The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1893-02-12
A WARM WELCOME
The New Panama Line Is
in High Favor.
CENTRAL AMERICAN COFFEE.
1t Will Come to San Francisco If the
Competing Steamship Line Is
Success.

"The Central American people are heartily
sick of the treatment they have received at
the hands of the Pacific Mail Steamship
Company. and know that they will gladly
welcome the new company, and throw all the
patronage possible In its way"
The speaker was a gentleman who has
just returned from La Libertad. in San Sal
vador. and has quite recently been stationed
at Panama in charge of the submarine cable
station there.
Alfred Smith Is his name. He Is now on
his way to Europe for a short vacation.
"At all tile South American cities l visited
the sentiment is the same" he continued.
1.-THE Pacific Mail line has heretofore en-
forced a policy that ted almost to
prohibition In the matter Of shipping
freights.
1.-THE truth is they have demanded just
the last penny the traffic would bear, and
by the time the average coffee grower had
paid his freight bill his expected profits had
vanished into thin air. or rather gone into
the pockets of the subsidized monopoly.
"The North American Navigation Com
paDy has glorious futurs before it. There
Is not merchant or shipper below AGA
pulco on the Pacific Coast but will welcome
the new line with open arms.
Competition in trans Atlantic freight
rates means everything for the Central and
South American growers. Ii means life, IL
means profit, it means the building up Of
countless agricultural industries there
For years tho growers who have been
compelled to ship their product over the
Pacific Mail route have been systematically
robbed, and there has been no possible
redress.
cit was a sort of stand-and-delIv game,
and the steamship line held the drop on the
other fellows, who could only turn their
pockets inside out for the enrichment of the
transportation people and their own impoy-
erishment.
IL understand that a scheme is now on
foot for the building of a railroad from the
interior points in Nicaragua, at about Rivas,
to Granada. This will give an outlet to
vast mount of coffee that now goes by the
southern routes
81 have not particle Of doubt but that
the new line can and will secure the most if
not all of this trade 1t is already quite ex-
tensive and is growing to en- ormous proper
tions.
"COffee-growiDg in Nicaragua is profit
able calling, or will be when the freight
rates are more equitable.
The Government offers bonus of
cents for every tree set out and the land can
be obtained for nominal figure.
'For man with modest capital there
Is hardly any better opening than these
there is every prOba bllity that in the matter
Of freight rates there will soon be relief
''At present all the coffee that can be is
shipped via the San Juan del NoTte route
TO tie Atlantic route.
This is done TO escape the big tariffs de-
manded by the Pacific Mail Company. 1t
is q much longer route than that proposed
by the new railroad to the isthmus, ana the
latter will doubtless be constructed at once,
or as soon as it is definitely ascertained
that there Is to be permanent competition in
isthmus rates.
the building OF this road would greatly
benefit San Francisco, for 1t would throw
very large part of the coffee trade that
now goes to Atlantic ports direct into the
Golden Gate.
The distance from San Juan del Sur to
Rivas is about twenty-oue miles, and rail-
road constructed over this route would
serve the double purpose Of affording an
outlet for the Nicaraguan coffee and an
inlet for the construction material 10 be
used in building the canal.
IF the canal scheme goes through, as 1t
assuredly will, the railroad must be built, so
that sooner or later the North American
Navigation Company directly ard San
francisco indirectly, are bound TO be greatly
benefited II the new steamship line proves
success.
And the success Of the latter seems as
sured. | am fresh from that part of the
world, and | know how the shippers and
growers there have been sweating under
the burdens OF the Pacific Mail.
They are already rejoicing at the news.
To them, even as much as to the San Fran
cisco shipper, the North American Naviga-
ton Company Is a genuine godsend
AS TO the Panama canal, things are in
terrible shape there. just to clear away
the debris from the work already done
would cost million, l believe, and the
people Of that part of the world generally
concede that the undertaking Is totally I'M
practicable.
Great hopes are possessed by the people
OF the Nicaragua canal scheme. and every
body looks forth with rare anticipation to
the day when work shall be commenced.
Its completion will make a different
kind OF country of Central and the north
ern part OF South America
1T is entirely feasible, and could be CON-
pleted in very short time at a far less cost
than 1t would take to complete one-half Of
the Panama canal.
Central and South Americans look upon
the Nicaragua canal as a sure-thing scheme.
They have every confidence in its financial
backing. and would. II they had the money,