The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1912-08-07

It is our duty as trustees to make whatever arrangement of government will be most servicea ble to their free. dom and development. Here again we, are to set up the rule of justice and of right.
 Presidential Primaries.
 The rule of the people is no idle phrase. Those. who believe in it-as who does not that has caught the real spirit of America ?-believe that there can be no rule of right without it; that right in politics is made up of the interests of everybody, and every s body should take part in the action that is to determine it. We have been keen for presidential primaries and the direct election of United States senators, because we wanted the ac- ton of the government to be determin- ed by persons whom the people had actually designat ted as men whom they. were ready to trust and follow. We have been anxious that all campaign contributions and expenditures should be disclosed tos the public in fullest detail because we regarded the infiu- ences which govern campaigns to be as much a part of the peoples busi- ness as anything else connected with their government. We are working toward a very definite object, the uni versal partnership in public affairs upon which the purity of politicssand its aim and spirit depend.
 I do not know any greater question than that of conservation. :. We have been a spendthrift nation and must now husband what we have left. We must do more than that. We must de- velop as well as preserve our water powers and must add great waterways to the transportation facilities of the nation to supplement- the railways within our borders as well as>upon the isthmus. We must revive our mer- chant marine, too, and i'll the seas again with our. own fleets. We must add to our present postofice service parcels post as complete as that of any other nation. We must look to the health of our people upon every hand as we'll as hearten them, with justice and opportunity. This is the construc- tive work of government. This is the policy that has vision and hope and that looks to serve mankind
 There are many sides to these great matters Conservation is easy to gen eralize about, but hard to particularize about wisely. Reservation is not the whole of conserya ation. The develop ment Of great states must not be stay ed indefinitely to await policy by which our forests and water powers can prudently be made use of. Use and development must go hand in hand The policy we adopt must be progressive not negative merely, as If we did not know what to do.
 improving Our Rivers.
 With regard to the development of greater and more numerous waterways and the building up of a merchant ma rine, we must follow great constructive lines and not fall back upon the cheap device of bounties and subsidies. < Tn the case of the Mississippi river, that great central artery of our trade, it is plain that the federal government must build and maintain the levees and keep the great waters in harness for the general use. ~
 The question of merchant marine turns back to the tariff again, towhich all roads seem to lead, and to our reg lstry laws which, if coupled with the tariR, might almost be supposed to have been intended to take the Ameri- can nag or the seas. Counties are not necessary. if you will but undo some of the things that have been done. Without great merchant marine we cannot take our rightful place in the commerce of the world. Merchants who must depend upon the carriers of rival mercantile nations to carry their goods to market are at a disadvantage in internationa trade too manifest to need to be pointed out, and our mer. chants will not long suffer themselves ought not to suffer themselves-to be placed at such a disadvantage. Our industries have expanded to such a point that they will burst their jackets if they cannot find a free outlet to the markets of the world, and they cannot find such an outlet unless they be given ships of their own to carry their goods-ships that will go the routes they want them to go-and prefer the interests of America in their sailing orders and their equipment. Our do mestic markets mo longer suffice. We. need foreign markets. That is an-. other force that is going to break the tariff down. The tariff was once a bulwark; now it is a dam. For trade is reciprocal; we cannot sell unless we also buy.
 The very fact that we have at last taken the Panama canal seriously in hand and are vigorously pushing 1t to- ward completion is. eloquent of our re- awakened interest in international trade We are not building the, canal and pouring out million upon million of money upon it's construction merely to establish water connection between the two coasts of the continent, im- portant and desirable as that may be, particularly from the point Of view of naval defense. It is meant to be great international highway. It would be little ridiculous if we should build it and then have no ships to send through it. There have been years when not a single ton of freight pass ed through the great .Suez canal in an American bottom, so empty are the seas of our ships and seamen.