The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1899-03-02
Connecting the Americas.

The proposition TO connect North,
Central and South America. by a single
line of railway to be under information
al protection has long been before the
minds of our leading statesmen and
nine years ago a commission was ap-
pointed to investigate the subject in its
practical aspects. The commission
concluded it's field labors in 1898, but
not until recently was it's report put
before the public in detail.
The commission estimates that the
total length Of the all-rail route from
New York city to Buenos Ayres will
be 1O22S.O6 miles. OF this 4,77l .93 miles
are already built leaving 5,45613 miles
to be constructed. The estimated cost
for grading, masonry and bridges on
the road to he built is s174, ,29O271. This
estimate does not include the branch
lines, but only the trunk route to
Buenos Ayres, nor does it include any
expense beyond preparing the roadbed
for the rails. The commission, how
ever, is Of the opinion that future
studies will reduce the length and les
sen the cost here given. BY far the
greater part of the cost will be in the
Andine regions of Colombia, Ecuador
and Peru, where the mileage is esti-
mated at 3.64594 and the estimated
cost at $126, 36O 425.S4, the estimated cost
of building all the other sections of the
trunk line being $47929,S ,Si6.
The fact that the road is a physical
possibility without involving any es-
paciallv hazardous or uncertain prob
lens in engineering is some consolation;
but the next question is of greater i'm
pOrtanCC. Will the road pay? VIII ii
do or make business in time sufficient
to warrant it's construction? On this
point We cannot do better than to quote
| from the New York Sun, an eal,y,
steady and able advocate of the project
and a journal which has given to the
subject much careful study:
"Sparsity of population is to-day the
largest cause Of the comparatively
slow development of most of the South
crn republics. From Colombia to Ar
gentina there are large and fertile
areas where the peasantry of Europe
might live and prosper increasing
| many fold, by their needs and indus
tries, the volume of products and busi-
ness But they are coming only hy
scores, though invited by thousands,
and the chief reason is because COM
muniCatiOns between the lands desir-
able for settlement and the outside
| Venezuela, for instance, has been try
| ing in vain to draw many thousands Of
Italian settlers to her fertile valleys
| in the north and TO the llanos further
| south, where millions of cattle may
| Craze. But the Italians say they see
| no attraction in lands that afford no
| good outlet to markets, and railroad
| capitalists say that even with govern
ment concessions the prospects of pro-
! fitably pushing railroads into sparsely
| peopled regions is not alluring. No
| large industries except mining and
| fisheries thrive in any sparsely peopled
part of the world. Thus, without large
| population. without adequate communi-
| cations and without industries, large
| areas in South America, outside the
! tropics or at high and temperate alti-
! tudes within them, are not yielding a
tithe of their resources and are stag
| mating though nature has fitted them
to be the centres of teeming life and
| activity. Latin America needs nothing
so much as railroads and the population
that improved communications will
| bring; and nothing will so promote
railroad development in these states
as a great trunk line that will bring
the largest republic, with it's mani
fold products and needs, to their
doors, with which all their centres of
development will desire TO be con-
| nected.
"TheTe is no part of South America.
except along its northern coast, with
which our merchants tod>y maintain
business relations on even terms with
their European rivals. The greatest
east coast ports are actually nearer
to Southampton, HaVre and Marseilles
than TO New York, because our vessels
must sail forty degrees east ana then
west again to round Cape ST. Rogue.
Then in the decades when We were
doubling our population every twenty
years, and were so absorbed in our
own gigantic development that we
sought no foreign markets, England,
France, Germany, Portugal and Italy
were starting their lines of steam.
ships to South America, establishing
banks and investing I'm industrial and
commercial enterprises. AS a result,
Europe was well established In South
America when we began to seek trade
opportunities there. Only about g
tenth Of South Americas foreign bust
ness is with the United States. Be-
cause we are large consumers Of rub
ber and buy half the coffee Of the
world, Brazil sends us a great deal of
her produce, but we do not supply a
twelfth part of the foreign goods she
consumes. The commodities We sell to
Chill are valued at one-eighth the sum
she pays TO England and Germany for
commodities. An American built
Peru's greatest railroad, but British
capital controls most of the transpor-
tation in that country. AS a rule
wrote Mr.. Leonardos, a brazilian mer.
chant, in August last, we have at Rio
de Janeiro only two old and slow
steamers a month from the United
States Consul General Seeger wrote