The daily morning journal and courier., 1902-05-17

| gan.
 do not desire to take issue with Sen
 ator Morgan-having the highest regard
 for his ability on this subject. But if
 his knowledge of distances to open or
 dredge and general knowledge as re-
 gards harbors and channels, climates,
 etc., are based on information, then he
 has been grossly misinformed, and if from personal konwledge then he must
 have taken his observations with a
 "cross-eyed sextant.
 Tn the first place he insists that the
 Panama route is the less safe; that the frequent bloody instructions in and
 around the Isthmus would demand the
 naval forces of the United States. Does
 Senator Morgan for one moment imag- inc the same would not have to be done at both sides of the Nicaragua route!
 Has he not been informed that the
 canal if run through Nicaragua will
 pass near the border line of Costa Rica
 and Nicaragua? From the very foun-
 dation of these two republics that bor-
 der line has been a bone of contention
 and warfare after the manner of the
 two cats and the traditional clothes-
 line.
 As to the question of bealthfulness,
 true it is that Panama has it's yellow
 and Chagres levers. Is there any coun-
 try, city or town in these attitudes in
 Central America that is free from the
 former? Let that canal once be opened,
 let the two oceans meet, salt water will
 even erase the fresh mud of the
 Chagres, then with American brains
 and muscle we will soon erase all yes
 tige of either one, as much so as Ha-
 vana is to-day
 After an experience in both of the
 above places I am willing to take my chances of life or health on the Isthmus
 with it's yellow and Chagres levers in preference to the insect and vermin-
 ridden mud and marsh fresh-water deathtraps in the form of floating isl- ands and volcanic quicksands
 MT. Morgan says that if the Panama route was adopted few sailing ships would use it. beg to ask Senator Mor- gan how many sailing ships pass through the Suez Canal. They prefer rather to circle Good Hope. And yet the navigation at the Suez end of the canal is in no way more hazardous than 1t would be on the Atlantic or Pacific side of either route. MT. Morgan is cor rect when he states that the Nicara qua route lies in the vigorous trade winds If the Senator could experience these vigorous trade winds as the writer has, he would modify his opinion and name them Kansas cyclones. I have known a sailing ship, not only one but many to be from thirty to forty days beeting up against these same vigorous trade winds in order to reach the port of San Juan del Sur which is eight miles southeast from Brito the Pacific en- trance to the Nicaragua route. When once in this port, nine months in the year 1t is necessary to use both an chors, and oftentimes work the ships engines ahead in order to hold a posi- ton against these vigorous trade winds.
 I fail to see where Senator Morgan proves the distance of the two routes to be equal, when, as a matter of fact, there is no comparison whatever be- tween the two Take the two routes from ocean to ocean-Panama Al miles; Nicaragua. 156 All the twisting and expanding that the Honorable Senator can do will not change that fact The Senator, it seems to me, goes long way out of his road, or off his course. when he tacks the Gulf of Panama, which is miniature ocean of itself, on to the La Boca pier Why not continue and add the South Pacific, with the l China Sea as an attache? He could do s,,c Tha b,1,. ricanes and typhoons as well as calns frequenting these seas could also be claimed as a reason why the canal | should not be finished at Panama.
 The writer has navigated his ship in and out of the port of Panama nearly four years, but I have yet to learn | about that 35-foot curve that com nences three miles from Colon on the . Atlantic side at the canal entrance and . extends the same depth 100 miles at sea, 1r away Neither have I ever known )f any other navigator finding it. Mir. Morgan surely not only must have used he aforementioned sextant, but his cad and pine must have been loaned lim from some friendly farm youth, As matter of fact there are now and | nave been for years sailing ships of 1eavy tonnage trading between Au- ,tralia and Panama, bringing coal for he use of the many steamships lines hat make that port their headquarters. They sail up to within three cables engths of their discharging berth. Sel- lom is a tug required. When ready for lea they make sail and proceed as they would from any seaport on our coast alc af aDt, Nd ! an speaks of are largely from iuagina- ion True it is there is moderate weather there in certain seasons of the ,ear. as there is in all parts of the world, in corresponding attitudes
 As to the tortuous channel MT. Mor- ran speaks about, the writer was one # an umber called on to survey and ound out the La Roca channel. When he canal company pronounced it open or navigation and the pier ready for ervice, I would say to MT. Morgan, I would as quickly take a ship to sea trough that tortuous channel as would from any port on our coast from Tape Cod to Florida. The distance rom La Boca pier to the open sea is lot over eight miles. Panama has this nain advantage: A harbor on each end. 'artly from natural formation and artly from the band of man. Panama when properly dredged, can hold in