Arizona weekly citizen., 1891-01-24

tance of the Nicaragua canal bill which
 has been reported to the senate by Sen ator Sherman. It provides in brief chat the capital stock of the company shall be limited to s1OO,OOO, coo, and the com pany is authorized to issue bonds to that amount to run 100 years. and to bear per cent interest, these bonds to be guaranteed by the United States as to principal and interest as those become due. It IS also provided that the bonds ehall not be sold at less than par. Care ful provision is made for the protection of the government, 1t being reputated that the bonds are to be held by the secretary of the treasury and delivered to the company for sale only in propor- tion to the progress made in the work of canal construction, and six of the fif- teen directors are to be appointed by the president of the United States. It is confidently expected that the company will be able to meet all its obligations as they accrue, and that the United States will not be called upon to pay either principal or interest. If there should however. be any failure the Unit ed States would have to foreclose and become the owner of the property; and this possibility leads necessarily to the consideration of international relations. The only treaty of the United States tEat bears upon this question is the so- called Clayton-Buiwer treaty of 1850. By this convention the United States and Great Britlan bound themselves not to obtain any exclusive control over the canal. which at that time was con- templated as an enterprise immediately to be undertaken, and agreed also not to "colonize or assume or exercise any domain over Nicaragua, Costa Rica, the Mosquito Coast CT any other part of Central America" The report of the committee accompanying the bill argues that this treaty does not interfere with the proposition made by the bill, slnce the treaty was based on the idea of the immediate prosecution of the enterprise then projected, and has therefore be- come obsolete. Great Britain now con- trols the Suez canal, and this, in con- nection with other acts of England, is considered ample reason from discharg- ing the United States from its obliga- tions and declarations under the treaty. Moreover, in the opinion of the com mittee, the proposed measure contains nothing inconsistent with any of the en- agreements of the United States under the convention of 1850. It is argued, also that the work is so great, and its possible benefits so transcendent that it should not be left to private enterprise, which, in the chances of the future, might fail. The guarantee of the gov ernment will enable the people to obtain funds at a lower rate of interest and will prevent the control of the canal from falling into other hands through the purchase of bonds and company securi- ties for foreign account. As for the in terest which the United States has ID the proposed canal, this has so often been set forth that no repetition of it is necessary. It is perhaps to be regretted that that the plan for guaranteeing the bonds was not proposed at the outset, but there is undoubtedly a much stronger sentiment in favor of this work than then, and there is general recog-
 milton of It's national character The senate committee certainly make a strong argument in favor of the bill.