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Show oo DEFENSE OF THE CANAL. President Taft's statement of the caBO for the fortification of the Panama Pan-ama canal at the dinner of the Pennsylvania Penn-sylvania socloty in New York on Saturday Sat-urday night left little tp be said on that side of the question, and will convince con-vince the majority of his countrymen that much as the nccesblty for such a step may be regretted by tho friends of universal peace. It is forced upon the nation by tho Inexorable logic of events. Tho universal acceptance of tho rule of law by organized society does not absolve It from tho necessity of maintaining pollco for the enforcement enforce-ment of tho law and for the occasional occasion-al coercion of tho unruly. Bars and locks for the exclusion of marauders are still an unhappy necessity, and tho abolition of private 'warfare for the settlement of private feuds still leaves us a long way short of tho attainment of Utopia. This being the case, there Is a great deal yet to be douo toward the extension of the principle of universal uni-versal International arbitration before the world can safely trust to tho honor hon-or and good behavior of tho nations, any on of which Is cnpablo of mischief, mis-chief, notwithstanding solemn compacts com-pacts and understandings. No ono can doubt the sincerity of tho president's devotion to the causo of peaco, nor his activity in promoting every movoment making to that ond, and so his earnest belief that the interests in-terests of tho United States would not be safe with an unprotected canal can-al should command respect Tho question ques-tion resolves itself into one of expediency, expe-diency, and tho president and his technical advisers aro of the opinion that permanent fortifications will afford af-ford n more certain guarantee for tho neutralization of tho waterway than any dependence which might bo placed upon fleets of battleships which might be needed elsewhere than at tho on-trancos on-trancos to the canal. That neutralization, neutraliza-tion, Mr. Taft makes clear, is to bo btrlctly applied in all cases except whoro' tho national safety Is at, stake. We aro spending $500,000,000 not solely sole-ly In tho altruistic purpose of facilitating facili-tating the world's commerce, but to shorten tho national coast line and strengthen the national dcfenaoB from the new and widened dangeis which have come with our entrance Into the field of world politics. Tho isthmus Is not being pierced in ordor that a possible European enemy might find a shorter passage to attack our vulnerable vul-nerable positions lu the Pacific, n the cvnt of such a monaco wo should elosc the canal to the national enemy, loavlng It open to tho rest of tho world. The situation Is one thnt is forced upon us by tho logic of events, just as J wc shall bo forced to establish power- H ful naval basee in the Caribbean and H strengthen those which we possess in j tho western ocean. It is this which ac- countB for the longing eye cast by M Washington officials upon Ecuador's M Island outpoBte In tbe Pacific. Tho M necessity In not an agreeable ono to H contemplate, but what else can we do M until all the powers of the world are H bound in an iron compact and an In- , M tcrnational police force shall be called M Into being capable of maintaining or- M der in the Beveu soas. Opinions will H differ as to how the desired endu of H security and peace can best bo ob- H taJned, but the president takes the M view that fortifications will be in the H nature of Insurance for peace, and in H this the general public, as well as tho ( H military strategists, will agree with. i him. Philadelphia Ledger. H no 1 |