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36 Mas Rd EN PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT ON OUR NAVY The commemoration of Washington's birthday by the Uni- versity of Pennsylvania was made notable by an address by President Rooseveit upon the wisdom of building up a great navy. He said: "Among Washington's maxims which he bequeathed to his countrymen were the two following: 'Observe good faith and © justice toward all nations,' and 'to be prepared for war is the most effective means to promote peace.' These two principles taken together should form the basis of our whole foreign pol- icy. Neither is sufficient taken by itself. It is not merely an idle dream, but a most mischievous dream, to believe that mere refraining from wrong doing will insure us against being wronged. Yet, on the other hand, a nation prepared for war is a menace to mankind unless the national purpose is to treat other nations with good faith and justice. In any community it is neither the conscientious man who is a craven at heart nor yet the bold and strong man without the moral sense who is of real use to the community; it is the man who to strength and courage adds a realizing sense of the moral obligation rest- ing upon him, the man who has not only the desire but the power to do his full duty by his neighbor and by the state. So, in the world at large, the nation which is of use in the progress of mankind is that nation which combines strength of charac- ter, force of character and insistence upon its own rights, with a full acknowledgment of its own duties towards others. Just at present the best way in which we can show that our loyalty to the teachings of Washington is a loyalty of the heart and not of the lips only is to see to it that the work of building up our navy goes steadily on, and that at the same time our stand for international righteousness is clear and emphatic. "Never since the beginning of our country's history has the navy been used in an unjust war. Never has it failed to render great and sometimes vital service to the republic. It has not been too strong for our good, though often not strong enough to do all the good it should have done. Our possession of the Philippines, our interest in the trade of the orient, our building | the Isthmian canal, our insistence upon the Monroe doctrine, all demand that our navy shall be of adequate size and for its size of unsurpassed efficiency. If it is strong enough I believe it will minimize the chance of our being drawn into foreign war. If we let it run down it is as certain as the day that sooner or later we shall have to choose between a probably di- sastrous foreign war or a peace kept on terms that imply national humiliation. : "Our navy is the surest guaranty of peace and the cheapest insurance against war, and those who, in whatever capacity, have helped to build it up during the past twenty years have been in good faith observing and living up to one of the most important of the principles which Washington laid down for the guidance of his countrymen. Nor was Washington the only one of our great presidents who showed far-sighted pa- triotism by support of the navy. When Andrew Jackson was in congress he voted for the first warships we ever built as part of our regular navy, and he voted against the grant of money to pay our humiliating tribute to the pirates of the Barbary states. Old Hickory was a patriot through and through, and there was not an ounce of timidity in his nature, and, of course, he felt only indignant contempt for a policy which purchased an ignoble peace by cowardice instead of exacting a just peace by showing we were as little willing to submit to as to inflict aggression. Had a majority of Jackson's colleagues and .suc- cessors felt as he did about the navy, had it been built up in- stead of being brought to a standstill, it would probably never have been necessary to fight the war of 1812." Mr. W. J. Harsant has been appointed assistant chief. en- gineer of the Pittsburg Steamship Co.'s fleet of vessels. R ho vole SEA LEVEL CANAL RECOMMENDED The first definite engineering plans for the construction of the Panama canal have just been laid before the Isthmian canal commission by the engineering committee of that body, consisting of Commissioners Burr, Parsons and Davis. The principal recommendations are summed up in this resolution: "Resolved that this committee approve and recommend for adoption by the commission a plan for a sea level canal, with a bottom width of 150 ft., and a minimum depth of water of 35 ft., and with twin tidal locks at Maraflores, whose usable di- mensions shall be 1,000 ft. long and 100 ft. wide, at a total esti- mated cost of $230,500,000. Such estimate includes an allow- ance for engineers, sanitation and contingencies, amounting to $38,450,000, but without allowance for interest during con- struction, expense of zone government and collateral costs, and water supply, sewers, or paving of Panama or Colon, which last items are to be repaid by the inhabitants of those cities." 'The committee estimates that a sea level canal can be com- pleted within from ten to twelve years from the present time. These recommendations are the conclusion of a report to the commission prepared in the canal zone under date of Feb. 14 last and based on complete engineering reports on all of the problems involved. It is recommended that the Chagres river be controlled by a dam at Gamboa, built to a crest height of 200 ft., and the waters of the lake thus created disposed of through tunnels. Work on the foundation of the dam will require from one to one and a half years and, the committee reports, should begin at once. Actual work with the new American steam shovels in the Culebra cut has demonstrated that the entire excavation can be done at a cost of 50 cents a cubic yard. The former Isth- mian canal commission estimated this cost at 80 cents. This reduction amounts to a total of $15,000,000, and is given as a justification for the recommendation for a sea level canal. "These considerations have induced this committee to ex- press to the committee its unanimous judgment that with the contemplated system of working, and with the rate of devel- opment which appears to be justified by the work now being performed at Culebra, a sea level canal, free from the restrict- ion of locks, should be adopted. This committee believes that such a canal, with terminal harbors, can be constructed for a sum not exceeding $230,500,000. "The advantages of a sea level canal across the isthmus are most obvious. It would be a waterway with no restriction to navigation and which could easily be enlarged by widening or deepening at any time in the future, to accommodate an in- creased traffic, without any inconvenience to the shipping using it, whereas a lock canal is in reality a permanent restriction to the volume of traffic and size of ships that use it. Although it is possible to design and construct locks adapted to the future transformation to a sea level canal, that transformation cannot be made without serious inconvenience to navigation and at a cost so great as to be excessive. The additional cost of a sea level canal over that of a canal with locks, with a summit level of 60 ft. above mean tide, is $52,462,200, or $79,742,000 more than the estimated cost of the lock canal with a summit level 85 ft. above mean tide, proposed by the former Isthmian canal commission, after allowing $6,500,000 for the Colon breakwater and direct entrance not previously estimated. This committee considers this additional expenditure fully justified by the advantages secured." The pilots of San Francisco are strenuously opposing the bill proposed in congress to transfer the control of the pilotage service from the state of California to the United States in- spection bureau. They endeavored to get the support of the chamber of commerce, but this body, after hearing the report of its committee on harbors and shipping, unanimously decided not to favor the opposition of the pilots.