The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1892-12-10
THE PACIFIC MAIL AND THE
PANAMA RAILWAY.

u =
poration. its directors are American citi-
zens, its president is Major General John
Newton, q distinguished soldier on the re-
tired list of the United States army. An
old contract between the two American
corporations Of the Pacific Mail and the
Panama railroad is about to expire and
there is difference of opinion between
them as to the terms Of renewal. The at
tempt by the Pacific Mail to lug the Mon
roe doctrine into the case and to denounce
the Panama railroad as a French concern
ought to fail.
The Pacific Mail Company will probably
fail in its attempt to involve the United
States in its quarrel with the Panama
Railroad Company by pretending that
American interests are so menaced as to
demand governmental interference. The
answer of the railroad company makes it
clear that all the Pacific Mail wants is to
continue its present practical monopoly
of California and Pacific coast trade by
way of the isthmus. The Pacific Mail
Company is today subsidized by the trans
continental railways and under CO ntract
to let them tx the rates at which passen-
gers and freights shall be carried across the
isthmus. This combination has created a
ness on this Coast suffers.
If the Panama railroad cancels its con-
tract with the Pacific Mail and admits all
other steamship lines. as it proposes, in
either ocean to equal privileges, real compe-
tition between the routes to the Pacific
coast will be restored 10 the advantage of
shippers and traders on this Coast, instead
OF the present situation under which the
isthmus is kept from competition with
the transcontinental railways on Pacific
coast traffic. Under the contract of 1872
the Pacific Mail claims the exclusive right
to issue bills of lading over the railroad,
and to have monopoly of the direct con-
nections and therefore of the trade of the
railroad at both its Atlantic and Pacific
termini. The railroad company has mott
fed the steamboat company that its espe-
cial privileges will cease January 1, and
that the railroad will admit other steam
ship lines to equal if not greater privileges
after that date.
The reply of the Pacific Mail to this no.
tice was suit in the supreme court of
New York asking for an injunction against
the railroad company (Which is New
York corporation) forbidding it from with
drawing these privileges from the plaintiff.
The hearing on the petition for perma-
nent injunction is now being proceeded
with before the New York courts.
The insolvent Panama Canal Company
is the owner of the majority of the stock
of the Panama Railroad Company. BY
the terms of the treaty made in 1916 be-
tween the United States and New Gram
ada, now the United States Of Colombia,
the right-of-way across the isthmus of
Panama, which included the right to
build a railroad, was conceded to Amer
lean citizens. This privilege was admit
teddy an exclusive one, and for this reason
the consent of the railroad company,
which owned this privilege. was necessary
before the Panama canal could be built.
The Panama Canal Company bought
control of the railroad in order to obtain
this consent. The Panama railroad is now
in the hands of the receiver of the Panama
Canal Company, who is an officer OF the
French government, who holds the Pan
anna railroad as an asset of the bankrupt
Panama Canal Company, to be disposed
of for the benefit of its shareholders and
creditors. Technically and legally the cor
poration is still an American one, and the
ri,yiI Ia
treaty guarantee of such privileges to
American citizens.
No steps have been taken by the receiver
Of the Panama Canal Company in his adj
ministration of the Panama railroad
which can be fairly construed as an inter-
ference with any of our treaty rights on
the isthmus. So long as the Panama rail-
road company does not discriminate in
any way AGAINST the citizens of the United
States in it's tolls and privileges we have
no ground for complaint under our treaty
rights of 1876. There is nothing in the
treaty OF 1916 which gives the Pacific Mail
or any other American corporation es-
| pecial privileges TO the exclusion of all
/ other countries, and so long as the Pacific
! Msil is put on level with citizens of
| Colombia in its railroad privileges it has
no grievance that our government can be-
| justly called upon to redress by interior
ence in its behalf. OF the present situa-
ton the Springfield, Mass, Republican
| says:
| Even If the French government should OBJ
tain control OF the railroad. or it should in any
way cease 70 become an American corporation,
| the case would be the same. go long as we en-
| ioyed the privileges granted by the treaty in
| the ports, ana in the OF tho railroad OF the
! isthmus. We should have no grievance.
| The United states guarantees the neutrality
| OF the is,hmus. aud that guarantee and the
! Monroe doctrine would be grounds upon which
| o. base "a objection to French occupancy OF the
| iSthuus. But there are no signs a. present that
| France has any such intention The prospect
! that French company will complete the
Panama cans is 81 present a very remote one.
| The probability 10 greater that the concession
from Colombia wall expire by Limitation next
| spring. snd the project be ~ least temporarily
abandoned Ia that even; IL Is quite possibie
| that the end OF al this furry will be the re-
! transfer OF the Pansms Railroad Company 20
| American owne-shi0
---------------
The Democratic Brooklyn Eaql. shows
in = brief paragraph tie real qualifications