This situation is accentuated by the fact that we are turning our attention to the south and engaging there in the great enterprise of constructing the Panama Canal. No one can tell what effect that will have upon the commerce of the world, but we do know that there never has been in history a case of a great change in the trade routes of the world which has not powerfully affected the rise and fall of nations, the development of commerce, and the development of civilization. We, by the expenditure of a part of our recently acquired capital, are about to open a new trade route that will bring our Atlantic and Gulf ports into immediate, close intercourse with all the Pacific coasts of South and Central America, and which will bring our Pacific ports into immediate and close relation with all the countries about the Caribbean Sea and the eastern coast of South America. The combination of political sentiment which has long allied us with the Latin American countries, the opportunity which comes from their change of conditions and our increase of capital, and the effects that must necessarily follow the opening of the great trade route of the Panama Canal, all point to the development of American enterprise and American trade to the south. Now, in considering that view of the future there are certain practical considerations that necessarily arise. How are we to adapt ourselves to this new condition? How are we to utilize this opportunity? One subject naturally presents itself, and that is the increase of means of communication through which our intercourse and our trade may be carried on. And that may be in two ways: one by the promotion of the railroad, long ago projected, and in constant course of development--the road that we speak of as the Pan American road. When we speak of the Pan American Railroad we are speaking of something of the future, and which exists today only in a great number of links, each of which has its separate name. They are being built, and being built with great rapidity. In Mexico, in Guatemala, in Bolivia, in Peru, in the Argentine, in other countries pieces of road are being built--many of them by American capital and American enterprise; some of them by capital coming from other countries--promoted by the strong desire of the people of these Latin American countries to break out from their isolation and to be brought into closer contact with the rest of the world. Those pieces are being built until now, when the work actually under contract is completed, there will be less than 4,000 miles remaining to be built to make a complete railroad which will unite the city of Washington with the city of Buenos Ayres in the Argentine.