Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1902-06-27
PANAMA. ROUTE D[SI
Commercial Centers in New
York Satisfied With Decision
OF Congress.
Mckinley Known to Have Been
Personally Favorable to the
Panama Route.
Engineering Difficulties OF the
Nicaragua Canal Are Almost
Insurmountable.

New York. June PIN commercial
circles here the action of the conference
committee of the two houses of con-
/ gress in agreeing upon the bill recently
/ passed by the senate authorizing the
purchase and completion of the Pana-
ma canal is believed to have been taken
/ in absolute good faith. There are some
who are of political, rather than COM
mercial association, who are little
suspicious of this action, not believing
! that it involves absolutely the construc-
ton of the canal by the Panama route.
| SO far as it has been possible to learn.
commercial opinion in New York has
been wholly impartial, neither favorins
nor disappearing either the Panama or
the Nicaragua route, but earnestly de-
string the selection of one or the other.
or of any route across the isthmus
which may be declared to be both COM
mercially and politically. in the higher
sense of the word, the best.
Just year ago one of President Nc
political friends, man of international
reputation. and one to whom President
Mckinley had committed some impor-
tant responsibilities of an official char
acter, stated to the writer:
Il am satisfied that when the 18TH
milan canal is constructed it will not be
by the Nicaragua route. l am also sat
Isfied that but for the methods en-
ployed by a lobby whose business 1t was
to prevent the construction of any ca
ral and by another lobby which was
almost scandaiously at work to COM
nit the United States to the Panama
project, public opinion would have set
much earlier in favor of the Panama
proposition. The president himself is
in grave doubt about the commercial
OF engineering practicability of the
Nicaraguan route. his impression being
that it would be discovered that the
cost was prohibitive. AT the same
time he did not feel justified in pub
lcly indicating or even in indicating to
any except his confdants the doubts
that he felt.
His impression was that of itself,
outside of political complications or le-
gal embarrassments, the Panama prop
osition was the more practicable. But
there We're features of the Panama
proposition which seemed to make it
lust as impracticable as its engineering
-, i H.
practicable. l may say one thing, and
that is, that President Mckinley is
strongly of the opinion that If the
United States should build, own and
operate a canal by the Panama route,
we ought to possess absolute sovereign
" over territory stretching back from
the canal several miles on either side.
In higher political circles here, and
especially in England. it was recoG-
rlzed that If the Nicaragua canal We're
to be the one adopted, the United
States would ultimately as completely
influence and dominate a considerable
Part of the territory of Nicaragua and
OF Costa Rica, altho nominal sover- |
eighty might be in those countries, as
England influences and dominates
Egypt thru her control of the Suez ca
nal. One of the foremost financiers oil
London, formerly of New York, i'll
speaking last summer of the isthmian
canal proposition, said:
mo matter where that canal is built, |
if it is built and operated by the United
States, considerable part of the coun-
try thru which it passes will be thor
cughly Americanized, tho it may take
some years to make that apparent. You
will control Nicaragua, or much of it,
and northern Costa Rica If you build
the Nicaragua canal. You will central
the Panama isthmus If your canal Is
there"
1t is the understanding In we'll
informed circles here that an effort is
10 be made, and with not unreasonable
hope of success, to secure from the
United States of Colombia what will
amount to practically complete sover-
eighty over a strip of territory stretch
ing several miles away from the banks
o. this canal. Thereby, there can arise
no complications Of diplomatic or IN
character. Furthermore,
i. is the expectation that competent en-
cheering thru the drainage of the
swamps and thru methods which were
SO successfully adopted in Cuba ami
which have so wonderfully purified and
made healthful the city of Vera Cruz.
may, if we possess sovereignty, be put
in operation along the line of the canal.
so that the region can be converted
from its existing miasmic and I'M
healthful condition to one where salu-
brity, or, If not that, at least a fair
condition of healthfulness, prevails.
Word has been brought here from
too that President Roose-
Welt is satisfied that the Panama canal
can be completed in five or six years.
IF the agreement perfected yesterday
bv the conference committee is formu-
lated in the law so that there may be
8. speedy beginning of the constructive
work, then, In case President Roose
celt were renominated and reelected,
he might look forward to the compile
ton and opening Of this canal during
his administration as president.
ELMO