Evening star., 1900-11-24
Preliminary Report.

bers of the commission.
Preliminary Report.
A preliminary report will be in the lands
of the President in few days. This re-
port will be sufficiently comprehensive to
furnish all the necessary data needed in his
message or by Congress in the enactment
of a canal bill. 1t will show that both
canal schemes are. within the bounds of
engineering possibilities and that the actual
construction of either one can be accom-
pished within the amount which Congress
seems willing to provide. Allowing for gen
une differences to the comparative
merits of Nicaragua and Panama there will
be no difference of opinion as to the legal
and diplomatic advantages of the Mica
ragua scheme. The Panama canal can
possibly be finished for about SlJ0,UOO. $50.
The Panama Canal Company values the
work already done and the plant it has
on hand at $S),G00,C0O The company has
been asked repeatedly by the United States
authorities to make definite proposition
which would give this country a clear title
to the Panama work, the right of way and
clear away the difficulties involving lie
transfer of the property from the old and
new Panama canal companies. This propo-
sition has not yet been forthcoming and
for some reason or other the Panama peo-
pie seem diSincned to make it.
The truth of the matter is that it is
doubtful whether any transfer of this prop
erty can be made to the United States,
owing to the involved condition of its af-
fairs. This arises from the lien the Old
company has upon the new. the wide dstri-
button of canal stock in France and other
countries and the peculiar form in which
is found many of the assets. The new
Parama company was organized TO carry
on the work begun by DeLesseps. Money
was subscribed under agreement with
the old company, whereby, in case of fail
ura to complete the canal, the Panama rail-
road would become the property of the new
shareholders as recOmpense for their in
g cd
however. the old company was to have re-
ceived perpetual royalty Of about 80 per
cent of The net profits derived from the
operation of the canal.
There about 100000 stockholders in
the Panama canal. The sale of the prop
erty to the United States at any such price
as this country would pay would practically
wipe out their investment without returning
even a portion of the capital. In addition
to this there would have to be combated
the French antagonism toward a transfer Of
these canal rights to another country. AL
lowing for the sake of argument that the
Panama and Nicaragua routes equally
feasible and could be finished and the
other built for the same money the Nicara-
qua plan is far preferable in the simplicity
OF Its legal and diplomatic features and
has the advantage in the matter Of cost.
Nicaragua Route Cheaper.
In the case of Nicaragua and Costa Rica
both of these countries are anxious for the
Rica will offer no objection and ask little
or no financial indemnity. The Nicara guam
government will give all the necessary
rights and franchises and guarantee per
petual right of way from ocean to ocean
for $3,000.GOO or less. The English rights
in the case are the only other factor in the
situation, and England would be greatly
benefited by the canal that there is no dis
position on her part to put any difficulties
in the way of its construction.
The coming report of the commission will
show that whereas two-tifths OF the work
has been done on the Panama canal, that
this two-fifths is entirely excavation. or the
least expensive part of the construction.
Allowing that two-ftths has been done at
an estimated cost of $50. 900 00O and allow
ing that the other three-fifths would cost no
more in prop rtion. the total bill would still
be S2oJ0O0,O0O. or more than the outside es-
innate made the Nicaragua canal. In
this uncomDeted three-tifths of the Pana-
ma. however, is included all the deeper ex-
cavation, which IS more expensive all of
the locks, masonry, finishing work and
harD0r improvements, which it goes without
saying represent a far greater expenditure
in their relation to the whole than does the
surface excavation already accomplished
The report of the commission on the Mica
raSua route will recommend the adoption
of the original Childs survey from Brito on
the Pacific coast to Lake Nicaragua, a dis
tance of 1916 miles. The canal line then
crosses the lake. a distance of Il "a miles
Leaving the lake at the head of the San
Juan river which is its outlet the canal
ADOPTS lHc river Deu as ltS course Tor sNj Nj
miles to Boco San Carlos, three miles above
the mouth of the San Carlos river Here
the commission has found an admirable site
for the great dam, which is to raise the
level of the river to that of the lake, and
from which commences the construction of
the canal proper to the Atlantic ocean dis
tant 1898 miles.
The h.gh-water level of the canal CORE
spending to that Of the lake varies slightly
with the rise and fall of that body of water
but averages a trifie over one hundred feet
above level. Coming from the Pacific
into the lake there will be four locks From
the dam at the mouth Of the San Carlos 1t
will take six locks to let vessel down to
the Atlantic level The route selected from
Boco San Carlos is what is known as the
old LuH survey, and it enters the Carib-
bean sea very near Graytown. The origi-
nal scheme. and the one which has been
recommended by nearly every other COM
mission, placed the great dam at Ochoa, be-
low the mouth of the San Carlos river By
building the dam above the mouth of this