New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1899-07-04
CANALS AND DISTANCES.

1t is announced that great preparations are
being made at Panama for the reception and en-
tertainment Of the United States Canal Commits
sioners when they 20 down there this month.
The Panama Canal managers are In hope OF per
suading them that that route Is the best, ana
thus inducing them TO recommend 10 this Gov
eminent the purchase Of the old De LesSeps con
cession and of such works as have been done on
II and such plant may there be found. II has.
been an open secret for months that this Is the
expectation which buoys up the Panama com
pany and keeps 1t going at its mlracticable I'M
dertaking. 1t is also pretty we'll understood that
one OF the new mushroom companies which have
Just been formed, are trying TO get formed, has
in mind the purchase Of the Panama enterprise,
In hope Of reselling it to the United States at
handsome profit There is little ground for fear
that any Of these games will succeed. The
United States is not buying holes In the ground.
1t is to be hoped that the Panama people will, in
their preparations TO receive the Commissioners,
subdue the yellow fever which now prevails at
both ends of their route, so that the lives or the
visitors will not be imperled. Then no harm
will be done. They may as well spend their and
their stockholders money in music excursions
and champagne as In digging bitches which Will
never be completed.
There are arguments enough against the Pan
anna route. any one OF which is sufficient 10 CON
denim it. For the present let us consider just
one Of them, that OF distance The chief end TO
be gained by the construction of 2Iy isthmlan
canal is the shortening Of the sailing or steaming
distance, and consequent shortening or time or
transit between our Atlantic and Gulf ports on
the one hand and the various Pacific ports, do
nestle and foreign, on the other. Other things
being equal the canal route that most shortens
such time ana distances IL the best route. Nay,
II il the best route even II other things are not
exactly equal but II in other respects II be under
disadvantages as compared with rival routes.
That II is TO say, n canal route which Is few
hundred miles shorter than another Is TO be pre-
ferred 10 that other, even though II cost few
millions more Let us see, then, how the Pan
ema and Nicaragua routes compare in point OF
distance.
On the eastern side commerce would approach
either canal either by way of the Windward
Passage and Kingston, as would all from New
York and other North Atlantic ports or by way
Of the Yucatap Channel as would all from New
Orleans and the Gulf ports. Now by the for
ner route Colon, ut the entrance 10 the Panama
Canal is about forty miles nearer than Grey
town nj the entrance 20 the Nicaragua Canal.
Credit the Panama route, then, with that forty
miles On the other hand, by the latter route,
from the Gulf, Greytown is fully hundred
miles he nearer. Credit the Nicaragua route
with that hundred miles Granting that more
commerce Will so from the North Atlantic than
from the Gulf ports, the balance on the eastern
side is still probably in favor of>Nlcaragua. But
now let us look at The western side The vast
bulk OF commerce, on reaching the Pacific, Will
90 either up TO the California coast or across TO
Asia and the Pacific islands. in the latter case,
OF course going by way OF Honolulu. Well, the
distance from Panama, at the end OF the Pan