Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1914-12-09

bilize our resources at once. We are
not prepared to use them Immediately
and at their best, without delay and
without waste.
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
turned upon them, the door shut fast
at which thousands of vigorous men,
full of initiative, knock clamorously
for admittance. The water power of
our navigable streams outside the ma
tional domain, also, even in the east
ern states, where we have worked and
planned for generations, is still not
used as it might be, because we will
and we won't; because the laws we
have made do not intelligently balance
withhold by regulation.
have come to ask you to remedy
and correct these mistakes and omis-
sions. even at this short session of
congress which would certainly seem
to have done all the work that could
reasonably be expected of it. The time
and the circumstances are extraor.
dinary and so must our efforts be
also
Use and Conservation.
Fortunately, two great measures.
finely conceived, the one to unlock,
with proper safeguards, the resources
of the national domain, the other to
encourage the use of the navigable
waters outside that domain for the
generation of power, have already
passed the house of representatives
and are ready for immediate consider
alton and action by the senate. With
the deepest earnestness | urge their
prompt passage. In them both
we turn our backs upon hesita-
tion and makeshift and formulate
a genuine policy of use and con-
servation, in the best sense
of those words We owe the one
measure not only to the people of that
great western country for whose free
and systematic development, as it
seems to me. our legislation has done
so little. but also to the people of the
nation as whole; and we as clear
ly owe the other in fulfillment of our
repeated promises that the water pow
er OF the country should in fact as
we'll as In name be put at the disposal
of great industries which can make
economical and profitable use of it.
the rights Of the public being ade-
quately guarded the while. and mo-
nopoly in the use prevented. To have
begun such measures and not COM
pleted them would indeed mar the
record Of this great congress very
seriously. ! hope and confidently be-
lieve that they will be completed
And there is another great piece Of
legislation which awaits and should
receive the sanction of the senate:
| mean the bill which gives larger
measure of selfgovernment to the peo-
pie of the Philippines. How better,
In this time of anxious questioning
and perpleXing policy, could we show
our confidence in the principles of
liberty as the source as well as the
expression Of life, how better could we
demonstrate our own self-possession
and steadfastness in the courses Of
justice and disinterestedness than by
thus going calmly forward to fulfill
our promises to a dependent people,
who will now look more anxiously
than ever to see whether we have in
deed the liberality. the unselfishness.
the courage, the faith we have boast
ed and professed. cannot believe
that the senate will let this great
measure of constructive justice await
the action of another congress. It's
passage would nobly crown the record
VI thcoc tWo years VI nchhoi duiC Ia
Dor.
An Important Duty.
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 If we have
not the certain and constant means
OF transportation upon which all profit
able and useful commerce depends?
And how are we to get the ships II
we watt for the trade to develop with
out them? To correct the many mis-
takes by which we have discouraged
and all but destroyed the merchant
marine of the country. to retrace the
steps by which We have, II seems al
most deliberately, withdrawn our flag
from the seas, except where here and
there, ship Of war is hidden carry
1t, or some wandering yacht displays
1t, would take long time and in
wolves many detailed items of legisla-
ton, and the trade which we ought
Immediately to handle would disap-
pear or find other channels while we
debated the items.
The case Is not unlike that which
confronted us when our own conti-