Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 40, Number 10, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 October 1907 — UNCLE SAM MUST RULE [ARTICLE]

UNCLE SAM MUST RULE

Roosevelt Says the Government Shall Regulate Commerce. would curb Roads. Constitution Held Broad Enough to Deal with New Conditions. GREAT WATEBWAY ADVOCATED. Mississippi River Route Exploited as Ally of Panama Canal. President Roosevelt in hi* St. Louis speech presented his views in, favor of a liberal interpretation of the Constitution with special reference to the control of the railroads. Mr. Roosevelt touched upon many subjects -which he made it plain he considers vital to the well-being of the nation. He gave unqualified approval to the plan for river improvement; said a word for a strong fighting navy, and gave the reason for dispatching the fleet to the Pacific. Of the Constitution and its interpretation in accordance with '“living conditions,” the ftfesidentaaid: “Tha Constitution is now and must remain what it always has been ; but it can be interpreted only as a living organism, designed to .meet the conditions of life and not of fleathj >n other words, interpreted as Marshall interpreted it, as Wilson declared it should be interpreted.” Of the Mississippi river and the proposed improvements he said: “A highway once so important, now almost abandoned, which I hope this nation will see not only restored to all its former usefulness, but given a far greater degree of usefulness to correspond with the extraordinary growth in wealth and population of the Mississippi Valley.” After speaking of the place the country had taken as a world power and the rapid progress in the work of digging the Panaum canal, the—President said: “Therefore, unless we are willing to abandon this place, to abandon our insistence on the Monroe doctrine, to give np the Panama canal and to be content to acknowledge ourselves a weak and timid nation, we must steadily build up and maintain a great fighting navy.” Address of the President. Mr. Roosevelt said in part: 1 have, often visited St. Louis _ before, but always hy ralL Xow I am visiting it In the course of a trip-by water—a trip op the great natural highway which runs past your very doors —a highway once, so important, now almost abandoned, which I hope this nation will see not only restored to all its former usefulness, but given a far greater degree- of- -usefulness to correspond with the extraordinary growth in wealth and population of the Mississippi valley. We have lived in an era of phenomenal railroad bnlldtng. As routes for merchandise, tha iron highways have completely supplanted the old wagon roads, and under their competition the importance of the water highways has been much diminished. Such a tendehey is certainly not healthy, and I am convinced that it will not lie permanent. There are many classes of commodities, especially those which aTe perishable in their nature and where the value is high relatively to the bulk, which will always be carried by rail. But bulky commodities which are not of a perishable nature will always be specially suited for tbe conditions of water transport. , To Illustrate the truth of this statement It would only be necessary to point to the use of the canal system iu many countries of the Old World : but it can be illustrated even better by what has happened nearer home. The Great Lakes offer a prime example of the Importance of a good water highway for mercantile tfaTffc. As tire line of traffic runs through lakes, the conditions are in some respects different from what must obtain on even the most important river. Nevertheless, it is well to remember that a very large part of this traffic Is conditioned upon an artificial waterway, a canal—the famous Soo. The commerce that passes through the Soo far surE asses in hulk and in value that of the uez canal. From every standpoint it is desirable for the nation to join in improving the greatest system of river highways within its borders. a system second only in importance to the highway afforded by the Great Hikes ; the highways of the Mississippi and Us great tributaries, such as tbe Missouri and Ohio. This river system traverses too many States to render it possible to leave merely to the States the ta«k of fitting it for the greatest use of which it is capable. It Is emphatically a national task, for this great river system Is itself one of our cHTeT national assets. Our knowledge is not sufficiently far advanced to enable me to speak definitely as to the plans which should be adopted; but lek.ipe .say one word of warning; The danger of entering on any such scheme lies In the adoption of impossible and undesirable plans.

Properly n X’utloiia! Movement. This Is properly a national movement, because all Interstate and foreign commerce, and the improvements and methods of carrying It oa. are subjects for national action. Moreover, while of course the matter of the Improvement of thb Mississippi river and Its tributaries is one which especially concerns the great middle porj tlon of our country, the region between ! the Alleghenies and the Rockies, yet It Is | of concern td the rest of the country also, j fsr It canuoi too often be said that what- ' ever Is really beneficial to one part of our country is ultimately of benefit to the whole. Exactly as it is a good thing for the Interior of our country that the seaports on the Atlantic and the Pacific and the gulf should be safe and commodious, so It Is to the Interest of the dwellers on tbe coast that the interior should possess ample facilities for the transportation of its products. Take, for Instance, the Panama canal. If the Mississippi is restored to Its former place of Importance as a highway of commerce. then the building of the Panama canal will be felt as an immediate artWantage to the business of every city and country district In the Mississippi valley. I think that tbe .building of that canal will be Of especial advantage to the States that lie along the Pacific aud the State* ♦hat He along the gulf; and yet. after all, I feel that the advantage will lie shared In an only jess degree by the States of the Interior and of the Atlantic coasl. In other words. It is a thoroughly national work, undertaken for and redounding to the advantage of all of us—to the advantage of the nation as a whole. Therefore I am glad to be able to report to you bow well we are doing with the canal. There Is bound to be a certain amount of experiment, a certain amount of feeling our way. In a task so gigantic—a task greater than any of Its kind that has ever hitherto been undertaken in the whole history of mankind; but the success so far has keen astonishing, and we have not met with a single one of the accidents and drawbacks which 1 freely confess I expected we should from time to time encounter. For over a year past we have been engaged ta making the dirt fly in good ear

neat, and thy mrtjnrt at tha giant stead •hovels has steadily increased. It Is nod the rainy season, when work la meat dlfflj cult on the isthams, yet in the month of August last we excavated over a million and two hundred thousand cubic yards of earth and rock, a greater amount than in any previous month- ... Now, gentlemen, this leads me up to another matter for national consideration, and tnat is our navy. Takes Up Navy %ae»tlea. This country is definitely committed to certain fundamental policies—to the Monroe doctrine, for Instance, and to the dtjty not only of building, bnt, when It is built, of policing and defending the Panama canal. We have definitely taken our place among the great world powers, and it would be a sign of ignoble weakness, having taken such a place, to shirk Its responsibilities. Therefore, unless ire are willing to abandon this place, to abandon our insistence upon the Monroe doctrine, to give up the Panajma canal, and to be content to ackowledge ourselves a weak and timid nation, we must steadily build up and maintain a great flghtingDavy. Our navy Is already so efficient as to be a matter of just pride to every American. So long as our navy is no larger than at present, it must be considered as an elementary principle that the bulk of our battle fleet must always be kept together. When the Panama canal is built It can be transferred without difficulty from one part of our coast to the other; but even before that canal fk built It ought to be thus transferred to and fro from time to time. In a couple of months our fleet of great armored ships starts for the Pacific. California, Oregon and Washington' have a coast line which is our coast line just as and Maine, of Louisiana and Texas. Our fleet is going to Its own home waters In the Pacific, and after a stay there it will return to its own home waters in the Atlantic. The best place for a' naval officer to learn hlj* duties is at sea, by performing them, atfd only by actually putting through a voyage of this nature, a voyage longer than any ever before undertaken by as large a fleet of any nation, can we find out, just exactly what is necessary for us to know as to our naval needs and practice our officers and enlisted men in the highest duties of their profession. —l— hundred years ago there was, except the commerce which crawled along our seacoast or up and down our interior waterways, practically no, interstate commerce. Now, by the railroad, the mails, the telegraph and the telephone, an immense part of our commerce is interstate. By the transformation it has escaped from the power of the State and come under the power of the nation. Therefore there has been a great practical change in the exercise of the national power, under the acts of Congress, over interstate commerce; while, on the other hand, there has been no noticeable chaßge in the exercise of the. national power “to regulate commerce with foreign nations and with the Indian tribes.” The change as regards interstate commerce has been, not in the Constitution, but iu the business of the people to which it is to he applied. Our economic and social future depends In a very large part upon how the interstate commerce power of the nation is interpreted. I believe that the nation has the whole governmental power over Interstate coni-"" merce and the widest discretion in dealing with that subject. The nation has no direct power over purely intrastate commerce, even where it is conducted by the same agencies which conduct interstate copimerce. The courts must determine what is national and what is Blate commerce. Interstate Commerce Problem. The chief economic question of the day in this country is to provide a sovereign for the great corporations engaged in Interstate, business; that <s, for the. railroads Shd tbe fnferstate fmlustrlal corporations. At the moment our prime concern is'Avitk the railroads. When railroads were first built they were purely local in character. Their boundaries were not coextensive even with the lioundarles of one Stare. ATI this lias now changed. At "present“TT?!s- - systems embody nearly four-fifths of the total mileage of the Country. Probably 85 per cent of their business is interstate business. It is the nation alone which can with wisdom, justice and effectiveness exercise over these Intersuite railroads the thorough and complete supervision which should he exercised. The railroads themselves have been exceedingly shortsighted in the rancorous bitterness which they have shown against the resumption by tlie nation of this long-neglected power. The control must exist somewhere, and unless it is by thoroughgoing and radical' law placed upon the statute books of the nation it will lip exercised in ever-increas-ing measure by the several States. Personally. I firmly believe that there should lie national legislation to control all industrial corporations doing an interstate business, including the control of the output of tfeir securities, but as to these the necessity for federal control is less urgent and immediate than is the case with the railroads. Many of the abuses connected with these corporations will probably tend to tAsappear now that the government—the public -—is gradually getting the upper hand as regards putting a stop to the rebates aud special privileges.