The Vice-President's Address

BY HON. CHARLES W. FAIRBANKS

VICE-PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES

E cordially welcome our friends from Canada to share in this celebration. The event we commemorate is of mutual interest to the people of the two countries. Here, side by side, are three great lockstwo constructed by the United States, and the other by the Dominion of Canada. Through them passes interchangeably the commerce of the two countries. Here they will stand in close fellowship for centuries to come, discharging their important functions in the transportation of commerce. We trust that they will always be symbolical of the relations and neighborly regard of the two people through whose veins flows the blood of a common ancestry.

We owe allegiance to different institutions. Above us are different flags, emblems of the mightiest powers upon this earth. We have no sense of rivalry except in those ways which make for a higher and better civilization.

There are no fortifications along our common frontier; no battleships upon the waters which divide us. These are not needed now, and we trust that in God's providence they shall never be required. We are the respecters of each other's institutions, of each other's laws, of each other's rights. We are bound to each other by strong social ties and sentiments of mutual respect.

Competition in trade is a vitalizing factor. Competition in commerce is not born of unfriendliness. It has its inspiration in selfishness, but it is in that just selfishness which has been the life of trade from its beginning until now. One of our wisest and most just Americans, William McKinley, whose good name is the precious heritage of the human race, said at Buffalo:

"Though commercial competitors we are, commercial enemies we must not be."

The national policies of the United States and Canada may not be in

accord. If they be not it will be due to no unfriendliness of purpose, but to that sense of duty which each primarily owes to its own.

We look upon our commercial development, since this canal was dedicated to commerce, with the utmost satisfaction. All sections of the country have gone forward, expanding in commercial strength, but nowhere is there to be found more remarkable growth than we witness in the territory which is tributary to the St. Mary's canal. The opening of this canal was the beginning of an era of tremendous growth. It has risen from an average of twelve thousand tons per annum in the first decade, to twenty-five mil

lions of tons per annum in the ten years ending in 1904. Last year more than sixteen thousand vessels passed through these locks, carrying more than twenty-one and one-half million tons of freight, valued at over three hundred and forty millions of dollars.

The maximum has not yet been reached. The cities which sit in majesty and power upon the shores of the Great Lakes are rapidly increasing in population and in commercial importance. The great mines are

pouring their wealth of cheap material into the channels of trade in rapidly increasing degree. The great agricultural regions are sending their vast surplus to keep millions in the east and beyond the Atlantic. The commerce of the United States has increased beyond the dreams of the most optimistic of a half-century ago. Our foreign commerce has with rapidity attained a vast volume. It is insignificant, however, in amount and value when compared with our internal commerce. Railways are taxed to their utmost capacity, and our ships upon inland water routes are loaded to the limit of their carrying power, bearing the products of a progressive and great people. Old facilities of interchange are found inadequate to meet the current needs. They are constantly enlarging. New instruments of intercommunication are created. The capacity of all these is quickly taxed. New facilities create new traffic. The wants of the people expand with increasing provision to meet them.

This canal is identified with the period of our most rapid industrial development. The ever-increasing procession of ships through it tells the story of our expanding production, growing trade and increasing industrial importance.

The scepter of commercial power is speedily passing into American. control. If we are but true to the vast opportunities which lie at our hands, the United States will become the acknowledged leader in the commerce of the world. The conquest will be achieved by the men of trade and not by the men of war. It will come by an irresistible law of commercial gravity. It will come because of our increased productive capacity; because of our superior ability to supply the needs of others; because of the illimitable resources of our farms, mines and factories; because of multiplied methods and enlarged facilities of cheap transportation from the centers of production down to the seaboard. We take pride in our commerce because it tends to lift the country to a higher and better level. It tends to equalize conditions. It enlarges the opportunity of labor and capital, and gives our people more homes, and fills them with more of the comforts of life. It brings communities and trade centers together in common interest. A higher civilization follows in its pathway.

While we are a commercial people, we are not subservient to commercialism. We seek to expand commerce as a means, not as an end. We seek its conquests that we may minister to those high aspirations which are the birthright of the Anglo-Saxon race. It is a well-recognized maxim of trade that commerce will follow the lines of least resistance. The Great Lakes afford cheap transportation for the vast commerce tributary thereto. The control by the government of the St. Mary's canal, its enlargement and improvement, has resulted in stimulating traffic. It insures just and reasonable transportation charges over a vast area, and will become, as the density of our population increases, and as trade expands, of incalculable importance in the future.

The United States has been liberal in advancing the interests of commerce. She has been generous in the improvement of rivers and harbors, to the end that they should be adequate to meet our advancing national needs. She has appropriated liberally for canals. The St. Mary's canal is not the only evidence of this fact. Her most important work in promoting the expansion of our commerce is upon the Isthmus of Panama. The enterprise there is of vast magnitude-one which has defeated all efforts hitherto. It is undertaken upon broad lines, for it will welcome impartially the commerce of the world. What others have been many years in endeavoring to accomplish, we shall not do in a day. Much money, time and patience will be required to complete the work. But it will be built, for the United States has put its powerful hand to the task.

It is a gratifying fact that the enormous commerce of the United States upon the Great Lakes is carried in American ships. The vessels which pass through this canal, carrying our products, bear the flag of the United States. They were built in our shipyards and are manned by American seamen. When we come to commerce upon the high seas, we largely give over its carriage to ships built abroad and sailed by alien owners. A large part of the commodities which pass through this canal to the Atlantic seaboard for trans-shipment to foreign countries, is transferred from these American

owned and American-operated ships to vessels of foreign ownership and foreign register. This would seem to be incompatible with a wise national policy.

While the United States promotes commerce, it makes for peace. Through the timely intercession of President Roosevelt, one of the bloodiest wars in history is about to close. The commissioners of the belligerent powers will assemble in a few days, under the protection of the American flag, to deliberate with each other. We trust that their great mission may be successful; that they may be able to restore peace and disband the great armies confronting each other in the Orient.

We are assembled under happy auspices. All our people are engaged to the utmost in promoting the manifold arts of peace. They are busy in trade and commerce, science and education, agriculture and manufacture. They are active in charity and philanthropy, seeking to make the day in which we live the most luminous in the history of mankind.