The Advocate and news., 1898-11-30

Commissioner of Railroads, In his an
nual report just made public, calls at
tentlon to the general prosperity In rail-
road affairs and urges the government
construction and operation Of a first class
double track railway from Kansas City,
Mo-, TO San Diego, Cal, by air line route.
He recommends government transcon-
tInental air line in the following langu-
age:
"The annexation OF the Hawaiian is-
lands and the neutrality-suspicious.
troll of the Philippine and Ladrone is
lands must open up new trade relations
of such growing proportions with them
as to 80 materially increase the business
OF all the bOnd-aided roads as to be well
within the scope of reason to anticipate
their ability at an early date, to pay
principal and interest OF their debt to the
United States.
"These new Eastern possessions, with
Cuba and Porto Rico, producing tropical
Droducts-Our annual demand for which
is to the extent Of 225 million dollars,
about one-third of our entire imports
will, in few years, be entirely furnished
from these new possessions and our own
products taken in exchange now, our ex-
ports to these islands, | believe, do not
exceed Is million dollars annually.
Heretofore under former sway every
effort has been made to discourage busi-
ness intercourse with Americans. Under
the order Of things in these islands every
effort will be made to encourage trade
with us and when the population Is
doubled in numbers and is increased ten
times in ability to produce and consume
which is not an unreasonable anticipa-
tiOn, what then will our trade amount
to? It Is almost impossible to imagine.
LESS than 55 million British cOlonists
in Australasia exchange products to the
amount Of $50 million dollars annually.
Il is only reasonable to suppose that In
a few years the trade with our new pos
sessions will fully equal II 1t will not
surpass all this, Of which the United
States must and will contrOlathe bulk"
Furthermore, the vast volumes Of
wheat and other cereals which now find
their way from the middle West grain
prairies to Asia and other countries Of
the Western hemisphere via the Atlantic
seaports will, in very few years, reach
these same destinations via Pacific sea-
ports, and with this changed condition
will come vastly increased tonnage and
revenues to all the transcOntinentaI
lines.
"The direction of this very traffic Is
now receiving consideration Of the eX-
ecutiVe and managing officials Of some OF
the leading lines between Chicago, st.
Paul and other middle Western grain
centers and the Pacific slope. Therefore
II seems to me the interest the United
States has in bond aided railroads, and
especially in the Central Pacific, should
not be scaled, but that we have every
reason to look for repayment Of every
dollar loaned by the government orig
inally to these corporations.
1T may be timely just now to suggest
that the government construct and Oper-
ate a first class double track from Kan
sas City to San Diego by air line route.
This will open the shortest line, mea-
sured by the map from Boston, New
York and Philadelphia to the Pacific
coast, along and near the coal fields Of
the east and west of this side OF the
Rockies and making the most direct line
from our great commercial center to the
Sandwich islands and the Philippines.
"This, with other lines now working
overland may prove ample for the wants
OF commerce to the Pacific coast and the
Orient, holding trade and travel within
our borders pending the experiment Of
a canal through the isthmus
"An overland route from Vera Cruz,
Mexico to Acapulco (on the western
coast of Mexico), now approaching COM
pletion, may be an important adjunct to
our own overland routes as commerce in
creases.
1.-THE home advantages of an overland |
line by the government will be to draw
the people nearer together in interests |
and sympathies and will serve them as
q safeguard against the monopoly Of cor
rnz.ntinnn An Aradn innroasno Il rnnw de-. |