The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-12-22
CANAL IS PUT FIRST
HOUSE GIVES RIGHT OF WAY TO HEPBURN NICARAGUA BILL.
Decision is Unanimous, Applauded by Both Parties-Project Being Pushed Through with Potency
 of Popular Sentiment in
 Favor of Speedy Action.

Walter Wellman's Washington Speclal 10
 Chicago Record Herald.
 Now for the isthmian canal The House of Representatives today adopte1 d r,e rule Nicaragua Ca al bill January ' ana TOT continuous consideration till 1t IS olspos- ed of. There was no opposltlon to ths rule and the unanimous conseHe 1orta aeAo ,o objection. Announcement Of the aooploh of the rule was greeted with hearty ap- plause on both sides of the chamber.
 This manifestation of the great enthu- siasm for a canal in the lower branch of Congress is sure to have It's erect upon the upper branch. It IS Known that a small number of Senators are op- posed to any canal at all, but they are at their wits ends for a successful de- vice to stop the canal movement, winch is now rushing through the capital with overwhelming force. The only thing they can think of is the old trick Of delay, but it Is exceedingly doubtful whether it would work now. Hitherto there nave been reasonable excuses for delay, put they have all disappeared with the ra.n- A faint effort is being made to sur up sentiment in favor of delay on the pretext that this government has not | yet acquired concessions from Ntcara-
 qua. and Costa Rica. But that is too | transparent to do much service, as the State Department has exchanged proto- co.'s with both of the isthmian govern
 
 There remains to the opponents of the canal only the Panama scheme to play against Nicaragua. How much strength | Panama has in the Senate is unknown, l but it is believed to be small. A consid- crable number 10 Seators are honestly l convinced that the Panama route Is vast l ly superior to the other. They believe nature so arranged the land masses, the | continental divide, the harbors, the earthquake and volcanic zone as to make | Panama the easy, the safely practicable. | the natural route for canal connecting the two oceans. They believe that If l there were no French capital now in
 Panama, if the field weEe an open one, | there is no doubt as to which route the l United States would choose. Some of | these Senate even go so far as to doubt Nicaragua short of $4OO, 100000 or $500, OOO,- | 0O0. Not few of them believe the Mica | ragua project will in time be abandoned, | perhaps after fifty or a hudred millions l have been spent on 1t.
 l For proof that their fears are well
 based they point to the report of the l Isthniian Canal Commission, The com l mission recommended Nicaragua only be-
 cause it had no alternative. It could not recommend Panama in the absence Of | definite offer of sale from the French | company, because that would be to play | into the hands of the foreign corpora | tion. The commission recommended Me | aregua in view of the price asked for | the Panama property namely. $i0O, 0O0,
 O00 But 1t is known the French are will ing to sell for about half that sum. It is
 further known that majority of the | members of the commission were con
 vinced the Panama route was much su- | perior, considered as an engineering
 problem alone. This fact is apparent | from the report. which estimates the i cost of finishing the two canals as the
 Nicaragua ..' .''.......''''..''. 'SlsvuVo,MOOI M Panama .....................,... l46.0000oD