The evening times., 1899-12-28
The i.thminu Canal Fight.

1t is impossible to iGure out al a glance
exactly what may be meant by the reor-
ganization Of the French Panama Canal
scheme under the auspices of men like
Belmont. Kuhn. Loeb g. Co. and Francis
Lynde Stetson, with New Jersey charter
/, That is. il is not possible to guess all that
may be intended by or involved in the
movement; but as TO certain of its aspects.
there should not be much difficulty
Whatever the incorporators or the pros
pectus of the resurrected de Lssseps pro-
ject may say the general public will at
the start assume that the main object Of
the corporation is 10 defeat American or
any construction Of rne Nicaragua Canal
rather than seriously to propose an at
tempted completion OF the Panama ditch
The philosophy of the situation is appar-
ent. The French company during the last
session of the Fiftyffth Congress. join
ed hands with the transcontinental railway
lobby to defeat the Nicaragua proposition
and together these two influences succeed
ed 10 the extent Of securing a depIorable
postponement OF decisive action. But the
combination justly considered that the
alien position of the Frenchmen rendered
them less effective as allies. and. as Mr..
Stetson puts it. the Americanization of the
Panama Canal has been effected.
II may be injustice 10 the liberal mind
ed gentlemen who appear anxious to sink
their own or the public's money in the
most hopeless rat hole of history; but, in
n, II ;xfo
contrary. the public will suspect,
that the reorganization is for
purposes quite other than canal
construction. On the surface of the
development there is indeed something
like suggestion that the railway mag
mates who for fifteen years have been
fighting bitterly against water communi-
cation between the oceans. have merely
changed their base OF operations. and
abandoning their old open contention that
no isthmian canal is feasible, now attempt
to kill practicable national project
through the perfunctory contra -exploita-
tion of one impossible.
There is little reason for supposing that
as against the Nicaragua Canal. Congress
could be induced to adopt the French line
Upon it two hundred and seventy millions
of dollars have already been worse
than wasted. What, theoretically, re-
mains to be done would consume one hun
dred millions more, and would take ten
years to accomplish. These are estimates
by people interested in the exploded en-
terprise. In reality. there is ground for
the belief that double the money and twice
the time might be devoted to the work.
and at the end of both it would be no
nearer to a condition of commercial utili-
ty than it now is. Even conceding its
successful completion, it would cost SO
much as to become 'prohibitive OF use on
the one hand, or destructive of the invest
ment ON the other. There are interna-
tional considerations of character unfa-
vorable to national complication with the
French concession, which are important.
but need not be discussed now.
The point of public interest is that. II
the Americanized Panama Canal PROPOSE
ton has been taken up seriously by the
English, French. and German financial in
fuences and agencies in New York 1t is
only necessary to remina the underwriters