The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1892-02-07

4 NJ NJ
GINTT %A@9 IRAl city for South
4 MN MANN and Central Amer
s,S.AS)4RIf lea to make the
SEAMAN surveys for the line
WHY of the Interconti-
mental railway.
Ever since last May these parties have
been in the field. and, though suffering
the greatest of hardships and surrounded
by all the inconvenience and difficulties
of the rainy season among the Andes and
on the highlands of Guatemala, they havs
prospected and mapped out nearly 1000
miles OF road. The territory through
which they are travelling is practically un-
known to the world, and great part of
their journeys have to be cut through
forests, and for hundreds of miles
they are away from the lines OF
wagon roads and have nothing but
mule-paths to guide them. The reports
from the different expeditions have been
received regularly at the Intercontinen;aI
railway Office here, and very full private
letters have been written to Mr. Cassatt,
the president, and to Lieutenant Brown,
the executive officer of the commission, by
the men of the various parties. This cor
respondeuce and these reports have not
been given to the public, and / have spent
several days during the past week in look
ing over them. Many of the letters read
like romances, and one shoulders and
shivers as he hears OF the trials and
troubles Of the various camps. Some of
each party OF engineers have cameras with
them, and the photographs of the country
and the people which have been sent here
are interesting In the extreme.
But first let me give the PosT-TxrELLI-
GENCER some idea of this wonderful under
taking. 1t is the most stupendous inter
national enterprise in history. Think of
seventeen great nations made up of differ
ent peoples and owning the best part of a
great hemisphere peacefully combining
together to build a line of railroad which
shall carry their people and their products
from one country 10 another. The repre-
sentatives of these people meet together
and decide that they will donate strip of
land to such n railroad. which shall for all
time remain neutral ground. They agree
that the railroad when built shall never
be taxed, and they put their hands right
down into their pockets and pull out the
money to be used in laying out the line.
They agree that each shall pay fixed pro-
portion OF the whole according to
its population, and each of the seven
teen nations agrees to give 81 for every
1909 people 1t has, toward making the sur
vey. They appoint commissioners to take
charge of the work, and they select three
of the biggest and most practical of the
milllonalres of the United States for this
purpose. The head of these is A. ]. Cas-
satt, who started life in the Pennsylvania
railroad car shops, who has been vice presi-
dent of the Pennsylvania Railway Com
Il Z. IL
his life, Is now, in his prime, a number of
times millionaire. Another of the COM
missioners IS ex-senator Henry G. Davis,
who worked on railroad as boy and
who now is an owner of railroads and
a builder of new lines. The third
millionaire is Mr. Kerens. prac-
teal business man of St. Louis.
and the trio forms one of the strongest
combinations of practical brains in this
country. The executive officer of the
commission, Lieutenant Il. NJ. G.. Brown,
is the son-in- law of Henry g. Davis, and
one of the ablest officers of our navy. It
was he who saved the Trenton during the
terrible storm at Samoa by making a hui
man sail OF the men on the ship and thus
tiding 1t away from the rocks and saving
the lives of several hundred men. The
secretary of the commission is Hector De
Castro, who was engaged with John
Mackay in making the Commercial Cable
d
been engaged with Nr. Mackay in his rail-
road enterprises. The commission has an
office in Washington City, and though it's
work Is done quietly everything is pushed
forward with energy and rapidity.
The engineers selected by such men
were, of course, the very best in the coun-
try. William 7. Skunk, the head of the
South American party, built the Penn
sylvania railroad across the Alleghanies,
and ). Imbrie Miller, the chief of the Sec
ond South American party, is known
everywhere in the United States. The
Central American engineers are picked
men from the United States navy. and
there Is not man connected with any of
the parties who is not a specialist in his
line and hard, earnest, practical worker.
The line when completed will give a con-
tinu0us railroad journey from any city in
the vBited States TO almost any point of
prominence III South America, and the
idea is that the trunk line will run from
Mexico City 10 the northern terminus of
the Argentine railroad system, or a dis
tance Of more than 5000 miles. When it
is completed, one will be able 10 take
continuous railroad journey from
New York to Buenos Ayres, a dis
lance of, in round numbers, some
thing ike Ip.BD miles, and the
road will be one OF the most wonderful in
the world. The general elevation will be
from mile to q mile and a half above the
sea, and at some points 1t viii he one Of
the highest railroads in the world. OF the
1890 miles from the southern terminus Of
the Mexican system 10 the northern ter
minus OF the Argentine railways only 80
miles Of road are already constructed, but
private lines which can be used in the sys-
TEN are under construction and surveyed
% the extent of / 500 miles, leaving less
than 200 miles to be located and built.
From this main line the idea is 10 run
branch lines oil to Venezuela and there
will be other branch lines SO that the
whole OF the vast resources Of the South
American continent VIII be opened up.
At the rate SO Tar made the engineers can
survey 1000 miles year and tie road vii
be surveyed III year and hall.
The building Of this railroad and the
making Of the survey seems so far TO be
perfectly practicable. The road which the
commission has 10 outline and build is not
as long as the distance from New York to
San Francisco, and the reports Of the en-
gineers show that tue difficulties Of con-
struCtion in the Andes can be easily over
come Already South America, Mexico
and Central America have done much in
the construction OF railways, and the rail-
way development Of some Of the countries
within the past decade mas been wonder
full. Mexico - building railroads as fast
as the United States. She has $3.50 miles
IL operation and her roads pay good div
idends The road she Is building south
ward from Mexico CIty toward Guatemala,
-. ..~eft Ts.r-- Of N.F4