The morning call., 1893-01-14
ITS BROKEN FAITH.
Pacific Mail and the
Panama Road.
HOW THE DEAL WAS MADE.
An Agreement to Furnish Business
Broken i'm the Interest of Trans
continental Railroads.
Special to THE MORNING CALI.

Steamship Company has outgeneraled the
Frenchmen who controlled the Panama
Railway, according to the Worlds Wash
ington correspondent In the course OF a
three-column article he says: Ever since
the failure of the great swindling canal
scheme the shrewd operators who comprise
the Pacific Mail Steamship Company nave
viewed with apprehension the prospect OF
the future of the Panama Railroad. The
stock of the railroad has passed FROM
American control at very exorbitant prices
into the hands of the canal ring. The fran
chise of the railway gave it the exclusive
right of transportation across the isthmas,
and the canal people were powerless with
out the possession Of the property The
failure OF the canal company left the rail-
road stock almost the only valuable asset,
and shares. numbering 1854 out OF total
OF 10000, secured by the canal people. had
passed into the hands of receiver
appointed in France. A Paris dispatch
gave out the terms of the holding of the
63, 534 shares exactly as the receiver of tho
canal company desired the public to be-
lieve. 'Al the stock of the Panama Rail-
road, the receiver will say, il he is pressed,
is out of the control of this Office, except
the equity of redemption The actual fact
is only SO. 800 shares, held by Cberamy, are
in hook. as it were, for the benefit of the
unpaid canal contractors; the $1,000 held by
HyronimoGs and 1921 held by Boudet are
still practically unpledged and are at the
disposal of the canal receiver. Hyronimors
was formerly treasurer of the canal COM
pany; Boudet was the late secretary. They
are in the employ Of the receiver aud have
% N THAR NJ M 2implv
as a means of safety. The receiver is pro-
tecting the assets as long as possible.
protection which would be investigated and
upset very quickly anywhere but in France.
where. until very recently. the energies of
the Government have been directed to cover
everything adverse to the canal ring.
when the Pacific Mail formed IA pool
with the transcontinental railway lines to
regulate freight traffic by the way OF the
isthmus. the Panama Railroad people were
placed in the position of compliments.
They objected to the comparatively small
csrgoes of goods which the steamships
brought down from San Francisco and New
York. The Pacific Mail Company received
large monthly subsidy from the railroads,
and often times the boats from New York
would arrive at Colon half-lsden. with the
result VI RItdtIy tibus-
portation of the railroad.
1.-The pool was maintained until broken
by the withdrawal of the Atchis0n Com-
pany. Atpresent the Atehison. and prob
ably the Northern Pacific, are out, but the
Huntington lines, the Gould interests and
Jim III i'll of st. Paul are just as earnest in
the desire to control the isthmus traffic as
formerly.
"a few months ago a representative If
the Pacific Mail went abroad to commute
cate with Receiver Monehcourt The nba.
den of his business was that the Pacific
Mail wished controlling interest in the
Panama Railroad. The shares held by
Hyronimous would be enough to secure
majority of the stock of tile voting list. The
receiver was in a position where the con-
fiicting Interests Influenced him. If the
control of the Panama Railroad passed
from the canal, the latter would be at the
railroads mercy. MOnchicourt has been
hopeful all along of the renewal of the
franchise and of future work ON and the
completion of the great ditch. After much
discussion Monchicourt named price
for the stock which was not satisfactory to
the diplomatist from New York. He was
willing to give all the stock was worth.
however, but the receiver would not change
his figures. In final interview with Mon
chicourt he informed the latter that he
(MonchicourD would realize before long
that the value he attached 10 the stock was
fictitious; also that the receiver would be
glad to sell on the Pacific Mails terms.
I'm due season the diplomatst left Paris,
and he set in action the machinery of de-
preston. and the prospects of the canal
scheme have been growing beautifully less.
The friendly aid Of President Harrisop's
Government was invoked and obtained. and
State papers were drawn up at the State
Department aud dispatched to Bogota.
"The situation OF the canal affairs in that
republic was as follows: The canal inter-
ests, through Monchicourt, had applied for
a renewal or continuation OF the franchise
for the construction of The big ditch. which
was forfeited because of the failure Of the
company to fulfill its part of the agreement
Secretary Foster informed President NuneZ
that it would be extremely distasteful to
the United States Government IL the fran
chise were continued, and Bushnell OF
Nebraska bore credentials giving him au-
thority to speak for the Secretary of State.
Although the official interposition of the
United States had been successfully in
voked. Pacific Mail interests deemed it eX-
pedient to use little private diplomacy of
its own. A representative was dispatched
10 the isthmus with great discretion as 10
the arguments he should use on President
Nlnez. The success Of the combined effort
of the State Department and its agent be-
came apparent when dispatch from Pan
anna Wednesday announced that the Colon
bian Government had been shocked by the
exposure of the canal frauds in Paris and
it had deemed it wise to delay extending the