The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1898-12-04

L pany, in public statement to-
= day touching the fact that rep
resentatives of the Panama Ca
nal Company are reported to have gone
to Washington supposedly to oppose
the building Of the Nicaragua. canal,
said he looked upon. 1t as an .astound-
ing. piece of effrontery on their part,
Mr.. Miller calls attention to a mes
sage sent to Congress by President
Hayes on March s, 1880, in which he
said: THE policy of this country is
a. canal under American control. The
United: States, cannot consent to the
surrender of this control to any Euro
pean power or to any combination of
European powers. Our commercial in
terest in it is greater than all of. the
" other countries, while its relations to
our power and prosperity as nation,
Ito our means of defense, our unity,
peace and safety, are matters of para
mount concern to the people of the
United States"
: Mr.: Miller then says: THE Ameri-
can. people will have no canal under
any auspices save their own-that of
. their own Government-and if the Pan
anna canal is. ever to be built it must
De sun SilhCICQ " lllC COAANiOA VI Iii
United States 1t will be remembered
: that in 1887. a congress met in Paris,
called by Count de Lesseps; to consider
the question of ain isthmian canal. At
that congress Count. de Lesseps gave
E: ii as. his opinion: and it was the judg-
ment of the entire assembly, that only
a. sea. level canal could be constructed
at. Panama; that%if a canal with locks
was to be built the proper place to
build it was In Nicaragua. The con-
gress decided in favor Of "a sea level
canal, and, Of course, chose the Pan
anna route"
Mr.. Miller reviews the organization
Of the old Panama Company, its work
in the United States to block the
: Nicaraguan. scheme, the failure Of the
= old .company and the formation of a
new Panama Canal Company for the
purpose of keeping alive the conces-
sions from Colombia. Continuing, Mr.
Miller says:
probability Of the United States Gov
cernment aiding the Nicaragua canal
enterprise; the new Panama Company
appears upon the scene to procure or
prevent Legislation, not with large
amount of money, but by the simple
exercise of cheek. They are undertak-
ing to fool the American people with
the: proposition that Panama is the
proper place to build high level ca
nal with locks, which De Lesseps ana
the congress in Paris declared not fea-
..sible in Panama. but feasible in Mica
ragua. : President Hutin claims 10
have solved the heretofore unsolyable
problems in connection with the PAN
anna route. The Culebra Pass has been
found, according to his statement, per-
fectly: easy Of execution. But COM
mission of French. engineers sent over
by the French Government soon after
the. failure Of the other company made
most voluninous report, which l
have recently examined, and / do not
find. anywhere in il that the commits
sion has ever said that the route was
feasible. They all say that if certain
. possible contingencies did not happen
the canal might be constructed for
something like 81, 000, 100000 But this
Mr. Hutin has whitfield down to some
thing like: $780, ,OO0?'
Mr.: Miller then enters into an analy-
sis, from an engineers point of view,
as to the difficulties to be overcome as
to the construction of the Panama ca
nal. and concludes by stating that in
support of the claims of Mr.. Hutin and
his assistants we have only their state
ments. He adds:
"They admit openly that they come
here to persuade this Government or
Congress to do something in favor of
The Nicaragua canal, for they know
Gery we'll that the moment it is decided
by the American people, through their
Government. that the Nicaragua canal
SAall be built, they cannot longer pro-