The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1912-02-17

and people do not act toward them seIfshly and hastily. Cuba to-day is in a peaceable and prosperous condl- ton, despite sensational newspapers 60 the contrary. She may be going through a period of youthful eXperi- Inentation as a nation, but the United States had to go through a similar Gcriod and there were dark days in oir early years just as there are in Cuba, but the United States would never have tolerated intervention from a foreign country.
 Don't Condemn Mexico.
 "Tn similar spirit let us look at Mexico to-day; let us bear in mind Cnat we had a great revolution in this country from 1861 to 1865 in which the loss of life and property was ter rible. This was followed by a period of reconstruction of 10 years during which all Europe expected that we Let us remove the "beam from our own eye'' in judging Mexico before we ask them to take the moat' from theirs. It cannot be expected that absolute peace and great reform in Mexico can be carried out in a few months. It takes years to accom- plish such results in the history of a nation. Be fair with Mexico and she stability and prosperity which she will evolve.
 Panama Canal.
 s'The concluding part of my re- marks will be in regard to the Panama canal That waterway when completed, will give the great eastern and central portions of the United States a direct route to 5000 miles of stlendid virgin coast line of commer- cial opportunity, reaching from the T 4eXico-CaIifornia line south to the Straits of Magellan. To the Pacific coast of Latin America I predict that ihe same kind of material, industrial and population development which came to California, Oregon and Wash ington State, as the result of the con- s:ruction of the transcontinental rail- ways.
 Last year that portion of Latin AmeNca bordering on the Pacific conducted a foreign trade valued a. $4O0, 0,000,000. This, in turn, repre- sented an increase of nearly zoo per ent. in the last ten years. If that section can accomplish such results as this, despite it's isolation, without the foreign trade will grow to $S0O,000,- 0CO or $1,00O, O,00O,O0O during the next decade. In this total the United States should take the major portion of the exports of those countries, and. in turn, should supply them with the larger portion of their imports.
 That whole section to-day is alive with the business representatives of the commercial interests of Europe, and even Asia This is to their credit, but this situation should inspire our comm erc1a1 interests 10 QO lIk6WlSe. Numerous foreign steamship com panies are preparing to take advant- age of the canal and are building new vessels for it. Very few American shipping interests are doing the same thing.
 There is no more important ques- son to-day before congress than that of the regulation of the tolls of the canal. These must be kept Iow-juse as low as the operation of the canal will permit-in order that our coun- try may reap the full benefits from that waterway. The United States is constructing tke canal for commercial and military advantages and not for revenue. It would be a criminal blot upon our commerce of the high seas if the tolls were made so high that we would fail to reap the fullest ad- vantages from this artificial waterway between the Atlantic and the Pacific D