The record-union., 1891-10-03
TEE NICARAGUA CANAL.
1t viii Make San Francisco a Great
Metropolis.
The Question is One of Cheapening
Communication and Increasing
Our Population.
[san FRANCISCO Examiner. oct. 1st.1


Trade held Tuesday, August 18th, the
board, having under consideration a
resolution Of A. A Hubbard of Chico, de-
claring the board to be in favor of the
early construction of the Nicaragua
Canal, and asking the representatives of
the State of California in Congress to
favor Government aid in the construction
of said canal, w. II. Mills OF this city
said:
Mr.. President: am unwilling that the dis
cusSlon of this question shall 90 by default.
Ihe silence in which this resolution has been
received indicates q unanimous opinion in its
favor. That silence may express simply an
assent to q result, the Accomplishment of
which Is in the remote future. Declarations
OF opinions, in the form Of resolutions, have
less value i'll Fastening the accomplishment
OF the result than the argument they elicit.
Ihe canal VIII come INTO existence by public
demand, and pubic demand will be intenSi-
fed ana strengthened by convincing the
judgments OF men that the canal will confer
signal benefits upon the commerce Of the
world.
The particular question with which we have
TO Ceal Is: Nv hat would be the effect of water
communication between ocean and ocean
through the isth1nus upon the industrial,
commercial and financial condition of Cali
fornla 2" Now, ] have entertained well-con-
sldered and well-defined views on this uues-
tlon for more than fifteen years. l am most
a
canal through the iSthmuS, chiefly because OF
the great benefit ! believe it will confer Upon
the development OF our own State. If / were
asked the question to-day: What is the great
est obstacle to the growth OF California? /
would answer: "Isolaton and remoteness.' -
Moreover, if l were asked the question: What
Will most promote the growth and develop
ment OF this State? | would answer: Greater
intimacy OF communication with the rest of
the world" Distance and cost are intercon-
Yeruble. If it costs no more to send the pro-
M tot
to New York, the distances between California
and the Missouri River and New York are
equallHed, because distance and cost are COM
pletely lntercOnYertible. If it costs as much
to send freight from san Francisco to Yrelz;l
and San Diego as it does to New orlk then
III q commercial sense, the distance to all these
places is equal. have said it repeatedly, and
repeat II again, because tits great central
truth: Economic communication is the equiv
alent of physical contact. In the transporta-
ton of persons, time is of the first import
ance; distance is eliminated by speed; but in
marketing the products of the country the
cost OF transportation is the first considera-
uon, and cheapness is the interchangeable
term for nearneSS.
The industrial resources of California are
impaled upon the longest lines OF rail by land
and the longest lines by sea, traversed for
commercial purposes, on the geography of
the globe. The bare statement of this fact sig
niffes the greatest possible disadvantage CT To-
cation. All We import stanCs charged with
the largest freight bills and all we export must
submit to the heaviest discount when we at
tempt to place them in their final markets.
CALIFoRNIA'S TRANSPoRTATTON INTERESTS.
The transportation interests of California
are III advance of all other development. We
nave a better system OF railroad transporta-
ton across the continent. and within the bor-
derS o. our own state, than is vouchsafed to
populations II any times stronger than our
own. II our commercial and industrial de-
velOpment in other regards correSponded to
the development of our transportation inter
eSts. our State would be greatly in advance of
its present position in population, IN wealth,
and n all other elements OF catneSS. But as
long a. the commerce engendered by our pro-
ducts enters and departs by Atlantic seaports,
just so long our position Will be the equiva-
lent OF being at the center of q continent twice
the width or our own. The distance from the
Atlantic to the Pacific seaboard is 5000
miles. If our commerce must come to us by
Atlantic s6apOrtS and be carried across the
Ogous TO that OF people at the center of a con-
tinent 5000 miles wide. The geographical
advantage of being on the shore of a great
ocean can be realized to us only by develop
ing the commercial value of that ocean, and
this can be done only by making it an eco
nOmic means Of communication between us
and the countries with which we sustain real
and active commercial relations.
San Francisco and other Pacific seaports,
adhering to old traditions, live in the hope
and even the expectation that their position
uuon the seaboard will confer upon them the
commercial advantages which have in all
time Injured to ports at which "a great com
neIce enters ana dc p lGtS- llGy live upon the
belief that their supremacy as points of dis
tribution is to be maintained solely because
they are situated upon the ocean. They ap-
pear to be obliviouS of the fact that the forces
operating in their case relate to a commerce
which is once carried through a territory to
which they must distribute. 1t is obvious
that we carry a commerce entirely through q
territory to its very furthermost verge and
distribute back economically to the territory
through which II has once been carried. Rail
way transportation has its limits of possibil-
ity, and they are more narrow than steam
transportation by ocean. Make steam trans
portation possible as factor in the commerce
generated by the products of California and
YOU have produced a complete revolution in
the commercial forces which influence our
progress. 1t is no impeachment of railroad
mana cement to say that the cheap produces
which constitute from so to 90 per cent OF
the natural resources OF any country cannot
be carried 3 1000 miles by rail ana California
needs means of transportation equal to the
task of carrying the cheapest product to the
as no other inStrumentality can, ana if we
build the canal we eliminate 1000 miles, a
distance equal 10 the width OF the broadest
ocean.
CHEAP OUTLET WANTED.
I say, then. that what California most needs
to-day is a cheap outlet Tor its raw and cheap
materials, and the cheapest possible inlet for
the articles into which we desire TO convert
our labor. There is vast realm of material
resources in the State of California which
cannot bear transportation by either sea or
-.
evaporates in transportation. This is not the
fault of the transportation instrumentalities
1t Is Teferapie TO inherent conditions. The
value OF many things in the markets to which
they are carried is not equal TO the actual cost
of carriage over long lines. The railways con-
Meeting the little group OF population on the
Pacific Coast with the vast body of population
on the Atlantic Coast pass through countries
so sterile that the fixed cost of maintaining
railways through them is not paid by the
traffic originating in these countries. The
ay ,5fp1 Poi haf fyfnn Il
Reno, has not enough traffic originating along
its lines to pay the salaries of the station
agents. The commerce carried over these
lines must necessarily have charged TO it,
therefore, the fixed charges standing against
these long lines communication. a railroad
paSSir e over a thousand mil es of sterile coun-
try finus condition analogous TO that of q
bridge Il thousand miles in length, whereon
no freight or passage originates, or to which
no traffic is consigned. The commerce car
ried between the termini of such "a road must
bear the expense of maintaining the bridge.
II has been said that there is no limit to the
cheapness of railroad transportation. But
this is financially and mechanically untrue.
Railroad transportation is controlled by
financial and mechanical factors which are
ineXOrabic. There is an actual cost of move
ment which is Increased by distance because
mechanical power is consumed in proportion
10 the distance travelled, and mechanical
power costs money. Certain grades of ores
and certain grades of minerals u seiul to man
kind, or certain grades of lumber, or certain
wares, cannot be transported two or three
thousand miles to market. The value OF
these in the destined market forbids their
transportation. Their value is even less than
the actua! cost of such transportation. and
under such conditions, in the very nature of
things, they cannot be moved The forests OF
California contain lumber to the value of the
national deDt, II tnere existed demand for
that lumber within economic reach of our
present mt ans OF transportation. The mines
OF California are repositories of vast wealth
If the means of communication CORRESPONDENCE
La 10