426 Presidential Addresses 



vast seas of grass from the Mississippi to the 

 Rockies, who penetrated the passes of the great bar- 

 ren mountains until they came to this, the greatest 

 of all the oceans, still survive in their grandsons and 

 successors. Nor must we forget in speaking of 

 Alaska the immense importance that the Territory 

 has from the standpoint of the needs of the Nation 

 as a whole, as a dominant power in the Pacific. Ex- 

 actly as with the building of the Isthmian Canal we 

 shall make our Atlantic and our Pacific coasts in ef- 

 fect continuous, so the possession and peopling of 

 the Alaskan seacoast puts us in a position of domi- 

 nance as regards the Pacific which no other nations 

 share or can share. 



FROM ADDRESS AT EVERETT, WASH., 

 MAY 23, 1903 



There are few problems which so especially con- 

 cern Washington, Oregon, and California as the 

 problem of forestry. Nothing has been of better 

 augury for the welfare and prosperity of these great 

 States as well as for the other forest States than the 

 way in which those actively engaged in the lumber- 

 ing business have come of recent years to work hand 

 in hand with those who have made forestry a study 

 in the effort to preserve the forests. The whole 

 question is a business, an economic question; an 

 economic question for the Nation, a business ques- 

 tion for the individual. East of your great mountain 

 chains the question of water supply becomes vital 

 and becomes inseparable from that of forestry. 



