The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1900-01-01
DREAMS COMING TRUE.

Eckermann, in ais "reminiscences,
quotes from Goethe a rather remark
able prophecy, part of which has been
fulfilled already, and part of which will
be under Roadway before the end Of the
present century.
At dinner at Goeths's a distinguished
/ company was listening to the poets
I brilliant conversation. He was speak
/ ing Of the great undertakings by which
man had changed the face of nature
I and had remodeled soma Of the geo.
graphical features of the earth.
Humboldt" said Goethe, has indi-
Gated with great local knowledge, sew
eral points where. by making use Of
some rivers flowing into the Gulf of
Mexico one might. perhaps. connect
the oceans for commerce even more ad-
vantageously than at Panama. The de-
cisiol of all this is reserved to the fu-
ture, and so a grand spirit Of enter
prise. So much is certain. that if a
cutting be possible of such a character
as would allow ships with any kind of
cargo and Of every, even the greatest,
size to pass through such a canal from
the Gulf of Mexico to the Pacific ocean.
there would result for the whole of the
civilized world, also for the not civil
lied part of mankind, the most meal
culable advantages. I should, however.
be astonished if the United States were
to let slip the opportunity Of getting
such a work into their own hands. One
.n y Il
try with its pronounced tendency.
toward the west. will have seized upon
and pee. led. within thirty or forty
years, even the wide stretches of land
beyond the Rocky mountains. One may
also fcresee that along ali this coast
Of the Pacific, where nature has al
ready created the most spacious and
most secure harbors, there Will grad
ually arise very important commercial
towns which viii become the inter
mediaries Of a great intercourse be-
tween China and the East Indies on
the one side and the United States on
the other. But in that case it viii be
not only desirable, but almost a matter
Of necessity, that merchant vessels as
well as men-Of-War, shall maintain a
more rapid communication than has so
far been possible by the wearisome, !
disagreeablc and costly navigation
round Cape Horn. I repeat. then, that |
il is absolutely imperative for the Unit /
ed States to effect a cutting from the /
Gulf of Mexico to TIE Pacific ocean. !
And ana certain that they VIII achieve /
that aim. I should like to live to see /
it, but that is not possible in my case. /
Secondly. I should like to live to see /
effected a joining Of the Rhine with the (
Danube But that We're another gigan- /
tic Undertaking, and I doubt its being /
carried out, more especially when I /
contemplate the smaIlness Of the means /
that Germany can dispose Of. And. /
thirdly. should like the English to be /
in possession Of a canal Of Suez. These !
three things I should like to live to
see, and it would be really worth while i
to hold out here, for their sake, an
other fifty years"
What he predicted would be done by
the Anglo-Saxons has either been COM
pleted or Begun, although he did not
live to see It. What he feared his own
country woulG not do because Of the
militarism which saps her strength and
her energy has not been
done. But the Germans are making
wonderful strides in. commerce of late
and it may not be long before the
Rhine and the Danube viii form a
transcontinental waterway for Europe.
Yet this is Of less commercial import
anee than are the canals Of Suez and
Panama.