The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-07-24

and the day may yet come when the dream of Jefferson shall be realized---a Confederated West Indies under an American protectorate. Porto Rico Is already ours. Cuba is under our pro- tection. Jamaica Is proving no longer an important asset to England, and the growing desire of the commercial interests of the island for annexation to the United States may yet be Grat. flied by friendly treaty. San Domingo and Hayti are gradually drifting to the point where each will require guardian--and the United States will noa let any other nation assume such a role. Even in Mexico the wish for annexation Is said to be strong. Prest~ dent Diaz himself being reliably re- ported as having said that within hf- ty years, Mexico with a half-billion dollars of American money invested in her enterprises. will be seeking . political union with the United States. Stranger things have happened to the map of the world than Canada, whose interests. aims and aspirations are one with our own. should ultimately De. come a part of us, and so we may yet literally fulfil a prediction made several hundred years ago. by the far seeing Raleigh. /
 It Is probable that in the decade or two following the completion of the canal the tolls collected from 1t will not pay for its upkeep and the inter- est on the investment. If 1t costs s300.- 900, ,000 the interest on that amount at only per cent would be $s.0o0,00o q year. Add to that a million dollars for upkeep, and at the rate of toll charged by the Suez Caual-$1.70 per ton--it woulduusake 5,90e.0o0 tons of cargo Q year to yield enough toll to make the enterprise break even commercially. But while we may not expect much in the way of additions to a sinking fund on the cost for good while, the experience of many canals is that 1t will ultimately pay for itself commer- cially, not to count the immense strategic advantage 1t will give the United States. The tonnage of the Suez Canal increased from 436, ,609 tons in 1870 to s,44s.3S3 in 1895, and to 13,401, ,s35 in 1904. Tn maximum year. ly dividends permitted is 26 per cent. and there has to be a constant lower ing of tolls to keep them down to that point.
 The total tonnage of the Kiel Canal has increased from 1.500.000 in 18S6 to 4,9s0, 900 In 1904. Our own 500" Canal shows remarkable increases in traffic. perhaps beyond anything its promoters ever dreamed of. Its total tonnage to- day is about 25.000, 900 tons as com pared with S.500.000 tons in 1890. It Is expected ultimately that the Panama Canal will be as much ahead of the "Soo" Canal as the Boo Is ahead of the Suez today.
 Perhaps tbe most immediate benefit the American people will derive from the Canal will be the opening up of new trade with South America. Under the stimulus of this great waterway, American enterprise will doubtless en- joy a neNw awakening, and will push it. self into the opportunities which await 1t in that land of promise beyond the EQugtor. Today South America buys only one dollars worth of stun from the United States where she buys sew en from Europe. On the other hand. we buy more of her exports than all the rest of the world put together. Every student Of economy comedies that there is nothing to prevent our getting as much of her import busi- ness as we get of her export business except indifference to the opportunity.
 The Panama Canal may be expected to change this, and if it does, with all its tremendous cost 1t would still in the long run be a pretty cheap mission ary. The canal is a work which will benefit humanity as long as the world shall stand, and which will hasten the day when the federation of the world and the parliament of man will be an fact.
 Copyright, 1908, by Frederick J.
 Haskin.)
 TomOrr0w-The Panama Canal--XTV -OLD FRENCH DAYS.