Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1888-07-07
TRANS-ISTHMUS.
THE UNITED STATES OUTSTRIPPED
BY THE ENGLISH.
The Tehuantepec Route a Formid-
able Rival to the Nicaraguan
and Panama Schemes.
Especial Co, respondent of the REooRp-r,y1oN

land on Yucatan territory. They alter
nately call upon the Mexican Government
to protect this State from being robbed by
greedy Britons, rail against President Diaz
as traitor, who is selling his country for
foreign gold, and prophesy that the day is
not distant when Yucatan shall have
passed irrevocably into English hands.
As everybody knows that territory on
the southeast of Yucatan, now known as
Belize, or British Honduras, formerly be
/ longed to Mexico but since about 1860 has
been claimed by England. 1t is now as
| serted that the latter country, not content
with what they have appropriated, without
legal or historic right, have crossed the
line of hills that have long been tacitly re-
garded as the limits of British possessions
| and are encroaching more and more upon
their Mexican neighbors; and, moreover,
that they are constantly supplying the In.
dians of Chan Santa Cruz, and other war
like tribes, with arms and ammunition to
carry on the war against Mexico Nor are
these fears altogether unfounded, for here
is much to be desired, and the Government
of the "Right-little, tight-little island" is
not famed for retaining to take what can
so easily be laid hands on.
| The United States seems strangely re-
gardless of the fact that The best of loaves
and fishes in Mexico are being appropri-
ated by people from the other hemisphere.
The Germans were the modern pioneers,
and for more than two decades that slow
going but persistent race have been uni
formly successful here in trade which they
have carefully developed All over the
country we find them, from the Rio Grande
to the gulf-as druggists, manufacturers,
miners and hacienda proprietors in fact
almost monopolizing the first-named
branches of business. The shop-keepers,
wine merchants, shoe Dealers confectioners,
restauranteurs and bakers of Mexico are
about in the proportion of two-thirds
French to one-third Italian; while the
English monopolize the clothing trade,
Jewelry establishments, etc. 1t must be
remembered that the highest class of Mex
leans are altogether too proud to engage in
| trade of any sort, the lower classes are too
poor, and the bulk of the middle classes
devote themselves to agriculture. Being
so intensely Roman Catholic, this country
has no use for Hebrews, and few have had
the temerity to settle here; while the
Americans, as rule on the lookout
| for great speculations, come and go-with
considerable noise and buster, it is true
but without realizing much in the way of
substantial results. So far as money goes,
the country is really very poor-but
though brilliant opportunities" are scarce
as the typical hens teeth, there is no
doubt that hard work combined with
reasonable amount of segacity is rather
more apt to win here than elsewhere, be-
cause as yet things are not overdone.
That the Europeans are not blind to all
this may be gathered from recent Lon
don letter, which states that the Germans
have also sought to make their gains in
Mexico the means of extending there the
political influences of Germany Says the
writer: Seeing that the United States
are Indifferent to the extension of their
boundaries beyond the Rio Grande, the
Germans have not failed to augment the
home Government with splendid posi-
bilities of Mexico. That fertile and
wealthy country, capable of such magnif-
cent development, has precisely what Ger
many lacks and wishes above all things to
obtain. If European jealousy forbids the
grasping of Holland, with its fine ports
and priceless colonies, what a compensation
Mexico would be-" But German dreams
of dominion there have been rudely dis
turbed by the grasp which England has
placed upon the railway system of the
southern Republic. The Mexican National
road is now in the possession of English
capitalists, the Mexican Central will soon
be under their control, and other negotia-
lions are pending which will put into their
hands the transportation facilities of the
entire country. The draining of the
Valley of Mexico-an enormous enterprise
necessary for the safety of the Capitals
being undertaken by an English company:
and an American engineer, who vainly
sought to obtain sufficient capital to pros
ecute the work, says, rather bitterly, that
1.-THE entire country will soon be mortgaged
to England"
And now the Mexican Government has
contracted with an English firm for the
completion of that long-talked-of Tehuau-
tepec Railroad, which, when finished, will
furnish shorter cut across the continent
than either the Nicaraguan or Panama
schemes. During the last half century
plans for establishing communication
between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans
via the Isthmus of Tehuantepec have been
variously discussed. Early as lS4l the
Mexican Government granted a concession
to Senior Jose de Garay to make connec-
ton between the two oceans, and a survey
was made and the reports published, oper-
ations then being based on the idea that
the route was to be a canal
Soon after the war between Mexico and
the United States Senior Garav's franchise
passed into the hands of 2. A. Hargons. of
New York city, who, in conjunction with
a company organized in New Orleans, as
sumed the rights and responsibilities of the
Garay grant. After tedious negotiations
with the Mexican Government and many
unavoidable delays, it was agreed that
railroad would be much more
practicable than canal; and ac-
cordingly, in 1851, a railroad survey
was made across the Isthmus under the
direction of the late General J. G.. Bar
nard of the United States Army, who was
detailed for the purpose These surveys
demonstrated that the road would cost
comparatively little, the highest point be-
ing only 720 feet above sea level, the heav-
lest grades not exceeding sixty feet per
mile, except at the Chivela Pass, where
for about eight miles the grade is ll6 feet
per mile.
But nothing came of it. Six years later
the railroad project was resumed and
new survey executed, under the direction
of Colonel w. H. Sidell, of the United
States army and this, too, came to
nought. In 1870 another Tehuantepec
Railroad Company was formed in New
York, the late Hon. Marshall O. Roberts
being promoter and Simon Stevens, Presi-
dent. A vast amount of "wind work"
was done, surveys and explorations were
made all over again, but still the railroad
was not built. Later the same company
was recognized, Edward Larned, of Pitts
field, Mass, being President. Under a
new charter from the State of Massa-
chusetts a modified concession was OBJ
tanned from the Mexican Government, in
Guiding a subsidy of 81, 500 per kilometer.
But this corporation did not finish the
railroad, although they constructed some
forty kilometers of it. In 1882 the Mexi-
can Government made contract with
private individuals for the completion of
this line, and in years time the track
was laid from the mouth of the Coatza-