Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1914-12-10

congress very seriously. | hope and
confidently believe 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 self-government to the
people Of the Philippines How bet
ter, in this time of anxious question
ing and perplexed policy, could we
show our confidence in the principles
Of liberty, as the source as we'll as the
expression Of life, how better could
We demonstrate our own self-posses-
sion and steadiness in the courses
of justice and disinterestedness than
! by thus going calmly forward to fulfill
our promises to dependent people,
who will now look more anxiously
than ever to see whether we have in
deed TIE liberality, the unselfishness,
the courage the faith we have boasted
and protested. cannot believe that
the senate will let this great measure
of constructive justice await the ac-
ton of another congress. Its 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 if We have not
the ships? How are we to build up
great trade if We have not the certain
and constant means of transportation
upon which all profitable and useful
I commerce depends? And how are we
| to get the ships if we wait for the
trade to develop without them? To
correct the many mistakes by which
we have discouraged and all bu. de-
stroyed the merchant marine of the
! country, to retrace the steps by which
/ we have, it seems almost deliberately,
withdrawn our flag from the seas, ex-
cept where, here and there, a ship of
war is hidden carry it or some wan
dering yacht displays it, would take
long time and involve many detailed
items of legislation, and the trade
which we ought Immediately to handle
would disappear or find other channels
while We debated the items.
| The case is not unlike that which
confronted US when our own contin-
! ent was to be opened up to settlement
and industry, and we needed long lines
of railway. extended means of trans
portation prepared beforehand if de-
veIopment was not to lag intolerably
and wait interminably. We lavishly
subsidized the building of transcon-
| tinental railroads. We look back up
on that with regret now, because the
| subsidies led to many scandals of
which We are ashamed; but we
know that the railroads had to be
! built, and if we had it to do over again
! we should of course build them, but
, in another way Therefore I propose
another way of providing the means
of transportation, which must pre-
cede, not tardily follow, the develop
ment Of our trade with our neighbor
states Of America. 1t may seem
reversal of the natural order of
things, but it is true, that the routes
of trade must be actually opened-by
many ships and regular sailings and
moderate charges-before streams of
merchandise will flow freely and pro-
fitably through them.
Hence the pending shipping bill, dis
cussed at the last session bit as yet
passed by neither house. In my
judgment such legislation is impera-
lively needed and can not wisely be
postponed. The government must
open these gates of trade, and open
them wide; open them before it is al
together profitable to OPEN them, or
altogether reasonable to ask private
capital to open them at q venture. 1t
is not a question of the government
monopolizing the field. 1t should take
action to make it certain that trans
portation at reasonable rates will be
promptly provided. even where the
carriage is not at first profitable; and
then. when the carriage has become
suffi GENTLY profitable to attract and
engage private capital, and engage it
in abundance, the government ought
to withdraw. I very earnestly hope
that the congress will be of this opin.
ion, and that both houses will adopt
this exceedinly important bill.
The great subject of rural credits
still remains to be dealt with, and it
is a matter of deep regret that the
difficulties of the subject have seemed
to render it impossible to complete
bill for passage at this session. But
it can not be perfected yet, and there
fore there are no other constructive
measures the necessity for which
will at this time call your attention
to: but I would be negligent of very
manifest duty we're l not to call the
attention of the senate to the fact
that the proposed convention for safe.
ty at sea awaits it's confirmation and
that the limit fixed in the convention
Itself for it's acceptance is the last
day of the present month. The con-
ference in which this convention or
iginated was called by the United
States the representatives of the
United States played very inf1uen-
tial part indeed in framing the provi-
sions of the proposed convention; and
those provisions are in themselves
for the most part admirable. 1t would
hardly be consistent with the part we
have played in the whole matter to let
it drop and go by the board as if for
gotten and neglected. 1t was ratified
in May last by the German govern
ment and in August by the parliament