And State Papers 573 



ands the best proofs of the sincerity of our desire to 

 aid them. 



I call your attention most earnestly to the crying 

 need of a cable to Hawaii and the Philippines, to be 

 continued from the Philippines to points in Asia. 

 We should not defer a day longer than necessary the 

 construction of such a cable. It is demanded not 

 merely for commercial but for political and military 

 considerations. 



Either the Congress should immediately provide 

 for the construction of a government cable, or else 

 an arrangement should be made by which like ad- 

 vantages to those accruing from a government cable 

 may be secured to the Government by contract with 

 a private cable company. 



No single great material work which remains to 

 be undertaken on this continent is of such conse- 

 quence to the American people as the building of a 

 canal across the Isthmus connecting North and 

 South America. Its importance to the Nation is by 

 no means limited merely to its material effects upon 

 our business prosperity; and yet with view to these 

 effects alone it would be to the last degree important 

 for us immediately to begin it. While its beneficial 

 effects would perhaps be most marked upon the Pa- 

 cific Coast and the Gulf and South Atlantic States, 

 it would also greatly benefit other sections. It is 

 emphatically a work which it is for the interest of 

 the entire country to begin and complete as soon as 



