The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1898-06-04
NICARAGUA CANAL PROJECT.
Surprising Figures On Distances If
Would Save.

- IS declared Feasible-What Has Already
zone and the Further Plans of
the Company That Did It-,,,n,o.o.tfc
Difficulties.
ooi' paragraphs in the newspapers all
o'ef tue country suggest that the trip of
Vne pattieship Oregon from San Francisco
W u" nave amounted to little and that
sue would long ago have been doing SER
we Win the Nicaragua canal to go
pr'oush' says the Philade lphia Times.
w 'rip OF something like 14,0OO miles
"oulu hSve been reduced to abont 1000
LILIES rev people realize, however, that
u 'Noso extra 10000 miles 2,4fO, about,
"ot0 taken up in going east to get
a-ouhu 'ne eastern extremity of South
america, only to turn around off Cape
%. hoque, Brazil, and go 24Oo miles
westward again.
IN mat fact lies the strongest argument
OIL the advocates of the Nicaragua canal
~ Is plainly visible on the map. The
mlndWard Passage between Cuba and
aay1i IN the West Indies lies due south of
new York and any ship going around
South America to get into the Pacific
ocean, IN addition to its southern jour.
ney must go eastward from that 1ongi-
tuoe and for the distance mentioned only
10 go Westward again. This means more
'n"h would at first appear. For instance,
Whlie the canal would make the trip from
Liverpool to San Francisco $500 miles
shorter than the present steam route of
l5,ooo miles through the Strait of Magel-
ian, and 1900 miles shorter than the sail
ing route of Is, 600 miles around the Horn,
IL would make the trip from New York
TO san francisco g. 200 miles shorter for
steam and 10,7c0 shorter for sail. 1t
would shorten the trip from New Orleans
TO San francisco by 1900 miles for steam
and by II, s53 for sail In other words, by
the present route even for full powered
steam vessels going through the straits.
oan francisco is 1S,i74 miles from New
YORK; H. 500 miles from New Orleans
(which is greater than that from New
York;, and only 3,494 from Liverpool
BY the new route New York and New
Orleans would have more than 1000 miles
advantage over Liverpool instead of
about 300 miles for New York as at
present. So much for Cape st. ROGUE
and the extra travelling it makes neces.
sary.
From Cadiz, where one of the Spanish
Hest is now supposed to be, through the
slow and tortuous Suez canal and Red
Sea to the Philippines Islands the dis
tance is about 10000 miles. From the
West Indies, where our fleets now are.
though the Nicaragua canal to the
Philippine Islands the distance would be
$500 miles, SO that if the Cadiz fleet
should start in sufficient strength to
overcome Dewey and tho achievements
which have been sent him, fleet could
be sent from the West Indies to arrive at
Manila in ample time to coal before tax
ing hand in the controversy. These
figures, startling as they seem, may be
verified from govern ent tables or from
the maps. A contemplation of them and
all they mean renders needless anything
further to show the Importance of an
Isthmian warer way, whether for peace or
war.
The first authorization OF a canal be-
tween the two Americas and connecting
the two oceans was made by Spain in
1851, and ever since 1t has been dreamed
about and hoped and worked for by all
sorts Of people. The Panama canal has
TO dofo I,oan tho 90
all attempts and its story is now part of
the worlds criminal history. At the
time it was stopped in 1888, $50, 600, 900 of
the savings of the French people had been
squandered in causing an unknown and
unknowable sacrifice of human life,
ancient and honored names had been tar
nished, men of every race and of all
degrees Of intelligence, from the soldier of
fortune to the savage, had robbed and
ruined and murdered each other in wild
orgy of license and corruption. and still
the little neck Of land stands there with
the sides Of its mountains unscratched,
with new and deadly fevers named after
its rivers-always an allurement, swag-
gering threat to the timid, an insincere
promise 10 the foolhardy. The Panama
canal, already halting, anne to a dead
stop when the Culebra Mountain, through
which an open cut $50 feet deep was being
made, began to creep slowly forward In
the rain and drop by the thousands of
tons into the unfinished and wooded
work De Lesseps was imprisoned and
committed suicide in his old age, and the
government of great nation was shaken
to its foundations But now with assets
in the way OF plant and tools estimated
at sixty or seventy millions of dollars.
with from ~ to Is millions of restitution
money recovered from bankers, con-
tractors and others who had Illegally OBJ
tanned possession of it, with the honor of
the French nation involved, but with
scarcely beginning of the great work, a
new company has been three years sur
veying, investigating and estimating
with view of some day trying it again.
The United States has closely watched
all attempts to cut the 1sthmus and
United States engineers have twice pro-