Evening star., 1898-11-05
NiCARAGUA'S CANAL
Work Of the Commission Nearly
Completed.
REPORT WILL SOON Be SUBMITTED
Cost of the Trans-Isthmian Water
way Carefully Calculated.
PRACTICABILITY ASSU RED

The Nicaragua canal commission appointed
by the President under an act of Congress
directing complete inquiry into this prof.
Get. with particular reference to its prac-
ucability and cost, has about completed its
work and the present prospect is that the
report will be handed to Secretary Hay in
about a month.
The commission has taken building on
18th street formerly used as the German
legation. and, under the direction of Ad
| miral Walker. chairman, force of SO COM
puters, craftsmen, engineers, etc, is at work
on the report and the mass of technical
matter which will accompany il. making in
all the most elaborate presentation of the
subject ever attempted The commission is
laboring, however, to avoid proiXity and to
center attention on the salient features of
this great project. leaving the statistics
and details TO follow in supplements. This
promises to give d report which Will be in
teligible by its concscnesS. and yet SufIl-
c1enty comprehensive to meet the require
ments of such large problem. The COM
mission has gone about its work feeling
that 1t was likely to furnish the basis for
the final action of this government on the
building of the canal
PracticabiIity and Cost.
sion will not be announced until the report
is submitted. 1t is known, however, that
on the two salient features-practcab
and cost-the commission will report, first,
that the project of d canal joining the At
iantic and Pacific by what is commonly
known as the Nicaraguan route is entirely
feasible and practicable, presenting no en-
glneering problems which cannot be met;
and, second, that the cost can be presented
with fair degree of mathematic exactness,
allowing for excavation, construction and
all other Items
The report will give this cost in figures,
but the amount is not yet known even to
the commissioners, it will depend upon
the careful computations now being mads.
The purpose is to make it near mathc-
matically exact possible, and not to give
mere opinion of the various commissioners.
Admiral Walker has already expressed
the opinion before a congressional commit
tee that the cost would be within $125 900,
900, and this is understood to be his opin-
ion still But the report will state a figure
not based on opinion, but the careful
calculations of the many experts who are
now at work every branch of the
project. The only element of doubt will pe
in establishing the unit of cost for certain
estimates, as there may be differences as
| to this unit, depending on conditions of the
soil, climate, etc. For instance, while the
commissioners may fix with eGactness the
total number of cubic feet of excavation
required in such a vast undertaking, it is
sum the unit for reckoning the whole
or any considerable part of the work This
will be done closely AS possible under the
circumstances, and the indications are that
the figures to cost will be exceptionally
conclusive in showing the utmost limit to
which the government could be put if The
building of the canal Is begun.
A Unanimous Report.
The report, it is understood, will be unani-
nous, as the commissioners are agreed on
all the essential features of cost practi-
cability, route, dams, &c, the only differ
ences being those natural shades of opinion
as to the unit of cost on some of the
branches of the work.
The report will not refer to the political
questions involved, but will confine itself
to the scientific and engineering problems.
The political questions, it is recognized, are
for the State Department and for Congress,
and these will be working out about the
time the report is presented. They involve
the question of concessions and rights
granted by Nicaragua to the old Nicara qua
Canal Company, and quite recently to a
company of American capitalists; also the
question of the right of the United States
to build the canal a distinct government
enterprise, without reference to private
conc cesSions, as contemplated by what is
known as the Frelinghuysen treaty, and
later advocated by Secretary Sherman; and
finally, the complications growing out of
the disappearance of Nicaragua November
! as a sovereign nation and its absorption
by the United States of Central America.
AS stated, however, the commission will
not deal with these political questions and
will not make recommendations or discuss
conflicting private interests, but will con-
fine itself strictly to the project as an en-
glneering enterprise. 1t is known to be the
private opinion of some of the members of
the commission that the government and
not private enterprise. is the only means
by which the canal can be constructed.
one of the most serious obstacles urged
against the canal a government proect
has been the Clayton-Buwer treaty, and
the right of joint occupancy and control
under it GAINED by Great Britain. But
there is a growing feeling that the senti-
ments developed between the two countries
during the progress of the recent war will
go far to remove this obstacle and will
probably pave the way for complete
understanding between the countries.
President Hitchcock Here.
President Hitchcock of the Maritime Canal
Company, as the Nicaraguan Canal Com
pany is now known, called at the State De-
partment today to discuss with Secretary
Hay the recent action of the Nicaraguan
government in granting the Cragin and Eyre
concession. Secretary Hay has not vet re-
ceived the report upon the details of the
transaction which he has called uuon
United States Minister Merry to furnish, SO
that nothing be done at present AL
though it is the intention of the department
to fully protect any interest which the
United States government itself may claim
Ito possess in the existing canal concession
as soon as the grounds are properly laid
for further prosecution of the case
Mr.. Hitchcock was accompanied by Mr.
Mason, a New York attorney, and paid
visit to the White House before leaving