Los Angeles herald. [volume] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1890-1893, 1891-10-10
THE NICARAGUA CANAL AND THE RAIL.
ROADS.

courage the nicaragua canal project,
asked why the farmers did not subscribe
literally to the canal stock, declaring
that they were more directly interested
in the opening of that route than the
metropolis of California. 1t is perhaps
true that the wheat farmers OF our state
would receive in the aggregate greater
advantages than San Francisco; but it
is not true that it is their duty
to take the initiative in absorb
ing the stock of an enterprise
of this character. AS rule
farmers are not capitalists, nor are they
sufficiently versed in business outside of
their own vocation to make this kind of
speculative investment with any degree
of sagacity or safety. The business men
and capitalists of great commercial
cities, however, are in very different po-
sitions. They can make these invest
ments with little risk, for they are the
focus of all the best knowledge to be
had on such subjects.
But what are we to think of the pub
lie spirit and business acumen of
the men who direct and control
the commerce OF great city
like San Francisco, in RELOCATING
to the farmers OF the state the duty of
assisting a great enterprise like the
Nicaragua canal? Every one knows
that San Francisco is more deeply inter-
ested in the success of this project than
is any other city on the continent. 1t
would annihilate, SO to speak, her dis
lance from the great marts of the world,
and bring the ocean advantages of her
situation up to the highest standard OF
possibility. As San Francisco is now in
her relation to the commerce OF the
world, she might as we'll be situated in
the middle OF continent 5000 miles
wide. The Nicaragua canal would
bring her 1000 miles nearer to the COM
mercial centers of the world, and restore
her marine commerce to the prestige it
enioyed before the era of transconti-
mental railroads.
Mr.. VIM. H. Mills few weeks ago
delivered an address before the
ragua canal and its effects upon the
prosperity of this state, which is replete
with profound and suggestive thought,
and in which he clearly showed that the
canal was the one thing needed as
complement to the railroad traffic across
the continent to bring into active and
benefcent life the dormant industries
of our state. He showed that the cheap
products OF our country constitute about
so per cent. of our natural re-
sources, and would not bear the cost Of
railroad transportation three thousand
miles. But these same resources could
be got to a paying market by ship via
the Nicaragua canal, and insomuch as
the percentage of this cheap material,
untransportable by land, was reduced
by the opening of the canal to marine
commerce, to that extent would the
profitable employment of the state be
increased and the population receiving
wages augmented. st is in the realm
Of common things" says Mr.. Mills,
'that the great employments of men
are found. Manufacturers of iron en-
ploy a thousand times as many
skilled artisans as are employed in the
manufacturing of gold; and no better
illustration of the real situation can be
found than in the fact that while our
territory lying west of the Rocky noun
tains is distinctively the richest metal
liferous country in the world, we have
never been able to transport any
thing in considerable value except silver
and gold" We have millions and mil
lions of tons of certain grades of ore thst
are worthless now, but which would be
brought into profitable exploitation five
could transport them to Swansea or Fri
| burg cheaply. The forests of our state con-
tain lumber to the value Of hundreds Of
millions Of dollars, but the lack of de-
mand for it within economic reach of
our present transportation leaves them
almost untouched. So we might go on
and enumerate great variety of re-
sources that are entirely eliminated as
factors in the prosperity Of our state
because they are not of sufficient value
to make it profitable to get them to
markets where they could be profitably
utilized.
The Nicaragua canal would bring all
these dormant resources into the chan
nels of commercial activity, for it would
make it possible to get them to markets
where they would be sold at profit.
To the extent that the range of our
industries would be increased and
widened, to that extent would new
enterprises, new manufactures and new
employments appear, creating fields of
labor now unoccupied, and increasing
the density of our population and the
prosperity of our state. The railroads
would lose nothing by the canal, but
would participate in the benefits of the
increased traffic, passenger and freight,
which that enterprise would bring to
our state.
THE San Francisco Chronicle smartly
advises Congressman Bynum, in his
speeches in this state, to take up the
subject of raisins and dried fruit, and
try to prove that these industries would
be better off without protection. The