Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1892-12-14
By TELEGRAPH.
Qua a,ssrs N pananA-


ho0 American Sks9kta3 tntetsts ~ ASsssss
by Receiver Mssehiessrfs Order
wssnfS..rsS. Dee. i3--ln the troubles
of the Pacific Nail Steamship COMPANY on
the issiIiBas resort has naturally h,st been
10 the eosaris aad hereafter there may De
opportunities for diplomatic eorrespon-
tienee.
Bn, fzseanw isis,. Congress sill have as
sesnbied aiisi sisouIl affairs on the istfmas
become critical. whsel, il not likely TO De
the case. they weuii doubtless be referred
10 that body, and all the more since an out
going administration would hardly seek 10
tnbsrrass or force the moves Of lis success
sor in a matter of national AMI not OF party
concern.
II may be worth recalling that when Mr..
cleveIand's administration came into power,
in the spring Of 1855. il was ut once called
upon to make a naval demonstration on the
i-,hmus. IL sent down an expedition OF
vas vessels ansl landed force OF marines
and blseiackets to protect the lives and
property OF American citizens there during
the instruction then prevailing
This il dill in accordance with its treaty
pledges to Colombia to guarantee safe tran
81 across the isthmus. RHt the recent ac-
tion of the lqaidator Of the Panama Rail
r ,ad Company, in an all ged discrimination
agaiast American shipping Interests, Is quite
another matter. aud probably before the
lth of March Will b,. III train of solution by
ordinary processes.
The cause of the present trouble h the
notification published few years ago by
Receiver Monchieourt, the officer appointed
by the French government to take charge
Of the affairs of the Panama Railroad Com
pany.
This notification sunnnarily puts an end
on Feb. !. 1898, TO the existing contracts
OF American steamship lines with that rail-
railroad for Transporting merchandise across
the isihmus By issuing through bills of lad
lag thereon.
Indirectly this act arises ont of the disas-
ters of the great Panama canal job, still
under heated DISCUSSION in Paris, which have
clnsed the French government to interfere.
But what concerns our country Is that 4
railroad enterprise. began ant carried out
by American enterprise and capital. having
been absorbed in Il canal Undertaking of
French origin may no longer serve is well
as hitherto for the accommodation OF Amer
lean commerce.
Ii is easy To see and TO say that tie funda-
mental mistake was in permitting the acqul-
sition of the railroad by the Canal Company
Doubtless the reason was that on it, face the
affair was simple business transaction, 10
which a very large price was paid for the
road and further, that, even though 1t III
yolved foreign management of the sole
mode of steam transit between Colon and
Penama, it would still be subject to existing
tr eaty stipuiations.
Ii remains to he seen whether these treaty
stipuiations and the contracts founded
thereon would really be violated. or are not
enough for any Just protection Of American
shipping interests.
The temporary injunction granted on
in the Supreme Court of New York,
at the instance of the Pacific Mail Steam
ship Company, which is chiefly affected by
Receiver Monchicourt's ordey, begins this
legal fight 1t restraints the Panama Rail
road Company from conducting or being
concerned in any service by vessel for mer-
cbandise, mail, or passengers, between
Panama and Acapulco, specially mention
ing the CHILEAN line, Sud Americana de
Vapores.
With this line the railroad company is
said by the complaint to be contemplating "A
contract that allows it the issue of the
through bills of lading, of which the Amer
lean company is to be deprived, SO dis
eliminating against the latter, and tending
to injure or destroy its Central American
trade.
The action may thus be brought because
both the Pacific Mail Steamship Company
and the Panama Railroad Company were
incorporated under New York charters, the
former in lS4s and the latter in 1919 The
steamship company. also, established It's
line first, and used wagon road for years
across the isthmus, until the railroad, in
1875, was finished and took its place.
As TO mention of the two specific ports,
it is due to the fact that 20 years ago the
Pacific Mail Steamship Company bought
up competing line which the railroad
company had established between Panama
and Acapulco, on the Pacific side, the rail
road stipulating, it is alleged. not to en-
courage any other steamship line to enter
into the business of the line so sold.
The right of issuing through bills of land
ing was then also accorded, and existing
agreements between the various steamship
lines as to tran portation and division OF
the profits were ratified and continued.
But apart from the legal aspects of the
case, which will be duly decided, one way
or the other, in the hearings about to be
held, its international aspects are those that
most interest the general public.
Half Il dozen steamship lines converge al
Colon, while on the Pacific side the chief
lines are the Pacific Mail, going
north from Panama, and the South Ameri-
can. going south. The former has sixteen
vessels employed in the Central American
trade alone, and it is not agreeable for the
people of the United States, in view of the
treaty of I:ilG, TO see it Disseminated
against by the French receiver of rail.
road line which was once American.
Whether, however the question can prop
erlv be made international at its present
stage does not seem TO be as vet determined,
1t is suggested that in any ease ,as American
interests are now mainly in the Nicaragua
canal, the efforts of France to extricate the
Panama enterprise from its difficulties do
not concern us +; and further, that since thu
Panama road was bought for an enormous
price, and no question was raised at that
time as to its connection with the Monroe
doctrine. it il rather tardy to raise an inter-
national question now.
But. after all, the question of vested
American rights remains, and the mail car
rying contracts of the Pacific Mail Com
pany will have 10 wears to run. 1t is said
that some informal cabinet discussion of the
question has been had. The treaty of 1876
makes transit free and open to the govern
ment and citizens of the United States
without duties or tolls payable to New Gra-
NADIA.
The primary question just now may be
the phraseology of the receivers notice,
since it may carefully avoid infringing the
terms of this treaty with a view of prevent
ing the question from becoming interna-
tional.