The improvement of the Mississippi and its tributaries, then, is one of the links of the chain. The Panama Canal is the central link. The third link must be and will be, if the projects of the most eminent and patriotic American statesmen are carried out, the re-establishment of the American merchant marine, so that American ships may be used as the agency for the distribution of the products of our great industrial country to all the lands fronting the Pacific Ocean, as well as to all other parts of the earth. I believe that it has been a well recognized policy of all the Presidents and statesmen of our country for the last twenty years to urge the accomplishment of these improvements. They come slowly, of course, but all large projects take time in their development, and those of us who today are so fortunate as to live in California, or anywhere upon the Pacific Coast, may easily look forward to the time, not far distant, when California will be at least the second State of the American Republic in wealth, and industrial and commercial power, and San Francisco the second city in importance under the American flag. Transcriber’s Note: --Punctuation and spelling inaccuracies were silently corrected. End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Panama Canal, by Duncan E. McKinlay