The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1904-01-18
to Tragedy and French
Folly Marx LsthmIan Canal Route

CONCLUDED FROM FIRST PAGE0
have closed the door against Frences am
bltion to unite the waters of the two great
oceans. The trouble with us has been that
we nave too strenuouSly and persiStently
pursued the phantom of a canal over the
Nicaragua route, so in measure We must
snare the odium this wreck heaps upon
rrance-we, at least, gave France by our
own dilatory procedure the opportunity to
disgrace herself.
One cannot properly appreciate this canal
enterprise-nOw headed straight toward con-
SS.uhlfnatlon-wl without understanding, in out
line at least, its history. That ground has
often been traversed; L shall no more than
sketch II here. Every school child knows
now Columbus's efforts to find western
passage to Asia" failed. His voyages and
his trials served the one great purpose, how
ever, OF stimulating wOrid-interest in the
thing of which he had dreamed. Vasco de
Cana, who sailed from Lisbon in 1497 and
reached "Calicut, India, in 1893, having
been the first man TO round the Cape OF
Good Hope, returned in 1S49 to prove that
communication by water with the Far East
was possible. 1t was in 1913 that Balboa.
from some point on the isthmian strip first
beheld the Pacific, and the scheme to cleaVe
the isthmus dates almost from that time.
EARLY EFFORTS FOR CANAL.
AS early as 1520-nearly four centuries ago
Charles V. of Portugal directed that sur
vey be made for ship canal across this
country. That survey was completed in 1924,
but nothing ever came of it, Spain. during
all the years of her dominion here, cherished
the project, and toward the close of the
seventeenth century Charles III chartered
a company to build a canal through Mica
ragua under a survey begun in 1873 by Man
uel Galisteo and completed in 1871. In April,
1914, the Spanish COrteS actually decreed the
construction of the canal under plans con-
ceived by the explorer Won Humboldt
Neither of these efforts produced positive
results, and SPANS power to do anything
soon lapsed, for in 1919 New Granada Ecua-
dor and Venezuela formed the Republic of
Colombia, which was split in 1881 by the
secession of Ecuador and Venezuela.
The United States became a factor in the
canal problem in 1925, when it projected an
agreement with the Republic of Central
America for a canal over the Nicaragua
route, and France has been involved since
1888. when NJ. NJ Solomon headed a French
enterprise TO construct the waterway. The
whole scheme lapSed a few years later
when Aspinwall Stephens and Chauncey Sc
cured from Colombia the concession for a
railroad across the isthmus-a concession
which had previously been granted to Maeto
Kline who failed TO avail himself Of il.
The opening of the railroad, in 1855
blighted interest In the canal for nearly a
score Of years. The United States was, now
ever coming constantly TO realize what IL
would mean TO her commerce to have a
short water route between her two coasts
and she was constantly calculating its pos
sibilities.
CRIMINALLY OPTIMISTIC.
In fact, it is to our own enterprise that
the Panama canal stands now as a partially
accomplished fact In 1875 Capt. z. p. Lull,
u. S. N, after the most exhaustive surveys
and Investigations, mapped canal route
over the line actually followed by the
French company. We did nothing toward
securing the necessary rights, however, and
in May 1876 Lieut. L. n. b. Wyse secured
from Colombia formal canal concession.
/ - - fnof nj ufh narfDfn
and additions, which is now in existence,
and which is proving the bone of conten-
ton between Colombia and the United
States.
Just about this time Ferdinand de Les
seps won the title of 1.-The great canal
builder" by opening the Suez canal to traf-
hc. That was an achievement which cleo
! trified the world. In France 1t gave TO De
| Iesseps a reputation which made 1t possible
| deemed De LessepSs capabilities lnexhaust-
| ible. and was ready to follow him In any
| enterprise he might suggest. 1t was at this
| moment that the great engineer became the
! original party in the great crime wnlch was
| perpetrated on the isthmus. Nobody be-
| lieves him to have been personally dishon-
/ est; his conviction on criminal charge
was really a sop thrown TO an outraged
! sentiment in France. But De Lesseps erred
| and upon moral grounds most culpably-
| by allowing adulation to sweep him of bis
| feet His crime without which there
! might have been no other attaching to the
French undertaking, was the crime OF I'M
due optimism.
| De Lesseps was completely carried away
! by the praise heaped upon him, and the
| story of this project shows that he imag-