Omaha daily bee., 1912-07-07

Colonel Goethals says the United State
may have to keep soldiers here to th
number of 10000, and also that it will
take $500 additional employees to run th'
canal. These people will spend grea
deal. Then we shall have the touris
travel, which is already coming by thou.
sands. That will steadily increase. 1t will
give US a stream Of travellers passint
through and dropping dollars into
Panama and Colon. Why, take your
own people! All of you Americans viii
lcertainly want to come to see the canal
There are ninety millions of you, ant
even at as low as a dollar apiece. that
would give us $s00o0,oOo to start with. II
you should spend SO apiece the amount
would soon reach a billion.
Big Hotels to Be Built.
But can you accommodate the crowd?'
Yes. We shall have big hotels for the
tourists" said DR.. Arosemena, "and the
tourist travel will bring in a great deal.
Paris gets a thousand million francs
every year out of tourists. and Switzer-
land feeds fat upon them. There is no
reason why we should not do likewise"
do you not think that the Americans
will have cities of their own here?'
very likely so. There will probably be
o great business city at Balboa, but that
will be In the swamps, and while it will
contain the warehouses and great stores,
1t will hardly be fit for the hotels and
the residences. Panama will be the
Brooklyn, the residence quarter, and we
shall have street cars which will go back
and forth in five minutes. The people
of Balboa will do their business there and
come to Panama for the night
Chances for Money Making.
"But has Panama nothing else but llo-
tells to offer to the world?"
1T has great deal more." said the
president THE Panama republic is one
OF the richest countries in the tropics,
and by modern sanitation the most Of 1t
can be made one of the most healthy.
1t is now open to settlement, and we will
do what we can to encourage the estab-
lishment of small farms and farmers. We
are offering land in tracts of fifty hec-
tares, or about A7 acres, at a little over
20 cents an acre, and 200 hectares at a
still less price per acre. As the amount
of land goes up, the price goes down, and
we are doing everything we can to en-
courage development. We have been
building roads in many of the provinces,
and we now have in the neighborhood of
500 miles of roads and over sixty-one new
bridges
But tell me something about your
lands, Mr.. President" said /. "What can
you raise on them?"
I'VE can raise all sorts of tropical
fruits. We have good lands for coffee
and cacao. Coffee plantations are being
set out in some places, and cacao land
is in demand in the country about Bocas
del Toro. There are immense bananA
estates there. The United Fruit company
owns thousands of acres, and it ships
millions of punches of bananas a year.
The most of that fruit goes to the United
States. We have also good soil for rub
Der, and rubber plantations are being set
out by Americans and others. Some of
the ex-employes of the canal have rubber
estates which are already in bearing.
A stock Country.
I'VE have also large areas of fine graz
ing land" continued President Arose
mena. "The climate is such that the cat
tie can feed out-of-doors all the year
round, and we have three varieties of
rich grasses to fatten them. Take the
province of Chiriqui In the northern part
of the republic. There Is region there
known as the Divila country, which has
many square miles Of plains covered with
grass which is dotted here and there
with groves.
THE country is well watered, but there
are no swarnps, although 1t rains almost
daily for about eight months of the year.
Still the rains are short and for the most
of the time the weather is clear. That
land is splendid for cattle and 1t has
more stock than all the rest Of the repub-
lie. 1t has already number OF large
ranches and there Is room for many
more. I doubt whether we have more
than 5000 or 100000 head Of stock in
Panama now. whereas I have seen 1t
estimated that our lands would sustain
100000 head. When the canal Is COM
pleted there with be a great demand for
meat from the ships passing through. and
1t ought to be supplied by the isthmus.
It seems to me there should be great
deal of money in cattle raising. As It is
now lean cattle may be purchased at from
SIS to $40 head. After they have been
grazed for six months they will bring $50
and upward"
Real Estate at Panama.
What opportunities have you outside
of farntngT'
There is great deal Of money to be
made in real estate said the president.
with the completion of the canal there
is sure to be a demand for farm lands