Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1880-05-07
Canal Across Central America to the
~. Pacific.

Canal .AtrOss Central America to the
H". Pacific
B The sst6Ats of the Suez Canal in
snres tie Construction of another ship
canal most Important to the United
States--one Which will form a new
route FORTS coastAwise commerce, which
now passes around Cape Horn to the
Pacific. 1t will reduce q voyage of 49,
900 miles to less than one-third Of that
distance, and diminish the time re-
quired on the way to one fifth of the
time now taken, replacing the vessel
under sail with the steam ship of steel.
The Pacific railways are adapted to the
transportation of mails, travellers and
express freight. They are important
also for local traffic; but in no respect
suited to our chief coasting trade--the
conveyance Of grain, provisions, Tim
Der, coal, fish and metals between the
Atlantic and Pacific. When q ship
canal is finished, it will cheaper oil our
routes to the Pacific, and it is safe to
predict that it will reduce the rates of
freight between the Atlantic and Pacif
ic below six dollars per ton ria the Ca
nal, and we may easily foresee what
will be the future course OF commerce.
The routes across the Isthmus and Cen
trail America have been explored and
surveyed by both England and the
United States, and the estimates for
one of them are below the cost of the
Suez CANAL, while the prospects of bus
mess are far more encouraging. The
Suez Canal commands the trade be-
tween India and Europe, but cannot
control the commerce between China
and Japan and the United States, or
moro than half of that between the
same countries and Europe, while
ship-canal between the Gulf of Mexico
and the Pacific will eventually com
I1and twice the tonnage that now pass
es through the Suez Canal. -.
1t will be candidate for the vast ex-
port of wheat and other grain from our
Pacific Coast to Europe. The annual
production of wheat on our Pacific
coast exceeds million of tons, and
will soon require million Of tons of
shipping to convey it to Europe. The
ships would pass twice through the ca
nal, and give it two millions of tonnage.
The vast coasting trade of the United
States between the Atlantic front and
California, Oregon and Alaska would
pass through this canal both going and
returning, and the varied products of
the Pacific coast, in the shape of tim
Der, fish, copper ore, and extent Of car.
goes, would, together, add another mill
ion to it's tonnage. The commerce of the
United States through this, canal will
give tonnage equal to that which pays
six millions Of dollars each year to the
Suez Canal. It will be candidate for
ships on their voyages from Europe for
tea te China and Japan, and on their no.
turn, and will take nearly the whole
tonnage passing between the Atlantic
States, China, Japan, and the Philip
pine Islands, and between Europe and
the Russian Possessions. and best &C
commodate the ships engaged in the
whale-fsherics of the Pacific. Tea, to
the extent of two huAdred millions OF
pounds, and occupying one hundred
thousand tons of shipping, forms one
item of this commerce, which will an
nually send through the canal nearly q
quarter of a million tons of shipping.
AAOA W. AatO tu0 UKnuo UcCWccA AUS
tralia and Europe, one item of which.
wool. amounts yearly to three hundred
millions Of pounds. We may safely
calculate that the Australian ships, out
and back, will patronize this canal to
the amount OF three hundred thousand
tons. %. 49,. ,.... .,.' I'D.
Peru, with its guano amounting to
three or four hundred thousand tons
sent annually to Europe, Chill, with it's.
copper and nitrates and return cargoes,
with Guatemala, Mexico, and Central
America, must furnish at least another
million of tons. Then we have the
growth of this commerce while the
work progresses, together with that due
to new facilities, SO that the aggregate
must reach between five and six mill
ions Of nearly twice the tonnage
which passes yearly through the Suez
Canal. This estimate is not high one.
Ten years since, before the grain trade
of California had attained to any i'm
portance. the tonnage that would seek
the canal was set at $500, 900 tons by
Admiral Davis, of our navy, and the
annual saving in the cast of freight, in
terest, and insurance on the property
to be transported by this canal, was
set by him at ninety-nine millions Of
dollars. '% f,''.-' ="
The estimate seems to be a high one,
for it exceeds the computed cost of the
canal itself; but the saving must be ina
mense, as this trade is fast increasing,
and the cost of transportation may be
lessened two-th;rds by q ship, canal.
California has become the chief gran,
ary OF Great Britain, which now re-
quires annually from other nations two
hundred millions Of bushels of grain !;
she prefers the wheat Of California I'd
grind with her own moist wheat, and
there is no country but California where
one man can successfully cultivate tive
hundred acres of wheat unaided by
either man or fertilizer. ..'
With this canal completed, the grain
OF San Francisco, which is N ow over four
months on its way to Boston or Liver.
pool, could be landed there in les, thar,
three weeks. The vessel transporting
it, instead of making one trip yearly;
would accomplish many trips, by. the
aid OF steam, now prohibited by the