The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1892-10-01
Miles Present
Route, via
Betweel


The wheat crop of the Pacific Coast in
1891 was over 100000 tons, and so per
cent of the wheat was exported by sail
ing vessels and a large proportion of it
passed around the Horn. The Nicaragua
Canal, by shortening the route to Atlantic
ports, would not only save the producer
cost of freight, but the revenue of the
canal at So per ton toll would be nearly
S3,000,000 on wheat alone. 1t is shown
i that there are 500,000,000 thousand feet of
understandable timber in Washington and
Oregon, to the value of which over 81 per
thousand feet would be added by cheap
water transportation via the Nicaragua
Canal. The gross addition to the value
: would amount to the enormous sum Of
$1,000, 100000, even at this low estimate of
81 additional. The fruit industry of Cali
fornia would quadruple in two years from
the opening of the canal for business and
fast refrigerator steamers would deliver
fruit from California to New York in ten
days, Liverpool in fourteen days, and to
! New Orleans in eight days.
The mountains of the Pacific Coast are
rich in lead, copper, silver and gold,
while the plateaus and valleys afford a
cereal belt with soil more durable, and
more favorable seasons for seeding and
harvesting than any part Of the world,
and the committee thinks the completion
OF the Nicaragua Canal is only needed to
develop that country to production of
gigantic proportions and double the pop
iation of the Pacific Coast in few years.
The cotton growing sections of the Gulf
States have undergone depression, and
the committee believes that nothing could
be of greater immediate advantage than
the canal in relieving that depression,
and making a market for American cot
ton in Japan, China and Corea, where
already the people are beginning to man
utacture cotton goods by machinery.
Japan imported over 1000, 900 pounds of
American cotton in 1891, most of which
was shipped from New Orleans to New
\ ork, and then by rail to Vancouver and
steamship to Japan.
At present the coal trade of South
America and the Pacific Coast is monop-
olized by the English. The committee
thinks that If the Nicaragua Canal were
opened the Alabama and West Virginia
coal would have decided advantage ever
English competitors, not to mention the
enormous amounts of coal the canal COM
pany itself would use. AT the entrance
OF the SueZ Canal last year 500. 900 tons
OF coal were sold. In competition with
England for Pacific Ocean trade the
Nicaragua Canal would give American
commerce an advantage of 2,700 miles,
While besides the specific benefits, the
committee thinks general benefits will
accrue TO the entire Mississippi Valley,
the lake ports and the Atlantic Coast.
Ship-building and shipping interests in
New England Will receive q new impetus.
n new coasting trade viii spring up and
American tonnage on the high seas will
largely increase.
The committee says that great trans
atlantic powers are looking with coyet-
Gus eyes toward the Nicaragua project
and that foreign Governments would
very cheerfully and eagerly embrace an
opportunity to take advantage of the en-
terprlse with unlimited capital and
prompt energy, but it conceives It to be
the patriotic and political privilege of the
United States to complete the canal.
The commercial and naval supremacy of
the nation which might secure control of
the canal demands imperatively that its
control should not pass away from the
people of the United States. 1t is made
plain that two fleets would be required
10 block an American fleet in Nicaragua
where one would be necessary elsewhere.
AS a footbold from which to attack or de-
3end. TO threaten or protect all the coasts.
islands and adjacent seas, it is more
commanding power than Gibraltar.
Among the beneficial results foreseen
are more practical drawing together OF
the remote parts of the vast domain of the
world and a firmer cohesion of the
widely separated sections of the United
States, added to stronger feeling of
neighborhood and community between
The Atlantic and Pacific seaboards. The
contamination of the work, whose feast
blllty has already been demonstrated, is
asserted to be of far greater importance TO
the Western Hemisphere than the SueZ
Canal IS to the Eastern. It is said that nc
precedent can be cited upon which to
predict the future OF American commerce