The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1909-09-26
GOETHE FORESAW
PANAMA CANAL
Great Poet Prophesied United
States Would Cut Through
lsthmus.

In view of the recent report which
the chief of the American operations
ON the Panama canal, Colonel Goethals.
has submitted to the commission, there
seems to be but little room for doubt
but that the canal will be completed
by the year 1915, and that the longing
of four centuries for an interoceanic
water street through Middle America
will be realized.
1t is little known that the thought
of Panama canal, as well as of the
Suez canal, once busted the worldcom
prehensive brain of Goethe, and filed
him with youthful enthusiasm in his
old age. In Eckerman' well-known
work we find under date of February
p, 1927, the following remarkable no.
tice of talk with Goethe:
He spoke of Alexander Won Hum
boldt, whose work about Cuba and CO.
lumbia he had begun to read, and his
observations concerning the project
for cutting through Panama seemed to
have for him a wonderful interest.
! Humboldt, said Goethe, has, with his
great knowledge of affairs, pointed out
a different way by which, through the
use of several rivers which flow into
the Gulf of Mexico, the end can better
be arrived at than by way of Panama.
So much. however, is certain, that when
canal is cut from the American gulf
to the Pacific Ocean, countless good
Will result therefrom, both to the civil
lied and uncivilized world.
90 But it would cause me wonder If
the United States should allow the OPP
portunity of taking such work in its
own hands to escape. One can well
foresee that this young empire, which
is so rapidly conquering the West, will,
within the next thirty or forty years..
have taken possession of, and popu-
lated, the vast territory on the far side
of the Rocky Mountains.
90 One can further foresee that along
this great Pacific Ocean coast, on which
nature has lavished the roomiest and
safest OF harbors, important CONNER
clal cities will grow up, and through
, them the trade of the United States
with China and Asia will pass.
In such a case, it would seem not
only desirable, but absolutely neces-
sary, that faster communication be-
tween the east and west coasts of
America, than the long, uncomfortable
and expensive trip around the Horn,
should be secured, not only for mer-
chant ships, but for war vessels as well.
| repeat, therefore, that it will be abb
sOlutely essential for the United States
to make passage from the gulf to the
Pacific Ocean; and | am certain that
that country will do it. VIII / live to
see its That will hardly ~be the case
'''I should also like to see another
great work brought about-the linking
together of the Danube and the Rhine
But this undertaking is so gigantic
that | am somewhat doubtful when |
think of our German sources of help.
Third and last, | should like to see
England in possession of a canal
through the Isthmus of Suez. Could /
bur live to see these three great works
accomplished, it would really be worth
the effort, on that account alone, to
live for another fifty years. -
One must read with wonder these ut
terances of Goethe, which point out
with such astonishing eiearness the
| coming accomplishments Two of the
| works mentioned by him were actually
completed within the fifty years that
| ne waited 10 i've III OChtE To See lHtli
accomplished. The canal between the
! Danube and the Rhine. which to Goethe
! seemed the most unlikely of realiza-
| ton, was commenced within ten years
| of the death of the Weimar 0lympian,
namely in 1886. and was finished in
| 1S45 as the Ludwig's canal. The Suez
| canal has been completed since 1869,
| though it is only since 1882 that it has
( been in the possession of the English,
| in accordance with the wishes of
| Goethe And now it will not be much
longer until the third of these three
projects is completed, exactly in the