New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1889-01-13
+ THE PANAMA BUBBLE.
rowN m CORRUPTION AND BURSTING IN
RUIN


in other parts of France. There are many as
.ortented Republicans, and should say about
ION 600 Conservatives having votes. The whole
~ tho 90 600 will be with Boulanger because the
chamber in the first place, got them to subscribe
bv voting the lottery loan to the last issue OF
bonds and because. in the second place, 1t re-
fused when the crash came to help the company
tbinlx myself that the lottery loan should have
never been authorized, and believe that corrup
ton alone can account for the favorable report OIL
the committee appointed to inquire into the staoe
of the canal works This committee hao before
its eves the report Of Engineer Rousseau, who was
sert IN panama by the French Government-a re-
mort which datly contradicted everything NJ de
Lessons had been from the first declaring There
vas vast weight of collateral evidence on the
side of Rousseau and all so clearly given that
when seen by the light thereof the managers OF the
Panama affair must have looked as vile as crawl
ing things.
But the piclipgs and hcldngs to be obtained OUT
of the lottery loan were great. Not Genuine "a
the money to be raised would, they Knew go in.o
the canal, it being already due to the Compton
d. Escomptc and other banks Nevertheiess' tne
committee was for the loan. which IN the eyes Oh
the ignorant was taken as sign tnat tne
Parliament Government gave it a sort of moral
should be so taken Deputy Marct, one Of the best
polcmical pens belonging to the Radical press
was the reporter and stated the case for the canal
better than the most slilful lawyer could have
done ! don't suppose. he being disagreeabie
and very unamiable man, that he did this merely
TO oblige the heads Of the Panama Company, and
he could not have done it for the good of the
ESQ. 600 shareholders whose savings bad been al
ready so seriously tapped by the sharpers behind
M de Lesseps.
General Boulanger has o. letter from peasant
at Bergnac who says in it that when the lottery
loan was issued he sold out all his French rentcs,
parted with his fathers watch and mortgaged
bit of land in order scrape together 5000 francs
which he had determined to invest in the lottery
loan. This is enguifed and the ruined investor is
q Boulangst. His story is that it was the Maret
report and the vote of the Chamber which led him
to risk his 5000 francs daresay that he tells
the truth.
Panama was mich cow to needy politicians,
greedy bankers, negotiators Of Jobs. editors OIL
journals and to the woman editor OF a review
who got large share of the company's adver-
tisements and who paraded Lesseps as her slave
Whenever these people wanted to hire by the
season boxes at the Opera House. or Tuesday even
ing boxes at the Francois, or to purchase coun-
try seats or marine villas or make long tours in
frstcIass condition. they agreed that there should
be another Panama loan issued AS there was
never any .eserve fund. the affairs having gone
on in hand to mouth way, the men behind DE
Lesseps lent at once to the aims OF The gang The
papers were filed with puffs and advertisements.
The latter were ostensibly paid for. The puffs
apparently expressed editorial conviction. The
bonds were issued and taken up with enthusiasm
BY the smallest class of the bourgeoise. which
n L.
print, which vegetables through the most opulent
existence of all journals in France. NJ. Thomas
Grimm. its sole leader writer. pulled Panama
He sometimes was carried above the concert pitch
of the paper by the heat of his enthusiasm. and
not only turned the corner" but gave leaders
about the canal and IT'S prospects filling more than
two columns. Unfortunates who. in the long
evenings, 90 to bed with the lamp because they
drudge to burn a few cents worth Of candle or
lamp oil. were hooked with this bait Of Thomas
Grimm. and took their money out of the savings
bank to devote it to the initiating OF the Panama
bubble. The Grand Francois" who had learned
to cell Hes when IN diplomacy in Egypt, in dash
ing Of hand way lied any amount TO interviewers
He was always good for an interview to a reporter
at loss for taking copy, and always appeared to
take the Journalist into confidence. The conf
Dental utterances were meant to keep up the
hope and faith Of shareholders
don't believe that he meant to
xwindle or that he was q party to the
gigantic jobbery in which the milhard and a
half of francs has gone. BE was satisfied with
his income as chairman and with some other per-
auisites of lucrative kind Nor do think his
eyes were well opened to the enormjty Of the
gwindle to which he lent his until he went
last t. Panama. From the first visit he knew
that the enterprise would present more difficulties
than he had been led TO suppose from the survey
of Lieutenant Bonaparte Wyse, of the French Navy,
ana the report of General Turn. the lieutenant's
brother-in-law. Lesseps himself told me that
Wyse's report was daringiy mendacious. and that
he ought TO have known it could not be other
wise. because there an Unborn hostility in
every one If Bonapartean race whom he had ever
known to the truth
But he was in for the enterprise. and as he
thought it feasible. he meant to 20 on with it.
This conversation took place when the first issue
of bonds was .about to be made. was then hold
ing some shares, for which subscribed when Les
seps and Admiral Ronciere de Ia Noury had taken up
the concession Turr had obtained OF the Colombian
Government. and were going to finance it. Lesseps
before the subscription. lists were opened. had
distinctly told me that 100000 francs would
amply suiBhe TO make the canal
He was going quietly to buy up all the absorbent
clay for dynamite and TO set up factory In the
West Indies or at Colon, so that 1t could be
furnished fresh to his engineers. A scientific
committee was stcdying other explosives All the
earth and rock taken from the Culebra Mountains
was to be used in burning the Chagres River and
in making moies and ether harbor works. When the
first issue Of bonds was looming in the immediate
future went to De Lesseps to express my sur
prise. He told me that the money was wanted 90
buy the Panama Railway, but he admitted that the
power Of the comrany's directors 70 issue bonds
was limited, and that it would have to use this
power TO far greater extent than he had an.
tcipated. He again spoke of the misleading sur
veg Of Bonaparte Wyse, but said that as wheat
grain lay under chat, so much truth lay under
the falsehoods OF the survey, and that he con-
kdered the money had invested safe Ny feel