AMERICA’S OPPORTUNITY IN THE PACIFIC OCEAN.

Shall the Key to the Pacific Ocean Pass Into British Hands?

[From the Daily Kennebec Journal.]

It is an accepted truism that nations, as well as individuals, have their opportunities and duties, and that the neglect of them, through indolence or cowardice, surely brings retribution in one form or another.

The States and Territories which outlet on the vast Western ocean will some day have a population of one hundred and fifty millions of souls. This Pacific side of the American republic, stretching from north Alaska to south California, a coast line of four thousand miles, without including the seventeen hundred miles of shore line of Puget Sound, is to have a development of agricultural, lumber, fisheries, and mineral riches, out of which will flow streams of  commerce, which neither the imagination nor cold figures can well cover at the present time.

In the front of these vast Pacific States extends the immense ocean of the Pacific. Across this vast Pacific plain must be for all time the water roads along which will move the commerce of many hundreds of millions of people. Anchored firmly between the two great oceans, America divides with Europe the commerce of the Atlantic, Europe having the advantage by numbers, position, and prestige. But on the great Western ocean America can easily take the lead and hold it securely against all competitors. To do this she must improve her opportunities. Sloth and cowardice never win anything worth having. Time waits neither for individuals nor nations. Success is for those who dare. Continue reading →