. Nothing would benefit them so much as
throwing them open to industrial development. The connection between
idleness and mischief is proverbial, and the opportunity to do
remunerative work is one of the surest preventatives of war. Of course
no business man will go into the Philippines unless it is to his
interest to do so; and it is immensely to the interest of the islands
that he should go in. It is therefore necessary that the Congress should
pass laws by which the resources of the islands can be developed; so
that franchises (for limited terms of years) can be granted to companies
doing business in them, and every encouragement be given to the incoming
of business men of every kind.

Not to permit this is to do a wrong to the Philippines. The franchises
must be granted and the business permitted only under regulations which
will guarantee the islands against any kind of improper exploitation.
But the vast natural wealth of the islands must be developed, and the
capital willing to develop it must be given the opportunity. The field
must be thrown open to individual enterprise, which has been the real
factor in the development of every region over which our flag has flown.
It is urgently necessary to enact suitable laws dealing with general
transportation, mining, banking, currency, homesteads, and the use and
ownership of the lands and timber. These laws will give free play to
industrial enterprise; and the commercial development which will surely
follow will accord to the people of the islands 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
advantages 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 consequence 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 mater