Arizona weekly citizen., 1891-11-21
THE NICARAGUA CANAL.

/ The trouble with Cnlle emphasizes
! in a forcible manner the disadvantage
!, the United States labors in, in case OF war
with any foreign power except Mexico,
which is land neighbor. In STR ggle
with England, the contest would be
largely carried on in Canada, but the
| real tug of war would be to defend the
parts of the coast on the Atlantic and
Pecifc OCEANS.
In the present instance, to concen-
! trate naval force on the coast of Chile
requires the doubling Of Cape Horn,
and in getting there the base OF supplies
is shipped to the Pacific and the feet
becomes readily detached aud cut off
from the Atlantic sea board. The prob
lem of war with Chile 10 not difficult
to solve inasmuch as the United States
is powerful and the navy of the enemy
is small, but in case OF European war
no matter how great the forces OF the
United States in the Atlantic, she could
net cooperate with those OF the Pacific.
and as matter of fact the United States
would have to build and maintain two
Independent navies, oGe for the Pacific
il look at the map Of merica issutfic!cni
to demonstrate, in case or war with d
foreign naval power, with South Ameri
ca neutral. how difficult it would be t,
bring the Atlantic vessels to the Pacitiu
and vice versa. IL the Nicaragua can
were IN existence all these disadvan-
taees would disappear. because by
means of it the forces on either oceai
could co-operGts with each other a
short notice, and bo5h could always bt
within comparatively short distance OF
be base Of supplies. The distance |
between New York and San Francisco |
by the Horn is 1900 miles, and by |
Nicaragua it is 5000. Between Ike!
West safe supply port of the Unite,
States on the Atlantic and San Diego il |
California, the distance by the proposed
canal is only $500 miles. These dis
tances ID themselves show the time tia
could be saved in the movement OF force,
and supplies, aud also how much NOR.
easily and with how much smaller force
these lines Of operations could be dc
fs7ded than the greater dist8ncs aronn1
the Horn Tha: is 10 say the power n
the navy both to attack or defend with
out a canal aDd with g cana! you'd l..
us 5000 to 5000, even if coaIinE s;a
tions could be secured along the Sou:
American coast, which could not be eH-
pected in case Of the neutrality of the
nations there. In other words it would
take. three ships to defend the long route
where it would require one by the short
one.
That'is. if fifty ships could be sufficier
to carry on a war With 8 canal, it would
take one hundred acd fifty TO do the
same without; and If these ships re
quire fifty millions, it will take one hun
dred and fifty million dollars to carry
On a war without a canal.
Again it would take from two to four
weeks to con ,entrate any member of
the feet OF tIs UuIted States g. q Civ
en- point on either ocean, II there was :
canal, while now even three months l.
to concentrate them.
America will come day come TO un
deTstand that The Nicaragua canal 1t
rot only a convenience for commerce
but military ne-essity, while TT,
building of respectable navy is indis
pepsable. To dig a canal somewher,
across the isthmus that divides the tw
oceans is an Indispensable necessary
make that navy efficient when butt
And such being the case, any st ties
nsn easily understands that even If Il
United States Guilt the canal at its ow
5Xpeuse, and then gave IL away, the ca
stenee OF Z T-ter way, uniting the tv
oceans, Ecuid save the natiSn two Dc
as out OF every three spent in building
ips, and W zen q war comes the uav,
uld have { tiree times more power an,
Efficiency.