The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1911-05-23
IntercOntinental Railway Now
Is Assured.
Pan.American Venture Prom
ised in Next 10 Years.
BIND THE NATIONS.
Completion of Road Will Have
Influence.
Other Items of General Interest
i'm Traffic World.

The Pan American railway, senle-
times known as the lntercontlheIil
railway, will surely be construc .lIa,,
saws the Railway Record. rms iiley
within q. score of years it should De
possible to go all the way from new
York city to Rio de Janeiro. Buehos
Ayres and Santiago by rail- Inc coIii
pletfon of such road would iteraly
hind together the nations of America
,,ot o11,1 with bands of steels but with
ties of greater friendship There is NJ
influence in the world that tends SO
much I deovelop comfy among cum
tries as facilities for traVellns anu
visiting back and forth
The Pan American railway will PROB
ahI,T never be laid down and owned by
anY one company of a single nation
aiitv There are almost inSurmounI-
able difficulties in achieving this The
difference in national laws of the many
states through which it would pass the
varying rules for administration OF COM
panies and determining of passenger
and freight rates, and finally, the
enormous cost, would seriously inter-
fere On the other hand, there Is no
valid reason why the many d1nerent
systems that are now running OF pc
ing built in the countries reaching from
Mexico south to Argentina and chile
should not be eventually linked. In
fact, excellent progress is being made
in this direction already
Many practical railroad men advance
the argument that there can not be Il
successful intercontinental railway be-
cause few If any passengers will wish
to make a long, tireSome, and dusty
journey by land when they can go so
quickly and comfortably by fast steam
ers. They also contend that 1t would
not do q successful through freight
business, because no extended line of
this character could give any such low
freight rates as could the steamships.
Both the assertions as to passengers
and freight may be true, but it is not
possible to contend that these through
conditions would in any way interfere
with the success of the railway. The
local traffic, the exchange of travel be-
tween different countries, and the read
mess with which tourists could make
the entire journey, visiting each coun-
try in turn and stopping as they
thought best, would provide abundant
passenger business. while at the same
time the exchange of commodities be-
tween neighboring countries would sup
ply the necessary freight. In this con-
nection it also must be remembered
that whereas steamships only touch the
coasts of various countries, the inter-
continental railway with its branches,
would never cover their interiors where
are to be found considerable population.
prosperous towns. and natural develop
traffic for railway systems.
A survey of the present situation
proves that the Pan American railway
is much nearer achievement than most
persons suppose. 1t is now possible To
go practically all the way from New
York to Guatemala City by rail. There
are short lines in Salvador, Nicaragua,
and Costa Rica which will eventually
join terminals. Already a railroad ex-
tending through large section of Pan
anna, from David to Panama City, has
been surveyed and the beginning of
construction is not far away. In Co
lombia there has not been much new
construction that would be part of the
Pan American system, but new lines
are being contemplated and financed.
In Ecuador railroad connections al
ready exist between Guayaquil, the
port, and Quito, the capital. A good
part of this line would be the trunk
system of the intercontinental railway.
In Peru, the road from Cusco south to
Lake Titicaca, and the road in Bolivia
from Lake Titicaca south to the cap
ital, La Paz, and then running south
into Chile, would form important links
in the Pan American system. A new
longitudinal line is already under con-
struction in Chile, and a road which
reaches from the heart of Bolivia south
through Argentina to Buenos Ayres is
nearly completed. Transcontinental
railways from Bolivia to Brazil, Para
quay and Uruguay are also under par
tial construction in the form of new
roads running into undeveloped sec
lions of that part of the world.
Each International Conference of
American Republics which has been
held during the last 20 years has
adopted resolutions strongly in favor of
the Pan American railway, and the