The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1914-04-10
PRESIDENT WILSON ON PLAT
FORM PLEDGES

in the committee rooms without DIS
senting vote and unanimously adopt
ed by the convention, are the follow
ing:
1--WE favor the exemption from tolls
of American ships engaged in coast
wise trade passing through the Pana-
ma canal.
eve also favor legislation forbid
ding the use of the Panama canal b
ships owned or controlled by railroad
carriers engaged in transportation
competitive with the canal"
In one of his campaign speeches
commenting on these planks in the
platform Mr.. Wilson said:
"Now, there is another fact. You
know we are digging a tremendous
ditch across the Isthmus of Panama.
1t is predicted by the engineers in
charge of that colossal enterprise that
we shall be able to open it to the
ships of the world by the year 1915.
What interest have you in opening 1t
to the ships of the world? We do not
own the ships of the world By very
ingenious process, which [ would not
keep you standing in the hot sun long
enough to outline, the legislation OF
the United States has destroyed the
merchant marine of the United
States. The chief road by which your
crops travel to the Orient is through
the Suez canal They do not go
around by the Pacific. Most of your
maps do not show you the short road
TO the Orient, because they are spread
out fat.
eff you will get globe and draw
circle around the globe, you will see
your short road is through the SueZ
canal not across the Pacific, and that
the western farmer, therefore, has to.
ship his crops across the continent in
order to reach the ships that are to
/ take that road And when his crops
reach the port, do they find American
ships waiting for them? Not at all.
| zone of the great objects in cutting
that great ditch across the Isthmus of
! Panama is to allow farmers who are
near the Atlantic to ship to the Pa
cifc by way of the Atlantic ports, to
allow all the farmers on what I may,
standing here, call this part of the
continent, to find an outlet at ports of
the gulf or the ports of the Atlantic
seaboard, and then have coastwise
steamers carry their products down
around through the canal and up the
Pacific coast, or down the coast of
South America.
''Now, at present there are no ships
to do that, and one of the bills pend
ing-passed, I believe, yesterday by{
the senate as it had passed the house
provides for free tolls for American
ships through that canal and prohibits
any ship from passing through which
is owned by any American railroad
company. You see the object of that,
don't you? (Applause). We don't
want the railroads to compete with
themselves, because we understand
that kind of competition. We want
water carriage to compete with land
carriage, so as to be perfectly sure
that you are going to get better rates |
around the canal than you would |
across the continent.
"The farmers of this country are,
in my judgment, just as much con-
cerned in the policy of the United |
States with regard to that canal as
any other class of citizens of the Unit |
ed States. Probably they are more |
concerned than any other one class, |
and what I am most DESTROYS to see |
is the farmers of the country coming |
tional undertakings and take a wide
national, nay, international, view of |
these great matters, feeling all the |
pulses of the world that beat in the |
great arteries of their own life and |
prosperity. Everything that is done |
in the interest of cheap transporta-
ton Is done directly for the farmer |
as well as for other men. So that you
ought not to grudge the millions pour
ed out for the deepening and opening !
of old and new waterways. +
"Our platform is not molasses to
catch flies. 1t means business. It |
means what it says. 1t is the utter |
ance of earnest and honest men, Who |
intend to do business along those |
lines and who are not waiting to see
whether they can catch votes with |
those promises before they determine
whether they are going to act upon |
them Or not