The record-union., 1892-04-26
NICARAGUA CANAL.
ADDRESS ISSUED TIE AMERICAN
PEOPLE.
Congress Asked TO Aid in the Compile.
ton of the Work-America Should
Control the Canal.
Special to the REcoRD-UNrox.

special TO the RECoRD-UNIoN.
SAN Francisco, April 25.-An address
has been prepared by the committee o.
nine appointed by the State Nicaragua
Canal Convention to arrange for the Ma
tional Canal Convention at st. Louis next
Dune. The address is signed by the full
committee, Messrs. James G. Fair, A. p.
Bacon, NJ. NJ. Estee, Horace Davis. C. L.
Taylor, T. G. Phelps, William l.. Merry,
James a. Clayton, Marsden Manson and
A. b. Butler, also by John t. Doyle,
Chairman of the California Nicaragua
Canal Convention. The text of the adj
dress is as follows:
To the AmeT1cdn People: The State
Nicaragua Canal Convention of California,
which recently met in san Francisco,
provided, among other things, for the APP
pointment of an Executive Committee OF
nine, which committee was empowered
10 prepare and publish an address to the
American people, showing some of the
reasons why the Nicaragua Canal should
be built, why the Government should aid
in its construction and control the work.
The committee thus provided for sub
mits the following address:
In this age of commercial activity, the
United States must push its trade and
commerce, or it will lose its foreign mar
kets and suffer financial depression. The
advantageous position of this country
ought to make it the first commercial ma
ton of the world. Its peculiar location
on the Western Continent, its vast agri-
cultural and mineral resources, the va
riety and quality of its productions, the
extent of its territory, its coast line front
ing on both oceans and extending along
each side of the continent for thousands
of miles, the amount of its wealth, its
great and increasing population and its
tree institutions, all combine, if rightly
directed, in placing this Republic in the
front rank among the commercial ma
tions of the world.
But even with these advantages, if we
would succeed commercially, we must
overcome every physical obstruction to
quick, cheap and safe transportation to
all foreign and domestic markets.
And thus the question of the hour and
the greatest problem of recent years is
one of transportation. In the near future
success or failure will depend more upon
cheap transportation by land and water
than on the quality or quantity Of the
articles produced. Water TRANSPORTATION
is the only competitor Of railroads, and
the shorter the water routes the greater
and more effective the competition. Rail-
roads now cross the continent, a distance
of more than 5000 miles, while the con-
is less than twenty-six and one-half
miles. The whole length of the canal
Gncluding the navigable portion of Mica
ragua Lake and San Juan River is only
1854 miles.
If the American people would make
water transportation between the eastern
and western side of the Continent sue
cessful competitor to land transportation
the Nicaragua Canal must be constructed
and it should be built by American
capital and controlled by the American
people.
Commercially, nothing within the range
of thought will accomplish so much fo1
our country as the building of this great
waterway. 1t will shorten the distance
by sea between the two sides of ouI
country about 10000 miles, and from the
Pacific Coast to Europe about Z Geo miles
1t VIII create greater commercial poSsi-
bilities between the different sections OF
our country, and it will largely increase
our trade facilities with all foreign coun-
tries. 1t will make a competing route fol
transportation by water which will neu.
traliZe the combinations of land trans.
portation companies, and yet it viii teno
to increase the very business of the com.
panieS it completes with. 1t will make
secure to this Republic much of the com.
merce of the Pacific Ocean, now drifting
into foreign channels. 1t will bind to-
gether by the ties Of common interest al
the States of the Union 1t will open the
commerce of the Pacific with the Valley
of the Mississippi. The Gulf States and
the far West viii feel the vitalizng forces
of new and better markets for the prod
ucts of the soil, because cheaper trans
portation by sea will increase prices and
thus greatly benefit the interior and pro-
ducing States of the Union, while the
North and the East will grow strong un-
innraaSnh Il
shipping, and the manufacturing indus
tries of those sections will be greatly
benefited by an improved home and
foreign market.
1t will give renewed and stronger ex-
preston TO an American policy of main
tanning peace among nations by building
up industries and creating trade and
commerce.
But more than this; the defense of the
Pacific States in time of war should de-
mand the thoughtful patriotic considera-
ton OF the whole country. The Pacific
Coast industries are now so large and
varied, the population of that part of the
Union so sparse, the distance around
Cape Horn by sea is so great the lone
time required to reach there by water. the
increasing needs of that part of the
American Union, all point to, and make
necessary, as a matter of national safety
the building of the Nicaragua Canal.
No more illustrious example of the
fostering care which the most enlightened
nations of our time give to the subject OF
trade and commerce can be found than
In the history of the commercial SUI
premacy of England. Her keen busi-
ness sense, her insular and yet midway
position between America and the East
ern Continent, her knowledge that the
nation which controls the CARRYING trade
of the world largely controls its com
merce, her liberal policy in building ur
the one and thus sustaining the other
and, lastly (and most conspicuous of alb
the construction of the Suez Canal. has
made that marvellous country the com.
mercial mistress of the world
Let America profit by her example
Let our Congress aid in this great work
not as menace 10 foreign nations, but as
8 protection to our own country and Z
blessing TO all other countries, SO thai
this canal, which is to be built across the
American Continent, shall be built by
American capital and controlled bX
the American people. And when com
pleted it will unite, by the ties of com
mercial interest, all the American repub
lies, giving greater stability and renewed
prosperity to each, inspiring confidenc,
and insuring perpetual peace among al
OF them.