New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1898-12-30
PANAMA AND NICARAGUA.

The promoters of the Panama Canal scheme
appear 10 be getting anxious or short OF 1uhus'
which amounts to the same thing. little while
ago they were quite naughty and independent
They were going straight ahead with their
canal whether the United States liked II or not
To adapt the words of an old song, they nad
the route. they had the men. and they had the
money too. But now their tone has changed
They admit that they have as yet no DEFINITE
plan for the completion of the work. Whether
they mean engineering and Typographical plan
or financial plan does not appear. Ana 'ney
are uncommonly solcitous for the United states
to abandon its Nicaragua scheme and take up
theirs instead. and, il is to be assumed, furnish
the cash for further operations in the Chagres
swamps. They urge that the Panama route Ii
the better from all points Of view; that II can
be opened more speedily and al less cost than
the Nicaragua route, and that in existing trea-
ties and statutes the Panama scheme offers all
the guarantees and advantages which our Ma
tional interests can reasonably require.
Their appeal will not prevail. The United
States knows all il wants to know or needs TO
know about that ill-conceiyed and misdirected
Panama scheme. Had il been possible TO real
ize the daring vision of De Lesseps, tide-level
canal without locks, beyond doubt that route
would have been preferable 10 any other. IN
fortunately the conformation OF the globe and
the natural laws Of the universe were against
It, and not even the great Magician OF suez
could overcome them. Now 1t Is conceded that
n canal at Panama must have at least eight
locks. That fact destroys its sole advantage
over the Nicaragua route. From all other points
Of view the Nicaragua route is the better. Al
though it will require an apparently longer
ion will no
thirds as long as that at Panama, and there
will be two locks less than at Panama. More
over as a glance at the map will show, the
trade route between our Atlantic and Gulf ports
on the one hand and our Pacific Coast ports and
Pacific island possessions on the other will be
from FIVE hundred miles 10 eight hundred miles
shorter by way Of Nicaragua than by way OF
Panama. And sailing vessels going by the
former will not need hundred miles of steam
towage at the Pacific side, as they would II they
wen, by the latter So. instead Of the Panama
n is the Nicaragua route that is the better from
all points Of view
As for the second point. that the Panama
Canal can be more cheapiy and speedily con
structed, Il is equally open 10 dispute. De Les
seps magnil0guenty asserted that tide-eve
canal could be cut at Panama for Sl2O,ooO'ooo
and he undertook the task nearly twenty years
ago with zeal and enthusiasm that command
I'd the admiration If not the confidence OF th'
worl,h Ten years later his company went Int
bankruptcy, with $350OOO,00O of debts, ant
with the work scarcely One-ffth done. Near
~ $30OOOOOO0 had actually been expended
upon the canal. The present estimate Is that Il
complete the canal will cost $lOoOo0Oo0 more
and take ten years Of time. II TO that sun
we add the former expenditure and the capita
OF the present company, we reach n CRANE
total Of S4I50000o0 representing the cost OF th'
Panama Canal. The best estimates OF the cos
of the Nicaragua Canal are scarcely more thai
one-fourth of that amount, and the extrem
estimates Of it's opponents are not onc-half OF II
Moreover, At Panama there must be forty'si'