Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1901-04-04
WILL MORGAN BUILD THE CANAL:

WASHINGTON, d. c. queen News
Stand. National Hotel.
WILL MORGAN BUILD THE CANAL:
The great trust fnancier, J. Pierpont
Morgan, who already is a very much
digger man than old Grant" or the
present occupant of the chair which
Grant occupied, is now said to be
thinking Of taking the i%nteroceanic
canal job off Uncle Sans hands and
building a canal himself.
That Morgan can do this with COM
parative ease, no one who knows he
vast of that captain OF mon
opoly and those associated with him,
will doubt for a moment. Morgan has
already financed schemes which throw
the canal project into the shade. This
arch %plutocrat now commands re-
sources which dwarf the United States
Treasury, while the President of the
United States is in a certain n and
to a certain degree simply one of Mr..
MorganS r%ight-hand men, an aide.
This fact has already bean attested by
the submissiveness of the President
In Offering the appointment to Mr..
Morgan'b man, P. c. Knox, of At
torney General of the United States
in ordes to insure the trusts from i'm
munity from that source for at least
four ear more.
Now Mr.. Morgan is thinking of TAX
ing the canal project off the hands Of
the government and making it a pri-
vate scheme of his WI for use in his
gigantic scheme for a world monopoly
of transportation and the steel indus
try. MT. Morgan needs this canal to
round out his plans, and he knows
that he can do the job probably better
INT quicker than the United States
government can, and with infinitely
less red tape. Hence, Mr.. Morgan's
reputed intention of waving the gov
eminent aside and attending to the
building of the canal himself. 1t IS
said that he will have the President
drop the Nicaragua scheme and then
he will build the canal by way of the
old Panama route.
To this end Mr.. Morgan has re-
Hanna and Mckinley in Washington,
assuring them that his scheme won't
cost the government a cent" which he
seems to think will be a good card for
the Republican party in the next AM
paign. According to Washington dis
patches, Mr.. Morgan's proposition is
that his syndicate be permitted to COM
plete the Panama canal. No foreigners
will be represented in the company.
Nothing but American money will be
used. The work will be expedited TO
the utmost. Congress will have the
right to enact such legislation as will
reserve to the United States full on
troll in time of war, general supervi-
sion in time of peace, low rates for
the passage of government vessels and
such other regulations as will give
the government all the advantages
arising from actual ownership.
But the real owners of the canal, Of
course. will be the Morgan syndicate.
The political end of the proposition
is the special bait held out to Boss
Hanna and the President. Mr.. Morgan
has demonstrated that the initial ap-
preparation for beginning the building
of the Nicaragua canal would be no
less than $50, ZOO, 900 for the first year
and a fixed charge appropriation of
500, 200, 900 per nnu for the next ten
years. The enormous expenditures
authorized by the last Congress have
brought the Treasury within sight Of
a deficit. The appropriations of the
next Congress will be equally heavy,
and the likelihood of a deficit vastly
augmented.
The Clayton-Bulwer treaty must be
abrogated through diplomatic chan
nels. Great Britain has just rejected
one treaty looking to its annulment.
France and Germany have notified this
government that they cannot view
with equanimity the construction of
a canal to be exclusively under Amer
lean control.
Other maritime nations are waiting
to make representations at the proper
time. The governments Of Nicaragua
and Costa Rica will prove trouble
some, and the Maritime Canal Com
pany, which owns all the Pacific coast
land west Of Brito must be settled
with before anything can be done.
Morgan argues that all these
troublesome questions can be satisfac-
torily settled by allowing him and his
associates to purchase the Panama
canal concession, complete the canal
and permit the government to hold
certain extraordinary privileges.
The Morgan syndicate = ! vast ar-