Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1912-06-13
Rohart IA. MoWadA.

ssoOAAAAAS0A ~AA SSeNs
WASHINGTON, June 13-The open
ing of the Panama Canal will be q
wonderful world helper, the glorious
credit Of which will belong to the
United States" said Senator John
Sharpe Williams of Mississippi, III
conversation today about that big en-.
terprise and the methods of its opera
ton.
III has been a splendid engineering
feat. which will never be forgotten,
but the greatest OF all things in con-
nection with it's construction is in
the contemplation that it's import
ance reaches, like the beaSs Of the
sun, far beyond the range of the i'm
mediate local benefits that we as a
commercial nation may enjoy. 1t will
draw the family of nations closer to-
gether, to a better understanding OF
each other, and consequently and ne
cessarily will stimulate international
trade anew.
while l do not look for any mar
vellous returns on the investment at
any time in the near future, believing
that the advantage will accrue more
in sentiment than substance, yet the
accomplished fact will everywhere
on the globe speed the pfow' as did
the discovery of America with the
imaginations of all the old world ra-
diant with visions of vast treasures to
be found.
81 think there should be no diff
Guilty in operating the canal. Certain
ly a people-our people-who can so
perfectly and grandly solve the prob
lem of construction will not fail to
work out in good time a sound bust
ness plan OF operation. We shall have
done a great thing for ourselves, ana
the best part of the great thing is
that we have done it for the world.
II am in favor of allowing our coast
wise ships free passage through the
canal with reasonable toll for other
vessels. 1t may be we have not been
as vigilant as we might have been in
caring for our coastwise marine. l
would be willing also to permit the
railways to operate steamships to and
through the canal, provided they were
subject as to rates to the Interstate
Commerce Commission.
1.-THE transcontinental railroads
ought by now to have ceased to har-
Dor apprehensions that the opera ton
of the 1sthmian Canal will harm them.
This continent is now so we'll set
tied, and so surely on the way to con-
tinued filling up with thrifty popula-
lions, that the land carriers need nev-
er lack for business; certainly, they
will always be transporters of perish
able freight. The canal will see the
passage OF freight in bulk for all the
world.
II say again the completion and
operation Of the Panama Canal will
be great world-helper. Why should
any interest in this country fear for
the future in that connection?
with the great canal completed,
and the problem Of operation fairly
settled as to all interests, we can then
60 forward doing the best we can to
perfect a national system of river and
harbor Improvement, and an eve.
watchful maintenance Of navigation.
A wise and enlightened regulation of
our interests and foreign commerce,
as we are advised in our national
constitution, a sensible and inflexible
care for the interests of the public In
the essential matter of terminal "a
cilities-these are agreeable things
to contemplate and hope for, and to
have irridescent dreams about in what
the future may yet have in store for
American craftsmanship"