Arizona republican., 1902-03-04

bill that can ever be passed in aid oi ! our merchant marine. which certainl, needs favorable legislation
 1 In 1SfS. while crr little army was en- saged iu the Mexican war Great HIit- ain took advantage If the situation t0 seize the outlet of the @,n Juan river and after Honduras had c-,ie,i tc th~ { United States g naval station on TiGrc i island. in the Gulf Of FunsaCa. 2t tho pacific terminus of the Nicaragua route England also eized and claimed that island. Also after exceptionally : favorable terms had been secured fo" IAmaIican concessions congress set them aside and substituted 9 treaty which gave to Great Britain 54udi privilege in the COnstruction and use of any transit route across the istbmus. This ! GlaytOn-B -BulWer treaty. alleged to hay been framed in th" inter-<t Cf the earl. construction of a canal became in fact the most saIicus obstacle and finally reached a point where it threatened to become q menace to the amic2bls reia- tions between the two countries. hence it was supplanted by another to re- move the animuS.
 l This new treaty. however. has not abated enc iota the commercial riVaIrs between nations nor the desire to re- tain. al all hazards. the control of the highways Of the world and SC long as the IsthmUs remains barricaded this country is hopelessly handicapped in competition for the oriental trade. For example. New Orleans is today nearly 400 miles farther from San Francisco by water than js Liverpool. and it is man ifestly to the interests of British trade , to keep it SC: whereas the opening Of q canal would give tc our gulf ports an advantage Of about 3509 miles. More over, the SueZ canal. as well as ths Union Pacific railroad were both opened in 1869 and foreign capital is now largely invested in these great trade routes. which it is assumed will be injuriousiy affected by the opening Of an economic route for our cOasJy,is;. trade and hence these vested interests have invaria ply been arrayed against its construction and the most effective mode 0f operation is to block lagisl..- ton. which can be and has been done so readily by making it a political issue. II is q most significant fact that the same interests which have so success fully held up the commercial de . or corporate aSgraudisameut are sub stantfally those which nov apparently favor the Panama route as the better.
 To advocate Panama it is necessary to do violence to nature and iSuo-o many well known physical conditions such as the fact that inc E-csra.z,,i route is the shortest and most dire.., by from one t9 two days for Iy fal
 
 sight or of that which may be cr4- ateI and this in itself should D. a sufficient answer as to the superiority of the north5rmost line. since il Is the most economical as " eII as the shortest Moreover, recent testimony shows that the work on Nicaragua is well distrib- uted. that there are no extraordinary engineering difficulties in the way. tha; | halbCrs having equal facilities can be opened for more than $6.000 eco less that all things considered the Worl can be completed in about two year. less time. that the sanitary conditions are f.l- better and hence there is les, danger Of delays from epiIemics. tha
 more than half of the excavation i. dredging which is th, cheapest kind o.
 work. which the rainfall does not af- feet. that this route would he far usar
 accessible for sailing vessels and tha
 the concessions can doubtless Hc ob
 tained at an early date. All these al- so many reasons why the opponents s
 a great waterway prefer the PauamH
 route, where these vital features ar
 absent In view of these conditions CD ponents Of the waterway are makin,
 il 9 political question to cloud the sit
 uaticn- j. U. WIE.LPLF,Y.