Arizona republican., 1905-07-16
PHoENIx. ARIZONA, JULY 16, 1905.
The Panama Monopoly

MT. Bristow's report on commercial
 conditions at Panama is commended < by Secretary Taft, and will doubtless
 be approved by the business sense
 and by the sense of justice of the
 American people. It reveals a state of
 affairs which must be regarded as in-
 tolerable, and tt recommends reforms
 which will obviously be for the wei
 fare of commerce and for the relief
 of the government from self-stuifica-
 tion.
 The United States owns the Panama
 railroad. It acquired it as an appur
 tenance to the Panama canal, and log
 ically and morally holds and should
 operate it on the same basis as that
 on which the canal is to be held and
 operated. The canal is to be open to
 all commerce on equal terms. So,
 therefore. should the railroad be. At
 the present time it is not. It main
 tains monopoly. It discriminates not
 only in favor of one nation against
 others, but also in favor of one steam
 ship line against others. and in favor
 of two ports against all others. That
 is wrong. It practically makes this
 government a violator of its own laws
 in maintaining a monopoly in restraint
 of trade, and it works Q serious hard
 ship to American commerce. The monopoly should be broken, and the railroad should be put on the same basis that the canal will occupy namely. that of a common carrier
 ready to transport at equal rates the passengers and freight of any shipping lines that may touch at Colon or at Panama.
 Apart from international considera- tions. which this government cannot afford to ignore in it's great interna- tiOnal undertaking on the isthmus, there are domestic considerations of the most direct and strenuous kind We have four great Gulf ports. Pensa- cola, Mobile, New Orleans and Gal weston, facing the istnmus, capable and desirous of conducting a large and profitable commerce with and across it. Such commerce ought to be encouraged and facilitated. In fact, it is promoted. MT. Bristow's report l gives us that astounding reminder | that "the Panama Railroad company operates a steamship line between | Colon and New York, and has refused | to allow the use of the isthmus to | any competing line on the Atlantic | side" New York. therefore. is the | only United States Atlantic port that ! is permitted to have commercial con- nection with the isthmus. If a man wants to go from New Orleans to | Panama he must go up to New York to take passage. If anyone wants to ship freight from Pensacola to Pan anna he must send it by way of New York. Similarly on the Pacific side, the railroad gives a monopoly of traf- f1c to a steamship line that plies be- tween Panama and San Francisco and omits all intermediate ports; so that passengers and freight from Panama l. for San Diego must go a thousand miles out of their way up to San Fran cisco and back again. Practically, isthmian commerce. is restricted to those two ports of San Francisco and New York
 The folly of such restriction of trade Y is further emphasized by MT. Bristow in his reference to the great Mexican British railroad and harbors at Te- hauntepec. We have hitherto com mented upon that splendidIy equipped enterprise as offering dangerous rivalry tn the Panama route. When it is in fult operation, as it will soon be. it wlll afford to our Gulf and Pacific , pUFts the facilities which are now re- f fused them at Panama, and there can , be little doubt as to what they will do ! about it. Tn any case Tehuantepec 1 would be a dangerous competitor with 2 the Panama railroad. With the latter g handicapped by the present monop- T oily, TehuanteDec would have an inn , advantage over it, and , would even be enabled to develop a 7 rivalry to the canal itself f The Dlainest business common sense f demands, therefore that all the ports f of the world shall have free access , to and equal rights at Panama, and f that direct commerce with Q and across the isthmus be made pos sible for ever:v American port from q sastpOFt to Galveston and from San Diego to Seattle r