Arizona republican., 1908-08-07

the business by three, but, by one of those strange paradoXes of trade, the Panama railroad steamship line has now more business and bettc- bal ance sheet than it had before the oth- CT lines came into the port of Colon | The operation of the steamship line is profitable, even if nearly all the passengers carried by it are employees l either of the railroad or the canal commission, and are charged but twenty dollars on the other lines. The railroad and the canal comtnis- | sion operate on the community of in | terest plan. In fact, except that the | railroad does a commercial business, 1t would simply be part and parcel of the canal project. As it is, it's president and board of directors are the chairman and commissioners, re- | spectively, of the Isthmian canal com mission. They have a good credit with one another, and whene .cr 'k" l. c. c. wants anything the P. R. R. has, l it simply goes and gets it. and r. R R. takes the same privilege with the l. C. c. At the end of the year d
 
 is no great outgo on either hand
 The Panama railroad is about the only railroad in the world that has been moved almost entirely to make way for another enterprise. When the relocation of the road is com pleted it will have only IS per cent of its present location. Where it now crosses the line of the canal twice it will then be entirely on the east side of the canal. If it were to continue in it's present location from Gatun to San Pablo it would find itself under about eighty-five feet of water To Obviate this a great embankment, eighty-two feet high, will skirt the eastern edge of the dam. This em- bankment will be about 6,5O0 feet long some 2,600,000 cubic yards of earth be- ing required to build it. It will be the largest single railroad embankment in the world. The entire relocation of the railroad has been made necessary by the construction of the canal hence the canal commission will bear all the expenses.
 It its new location the road will have a higher percentage of embank
 
 in the world It will be built on high elevation to keep it out of the waters of the Gatun dam. It will re- quire 12,OOO,OO0 cubic yards of earth to make the necessary fills, and near ly all of this will come from the can al prism. The fills will represent a pile of dirt approximately one-fifteenth as much as will have been taken out of the canal from the time the French under De Lesseps, turned the first shovel of earth, until the ships are ready to sail through the channel.
 The rush of gold seekers to Calif- | ornia led to the building of the rail- | road across the Isthmus. William H. | in whose honor Colon was ] named Aspinwall, and some other New | York capitalists got the money togeth- | CT, and then secured the necessary | from the new Granadian | government. This concession was saf- | terward made to run 11S years by the | Colombian government When the | French canal company decided to build | the canal they bought the railroad. ac- | quiring sixty eight -seventieths of the | stock, paying $25O per share for it. after the American stockholders had | stripped the company of it's cash. In | other words the transaction netted the | American stockholders S291 per share | at time when it had been selling at | but little aboue par.
 When the road was completed the | first class fare across the Isthmus was twenty-five dollars in gold Baggage was charged for at the rate of ten cents per pound. and if a passenger carried an overcoat or an umbrella, whether he took it with him into the coach or not he had to pay baggage | rates for it. Residents of the 18th nus were given monthly passes upon he payment of fifty dollars flat. First class freight was carried at three dol ars per hundredweight.
 When the Americans took charge the passengers rate across the Isthmus vas $500; today it is $40. It now 'osts more to check ones baggage icross the Isthmus than it does to )uy first class ticket. trunk + weighing 150 pounds will cost three E lollars, while a first class tickets costs \ | half dollar less. A fair sized suit Ii ,aSe will be taken across at a cost of 4