Norwich bulletin., 1914-12-09

are not prepared to use them inau1edl-
 ately and at their best, without delay and without waste Stunted Merchant Marine.
 To speak plainly, we have grossly erred in the way in which we have stunted and hindeTed the development of our merchant marine. An now, when we need ships. we have not got them. We have year after year debated with
 out end or concl1sien, the pest policy to pursue with regard to the use or 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 claInorously for adnittance. The ! water power of our navigahle streams outside the national domain also, even l in the eastern 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 inteIligently
 balance encouragement against re- straint. We withhold by regulation I have come to ask you to remedy and correct these mistakes and ornis- sions, even at this short session of a Congress which would certainly seem to have done all the work that could reasonably be expected of it. The time and the circumstances are extra
 ordinary, and so must our efforts be also.
 Two Great Measures.
 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 uavigable waters outside that domain for the fNF V
 passed the House Of Representatives
 and are ready for immediate consid- eration and action by the Senate. With
 the deepest earnestness l urge their
 prompt passage. In them both we turn our backs upon hesitation and nalleshift and formulate genuine pol icy of use and conservation, 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 develop
 ment. as 1t seems to me, our legisla- ton has done so little, but also to the
 people of the Nation as q whole; and we as clearly owe the other in ful- fillment of our rep&ated promises that
 the water power, 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 adequately guarded the while, and monopoly in the use prevented. To have begun such measures and not completed them would indeed mar the record of this great Congress very seri-
 ously. I hope and confidently believe that they will be connple9ed.
 Philippines Bill.
 And there is another great piece of legislation which awaits and should re- ceive the sanction of the Senate: I
 mean the bill which gives a larger measure of self government to the
 people of the Philippines. How better, in this time of anxious questioning and perplexed policy. could we show our as the source as well as the expression l of life, how better could we demon strate our own Sen-possession and steadfastness in the courses of justice and disinterestedness than by thus going calmly forward to fulfill our
 promises to a dependant people, who l will now look more anxiously than ever to sec whether we have indeed the ltberality, the unse1dshness, the cour-
 age, the faith we have boasted and pro- l fessed. can not believe that the | Senate will ieE this great measure of
 constructive justice await the action
 of another Congress. Its passage would
 nobly crown the record of these two years of memorable labor
 But I 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 1 I have spoken ie we have not the ships
 How are we to build up great trade if we have not the certain and con- I stant means of transportation upon which all profitable and useful com. merce depends? And hcNy are we to l 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 but destroyed the merchant marine Of the country, to I retrace the steps by which we have
 It seems almost deliberately, with tdraWn our flag from the seas, except where, here and there, a ship of war | is hidden carry it or some wanderlna yacht displays 1t, would take Ione I time and involve many detailed items of legislation, and the trade which we ought immediately to handle would I disappear or find channels while we debated the items,
 l Shipping Bill.
 I The case is not unlike that which