Los Angeles herald., 1892-03-22
TWO DESIDERArA FOR SAN FRANCISCO.
COMPETING RAILWAY AND CANAL.


keeps their city back. They present
the issue well, and they show thor
ough sense of the disabilities under
which their city labors. Their mer-
chants and business men are no less en-
iightened. What is needed, however, is
some energy in providing San Francisco
with the agencies which are absolutely
demanded to arrest her decadence. The
Examiner, the other day, says that the
real need is the building of line of
railroad from the bay to Mojave to a
connection with the Santa Fe. which
corporation is the lessee of the Atlantic
and Pacific road. But it is note
worthy circumstance that, with all this
talk, not dollar seems to have been
subscribed for that purpose.
The building of the Nicaragua canal
would also be great help to San Fran
cisco; and yet, when Warner Miller
visited the coast, he could not get the
merchants and business men OF San
Francisco to take hold. The subscrip-
ton pledged to him was too insignificant
for mention.
Not only would the completion OF this
great work be of inestimable advantage
to San Francisco, but it would help in
calculably in the development of the
whole coast. Coincident with its COM
pletion the real tide OF settlement would
begin for California. All classes OF bus
mess would be stimulated, and an en-
pire would be created composed OF the
states of Washington, Oregon and Cal
ifornia.
The loans of two of the savings banks
of San Francisco-the Hibernia and the
Germania-together foot up forty mill
ions of dollars, to say nothing of her
other savings and her commercial banks,
and yet Miller was not able to secure
for his enterprise from the opulent citi-
zens of the Golden Gate a guarantee of
the paltry sum of 100000. Half of
that sum is said to have been the utmost
he could compass.
There is a growing feeling that this
great work ought to be built by the
government of the United States, or at
least that the government should guar
antee it's bonds under conditions that
would practically amount to ownership.
The possession of canal through short
stretch of the isthmus-either at Nicar-
aqua or at Tehuantepec-is as essential
to the prestige and power of the United
States as was the control of the Suez
canal to England. AS has been truly
said, its building would at once double
our naval power. The ship canal at
Tehuantepec shows very few signs of
life, thus leaving the Nicaragua people
in practical possession OF the field. The
actual length of the canal, through the
availability of the lake and the San Juan
river, is only twentv.six miles. Its en-
tire practicability has been demonstrated
beyond the peradventure OF doubt.
Conservative estimates place its cost at
$100,000,000, and the experience with
the Panama canal has had tendency
to make engineers guarded in their Off
cial outgivings. The total length of the
Nicaragua canal will be IA miles, in
Guiding lake, river and excavation.
The beneficial effects of its compile
ton cannot DE exaggerated from COM
mercial point of view. San Francisco
ought to be especially interested in the
consummation of this project. 1t will
shorten the transit from that city to
Liverpool as compared with the Horn
route 1000 miles; between New York
and San Francisco it will save 10000
of Suez canal the distance by water from
Yokohama to New. York will be short
ened 1000 miles, from Shanghai 1850
miles. The saving in time on the ship.
ment of cereals to New York and Liver
pool from California will be immense.
AS against the Horn voyage of nearly
four months for sailing vessels, a
steamer averaging ten knots can reach
New York in twenty-three days and
Liverpool in thirty-three, allowing in
both cases two days for the Isthmus
transit. Surely an enterprise which
holds out such inducements which
will vitalize the trade of the Pacific
coast and revivify the fading prosperity
Of San Francisco-o ought to receive some
encouragement at the hands of the plu-
tocrats OF the Golden Gate?
But the fact is that some restraining
power of mysterious force has paralyzed
the business men of San Francisco.
They have never shown much liberality,
and their enterprise has been of the
smallest, but even slow-paced and Pc
nurious men would seek to reap some OF
the manifest advantages within such
easy reach. They dare not call their
souls their own, and must rely upon the
enterprise and dash of outsiders for
relief.
While the Nicaragua canal appeals
more especially to San Francisco as a
measure of relief, it enlists the enthusi-
astic approval of the people of Southern
California as stimulus to development.