Arizona republican., 1906-03-17
MILLIONS AT STAKE.

ident send Judge Calhoun to Venez- uela to go over the whole case. Here is an insignificant South American re- public whose president seems to stir up both Europe and the United States The country has little or no commerce. no industries. no rich gold and silver mines-why then such an ado about it all?
 The reason is-asphalt Venezuela has enough bitumen to pave all the streets of the United States with the most perfect covering which has yet been devised Bermudez Lake" the home of all the contention is in the midst of a tropical jungle but it's thousands of acres Of oozing asphalt constitute one of the most valuable pieces of property in the world. As phalt is to be obtained in great quanti- ties in Trinidad, and there are smaller beds of t in California. Texas and elsewhere. but this Venezuela tract. by common consent. has the finest grade of asphalt for paving which has yet been discovered.
 Cities Have Invested s15o,oo0,oo0.
 Some idea of what this deposit means may be gathered from the growth of asphalt paving. Twenty five years ago, about twelve miles, or less than one-fifth of one per cent Of the paved streets of the cities of the United States were paved with as phalt. Today this luxurious pavement is spread over twenty-five hundred miles of streets in the United States, embracing an area approximating A, 00O,0 ,000 square yards. This represents an original investment of $1G0.OOO 900, and including the cost of repairs and resurfacing, a total outlay of not less than $150.000,000.
 No wonder, then. that the pOssessioE of NeneZuela's great source of supply is considered a rich prize. The Bermu- deg asphalt deposit is an immense mo- rass of pitch covered here and there by patches of vegetation. As fast as the pitch or asphalt is drug out a new supply OOzes up from below. From the lake" lying just IS miles from tho mouth of the San Juan river the asphalt is carried by a private railroad six miles to the head of nav igation on the river. Here great de- posits of asphalt are formed as the cars arrive from the lake. Afterwards the asphalt is transferred from these temporary deposits to steamers, es- pecially constructed to transport 1t to this country.
 Beginning of the Asphalt Controversy.
 Horatio R. Hamilton. a soldier of fortune who was in Venezuela in 1888, induced President Blanco to grant him a concession to exploit the natural re- sources of Bermudez, a state compris- ing an area of over 32,000 square miles. This concession was the beginning of the asphalt controversy" Hamilton. in return, was to pay royalties on his exports of woods. minerals. etc, and was to ''canalize" the rivers-Open- them to navigation by dredging chan neis.
 The job was too big for Hamilton to handle alone. so he sold his concession, with Venezuela's consent, to the New York and Bermudez Co. in 1885. This company hes owned and mined the Bermudez asphale deposit ever since. But the ownership has been subject to many tribulations. The company spent large sums of money in perfecting it's plant and building a railroad. With the growth of the asphalt industry. it began to dawn upon Venezuela that she had veritable gold mine in the midst Of what looked like a mere worthless morass.
 The business of asphalt paving was on the high road to prosperity in 1897. It was just about this time that the revolutionary movement under Ci- priano Castro was matched. When Castro finally ascended the presidential throne. thu New York and Bermudez company was beginning to realize something from it's investment. But the opposing game began, and it was carried on with great shrewdness. First, there were a series of infrinE- ir,g opnnauSfnpC TTnGff1a HanraaC issued. attempts to blackmail were officially endorsed. All these attack 5 | had to be met while the battle with | the wilderness went on. A railroad was built in a climate where wood rots almost overnight. Two hundred laborers were employed; 10000 cocoa i trees were planted; regular means of inter- communication ct Trinidad were established: Wharves. dwellings and ! warehouses were built; roads were cut 1 through the forests; in fact this part ! of Venezuela has been developed all most single-handed by the asphalt i company.
 1 Orinoco Too Much for Engineers. The fight between Castro and the
 Trust" went on for several years. In
 1904 tae case became acute. Castro all
 legged that the company had failed to
 canalize the Bermudez rivers as it had
 contracted to do The company re- piled that as a matter of fact it had tried desperately to dredge those wa ters. but that owing to the shifting na- ture of the streams it was impossible to secure permanent results. As the engineers put it. "because of geolOgi- cal and hydrographical conditions which would always render fruitless
 work initiated for such a purpose This part of the delta of the Orinoco
 was too much for the engineers. and
 they didn't hesitate to say so. There
 are ten main streams and scores ot
 smaller ones, all of the most unreliable
 description.
 This whole question had been sub-
 mitted to the Venezuelan government
 in 1900 on July g of which year g decree had been issued declaring thaI
 the company had fulfilled up to date