The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1902-01-04

Bujeo a distance of IA miles. 1t is es-
timated that the cost of completing he
Panama canal would be $1OO,OO0,OOO,
sum Of $275, 600 having already been
expended on preliminary operations
While it is estimated that the Panama
canal would take ten years to complete
owing to the great engineering d1ffcui-
ties to be overcome, the Nicaragua
canal can be finished in about seven
years, at q. cost of $125, 900, 900, according
to the report of the committee
Railroad experts who have examined
the ground differ considerably from THIS
point of view and instead of 1925, 100000
place the estimate of cost for the Mica
ragua route at $250, 600 600.
1t seems to be a plain, indisputable
fact that as a business proposition the
Nicaragua canal will for a long time
be a dead loss and that the proposition
is defensible only on the ground that it
is necessary as Stra tegic step on the
part of the United States government
and for the development of our own
coastwise commerce between the At
lantic and Pacific seaports and in other
directions.
Comparisons in regard to possible
tonnage which would pass through the
Isthmian canal are sometimes made,
but in these there is one important fact
generally lost sight of. While the Suez
canal has no railway competition to
consider the Nicaragua route would be
a competitor of IS lines of transconti-
mental railway
Grave engineering difficulties are sug-
gested by the fact that there is a total
difference to be overcome in canal and
sea level of 220 vertical feet
Unfortunately another drawback of 4
much more serious nature confronts
the projectors of this undertaking.
The most difficult engineering work in
connection with constructing the canal
will be the building of dam across
the San Juan river, feature which is
specified in the new Hepburn bill as an
integral part of the plans There are
engineers who say that such dam
cannot be constructed with any GER
tainty of its permanency or safety
Nicaragua has always been the seat of
seismic commissions. There is scarcely
a month during which some kind of
disturbance is not noticed. IheSe DIS
turbances always center near the line
of the Nicara guam volcanoes Should
such a cataclySm occur as that which
inundated Nicaragua with lava and
ashes in 1885 what would be the erect
upon the dam. and consequently upon
the canal? The explosion lasted two
days and the mass elected into the air
was sufficient to have covered a surface
equal to about half the continent OF
Europe, ashes being carried 1,5O0 miles
out to sea. AS late as 1888 there was
an eruption of volcano located in the
very center of Lake Nicarag qua
The engineers who raise these points
ask why, if it were ever completed, a
dam $50 feet high could be maintained
intact in face of the fact that these
seismic commissions are a regular fea-
ture of isthfnian conditions and that a
cataclysm may at any time be expect
ed.
On Januarys7 the Hepburn canal bill
will be taken up in congress and be
made the continuing order of business
until disposed of The bill calls for an
aggregate apprCpria ton of $50, 900, 600 to
cover cost of construction and its pro-
visions imply the use of the Nicaragua
route.
Should congress, contrary to the con-
victions of the Isthmian commission
prefer the Panama route the protocol
with Nicara qua would become void and
the negotiating of a treaty with Co1om-
bia for right of way across the 18TH
mus would be necessitated.
One of the staunch advocates of the
Nicara guam canal on the floor of the
senate was Cushman K. Davis of Min
nesota, but he died before there was
any assurance of success.