Omaha daily bee., 1914-12-09

ately 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 hlndered the development OF our
merchant marine. And now, when we
need ships. we have not got them. We
have year after year debated. without
end or conclusion. the best policy to pur-
sue with regard to the uoe 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 initiative, knock DANGEROUSLY for ad-
mittance. The water power of our navi-
gable streams outside the national do
main also. even in the eastern states.
where we have worked and planned for
generations is still not used as IL might
be. because we will and we won't; be
cause the laws we have made do not
intelligently balance announcement
against restraint. We withhold by regu-
lation.
have come to ask you to remedy and
correct these mistakes and omissions.
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 cir
cumstances are extraordinary. and so
must our efforts be also.
Policy of Use Necessary.
Fortunately. two great measures finely
conceived, the one to unlock, with proper
safeguards, the resources OF the ma
tional 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 repre-
sentatives and are ready for immediate
consideration and action by the senate.
With the deepest earnestness urge their
prompt passage. In them both we turn
our backs upon hesitation and makeshift
and formulate a genuine policy of use
and conservation. in the best sense of
those words. We owe the one measure
not only to the people of that great west
ern country for whose free and systematic
development, as It seems to me, our leg
islation has done so little, but also to
the people of the nation as q whole and
we as clearly owe the other in fulfill
ment of our repeated promises that the
water power of the country should in
fact as well 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 adequately
guarded the while, and monopoly in the
use prevented. To have begun such meas
ures and not completed them would in
deed mar the record OF this great con-
gress very seriously. 1 hope and con-
fidently believe that they will be COM
pleted.
And there is another great piece Of leg
islation which awaits and should receive
the sanction Of the senate. mean the
bill which gives a larger measure Of self
government to the people of the Philip
pines, How better. in this time OF anx-
ious questioning and perplexed policy
could we show our confidence in The
principles of liberty, as the source as
well as the expression of life, how bet
ter could we demonstrate our own self
possession and steadfastness in the course
Of justice and disnterestedness than by
thus going calmly forward to fulfill ouI
promises to a dependent people, who will
now look more anxiously than ever to see
whether we have indeed the liberality
the unselfishness, the courage, the faith
we have boosted and professed. can
not believe that the senate will let this
great measure of constructive justice
await the action of another congress. til
passage would nobiy crown the record Of
these two years of memorable labor.
Transportation is Biggest Problem.
But think that you win 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 we to build up a great trade II 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 wait for
the trade to develop without them? To
correct the many mistakes 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 almost deliberately, withdrawn ouI
flag from the seas. except where, here
and there, a ship of war is hidden carry
1t or some wandering yacht displays It,
would take a 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 con-
fronted us when our own continent was
to be opened up TO settlement and indus
try. and we needed long lines of railway
extended means of transportation pre-
pared beforehand. II development was not
to lag intolerably and wait unfortunately
We lavishly subsidized the building OF
transcontinental railroads. We look back
upon that with regret now. because the