Alpena weekly argus. [volume] (Alpena, Mich.) 1871-1893, 1884-12-31

ton because it gave the enterprise
an unfavorable aspect. Right here
let us remark that the ditch across
Central America is not new scheme.
1t has been discussed before, but all
that was done was to make the sur
veys and debate upon it.
The Major based his estimate upon
the calculation that white men can
be obtained who will go to the tropical
pestilential swamps, where the canal
will be dug, for one dollar per day.
The white men of this country will
do no such thing.
1t is so unhealthy in that part of
the globe that the Panama Canal Co.
is said to be forced to pay negroes
from $3.50 to $500 per day and pay
their passage from Jamaica and other
West India islands.
The ARGUS has always asserted
that white man was as good as
negro, and therefore if a negro is
paid from $3.50 to $500 per day for
work on the Panama canal, then the
white man will ask as much or else
he won't 60 to Central America to
catch the tropical fever and die.
The total expense Of the canal will
amount to over S3O0,000,000, and
will the American taxpayers be will
ing to have that amount of money
squeezed out of them just merely to
build a canal from the Atlantic to the
Pacific T.?
Judging from some of the state
ments made by the advocates of this
ocean canal, a person would think
that the safety of this country de-
pended upon building this canal.
We do not think so.
Atpresent private firm of French
capitalists are busily engaged in cut
ting ship canal across the isthmus of
Panama, distant from the proposed
Nicaraguan canal about 250 miles.
The length of the Panama canal will
be about 80 or 40 miles, and is said
will be free from locks. If Uncle
Sam or any of his children have
vessels to go from one ocean to the
other they can use the Panama canal
at the same terms as is allowed any
one else. That Panama canal will be
built without costing this country
one cent, and it will accomplish all
the purposes which the Nicaraguan
canal is expected to do, and be i'm
mensely cheaper to the tax payers of
this country.
With the Panama canal in opposi-
ton, it is doubtful if the Nicaraguan
canal would pay expenses after it was
built and then another burden would
be added to the people Of this coun-
try.
This question is one that deeply in
terests the laborers, farmers and bus
mess men of this country. They are
the ones who will have to pay the ex-
penses of building the canal, buying
the right of way, erecting forti6ca-
tons, constructing powerful navy
to defend the canal, and the other
numerous expenses. The scheme does
not even cause the money to be ex-
pended in this country where it would
do some good.
This paper is friend of the Amer
lean working man and the tax payer,
and it is doing its allotted task by
giving all the facts in regard to this
Nicaraguan canal that it has been
able to gather. We believe this to be
one of the great questions that labor
ing men should investigate. The bur-
dens of it will fall on them, and they
can not lightly pass over measure
that will take at least $500, 900, 900
out of their pockets.
The treaty has yet to be approved
by the u. S. Senate, and if the rs
men composing that body should APP
prove the canal project without first
ascertaining whether the people de-
sire it, they may get themselves into
trouble. The people are the 50,000,.
900 persons who constitute the Amer
lean nation, and not a few hundred
naval officers and contractors who
make Washington their headquarters
and who expect much from this canal
scheme.
Nicaragua is one of the five Cen
trail American States. 1t is bordered
on the north by Honduras and San
Salvador; on the east by the Carrib-
can sea, on the south by Costa Rica,
and on the east by the Pacific Ocean,
In size it is but little larger than the
State of Michigan, and contains about
$3.50 square miles. The soil is fer
tile; the climate tropical, being about
ten degrees north of the equator, and
the exports consist of sarsaparilla,
coffee, aloes, ipecacuanha, ginger, CO.
pal, gum arabic, gold and silver, ca
outchouc, etc. Sugar, cotton, indigo,
tobacco, maize, rice and tropical fruits
are easily grown. The population is