Page images
PDF
EPUB

President Roosevelt recently declared: "Shipping lines for our commerce to the principal countries with which we have dealings would be a political as well as commercial benefit. From every standpoint it is unwise for the United States to rely upon the ships of competing nations for the distribution of our goods. It should be advantageous to carry American goods in American built ships."

The trade of the future lies across the Pacific. The prows of the merchantmen of all nations are turned toward the Orient. The waters of the Pacific cover one-third of the surface of the globe, and one-half the population of the earth find their natural outlet over its majestic expanse.

Our occupancy of the Philippines at the very threshold of the open door to Asiatic trade places the United States in the advance. With the restoration of our merchant marine, the continued improvement of our rivers and harbors, the completion of the Isthmian canal, the time is not far distant when the United States will resume its lawful place on the sea and unfurl its flag of commerce in every port of trade on the face of the globe.

Canada and the United States

BY HON. RAOUL DANDURAND

SPEAKER OF THE SENATE OF THE DOMINION OF CANADA

[graphic]

HIS commemoration allows the United States the opportunity of examining the distance traveled and the strides made by the nation as a whole and by its western states in particular. Nations, on this continent, have such a short record, comparatively, that they have not long to ponder as to what part of their existence has been most profitable and most successful. Can a nation boast of having attained its age of majority before it is one century old? The United States have not yet completed their first half of their second century. They are just out of their teens.

One could easily see 50 years ago that the foundations had been laid for the making of a strong nation, but no one could then foresee that 50 years later this infant nation would enter the mundial political concert, claiming justly there in one of the predominant places. Whatever his imagination, whatever his enthusiasm for this land of supreme freedom and of the bountiful, no one could have predicted that in less than fifty years this country would be peopled to overflowing and would be invading with its products all the markets of the world.

In 1900 you were seventy-six millions. What tale will the next census tell? Still the Europeans keep pouring in yearly by hundreds of thousands. In their search for good arable lands, some of them even cross the imaginary line which divides us. They meet on our plains other Europeans, who came direct through our own doors, immigrants who have found out that Canada is not a distant land, far away towards the north pole, that our metropolis is but twelve hours' distant from yours, and, on their way to New York, that they can stop at our front door, 36 hours before their ship could bring them to the Hudson.

Canada is now beginning to fill up. We believe that we stand today where you stood 40 years ago. We feel that the wave of prosperity which has covered your lands is extending its area and is beating on our shores.

We hope that during the next fifty years Canada will develop strongly and healthily. We will not forget that very often, in these regions, the United States, during the last century, have led the way in the development of western commerce. We know what you have done for the betterment of navigation on the lakes and how helpful you have been to our mariners. You linked the upper lakes at this spot forty years before we followed Our requirements were not then as pressing as yours.

suit.

We are

[graphic]

HON. RAOUL DANDURAND, SPEAKER OF THE SENATE OF THE DOMINION OF CANADA.

sanguine of being able to show as large a tonnage as your present one before very many years go by, through the rapid development of our agricultural west, of our rich mines and of our industries. We hope to be able, before another half century is completed, to reciprocate in kind by offering you a direct outlet to the sea, through a twenty-foot waterway via the Ottawa and St. Lawrence rivers, thus saving you the annoyance of twice breaking bulk before reaching an European port. When Canada will have executed the necessary works on that water route, your steamers may take their cargoes at Duluth and bring them in a straight line to Liverpool. We must do that in the interest of half a continent lying west of the lakes which needs a

short, a direct and easy water route to the Atlantic. We must do it to repay our American cousins for the numerous pioneer works they have in the past executed on the lakes to our great advantage.

The United States have reached their complete material development. Within a few decades Canada will be as fully equipped. When both sides of our great lakes are equally populated, when towns and cities dot our shores, when millions of men plow our northwestern prairies, what a sight will behold our grandchildren when they are gathered here to celebrate the centennial celebration of the joining of these two lakes! But material development cannot be the sole end of a nation. When this stage has been reached the nation must continue its march towards a higher civilization. To be one hundred millions is not synonomous to being glorious and envied. Nations past and present can show a larger population without commanding admiration. Smaller ones have shed considerable luster in the history of the world through their predominance in sciences and arts and their greater refinement. It is little to be materially great if one is not morally so.

One need not be a prophet to predict for Northern America a prodigious future. Will we not be 150 million people before the first half of this century is over?

It behooves the statesmen of the day to set before their people a high standard of public morals so as to lift them to a higher plane. I commend and applaud the manly and elevating utterances of your President, Theodore Roosevelt, whose lofty ideals make for the betterment of humanity.

There is to my mind one ideal which should be our one ideal, distinguishing specially North America from the rest of the world. Most of our fathers and ancestors have sought this land to free themselves from the various burdens that made them poor or miserable in their native country. The greatest curse from which they fled has been European militarism.

Europe can justly boast of a higher culture in arts and sciences, of a greater accumulation of art treasures, of a larger class of men of wealth and leisure devoting themselves exclusively to refined arts and intellectual pursuits. These advantages undoubtedly make towards a higher civilization, but real progress in true civilization must be judged by a different standard. Since the Divine Ruler appeared on this earth to preach peace and good will among men; since He has laid down in a single phrase the guiding rule which sums up the whole Christian doctrine-Do unto others as you would have others do unto you-it must be admitted that a greater sense of justice has governed the actions of men individually.

Men's conscience is no more oppressed and equality before the law is now universally proclaimed in the Christian world. More justice reigns among men. This is the only sure sign that humanity has attained greater civilization. Can this be said of nations in their relations between them? Decidedly not. Europe is still a military camp, where millions of men are

[graphic]

NAVAL PARADE:

THE FLEET LEAVING THE CANADIAN LOCK, LED BY THE PHILADELPHIA WITH THE CANADIAN REPRESENTATIVES ON BOARD.

« ՆախորդըՇարունակել »