Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1895-08-28
THE NICARAGUA CANAL
The Project to Be Favorably Reported by
the Commission.
some Deviation of Details Suggested
and the Cost Will BE Grenter Than
at First Estimated.

Inc project for ship canal across Mic
aragua will be reported upon favorahy by
the commission which has Just returned to
New York from Central America. and
which was appointed in pursuance to an
act OF Congress. The report will not be
given out until Congress meets, but it is
well known that 1t approves the project.
Inc commission suggests some deviation
OF details, and finds that the cost will be
greater than hitherto supposed. 1t is esti-
mated that 1T will take s115,OOo,O 900 and
1000 men six years to complete the work.
The report will show that the commission
fnaue very minute examination.
Mr. Blacks Opinion.
Mr.. Chauncey F. Black of Pennsylvania
has written letter. in which he reviews
the recent demand of the ST. James Gazette
tnat England be jointly interested with the
United States in the control of the Mica
ragua canal. Mr.. Black says:
II there ever was any crisis or anv oc
caslon for one, it has passed long ago. The
orlush government has seen the growth of
,iIesistioie public sentiment in this coun-
Try IN FAVOR of the canal as an exclusively
American affair. 1t has seen Congress-
ESTABLISH purely American corpora ton to
UNDERTAKE 1t. It has seen bill after bin
pfousht INTO congress to lend to ii The
credit of the United States 1t has seen
our government authorize surveys appoint
commissions and take other steps looking
iiecessarliy TO the exclusive control of the
canal which were notorious throughout
the world, were unconceaied and open and
could not be misinterpreted. To none or
any OF these has she offered any objection
or entered any protest She Is, therefore,
by every principle of equity and evarv
canon of honest diplomacy precluded from
opJecton or protest now that after these
many years, the American mind has been
resolved, the American government LARGELY
committed, American capital extensively
expended, and the work is, one way or an
other, either with or without government
credit, about to be put under way. 1t ia
impossible that the article in the St.
James Gazette can have had any official in
spiration, or that it reflects a view likely to
De entertained by the present or any future
that government upon an equal participa-
uon with the United States In the benefits.
military and commercial, of this purely
american canal would produce very Sc
rious ana dangerous situation-a situation
injurious to both countries and threatening
to the best interests of the civilized world"
New Markets Demanded.
After arguing that the Clayt ,n-Bulwer
treaty Is a dead instrument, Mr.. Black in
sists that Great Britain can have no share
In the canal, and he does not believe she
will ever ask it. He then adds:
Our manufactures demand new mar
kets. and, as recent events have amply
Americas, but something like a thousand
millions of Asiatics, to whom we can 20
most conveniently by this route are walt
ing to trade with us or with the English.
as circumstances may determine. We have
therefore. right to insist that this Amer.
lean canal shall be under American control
that Of the United States, Nicaragua and
Costa Rica-and that while we do not pro-
pose the barbarity Of excluding the peace
full commerce of any nation, We do propose
that there shall be no possibility Of any
European nation excluding ours.
But the military view of the matter Is
even more impressive. Since the signing
of the treaty our Pacific states have grown
into an empire, threatened only by the
naval and military ornaments of that
country. which, according to the ST. James
Gazette, insists upon an equal possession
with us in this American canal With the
canal the efficiency of our fleets, passing
rapidly between the two oceans. would be
more than doubled as against the fleets of
any other power. Shall We share this adj
vantage with Great Britain, whose naval
and military posts bristle in peculiar men,
ace to us in the Caribbean sea, along the
Canadian frontier and on the North Pa
ctfc? In this view of the case alone 1t
seems to me that no expenditure of money
would be too great for the American people
to make in order to secure this enormous
naval and military advantage which natur-
ally and justly belongs to u.s."