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VOL, 37. CLEVELAND, FEBRUARY 27, 1908. NEW YORK ee THE FUTURE OF COMMERCE' HE future volume, stability and ex- pansion of American commerce de- pend largely upon the energy and courage of the people, upon their confi- dence that their government will not dis- turb unnecessarily the normal laws af- fecting trade, upon their belief in the government's efficiency to protect them in their rights and upon its willingness to energetically and liberally expand their opportunities. Last evening in another place I took occasion to discuss the policies of the government in respect to the railroads and their relation to the people and the national authority. This evening, with your permission, I will speak to you of the people's legitimate claims upon the same authority for a broad, systematic, enlightened and liberal policy in devel- oping the tremendous possibilities of the natural highways of the nation. IMPROVING OF WATERWAYS. No subject of national policy has been more distorted by partial views, more disfigured by misapprehension, or more dwarfed by the conflict of local interests than the governmental work of improv- ing our harbors and waterways, and yet upon no other one factor does the future expansion of commerce so largely de- pend. To one element the appropriations for that purpose appear but as a division of spoils. By each particular section its own improvements are regarded as legiti- mate national claims, while those of other sections may seem to be exaggerated and greedy. The stage has been reached when local jealousies should be cast aside and these limited and partial views enlarged to the perception that whatever expendi- ture is necessary to bring to its utmost *Address before the Pittsburg Chamber of Commerce, Feb, 12, 1908. BY PHILANDER C. KNOX. economic capacity every harbor capable of commercial utility and every river able to furnish a route for industrial or agricultural products and material, is the most remunerative investment that can be made with national funds. Old methods may have invested these words with local and log-rolling characteristics. The true national policy is to embark on the crea- tion of an inclusive system of harbors and waterways which shall be developed to its utmost economic possibility. IMPORTANT REASON FOR IMPROVEMENT. The duty of the government to im- prove its waterways and harbors is made exigent by the great expenditures in prog- ress on the Isthmus of Panama. Be- sides the vast general inducement for bringing all our harbors and rivers to their work, in securing to our own peo- ple their fair share of the benefits from the inter-oceanic canal is so intimate and weighty that it cannot be neglected with justice to this nation or without discred- iting our own intelligence and consist- ency. Consider the situation as it presents itself today. We are expending a vast sum of money to dig the Panama canal to a depth of 35 feet. That depth is fixed by the well-established fact that the cheapest ocean transportation is in the great vessels of about that draught. In order that the canal may give the commerce between the Atlantic and Pa- cific ocean its full development this depth is admittedly necessary. But at the same time only two or three ports of the United States have a depth of water equal to that fixed for the Isthmian canal ; and applications of cities to have their harbor channels deepened to that stand- ard are met with procrastination if not refusal. If this is not amended congress will stand self-convicted of spending the nation's money in digging a canal and confining its fullest benefits to the com- merce of other nations, or at best giv- ing to the United States the privilege of using the full depth only through a few ports already notoriously congested. AN AMAZING INCONGRUITY. Will the government of this nation through its legislative branches, fix upon itself the amazing incongruity of spend- ing a certain $300,000,000, and a possible $500,000,000, in digging the Panama canal and denying to the seacoast harbors of . the United States two or three score mil- lions to enable them to enjoy the full benefit of the canal? Do we wish, while spending that sum outside the United States, to withhold or even stint the prob- able $200,000,000 or possible $300,000,000 that will at once secure to the canal the vast traffic of the Mississippi basin, and give to half our population the due re- turn from the contribution to that work? I cannot believe that, with its true nature comprehended, congress can perpetrate that logical impossibility. The duty of the government to raise its waterways and harbors to their ut- most efficiency was determined long ago by the action of the government itself. I assert as an axiom that when the United States government, acting under the legis- lative grants of congress, first stirred the mud by dredging in the Delaware river or New York bay, it assumed the obligation to keep those harbors up to the standard fixed by the fullest needs of commerce. It invited cities to im- prove their docks to accommodate large ocean vessels. It held out the induce- ment to railways to bring their tracks to the water's edge and construct terminals