New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1914-12-09

when several Of the countries of Europe
will find il difficult to do for their peo-
pie what they have hitherto been al
ways easily able TO do-many essential
and fundamental things. At any rate,
they will need our help and our mani
fold services as they have never needed
them before, and we should be ready,
more fit and ready than we have ever
been.
II is of equal consequence that the
nations whom Europe has usually sup.
piled with innumerable articles OF
manufacture and commerce Of which
they are in constant need and without
which their economic development halts
and stands still can now get only a
small part Of what they formerly i'm
ported and eagerly look TO us to sup
ply their all but empty markets. TINS
is particularly true of our own neigh
bors, the states, great and small, Of
Central and South America. Their lines
Of trade have hitherto run chiefly
athwart the seas, not to our ports, but
to the ports Of Great Britain and of
the older continent of Europe. / do
not stop TO inquire why, or to make
any comment on probable causes. W hat
interests us just now is not the ex-
PLANTATION. but the fact and our duty
and opportunity in the presence Of it.
Here are markets which we must sup
ply, and we must find the means of
action. The United States, this great
people for whom we speak and act,
should be ready, as never before, 10
serve itself and to serve mankind;
ready with its resources, its energies,
its forces of production and its means
OF distribution.
II is a very practical matter, a mat
ter of ways and means. We have the
resources. but are we fully ready to
use them? And, if we can make ready
what we have, have We the means at
hand to distribute it? We are not
fully ready neither have we the means
Of distribution. We are willing, but
we are not fully able. We have the
wish to serve and to serve greatly,
generously; but we are not prepared as
we should be- We are not ready to
mobilize our resources at once. We are
not prepared TO use them Immediately
and at their best, without delay and
without waste.
Merchant Marine Stunted.
To speak plainly, we have grossly
erred in the way IN which we have
stunted and hindered the development
of our merchant marine. And now.
when we need ships, we have not got
them. We have year after year de-
bated, without end or conclusion, the
best policy to pursue with regard to
the use of the ores and forests and
water powers Of our national domain
in the rich states Of the West, when
we should have acted; and they are
still locked up. The key is still turned
upon them, the door shut fast at which
thousands Of vigorous men, full of ini-
tiative, knock DANGEROUSLY for admit
lance. The water power of our ravi-
gable streams outside the national do
main also, even in the Eastern States,
where we nave worked and planned for
generations, is still not used as 1t
might be, because we will and we
won't; because the laws we have made
90 not intelligently balance encour-
agement against restraint. We with
hold by regulation.
! have come to ask you to remedy
and correct these mistakes and omis-
sions, even at this short session of a
Congress which would certainly seem
/ TO have done all the work tina. could
reasonably be expected of it, The time
and the circumstances are eXtraordi-
| nary, and so must our efforts be also
Fortunately, two great measures
| finely conceived, the one TO unlock, with
proper safeguards, the resources of the
national domain, the other to encour-
I age the use of the navigeble waters
outside that domain for the generation
, of power, have already passed the
House of Representatives and are
ready for immediate consideration anC
action by the Senate. With the deepest
earnestness / urge their prompt passage
In them both we turn our backs upor
hesitation and makeshift and formu
late genuine policy Of use and con
servation, in the best sense of those
words. We owe the one measure mo-
only to the people of that great West
ern country for whose free and syste
matte development, as il seems to me
our legislation has done so little, bu
also to the people of the nation as {
whole; and we as clearly owe the othei
in fulfilment of our repeated promises
that the water power of the countr!
should in fact as we'll as in name b,
put at the disposal Of great industrie
which can make economical and profit
able use of it, the rights of the publ
being adequately guarded the while
; and monopoly in the use prevented
To have begun such measures and no
completed them would indeed mar tn
record of this great Congress very seri
ously. / hope and confidently believ
that they will be completed.
Philippine independence.
And there is another great piece o
legislation which awaits and should re
ceive the sanction Of the Senate:
mean the bill which gives a large
measure of self-government to the PEG
pie of the Philippines. How better, il
this time Of anxious questioning an
perplexed policy, could we show ou
confidence in the principles of liberty
as the source as well as the expression
Of life, how better could we demon
strate our own self-possession an,
steadfastness in the courses Of justic
and disinterestedness than by thu
going calmly forward to fulfil ou
promises TO a dependent people, witt
will now look more anxiously than eve
10 see whether we have indeed tn,
liberality, the unselfshness. the cour
age, the faith we have boosted and pro
fessed? ! cannot believe that the Sen
ate will let this great measure OF con
structive justice await the action Of
another Congress. It's passage would
nobly crown the record of these two
years Of memorable labor.
But think that you will agree with
me that this does not complete the toll
Of our duty. How are we TO carry our
goods TO the empty markets of which
have spoken IL we have not the ships
How are re TO build up a great trade II
we have not the certain and constant
I nneana Of trsnguortatfop rnn, ,yh;ch al