The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-02-21
SENATOR MORGAN
Gives Information as to Panama a Canal.

Il N80A1' Washington Special to New Orleans Senpator Morgan of Alabama, chairman of the Isthmian Canal Committee, this afternoon gave out strong interview: summing up the arguments in favor or the legal points involved in the Panama company's offer, which Senator Foster subcommittee is now studying. and he
 criticises Admiral Walker for his sudden
 ''My opinions on this subject" said Senator Morgan, "are not formed from any knowledge of engineering or or any knowledge of the country except sucn as have obtained by the examination of
 witnesses. and 0y opinions have been predfcated almost exclusively upon the
 reports of the great engineers of the
 United States and of the world who have investigated both routes. For more than
 ten years-Indeed. for more than half a
 century--American engineers have all agreed on the proposition that the N1ca-
 ragua route was not only practicable and
 feasible, but was the best, If not the
 only route that should be adopted Tor
 Admiral Walker pronounced his first
 verdict in favor of the Nicaragua route
 when he was chief of the Walker Com
 mission. General Ludlow had previously
 given hts opinion in favor of Nicaragua
 as offering the best route for a canal.
 Before either of them had expressed his
 opinion. Childs, Lull and Menocal had
 all favored Nicaragua over Panama after
 very thorough examinations Admiral
 Walker, a second time after his investi- gation, gave his conclusive opinions on
 this subject when examined as witness in May. 1900, before the committee or pronounced the same opinion in pre- limtnary report which he made to the President of the United States. He ap- peared a fourth time and pronounced the same apinion when he made a hnal report as President of the Isthmian Canal Com mission, November 8 1901. He appeared a fifth time, when he reversed all of these opinions without any change. as ne states, in the actual situation as to the of between 4, ,ooO, 900 and s5,OO6.Ooo in the estimated cost in the construction of the two canals. I cannot yield to this fifth opinion by Admiral Walker without some stronger conviction than l have as trary. as far as the testimony taken be- fore the Committee on Interoceanic Canals has gone in the present examination, 1t demonstrates the impracticabtlity of the Panama canal for the uses of the Amerl- can people and its unsuitability to Ameri- can estimates of public morals.
 The question of public morals presents itself to my mind in this form:
 put into liquidation. and in money which had been obtained by it from bondhold- CTS and stockholders 1t represented from 500,000 to 80O.000 Frenchme1. all of have legal validity. They must either be paid or they must be conffscated. We are unable to pay them, as they amount to l.300, 900, GOO francs, with interest there on, and am unwilling to confiscate them for the sake of driving bargain with set Of mon that I will now proceed to describe:
 They were men In France-a company of men, composed of bankers, contractors. speculators and others. who had received a very large part, and a very dishonest part. of $s6o, ,oooo0o. which had been spent or squandered by the old canal company on the line of the canal.
 men we were p prosecuted Ha civllly aud and crim- inaily in the courts of France. Some of them escaped punishment, and among the leading men who thus escaped punish ment was found large majority of the new company. The stock of the new com- pany was fixed at 65,0O0,00O francs. or $l3. B00, 900. Five millions of francs were given Colombia for an extension of the cof1cession. little more than five millions was subscribed by public sub- scription, and the balance of 1t was sub- scribed by those men against whom the prosecpuons were pending and who sub scribed to that stock as compromise to rather than submit to punishment. Of this stock the liquidator of the old conn pany assumed the right to subscribe cer- tain assets that remained in his hand. and which belonged to stockholders and bondholders of the old company. and he subscribed of that sum something over Is, GOO. 900 francs to make up a deficit of 65. 900. .000 which was required by the the of nsaSsors ns Ras the right make that subscription it was under a system of law that Is entirely strange to American jurisprudence and American