Show Somewhat of o Progress The blowing up of the Gamboa bulkhead which permitted the waters of the Pacific to flow into the first lock on the Panama anama canal inspired the Journal Courier-Journal to recall some reminiscences in that connection It was years almost to a day after Balboa I having sighted the Pacific from an isthmus mountain top descended descend descend- ed to the ocean shore and entering the water and waiving aloft Spain's royal standard proclaimed his kings king's possession of the ocean that laved the shores snores of India and America Eight years I later Magellan discovered the Philippines That our nation whose pioneers did not set foot in America Amelica until nearly years after those events was to possess both the isthmus and the islands seems like providential destiny The Courier J Journal Courier further recalls the words of Goethe in 1827 inspired ed by Humboldt's Political Po Political Essay on New Spain in which he proposed nine possible routes for an Atlantic and Pacific waterway Goethe said I should wonder if the United States were to let It an opportunity escape of petting getting such n a work constructing constructing- tho the canal into their own hands It Jt may maybe maye be e foreseen that this young state with its its its' decided predilection n. n to the tho west neat will vi ill in in thirty or forty years ha have c occupied and peopled the largo large tract of land land tho the Rock Rocky mountains mountain It may furthermore Iun foreseen that along the coast of at the tho Pacific ocean where nature has already formed the most capacious ca and secure harbors important commercial towns will Gradually arise f I log tor this tho furtherance of a eat cat intercourse between China and he East Indies ll e e United States In such p 1 a case caso it would be not only desirable but al- al t jwo ot necessary that a more rapid communication n should bo be m maintained between et en the eastern and western shores of North America both b by merchant ehi sand and men intro of ot war than has hitherto been possible with the tho tedious d disa disagreeable lII a and expensive voyage oya e around Gape Capo Horn I therefore repeat that it is absolutely indispensable ble for the tho United States to effect a passage from front tho the Mexican gulf to the Pacific ocean and I am certain that they will do o it I t Shakespeare heard a whisper from the Infinite when he made Puck say I will put a girdle round about the earth in forty min min- utes tes A flash of what was to be shone before his minds mind's eye for an instant for there was nothing practical in the thought nothing tangible as the world was then and was justly consigned s to the realm of impossible dreams But it is now a fulfilled vision t I the most marvelous of the worlds world's s creations except the later miracle miracle mira- mira mira mira- cle 0 of f the wireless wheless j But neither Humboldt nor Goethe went outside outside out out- side v a practical tracing up from from cause cause to effect I And how much both fell behind the real fulfillment Humboldt Humbold Humboldt Hum Hum- boldt bold had hadin in hi mind ships of possibly tons Goethe perhaps increased increased in- in r creased them them- to 1000 tons for which only a shallow canal would have be been n sufficient Steam Stearn was in its infancy when Goethe wrote j l of the wonders that were to come of it and of electricity lie Ile had I no conception The bulkhead at Gamboa was rent rent- asunder by forty tons of dynamite that dynamite was not invented until long longi i J aft after r Goethe had died In the days days' of Humboldt and Goethe India In In- India dia was the the- goal for which every ship turned its sails as to the worlds world's treasure house Now India is but a poor POOl dependency of Great Britain which excites neither th the cupidity of the merchant nor the dream of the poet Goethe believed a large area would be settled west of the Mississippi now the temples of learning t industry religion and justice shine out all the way to the western ocean and the geographical center of our republic east and west is s some miles out in the Pac Pacific fic west of the golden gate The practical practical Arac- Arac acumen of the great explorer the imagination of German Germanys Germany's Is greatest poet could not comprehend the slumbering energy of our people cople or picture the achi achievements to be wrought out by them in fp fourscore years years' years If we as a people are but true to ourselves the work of the coming n nour fourscore years will exceed that of the past fourscore our childrens children's hands hands' will steady the weaker nations in their work the power of our republic will increase the power and influence until the greatest of all other nations nation will be second class by comparison comparison com corn parison and our flag will be a s symbol of peace to o all the earth |