The Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1877-1885, 1880-04-06

canal would be the connecting link
between the Atlantic and Pacific coestlines
Of the United States" his mind was wan
dering in the for future and making deduc'
tons, not Gfrom facts now existing. but
from facts that are 70 appear in the here
after, when our Atlantic coast-lines shall
have been extended from the mouth Of
the Rio Grande to the mouth of the
4 Chagres, and our Pacific coast line from
mouth of the Colorado to the estuary oil
ESau Miguel. Mr.. Hayes regards the
annexation of Mexico and Central Americs
to this blessed country as merely ques
ton Of time. and this, we are told, lis the
secret of his view upon the Panama canal
question explanation of his sur
prising assumption that the opposite coast
lines of this country are disconnected by
only the distance of forty miles across the
| Panama isthmus. He has repeatedly
/ painted to his friends glowing pictures OF
| American institutions invading Mexico
i and slowly sweeping everything before
them on their grand march to Cape Horn,
where only
| 1.-THE march of empire is sure to stop,
| And the play conclude with the hfth-act drop"
Mr.. Hayes simply restates the evidence
of history when he says that superior
and ap inferior ciyilz can not endure
side by side, and that the superior always
crowds out the inferior. The fact is
one among the innumerable proofs by
| which nature vindicates the law of the
survival of the fittest. As to the Texan
civilization on one side of the Rio Grande
and the Mexican civilization on the other
side, there is. however. this question
Which is the superior and which the in
ferior? The answer is not quite so OBJ
vious as it ought to be, nor as probably it
would have been had not MIR, Hayes gov
eminent SO studiously and persistently
interfered with the operation of the law
of the survival of the fttest in the matter
of the Rio Grande depredations.
There is.nothing new in this opinion OF
Mr.. Hayes concerning the future political
destiny of Mexico. 1t has been prevail
ing opinion among the far-looking Dubi-
cists of this country ever since Mexico
shook off the Spanish sovereignty and Set
up in the business of furnishing revolu
tions to order on the shortest notice. Nor
is it an opinion limited to America, There
is perhaps not one English statesman who
does not believe that America will, some
day. extend its political boundary to the
opposite side of Mexico: aud there are
probably not many English statesmen
who would dissent to Earl Beaconsfeld' s
opinion that it was sgreat mistake of
America not to take the whole ct Mexico
instead of the half of it. when the Mexican
war gave the opportunity. Ii was a mis-
take which no English cabinet, in like cir
cumstances, would have made. lt was an
opportunity such as America may meyer
have again,
Ii is more likely that the destiny of
Mexico to become part of America will
be worked out by the slower process of
commercial and industrial enterprise. The
projection of American railway lines
| across the boundary and even to the Pa
cific ports of Mexico; the development of
mining and other industries, by American
energy and capital, in the parts OF Next
| co which these highways OF e0R3 nnsfGe will
traverse; and the permanent establish
meut Of Americans and American inter
ests in those regions, which must be the
concomitRnt of such enterprises, will be
| the pioneer steps in the fuifilment of the
destiny of Mexico to besoaas American
Would not the opening OF a ship eaUai
between the two great oceans by private
capital and energy. in which Americans
would certainly share to a large degree ii
there were any view of profit in it. be in
reality another pioneer step 10 the working
out of that destiny? Most probably it
would. And in that view, perhaps il
| il would be as well not to delay the exeeu-
| ton of that work uutil the coast lines of
the United States hays been extended to
the mouth of the Chagres aud the bay of
Panama, but to let Individual energy and
capital add it to the great comm eFeial
enterprises that will slowly, but surely
effect such an extension OF them