The L'anse Sentinel

President Roosevelt's special message through which he urges the enactment of legislation that will help American progress and trade by encouraging the building and running of lines of large and swift steamers to South America and to the orient, will greatly assist in securing an unprejudiced view of the subsidy proposition not only from members of congress but from the press and the people throughout the country at large. The reports which have been circulated that Hill and Harriman were personally interested in the Pacific ocean subsidies are directly opposed to the truth. Some of the most aggressive opposition to the bill is coming from congressmen who are most friendly to the movements and operations of these great railroad and steamship operators. It is remarkably strange that there should be such hesitation on the part of the United States to follow a course which has proven profitable to our national competitors. In no other direction will the expenditure of money secure such immediate and satisfactory returns. The American people have too long permitted to continue the loss of prestige and loss of trade which have accompanied a woefully inferior merchant marine. President Roosevelt's appeal includes no new statements or added facts, but it gives emphasis and vigor to the statements and facts which have heretofore been presented.