efforts of capable repre- sentatives. to provide transportation facilities for the expected increase of trade; and to hold up the hands of the present administration in it's efforts t0 develop the resources and commerce of those countries by placing them if nanciaIly upon their feet
 Quoting the aphorism that there IS a tide in the affairs of men that taken at the flood. leads on to fortune" MT. Knox warned his audience that Tt will no do for tou Far Westerncrs to relax vour preparative activities and sit idly amid the splendors of your great eX- position. watching your alert compe- titors responding instantly to the knock of opportunity ..... Your aSen- cies should be seasOnably active in cV- cry country where you have a chance to gain fresh commercial footing -. You need the ships to carry your wares and to bring back lucrative re- turns
 But. while painting a bright picture of the potential richness of the cogIn- try to be brought by the canal to the doors of our Pacific ports, Secretary | Knox warned them that, so long as | political disorder prevailed in those countries. it was not to be expected l that commercial development could 1 be forced upon them. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs Of thistIes he quoted Can you expect an im- poverished, rerturbed and embarrassed i community to throw open wide the door of practical opportunity
 1 Tn those countries of Central Amer 1 ica where fraternal strife has left it's
 scars tand 1 do not speak now of all
 of themD we find practical paralysis ot
 natural resources. The native agricul- turist dares not produce more than the amount actually necessary for him own consumption. or at the most that Of
 his nearest neighbors, for the fear Of conscription in times of war and the ] subsequent inevitable destruction or appropriation of his property stares him in the face. Regions of incaicul- able fertility now lying idle will soon
 hear the stimulating call of improved Transportation facilities for their pro ducts. if only domestic tranquility and financial stability enable them to heed
 that call
 Foreign merchants resident in these
 countries cannot, in the face Of i'm pending revolutions with prudence
 commit themselves to mercantile pur- | chases for future delivery which may
 arrive when the country is In the
 throes of such conflicts. Their trade
 is therefore, limited, their negotiations
 relatively small and their credit, under
 such conditions, seriously affected
 while present steamship facilities arc
 inadequate, freight rates are nlgh am
 time of transit necessarily protracted
 It is incOnceivable that such local con- ditions can longer be suffered to re-
 strain the economic development O certain of these countries, particular y when they find themselves ideally slt'
 uated upon the highway of commerc' between two hemiSpheres
 Your thoughtful public men shoui' r realize the vital interest our vast bod! of producers and consumers nave II
 the stable prosperity of their nel8h bors and see to it that no act or though | or speech on their part shall run coui l ter to the earnest efforts of this gov f ernment to make true interhatlolla , friendships of respect, good will ah' justice. and to aid certain less forum
 ate commonwealths at our doors U , guard themselves from the emDarfdSS D ment of foreign indebtedness, to puln I up their national credit on the IhH n foundation of responsible good lallh II 6 all their transactions with the oule
 world. and to free themselves from tn \, carking malady of domestic fnsurfec n ton. These efforts. exemplified in tn 6 Nicaraguan and Honduran conventions T are not mere academic theories. Tn f soundness of their principle has pee . practically demonstrated in the sympa q thetic assistance we so SucceSSIuil Q lent to Santo Domingo in her struggi - | to extricate herself from the quaSmlr q of foreign debt and to throw off tn ,f hideous burden of political instability e As an instance of the difference De d tween the commercial value of coul i. try swamped with indebtedness and n country made financially sound, h e stated that the commerce of the DC ,e mnican republic, since the Unite l. States had helped it to rid itself
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