of the policy just described. It would be unwise to begin by doing
too much, for a great deal will doubtless be learned, both as to
what can and what can not be safely attempted, by the early efforts,
which must of necessity be partly experimental in character. At the
very beginning the Government should make clear, beyond shadow of
doubt, its intention to pursue this policy on lines of the broadest
public interest. No reservoir or canal should ever be built to satisfy
selfish personal or local interests; but only in accordance with the
advice of trained experts, after long investigation has shown the
locality where all the conditions combine to make the work most needed
and fraught with the greatest usefulness to the community as a whole.
There should be no extravagance, and the believers in the need of
irrigation will most benefit their cause by seeing to it that it is
free from the least taint of excessive or reckless expenditure of the
public moneys.
Whatever the Nation does for the extension of irrigation should
harmonize with, and tend to improve, the condition of those now
living on irrigated land. We are not at the starting point of this
development. Over two hundred millions of private capital has already
been expended in the construction of irrigation works, and many
million acres of arid land reclaimed. A high degree of enterprise and
ability has been shown in the work itself; but as much can not be said
in reference to the laws relating thereto. The security and value of
the homes created depend largely on the stability of titles to water;
but the majority of these rest on the uncertain foundation of court
decisions rendered in ordinary suits at law. With a few creditable
exceptions, the arid States have failed to provide for the certain and
just division of streams in times of scarcity. Lax and uncertain laws
have made it possible to establish rights to water in excess of actual
uses or necessities, and many streams have already passed into private
ownership, or a control equivalent to ownership.
Whoever controls a stream practically controls the land it renders
productive, and the doctrine of private ownership of water apart from
land can not prevail without causing enduring wrong. The recognition
of such ownership, which has been permitted to grow up in the arid
regions, should give way to a more enlightened and larger recognition
of the rights of the public in the control and disposal of the public
water supplies. Laws founded upon conditions obtaining in humid
regions, where water is too abundant to justify hoarding it, have no
proper application in a dry country.
In the arid States the only right to water which should be recognized
is that of use. In irrigation this right should attach to the land
reclaimed and be inseparable therefrom. Granting perpetual water
rights to others than users, without compensation to the public,
is open to all the objections which apply to giving away perpetual
franchises to the public utilities of cities. A few of the Western
States have already recognized this, and have incorporated in their
constitutions the doctrine of perpetual State ownership of water.
The benefits which have followed the unaided development of the past
justify the nation’s aid and co-operation in the more difficult and
important work yet to be accomplished. Laws so vitally affecting
homes as those which control the water supply will only be effective
when they have the sanction of the irrigators; reforms can only be
final and satisfactory when they come through the enlightenment of
the people most concerned. The larger development which national aid
ensures should, however, awaken in every arid State the determination
to make its irrigation system equal in justice and effectiveness
that of any country in the civilized world. Nothing could be more
unwise than for isolated communities to continue to learn everything
experimentally, instead of profiting by what is already known
elsewhere. We are dealing with a new and momentous question, in the
pregnant years while institutions are forming, and what we do will
affect not only the present but future generations.
Our aim should be not simply to reclaim the largest area of land and
provide homes for the largest number of people, but to create for this
new industry the best possible social and industrial conditions; and
this requires that we not only understand the existing situation, but
avail ourselves of the best experience of the time in the solution of
its problems. A careful study should be made, both by the Nation and
the States, of the irrigation laws and conditions here and abroad.
Ultimately it will probably be necessary for the Nation to co-operate
with the several arid States in proportion as these States by their
legislation and administration show themselves fit to receive it.
* * * * *
In Hawaii our aim must be to develop the Territory on the traditional
American lines. We do not wish a region of large estates tilled
by cheap labor; we wish a healthy American community of men who
themselves till the farms they own. All our legislation for the
islands should be shaped with this end in view; the well-being of
the average home-maker must afford the true test of the healthy
development of the islands. The land policy should as nearly as
possible be modeled on our homestead system.
It is a pleasure to say that it is hardly more necessary to report as
to Porto Rico than as to any State or Territory within our continental
limits. The island is thriving as never before, and it is being
administered efficiently and honestly. Its people are now enjoying
liberty and order under the protection of the United States, and
upon this fact we congratulate them and ourselves. Their material
welfare must be as carefully and jealously considered as the welfare
of any other portion of our country. We have given them the great
gift of free access for their products to the markets of the United
States. I ask the attention of the Congress to the need of legislation
concerning the public lands of Porto Rico.
In Cuba such progress has been made toward putting the independent
government of the island upon a firm footing that before the present
session of the Congress closes this will be an accomplished fact. Cuba
will then start as her own mistress; and to the beautiful Queen of
the Antilles, as she unfolds this new page of her destiny, we extend
our heartiest greetings and good wishes. Elsewhere I have discussed
the question of reciprocity. In the case of Cuba, however, there are
weighty reasons of morality and of national interest why the policy
should be held to have a peculiar application, and I most earnestly
ask your attention to the wisdom, indeed to the vital need, of
providing for a substantial reduction in the tariff duties on Cuban
imports into the United States. Cuba has in her Constitution affirmed
what we desired, that she should stand, in international matters, in
closer and more friendly relations with us than with any other power;
and we are bound by every consideration of honor and expediency to
pass commercial measures in the interest of her material well-being.
In the Philippines our problem is larger. They are very rich tropical
islands, inhabited by many varying tribes, representing widely
different stages of progress toward civilization. Our earnest effort
is to help these people upward along the stony and difficult path that
leads to self-government. We hope to make our administration of the
islands honorable to our Nation by making it of the highest benefit to
the Filipinos themselves; and as an earnest of what we intend to do,
we point to what we have done. Already a greater measure of material
prosperity and of governmental honesty and efficiency has been
attained in the Philippines than ever before in their history.
It is no light task for a nation to achieve the temperamental
qualities without which the institutions of free government are but an
empty mockery. Our people are now successfully governing themselves,
because for more than a thousand years they have been slowly fitting
themselves, sometimes consciously, sometimes unconsciously, toward
this end. What has taken us thirty generations to achieve, we can not
expect to see another race accomplish out of hand, especially when
large portions of that race start very far behind the point which our
ancestors had reached even thirty generations ago. In dealing with the
Philippine people we must show both patience and strength, forbearance
and steadfast resolution. Our aim is high. We do not desire to do for
the islanders merely what has elsewhere been done for tropic peoples
by even the best foreign governments. We hope to do for them what has
never before been done for any people of the tropics—to make them fit
for self-government after the fashion of the really free nations.
History may safely be challenged to show a single instance in which
a masterful race such as ours, having been forced by the exigencies
of war to take possession of an alien land, has behaved to its
inhabitants with the disinterested zeal for their progress that our
people have shown in the Philippines. To leave the islands at this
time would mean that they would fall into a welter of murderous
anarchy. Such desertion of duty on our part would be a crime against
humanity. The character of Governor Taft and of his associates and
subordinates is a proof, if such be needed, of the sincerity of
our effort to give the islanders a constantly increasing measure
of self-government, exactly as fast as they show themselves fit
to exercise it. Since the civil government was established not an
appointment has been made in the islands with any reference to
considerations of political influence, or to aught else save the
fitness of the man and the needs of the service.
In our anxiety for the welfare and progress of the Philippines, it
may be that here and there we have gone too rapidly in giving them
local self-government. It is on this side that our error, if any, has
been committed. No competent observer, sincerely desirous of finding
out the facts and influenced only by a desire for the welfare of the
natives, can assert that we have not gone far enough. We have gone
to the very verge of safety in hastening the process. To have taken
a single step further or faster in advance would have been folly and
weakness, and might well have been crime. We are extremely anxious
that the natives shall show the power of governing themselves. We
are anxious, first for their sakes, and next, because it relieves us
of a great burden. There need not be the slightest fear of our not
continuing to give them all the liberty for which they are fit.
The only fear is lest in our overanxiety we give them a degree of
independence for which they are unfit, thereby inviting reaction
and disaster. As fast as there is any reasonable hope that in a
given district the people can govern themselves, self-government
has been given in that district. There is not a locality fitted for
self-government which has not received it. But it may well be that in
certain cases it will have to be withdrawn because the inhabitants
show themselves unfit to exercise it; such instances have already
occurred. In other words, there is not the slightest chance of our
failing to show a sufficiently humanitarian spirit. The danger comes
in the opposite direction.
There are still troubles ahead in the islands. The insurrection
has become an affair of local banditti and marauders, who deserve
no higher regard than the brigands of portions of the Old World.
Encouragement, direct or indirect, to these insurrectos stands on the
same footing as encouragement to hostile Indians in the days when we
still had Indian wars. Exactly as our aim is to give to the Indian who
remains peaceful the fullest and amplest consideration, but to have it
understood that we will show no weakness if he goes on the warpath,
so we must make it evident, unless we are false to our own traditions
and to the demands of civilization and humanity, that while we will do
everything in our power for the Filipino who is peaceful, we will take
the sternest measures with the Filipino who follows the path of the
insurrecto and the ladrone.
The heartiest praise is due to large numbers of the natives of
the islands for their steadfast loyalty. The Macabebes have been
conspicuous for their courage and devotion to the flag. I recommend
that the Secretary of War be empowered to take some systematic action
in the way of aiding those of these men who are crippled in the
service and the families of those who are killed.
The time has come when there should be additional legislation for
the Philippines. Nothing better can be done for the islands than
to introduce industrial enterprises. Nothing would benefit them so
much as throwing them open to industrial development. The connection
between idleness and mischief is proverbial, and the opportunity to
do remunerative work is one of the surest preventives of war. Of
course no business man will go into the Philippines unless it is to
his interest to do so, and it is immensely to the interest of the
islands that he should go in. It is therefore necessary that the
Congress should pass laws by which the resources of the islands can
be developed; so that franchises (for limited terms of years) can be
granted to companies doing business in them, and every encouragement
be given to the incoming of business men of every kind.
Not to permit this is to do a wrong to the Philippines. The franchises
must be granted and the business permitted only under regulations
which will guarantee the islands against any kind of improper
exploitation. But the vast natural wealth of the islands must be
developed, and the capital willing to develop it must be given the
opportunity. The field must be thrown open to individual enterprise,
which has been the real factor in the development of every region over
which our flag has flown. It is urgently necessary to enact suitable
laws dealing with general transportation, mining, banking, currency,
homesteads, and the use and ownership of the lands and timber. These
laws will give free play to industrial enterprise; and the commercial
development which will surely follow will afford to the people of the
islands the best proofs of the sincerity of our desire to aid them.
* * * * *
I call your attention most earnestly to the crying need of a cable to
Hawaii and the Philippines, to be continued from the Philippines to
points in Asia. We should not defer a day longer than necessary the
construction of such a cable. It is demanded not merely for commercial
but for political and military considerations.
Either the Congress should immediately provide for the construction
of a government cable, or else an arrangement should be made by which
like advantages to those accruing from a government cable may be
secured to the Government by contract with a private cable company.
* * * * *
No single great material work which remains to be undertaken on
this continent is of such consequence to the American people as the
building of a canal across the Isthmus connecting North and South
America. Its importance to the Nation is by no means limited merely
to its material effects upon our business prosperity; and yet with
view to these effects alone it would be to the last degree important
for us immediately to begin it. While its beneficial effects would
perhaps be most marked upon the Pacific Coast and the Gulf and South
Atlantic States, it would also greatly benefit other sections. It
is emphatically a work which it is for the interest of the entire
country to begin and complete as soon as possible; it is one of those
great works which only a great nation can undertake with prospects
of success, and which when done are not only permanent assets in
the nation’s material interests, but standing monuments to its
constructive ability.
I am glad to be able to announce to you that our negotiations on this
subject with Great Britain, conducted on both sides in a spirit of
friendliness and mutual good-will and respect, have resulted in my
being able to lay before the Senate a treaty which if ratified will
enable us to begin preparations for an Isthmian Canal at any time, and
which guarantees to this Nation every right that it has ever asked
in connection with the canal. In this treaty, the old Clayton-Bulwer
treaty, so long recognized as inadequate to supply the base for the
construction and maintenance of a necessarily American ship canal, is
abrogated. It specifically provides that the United States alone shall
do the work of building and assume the responsibility of safeguarding
the canal and shall regulate its neutral use by all nations on terms
of equality without the guarantee or interference of any outside
nation from any quarter. The signed treaty will at once be laid before
the Senate, and if approved the Congress can then proceed to give
effect to the advantages it secures us by providing for the building
of the canal.
* * * * *
The true end of every great and free people should be self-respecting
peace; and this Nation most earnestly desires sincere and cordial
friendship with all others. Over the entire world, of recent years,
wars between the great civilized powers have become less and less
frequent. Wars with barbarous or semi-barbarous peoples come in an
entirely different category, being merely a most regrettable but
necessary international police duty which must be performed for the
sake of the welfare of mankind. Peace can only be kept with certainty
where both sides wish to keep it; but more and more the civilized
peoples are realizing the wicked folly of war and are attaining that
condition of just and intelligent regard for the rights of others
which will in the end, as we hope and believe, make world-wide peace
possible. The peace conference at The Hague gave definite expression
to this hope and belief and marked a stride toward their attainment.
This same peace conference acquiesced in our statement of the Monroe
Doctrine as compatible with the purposes and aims of the conference.
The Monroe Doctrine should be the cardinal feature of the foreign
policy of all the nations of the two Americas, as it is of the United
States. Just seventy-eight years have passed since President Monroe
in his Annual Message announced that “The American continents are
henceforth not to be considered as subjects for future colonization
by any European power.” In other words, the Monroe Doctrine is a
declaration that there must be no territorial aggrandizement by any
non-American power at the expense of any American power on American
soil. It is in no wise intended as hostile to any nation in the Old
World. Still less is it intended to give cover to any aggression by
one New World power at the expense of any other. It is simply a step,
and a long step, toward assuring the universal peace of the world by
securing the possibility of permanent peace on this hemisphere.
During the past century other influences have established the
permanence and independence of the smaller states of Europe. Through
the Monroe Doctrine we hope to be able to safeguard like independence
and secure like permanence for the lesser among the New World nations.
This doctrine has nothing to do with the commercial relations of
any American power, save that it in truth allows each of them to
form such as it desires. In other words, it is really a guaranty of
the commercial independence of the Americas. We do not ask under
this doctrine for any exclusive commercial dealings with any other
American state. We do not guarantee any state against punishment if it
misconducts itself, provided that punishment does not take the form of
the acquisition of territory by any non-American power.
Our attitude in Cuba is a sufficient guaranty of our own good faith.
We have not the slightest desire to secure any territory at the
expense of any of our neighbors. We wish to work with them hand in
hand, so that all of us may be uplifted together, and we rejoice
over the good fortune of any of them, we gladly hail their material
prosperity and political stability, and are concerned and alarmed if
any of them fall into industrial or political chaos. We do not wish
to see any Old World military power grow up on this continent, or to
be compelled to become a military power ourselves. The peoples of the
Americas can prosper best if left to work out their own salvation in
their own way.
* * * * *
The work of upbuilding the navy must be steadily continued. No one
point of our policy, foreign or domestic, is more important than this
to the honor and material welfare, and above all to the peace, of our
Nation in the future. Whether we desire it or not, we must henceforth
recognize that we have international duties no less than international
rights. Even if our flag were hauled down in the Philippines and Porto
Rico, even if we decided not to build the Isthmian Canal, we should
need a thoroughly trained navy of adequate size, or else be prepared
definitely and for all time to abandon the idea that our Nation
is among those whose sons go down to the sea in ships. Unless our
commerce is always to be carried in foreign bottoms, we must have war
craft to protect it.
Inasmuch, however, as the American people have no thought of
abandoning the path upon which they have entered, and especially in
view of the fact that the building of the Isthmian Canal is fast
becoming one of the matters which the whole people are united in
demanding, it is imperative that our navy should be put and kept in
the highest state of efficiency, and should be made to answer to our
growing needs. So far from being in any way a provocation to war, an
adequate and highly trained navy is the best guaranty against war,
the cheapest and most effective peace insurance. The cost of building
and maintaining such a navy represents the very lightest premium for
insuring peace which this nation can possibly pay.
Probably no other great nation in the world is so anxious for peace
as we are. There is not a single civilized power which has anything
whatever to fear from aggressiveness on our part. All we want is
peace; and toward this end we wish to be able to secure the same
respect for our rights from others which we are eager and anxious
to extend to their rights in return, to insure fair treatment to us
commercially, and to guarantee the safety of the American people.
Our people intend to abide by the Monroe Doctrine and to insist
upon it as the one sure means of securing the peace of the Western
Hemisphere. The navy offers us the only means of making our insistence
upon the Monroe Doctrine anything but a subject of derision to
whatever nation chooses to disregard it. We desire the peace which
comes as of right to the just man armed; not the peace granted on
terms of ignominy to the craven and the weakling.
It is not possible to improvise a navy after war breaks out. The ships
must be built and the men trained long in advance. Some auxiliary
vessels can be turned into makeshifts which will do in default of any
better for the minor work, and a proportion of raw men can be mixed
with the highly trained, their shortcomings being made good by the
skill of their fellows; but the efficient fighting force of the navy
when pitted against an equal opponent will be found almost exclusively
in the warships that have been regularly built and in the officers and
men who through years of faithful performance of sea duty have been
trained to handle their formidable but complex and delicate weapons
with the highest efficiency. In the late war with Spain the ships that
dealt the decisive blows at Manila and Santiago had been launched from
two to fourteen years, and they were able to do as they did because
the men in the conning towers, the gun-turrets, and the engine-rooms
had through long years of practice at sea learned how to do their duty.