The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson, S.C.) 1914-1917, 1914-12-11

and upon q scale unprecedented and
appalling. There is reason to fear
that tho time is near. II it be not al
ready at hand, when several of the
countries OF Europe will find It dill-
cult to do for their people what they
have hitherto been always easily able
to do. many essential and fundamen-
tai things. Al any rate. they will need
our help and our manifold services
as they have never needed them be-
fore; and we should be ready. more
tit and ready than we have ever been.
II is Of equal consequence that the
nations whom Europe has usually
supplied with innumerable articles of
manufacture and commerce OF which
they are in constant need and with
out which their economic develop
mcnt liuIt3 and StandH still can now
get only Il small part OF what they
formerly imported and eagerly look
to us TO supply their all but empty
markets. This IS particularly true Of
our own neighbors. tho States, great
and small. Of Central and South
America. Their lines Of trade have
hitherto run chiefly athwart the seas.
not to our ports hut to tho ports Of
Ecnt Of Europe. ! do not stop to in
Guire why. or to make any comment
on probable causes. What interests
us just now is not the explanation but
the fact. and our duty and oppOrtun-
ity in the presence of 1t. Here are
markets which we must supply, and
we must find the means of action. The
l'nit.t, States, this great people for
,,,1, ff
ready. us never before. to serve itself
and to serve mankind: ready with its
resources. its enel gies, it's forces nf
production. and 5 means of distri-
button.
1t is n very practical matter. mat
ter Of ways and means. We have the
resources. but arc we fully ready to
use them? And. II we can make ready
what we have, have we tho means at
hand to distribute it? We are not
fully ready: neither have we the
| means OF distribution. We are will
ing. but we are not fully able. We
have the wish to serve and to serve
greatly. generously; but we are not
prepared rs we should be. We are not
ready to mobilize our resources nj
| 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-
bnted, without end or conclusion. the
! best policy to pursue with regard TO
! the use OF the ores and forest 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 turn
| ed upon them. the door shut fast al
which thousands Of vigorous men, full
Of Initiative. knock clamorously foi
aimittance. The water power OF Oui
navigable streams outside tho ma
tional domain also, even In the cas-.
tern States. where we have worked
and planned fer generations. Ia Still
not used as 1t might be. because We
| wili and we won't; because the laws
we have made do not intelligently bal
ance encouragement against restraint
We withhold by regulation.
| / have come to ask you to remedy
and correct these mistakes and omis.
sions, even ut this short session Of &
congress which would certainly seen
to have done all the work that coult
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 resource.
OF the national domain, the other Il
encourage the use OF the nayigabl,
waters outside that domain for thu
generation Of power. have alread.
passed the house Of representative
and are ready for immediate consider
alton and action by the senate. Will
the deepest earnestness I urge thci
prompt passage. In them both W,
turn our backs upon hesitation am
makeshift and formulate genuine
policy of use and, conservation. In th'
best sense OF Shose words. We ow'
the one measure not only to the peo
pie Of that great western country To-
whose free and systematic develop
ment. as 1t seems to me. our legisla
tion has done's6 little. but also t,
the people Of the nation as a whole
and we as clearly owe the other II
| fuNlllment OF our repeated promise