The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1868-08-10

cultivated lands now lying idle should be used
for this purpose by enterprising oolonists.
The Tehuantepec Speculation and the
Mission Of General Rosecrans.
For the last twenty-five years public atten
ton has been spasmodically awakened to
the interoceanic highway of Tehuantepec,
which after lying dormant for certain period,
say about every eight years, gives a sudden
kick and, exhibiting momentary sign of life,
as suddenly relapses into its normal mummy
condition. In 1912 great expectations were
INDUCED among commercial men when the
original concession was granted by Santa Anna
to his favorte cock fighting associate, Don Jose
de Garay, for the purpose of uniting the Gulf
of Mexico and the Pacific Ocean by means of
ship canal. But the gold fields of California
and Australia were then undiscovered, and the
enormity of the capital required for the con-
structiOn of the work proposed could not be
raised either here or in Europe. Then the
project was duly embalmed for safe keeping
Eight years later, when the events OF the
Mexican war had passed into history and when
the Tehuantepec crossing rose to its full value;
but the mixed ''ring' of spectators Consist
ing of Englishmen, Frenchmen, Mexicans and
Americans long resident in Mexico) into
whose hands the franchise had passed from
Garay wanted millions of dollars for their In
terest and thus they sealed up the Isthmus
against the world Had these people been less
selfish or grasping the railroad projected by
General Barnard in 1850 would have been
built between the Gulf and the Pacific, all
Southeastern Mexico would have been vitalized
and regenerated and Panama outrivalled long
ago.
AS early as 1913 an effort was made by
the United States government to secure the
right of way over Tehuantepec, but these
same spectators, whose clutches are still upon
the grant, headed off Mr.. Buchanan in his
offer of fifteen million dollars to Mexico by
the shrewd trick of transferring the franchise
to one of their number, an English subject,
''of whose rights Mexico could not dispose"
But the moment the negotiation was defeated
and Mexico prevented from any participation
in this magnificent sum these spectators
hoped still to perfect the sale to the govern
ment, when, presto the grant changed hands
and the Yankee member Of the ring became
vested with the sol distant ''title." But Mr..
Buchanan saw through the scheme, and he
adroitly turned the tables by saying that eff
the project was already in the hands of
American citizens the United States had
no need to buy" 1t is needless to recapitu-
late the spasmodic attempts that have been
made from that time to this to open the Tehu-
antepec route or to enumerate the legal diff
culties that have beset the title both here and
in Mexico. But one thing is worthy of note
no effort has been spared by the shifting
owners of this enterprise to entangle the United
States government in some way with their
schemes and thus make 1t party to this
gigantic speculation. The favorite and most
feasible plan has been to manipulate the
American Legation in Mexico, and Ito the
discredit of this country be it said so success
fully has this engineering process been con-
Quoted that unless the diplomatic agent of our
government gave himself up, body and boots
to these Tehuantepcc spectators his useful
ness was utterly destroyed. Surrounded at
all times by spies, either struggled into his
household as servants or forced upon him as
attaches or interpreters, the secrets of the
Legation have always been in possession of
these outsiders. If the Minister made show
of independence and kicked against such
guardianship he was sure to be tabooed in
Mexican society or made the object in secret
of ridicule and contempt. Thus the post has
been intolerable, and thus, for the past ten
years. the United States Minister to Mexico,
in diplomatic sense, has never been worth
his salt"
In the selection of General Rosecrans, who
is distinguished engineer, gallant soldier,
an excellent linguist and heightened gentle
man, there are reasonable hopes for better
order of things, and we doubt not he will keep
with their mummy speculation. Great good
will undoubtedly follow from the opening of
this isthmian crossing; but the dog-in-the-
manger policy must cease or Mexico be left
free to wrest the project from the stockholders
into whose hands it has fallen, who will
neither build the road NOR allow others to
undertake it. Care should be taken, likewise,
that the long outstanding debts due to Ameri-
can engineers and Mexican laborers for the
work that has already been done are promptly
paid; and while the holders of the franchise
are made to act in good faith to Mexico let
the new Minister see that this grand project, Of
so much commercial value to both nations,
-
does not become, by quasi endorsement on
his part, the boosting rope for any broken