The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-11-22
He Recommends Construction of a
City to San Diego, Cal.
PREDICTS ENORMOUS TRADE
WHEN OUR PACIFIC COLONIAL POS
SESSIONS ARE DEVELOPED.
POIygamist Roberts, of Utah, Likely
to Be Ousted from the Next Con-
gress as a LaNbreaker.

WASHINGTON, Nov. 21.-Gen. James
Longstreet, the commissioner of railroads,
in his annual report, made public to-day,
calls attention to the general prosperity in
railroad affairs and recommends the gov
eminent construction and operation of
first-class double-track railway from Kan
sas City, Mo-, to San Diego, Cal, by an
airline route. He says:
1.-THE annexation of the Hawaiian islands
the possible probable control of the
Philippine and Ladrone islands-must open
up new trade relations of such growing pro-
portions with them as to so materially in
crease the business of all the bond-aided
roads as to be we'll within the scope of rea-
son to anticipate their ability at an early
date to pay principal and interest of their
debt to the United States. These new East
ern possessions with Cuba and Porto Rico,
producing tropical products-our annual de-
mand for which is to the extent of 1925 000,
COO, about one-third of our entire imports
will in a. few years be entirely furnished
from these new possessions and our own
products taken in exchange, while now our
exports to those islands, 1 believe, do not
exceed $15,000000 annually Heretofore un-
der former sway every effort has been made
to discourage business intercourse with
Americans. Under the new order of things
in these islands every effort will be made
to encourage trade with the United States,
and when the population is doubled in num-
bers and is increased ten times in ability
to produce and consume which is not an
unreasonable anticipation, then what will
our trade amount to? 1t is impossible to
imagine.
Less than 5,O00 600 colonists in Australasia
exchange products to the amount of $780,
100000 annually. 1t is only reasonable to
suppose that in q few years trade with our
new possessions will fully equal, if it will
not surpass, all this, Of which the United
States must and will control the bulk.
Furthermore, the vast volumes of wheat
and other cereals which now find their way
from the middle Western grain prairieS to
Asia and other countries of the western
hemisphere via the Atlantic seaports will in
a very few years reach these same destina-
tons via Pacific seaports, and with this
changed condition will come vastly in
creased tonnage and revenues to all the
trdnScontlnenIal lines. The diversion of
this very traffic on this idea is now receiv-
ing the careful attention and consideration
or the executive and managing officials of
some of the leading lines between Chicago,
st. Paul and other middle Western grain
centers and the Pacific slope, and therefore
1t seems to me the interest the United
States has in bOnd-aided railroads, and es-
pecially in the Central Pacific Railroad,
should not be scaled, but that we have
every reason to look for repayment Of dol
lar for dollar, principal and interest, loaned
or advanced by the government originally
to these corporations.
1T may be timely just now to suggest
that the government construct and operate
q f1rSt-claSS 0ouble-traek railway from Kan
s6s City, Mo-, to San Diego, Cal, by an
airline route. This will open the shortest
line, measured by the map from Boston
Now York and Philadelphia to the Pacific
coast along and near the coal fields of the
East and the West this side of the Rockies,
and making the most direct line from our
great commercial centers to the Sandwich
islands and the Philippines. This, with
other lines now working overle nd may
prove ample for the wants of commerce to
the Pacific coast and the Orient holding
trade and travel within our borders, pend
ing the experiment of a canal through the
fevered climate of the isthmus. An over
land route from Vera Cruz, Mexico, to Aca-
pulco, now approaching completion, may
be an important adjunct to our own over
home advantages of an overland line built
by the government will be to draw the peo-
pie nearer together in interests and SYM
pathieS and will serve them as a safeguard
against the monopoly of corporations. AS
trade increases it may develop the inn
portance of q. direct and similar line to
Seattle. In Washington State
direct line between New York and San
Diego. but the Typographical features of the
country indicate that possibly a better route
may be found from that point and the
bridge over the Mississippi river at st.
Louis may prove an important considera-
ton. A survey, therefore, by direct line
should be made from each of these points,"