The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1912-02-28

between the older and the younger re
publics there is much in common,
| "A commonwealth founded on freedom
OF conscience and security of individual
rights is not an exclusive heritage d
Saxon America, but one shared by all thi
peoples OF the hemisphere who, like our.
selves, have passed through the sore
| trials that attend the founding of two
communities in a new land. Howeyei
diverse our physical environments, how.
ever great the contrast between the nat.
ural obstacles to be surmounted, whether
amid the SHOWS and pine forests of the
! North or in the Sierras of the equator
and the pampas of the South, the aim
OF our respective enterprises, expressed
! in the mdying words OF Lincoln has
been the same, TO bring forth on this
continent new nations conceived in lib
erty and dedicated to the proposition
that all men are created equal.
"Much has been said about the effect
of the opening of the Panama canal, but
believe it is given to few Of us to
realize what magic possibilities are po-
tential in that event. As I conceive It,
it will create for our western world All
entirely new situation, a situation
fraught with possibilities so vast they
daze the fancy of the mind. In this new
world we must be found drawn closer
by sympathies and mutual esteem, and
working in harmony towards beneficent
ends. This must be so, for our greatest
interests are those that are common to
us all. We who live on the western
hemisphere find ourselves by force Of
geography in circumstances which make
our situation peculiar, and this funda-
mental fact gives us privileges and i'm
poses upon us duties and obligations we
would not otherwise have. II was a
perception OF this, which your own
thinkers and statesmen have seen as
elarealy as our own, which prompted
the announcement by President Monroe
of the great and benehcent policy that
now bears his name When the canal
is opened and the ships of all the coun-
tries of the world come sailing through
these Carib seas. the popularity Of
our position with its special requirement
will be accentuated and the wisdom of
that doctrine be confirmed again and
specially. 1t serves admittedly your in
terests as much as ours. Even now 1t
is a great bond between us. In its fp-
ture amplhcation perceive ii will be a
common heritage binding together the
nations OF this hemisphere with force
no power can break, and while ii has in
providence been given to us of the North
to state and interpret it, it has never
been invoked to the detriment of the
people OF the South or operated to their
hurt.
'In my Judgment the Monroe doctrine
will reach the acme of its beneficence
when it Is regarded by the people OF the
United States as a reason why we
should constantly respond 70 the needs
Of those Of our Latin American neighbors |
who may find necessity for our assistance |
in their progress towards better govern,
ment or who may seek our aid to meet /
their just obligations and thereby to
honorable relations to the fam
lily of nations. Great as will be the |
glory of having physically divided hem
sphere, a greater glory viii be to have I
to the unity, happiness and
Of its people.
at is paradox that the severance of /
he physical ligament that joins the two
continents of the new world viii more
loosely unite them. Culehra is the eliot
ii the artery Of intercourse whose re
noval viii give free and full circulation
throughout the whole organism to the
riyifying currents of friendship, peace,
and prosperity.
"When the waters of the two oceans
IRE blended on the soil of Panama, il
will make curious changes in the geogra-
)hy of the Americas. All that is south
# the istbmus viii be nearer 10 all
hat is north, and all that is north will,
n peculiar sense be more closely drawn
ogether. The Central American repuh-
les will be the tropical end OF a vast IS
and whose northern limits will extend
o the eternal ice and whose southern
,undary viii he continuous procession
# the commerce of the world"