The morning call., 1894-08-06
TEHUANTEPEC AT LAST.

President DiaZ has been notified of the
completion of the Tehuantepec Railroad
and has been invited by the contractors
to inspect it, with view to its acceptance
by tbs Government Thus is completed
an enterprise which has been fifteen years
under way, and as to which, when it is in
running order. people will wonder that it
had not been constructed long before.
Gonzalez was President of Mexico when
the original Tehuantepec Company OBJ
ained its concession, surveyed its line
and began work 1t built twenty-eight
miles of road and then broke down from
want OF funds, abandoning the line it had
constructed. Then Captain Eads started
his scheme of ship railroad across the
tsthmus, and though it was generally re-
garded as fantastical, 1t diverted mems
minds for nearly ten years from the sub
ject of a practical railroad. At Eads'
death the project was definitely aban-
doned, and the Mexican Government.
which had come into possession of twenty
eight miles of road at the Atlantic end
and Of about twenty-five miles which it
had built at the Pacific end. undertook to
complete the line as a Government enter
prise. Porfrio Diaz borrowed about
S15,OOO,OOO in England and issued for the
loan per cent gold bonds secured by the
income of the new line; with the money
thus obtained he pushed the work to COM
pletiOn.
1t is the only rival of the Panama Rail-
road, and it has great advantages over that
line on account of the material shortening
of the distance between New York and San
Francisco. The distance from sea TO sea
is only $50 miles, and the depression in
the Sierra which it crosses can be over
come by gradient 953 feet to the mile.
The headwaters Of the streams which
feed the COatZacoalcoS. flowing into the
Atlantic, and of those which flow west
ward into the Pacific lagunes are only a
few miles apart. Ons-thiTd of the road in
fact runs through level alluvial plain,
through which the CoatzacoalcOs pursues
its tranquil course. The port of Tehuan-
teDec, which is the western terminus OF
in which Panama is situate. Sailing ships
departing from Tehuantepee can always
rely On the northeast trades.
A year ago. when the ompleti0n of the
road was foregone conclusion, the South
ern Pacific offered to lease it from the
Government of Mexico. The offer was
declined by President Diaz on the ground
that he proposed to throw the road open
to all carriers, and was unwilling that it
should become a partner in monopoly.
We are now informed by a dispatch from
the East that Mr.. Huntington has re-
nswsd his application. The story requires
confirmation. Even should it be true that
be has made the proposition, the DISPOSE
ton is with President DiaZ. and he is I'M
doubleday too wise a man and too devoted
to the public interest 10 permit the road
TO be made monopoly
Itwould seem that the new road ought
to do a good business without entangling
alliances. The harbors at each end are
good, and after the line is in complete run
ming order the traffic between California
and the East will have the benefit of a
new competing route. 1t ought to be pos
sible to organize line of freight steamers
10 carry goods from New Orleans TO San
Francisco via Tehuantspec in as short
time as the average freight trains on the
Pacific roads take 10 cover about the same
distance.
The country traversed by the road lies
in tbs States of Vera Cruz and Oaxaea,
and is imperfectly known. Even the val
ley of the Coatzacoalcos has only been de-
scribsd by a few travellers, though the
river of that name, unlike most of the
rivers of Mexico, is navigable for thirty
miles inside the bars. 1t Is known tnat
Vera Cruz grows tobacco which is little
if at all inferior to that Of Cuba, and that
the cocoa OF Oaxaca is of unrivaled excel
lencs. But the people are still largely Of
the aboriginal breeds. and civilization pen
elrates among them with difficulty. The
engineers who made the first surveys for
the Tehuantepec line reported that in
many parts they adher ed to primeval SIM
plicity in respect to costume. Biologists
have said that line drawn from the CAPT
tai of Mexico, through the center Of OAK
AGA, cutting the main axis of upheavsl at
an angle of IS deg, would probably inter-
sect the richest argentiferous region in the
world. The field is practically virgin.
When the road is opsned for traffic, we
shall know whether the prediction was
based on substantial grounds.