not for a free ship myself, but your plausible and prevailing Mr. Griscom persuaded me to let him build two of his ships where he chose, if he would build two of them just here. I objected to it. We let them in, and they sail from here to England to-day under the American flag. I was a good deal discouraged with that attempt. It ran along for several years. About three years ago I thought I 'could see that the American people were taking a new interest in this matter of reviving American shipping, and thought it was a good time to try over again.

URGING SUBSIDIES

I formed a committee on my own responsibility, because experts were an absolute necessity to making any kind of a business. deal. I formed a committee of about twenty-five. From Philadel phia I took Mr. Griscom, who knows pretty well about ships; I took Theodore C. Search as a representative of the manufacturing industries; I took Charles Cramp as a shipbuilder; I took Mr. Mink, who has to do with the coastwise trade. I sent out to the Lakes and took men there who had no earthly interest in the matter except as patriotic citizens. I took men who were engaged in the coastwise trade, who had no interest except as patriotic Americns. I took men who believed in discriminating differences. I took men who believed in bounties and made up a committe of twenty-five men, and there never were twenty-five men who devoted so much time to any one single piece of legislation as those men devoted to that.

FLAG UPON THE OCEAN AGAIN

We finally drafted a bill which, in my judgment, will, if it becomes a law, put our flag upon the ocean once more. It has been reported by me to the Senate of the United States. Whenever it gets a chance for consideration, it will pass the United States Senate, and I hope it will pass the National House of Representatives. If it does, we will have agents of our own and ships of our own, within the next five or ten years, to rival the ships of foreign

countries, and meet them on equal terms in the great commercial ports of the world.

Another thing I desire to briefly call your attention to is: Where are you going to look for your export trade? You have to look to the East. Humboldt, more than fifty years ago, said the Pacific was to be the great ocean for trade in the future. He was a true prophet. We all know it now. The conduct of Russia, England, France and Germany, within the last two years, shows they recognize the fact that Humbolt was a prophet and an inspired one.

us.

DIG A CANAL

How can we reach the Eastern trade? How can we get our share of it? There is the problem we have to settle. I say you want first to build an isthmian canal right across the Isthmus down here at Panama. Make it neutral to all the world, if you please, in peace and war, but not neutral with a country that is at war with What effect will that canal have? It will bring New York City a day's sail nearer Shanghai than Liverpool will be, and Liverpool is a great deal nearer Shanghai to-day than New York is— thousands of miles nearer. Before the Suez Canal was built, we were as near the Orient as England, and after it was built we were from 3,000 to 5,000 miles further off than England was, and England has been reaping the benefit of it.

COMPETING IN EAST

Her commerce increased from 40 per cent. up to the time that canal was opened to 88 per cent, to the Orient, and only 17 per cent. to the rest of the world. That shows what shortening of distance and lowering of freights does for commerce. I say that canal will bring New York a day's sail nearer to Shanghai than Liverpool will be. It will bring New York 1,200 miles nearer the northern ports of China, where our trade is to-day, and where it must be largely in the future. It will bring New York 2,000 miles nearer Corea; it will bring New York 1,800 miles nearer Yokohama; it will bring New York 1,000 miles nearer Melbourne; it will bring

New York 1,800 miles nearer Sydney; it will bring New York more than 2,000 miles nearer New Zealand; it will bring New York 3,000 to 4,000 miles nearer to the west coast of South America.

Look at your map to-day and you will find that the course from New York to the west coast of South America is not absolutely straight. Now is there an intelligent man here who cannot see that in the enormous decrease of distance the great lowering of freight rates is going to enable us to compete with England in the Orient, or with Germany, or with any other nation in Europe?

NEW POSSESSIONS WILL HELP COMMERCE

Our recently acquired possessions are an enormous lift for us in this contest for the commerce of the East and for commerce generally. Under that treaty we acquired not the sovereignty of Cuba, because we yield the sovereignty of that island to any stable government that may be formed there, which is capable of preserving order, protecting life and liberty of its inhabitants, making treaties and insisting upon their rights under the treaties, and observing their obligations.

But to whom will the people of the Island of Cuba owe relief from that despotic power of Spain which has ground her into the dust for the last 200 years? To whom will they owe their release from hunger and starvation and death? To whom will they owe their relief from the most ingenious and outrageous taxation that was ever imposed upon a people? Why, to us. Will they not, through gratitude and propinquity, give us the trade of that beautiful island? You let a stable government be formed. Let peace settle on the island once more. Let American capital go there, as it will, and the trade and commerce of that island will quadruple in two years, and it will be ours. Porto Rico is ours. Her trade is ours and will be ours.

CHAPTER XIII.

The Presidential Administrations of the

Century

Personal Characteristics-Origin of Political Parties-Leading Events of each Administration-Information Necessary

WH

to Understand Questions of To-day.

HEN the office of President was to be filled for the first time, grave problems were to be solved. The hardship and suffering of the struggle for independence were yet present in the minds of all men; the weakness and failure of the Government instituted by the Articles of Confederation had compelled an attempt "to form a more perfect Union;" the eyes of the civilized world were upon the struggling people, and to men who had not an abiding faith in the principles for which the battles of the Revolution had been fought, it seemed that the experiment of popular government was to end in early, complete, and appropriate catastrophe.

In such circumstances, it was well that the public needs were so great and so immediate as to make men willing to forget their differences and consider measures for the common good; and particularly was it well for the future of our country that there was one man upon whom all could agree as uniting the wisdom, the moderation, the experience, the dignity necessary to the first President of the United States.

GEORGE WASHINGTON, 1732-1799. Two TERMS, 1789-1797

George Washington was the only man ever unanimously elected President. He undertook the duties of the Chief Magistracy with a deep sense of their importance and their difficulty,

but with the courage and devotion which characterized all his conduct He selected for his Cabinet men of widely different political views, but men whose names were not new to Americans, men whose past services justified the belief that they would find means of leading the country out of its present difficulties, and of setting the affairs of the Government on a sure foundation. Jefferson, 'Hamilton, Knox and Randolph might well be trusted to concert wise measures.

Washington's second election was, like the first, without opposition, and for four years more he continued to guide the affairs of State. A national bank had been established early in his first term, and also the Philadelphia Mint, and the currency of the country was now on a fairly satisfactory basis; a census had been taken in 1790 and showed that the country had already begun to grow in population, and the outlook was much more favorable than four years earlier.

JOHN ADAMS, 1735-1826. ONE TERM, 1797-1801

Upon the announcement of Washington's retirement, the two parties, which had been gradually developing an organization, prepared to contest the election of the second President. The Federalists, who advocated a strong central government, favored John Adams, and the Republicans, who "claimed to be the friends of liberty and the rights of man, the advocates of economy, and of the rights of the states," desired the election of Thomas Jefferson. The Federalists were in a slight majority, and Mr. Adams was elected. He was a native of Massachusetts, and had borne a leading part in the struggle for independence and the development of the governHe was one of the leaders in Massachusetts in resisting the oppressive measures which brought on the Revolution; he seconded the resolution for the Declaration of Indpendence, and assisted in framing that remarkable document; with Franklin and Jay, he negotiated the treaty which established our independence; he had represented his country as Minister to France, and to Holland, and was the first United States Minister to England; he had

ment.