The daily morning journal and courier., 1903-08-15
A FRENcHMAN's VISION.
The Isthmian Canal, the Pacific and
 Trade Supremacy.

Is the United States snatching away
 our canal-our original idea, our half
 accomplished work, our almost-attained
 glory and our 1avishy spent money? Is
 the United States snatching from Col ombia the sovereignty of the isthmus
 and more or less of the entire country?
 Is the United States snatehing from
 England the mastery of the seas? Such
 performances as these are merely the
 free show at the door, the introduc-
 ton to the play. Let us look further,
 and deeper.
 The supreme revolution-at once geo.
 praphicaI, commercial and political-the
 supreme revolution upon this planet of
 ours is about to be accomplished before
 our eyes blind until now to the
 significance of world movement. See l what the Americans are saying. For I thousands of years the Mediterranean,
 that "sea in the midst of nations" was the center of the worlds commerce,
 wealth, and power; with the discovery
 and development of the new world the center shifted to the Atlantic; during 1 the twentieth century 1t will pass to the I Pacific, which will become and will for
 ever remain ''the sea in the midst of the ] nations"-the new Mediterranean. I This is the last. the supreme revolu- tion. We are at the beginning of new cycle. There are no longer any undis-
 covered countries. Westward migra- ] tions, and the consequent westward
 march of empire, reached their limit I with the occident. We look from the \ Golden Gate into the very face of the
 orient. The scepter of world power has I passed forever into younger hands. l Henceforward the young republic is the
 effete orient. Hence the supreme irn- portance--I have almost said the planetory importance of the isthmus cannal. To pierce the isthmus will be I to bring about the last geographic event
 of the first order; there are no more isthmuses whose cutting through would \ disDlace the commerce of the world. I The Srez canal gave England an i'm
 mense advantage, The Panama canal
 will transfer this advantage to the United States-with the certitude that
 it can never be displaced by any l geographic cause. Commercial supre-
 macy upon the Pacific will be the final I supremacy.
 l Look at the circumference of the Pa
 cific. measure the lands that border it.
 It is striking fact that of the great
 undeveloped and hAbitable portions of I al e,at,f,,<r D,1l1y Af,to, a,a
 ranged about the Pacific-North Ameri- I ca, South America. Australia, Siberia, and the rest countries capable of in-
 credibly enormous development.
 America, taken as whole, what is I America? Its fnndapental character istic is we'll known. Little rain in the
 old world. abundant rain in the new, Consequently the greatest river systems
 are there, the only great deserts here; hence as much arabic land in America
 as in Europe. Asia. and Africa put to- | gether If the natural resources of the
 American continent were fully deveIop- ed it would support three billion and a
 half inhabitants. And, as everybody
 knows, the present population of the ! globe is only one billion and half.
 So the time will come when the new
 world will support more inhabitants
 than the three continents of the old
 world.
 I Australia--What is Australia A
 whole continent which has as yet only I four million inha habitants, and which will one day support without difficulty a large portion of the worlds popula- 1 ton.
 l Siberia-What is Siberia? It has long
 been terra incognita, but with the
 completion of it's colossal railway it will
 see a development which will astound I the twentieth century. From the map l of Siberia you could cut whole Europe 4 and still have material for fringe of a dozen Italys. The resources of a
 country like this, with such magnificent l distance, cannot be presented in a par
 agraph. ~
 In all these conditions--Alaska and Canada and the far west of the United
 States, Australia and New Zealand, and l finally Siberia--civilization will accom- plish her miracle of the loaves and the
 fishes, and will feed millions where now
 a handful of savages vegetate." But l this is not all Civilization will not stop with peopling lands now vacant; it will 1 enlarge the population of countries al
 ready oecupied--China, for example. You may think that the population of
 China has reached the limit of possible l density. This is far from true. China l is not half so densely populated as l France, and France is not by any means so crowded as might be. We l forget how vast is the territory of Chi l ma. Were China as densely peopled as 1 Japan it would have nearly 1,200, 100000 l inhabitants. (almost as many as the ac- l tual population of the globe), and 1t is I capable of more crowding than Japan,
 because it is immensely richer in natu-
 ral resources. I will simply indicate
 here, by way of example, single class | of it's resources--coal and iron. The l stores of coal and iron in the provinces l of Chensi and Chans are regarded as | the most important in the world. They l cover an area of nearlysf1ve hundred by | one hundred kilometers, which, accord | ing to high authority, contains enough anthracite to supply the world 1 for two thousand years. England is I about to penetrate this region with a
 railway, and she is assured a conces- | sion of sixty years to exploit these vast riches. The opening of mines will de- I velop an iron industry which will facil- I