The Leavenworth echo. [volume] (Leavenworth, Wash.) 1904-current, 1914-05-29
A COUNTRY EDITOR
SEES PANAMA CANAL
And Tells The Echo Readers of His Trip
and What lie Sees and Hears

What will happen when the canal is
opened?
This question is agitating the minds
of the great majority at the present
time.
Those who are not in a position to
know exactly the situation as it is are
somehow of the opinion that a great
commercial awakening will at once be
manifest.
Those in a position to know are of
the contrary opinion. s.
l have talked with harbor masters,
sea captains, shippers and engineers
and they are not looking for great up
heavel in the paths of commerce. In
time, yes. But not at present. The
country will have to be developed first,
and lines Of trade opened up.
South and Central America are as
yet unacquainted with the United
States. There are in these countries
thousands and thousands of acres of
undeveloped land which can be made
to produce abundantly. All the way
down the Pacific coast extends vast
desert, backed up and screened from
the rainfall by the Andes mountains.
This desert only lacks water to make it
the richest producing ground in the
world. The mountain streams at the
back make possible all kinds Of irrigat-
ing schemes. 1t has been found that
cotton will grow in paying quantities
on this land and Of a staple which at
present is one of the most valuable on
the market
No region in the United States can
feel the immediate benefit OF the new
route to the same extent as the South
ern States and the vast valley of the
Mississippi. The latter territory the
richest in all the world, one and a
quarter million square miles in extent,
intersected by five thousand miles of
navigable waterway, with prolific soil
and energetic people, will find new
markets and new outlet for its varied
products other than expensive railroad
transportation. Chicago is nearly the
same distance from New Orleans as
from New York, but St. Paul, Omaho,
Dubuque, Evansville and Denver are
nearer to the former than to the latter.
1t is quite probable that the present
generation will see ocean steamships
coming down from Duluth through the
great Lakes, an inland canal and the
Mississippi river, to the Pacific and
Asian ports.
But all this will take time. There
will be no immediate increase in trade
for the route will be new and it will
take time to attract the attention of
shippers to the advantages of this
route. Another thing which will hin
der is the evident disregard of Ameri-
can exporters OF the advantages of
South American trade. The average
American is as ignorant Of true condi-
tions south of the equator as he is of
the laws OF the Hottentots. We will
have to learn that if we get their trade
we will have to approach them in a
different manner than we do now. We
must study their ideals and learn to
approach them on common ground
of understanding. We will first of all
have to learn to speak Spanish and how
to approach these people and show some
common understanding OF things as
they are, and be able to talk it over in
their own language.
Germany and Great Britain have
learned this lesson long ago and they
are now enjoying a fine trade with
South America. We send our children
to school and teach them Latin and
Greek and possibly little French, if
we desire to be real fashionable, and
when they get all thru they are about
as useful as a golf stick at breakfast
table. II we followed the German idea
we would learn the language of the
fellow who could do US the most good
and then go after him.
I met lady on the boat whose
home was in Plainfeld, New Jersey.
She was returning from a visit to her
son in Costa RIGA. Costa RIGA is one