Arizona republican., 1904-03-21
The Pan-American Railroad.

The Pan-American Railroad.
 MT. Charles M. Pepper. who has just spent a year in the Latin-Ameri- can countries studying the prospects of the Intercontinental railroad. has re ported the result of his Investigations to the secretary of state. He was ap- pointed commissioner for this purpose by President Roosevelt.
 The Intercontinental railroad com mission was organized in Washingtou fifteen years ago to study the feasibl- ity of extending a trunk railroad from our country to BUenos Ayres. The re port of the commission on its studies and its surveys for the best route were published in 1899. MT. Pepper reports many encouraging facts and shows that considerable progress is being made toward realizing the great pro- ject. The same conclusions are reached when we compare the facts and figures in the commissions report of 1889 with the results obtained by MT. Pepper.
 
 to Buenos Ayres will be 10.22S miles long by the route which the surveyors selected. Five years ago the existing lines that might be used as a part of the trunk railroad were about 4,I72 miles in length, leaving 5,E56 miles to be constructed. Since that time the countries south of US have built 656 miles of track along the international route, reducing the portion yet to be constructed to 4,So0 miles. Only about an eighth of the mileage has been built in the past five years, but this has been done in the natural course of railroad building without any reference to the the international project. and, as NJ. Pepper shows, the prospects arc favor able for q more rapid extension of rail- roads along the Pan-American rodte.
 Last fall the road from Guayaquil. Ecuador, reached the Quito plateau, 10 GOO feet nhove the sGa. and is now pushing north to Quito. It is expected to reach that city this season, when another link in the intercontinental chain, 160 miles long. will be complet- ed. Mexico is pushing the work cn her line from Oaxaca to Guatemala, the road which Argentina Is building from Jujoy to Bolivia is well under way, and in President Pando's recent message to the Bolivian congress ke indicated links in the Intercontinental railroad between Oruro and La Paz as roads whose building should first be au- thorized All these lines will be parts of the great system, and the next two or three years are likely to see several hundred miles of road added to thr completed portion.
 It appears from Mr. Peppers report that South America is entering upon a period of more than ordinary activity in railroad construction. The various east and west enterprises now under way will all be feeders for the Pan- American lire, and their tendency will be to stimulate it's completion. Most of the countries of Central and South America are sharing in this activity as is shown by Mir. Pepper. The next few years are cutie certain to see the Atlantic and Pacific coasts of Guate- Inaia, Costa Rica and perhaps Nica- ragua, united by railroads. a trans continental road connecting BuenOs Ay-e3 with Valparaiso, Bolivia joined by raii to the navigabIe lower part O. of the Madeira, and great improve n:ents in Peru's connections with her rich territory east of the Andes. Some of these enterprises are nearly com pleted, most of the others are bcyonG the preliminary stages, and all of them will help the Intercontinental road and be benefited by it. The all-rail route to Buenos Ayres may be some time coming, but it is certain to be realized before the world, is very much older MT. Pepper says the cost of construc- tion is now estimated at $50, 100000, a reduction of $24,oGO,OOO from the repori of the commission five years ago.
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