Evening star., 1932-09-11
BY GASTON NERyAL.

opening of the Panama Canal, a
historic date in the annals of
Il American enterprise, was re-
corded few days ago by news
papers throughout the land
In the meantime, while press edito-
rials we're calling to mind the impress
sive ceremonies of the passage of the
Ancon from the Atlantic to the Pacific
18 years ago, reports from Panama,
printed in the financial section of the
same papers. indicated further declines
in the revenues of that monumental
engineering feat as traflc through the
canal fell to new lows since 1928.
The first year Of the depression de-
crease of over a million dollars was re-
ported in the receipts of the Panama
Canal And ever since such decrease
has been more and more pronounced.
Last month scarcely more than 800
ships made the transit through the
canal.
Apart from the immediate financial
embarrassment which it entails, this
decrease may not be so harmful, in the
long run, to the Panama Canal. 1t
may have consequences which would
far outweigh the financial difficulties
momentarily involved.
Advocates of a new interoceanic ca
nal argued not long ago that the Pan
ANA Canal would become inadequate
within the next 10 years and that traf-
fic and world commerce needs made
imperative the construction by the
United States of the proposed Nicara-
guam Canal. Their insiStence was such
that they secured the approval by Con-
gresS of an appropriation bill for $780,
600 for the exploration work on the
Nicaraguan route. A special commits
sion Of American engineers and experts
recently completed a study Of the pos
sibilities and advantages OF the Mica
raguan Canal.
In the meantime, the traflc decrease
recently reported by the Panama Canal
authorities brings up again the question
as to the canals capacity for present
and future world traffic and the advisa-
bility Of constructing new canal across
| Nicaragua. Is the Nicaraguan Canal
really necessary? Is the Panama Canal
already inadequate for traffic, or viii
| it become useless in time?
AS all human problems do. this one
| has two sides, ~and it is interesting to
note how equally emphatic their ex-
ponents are. One of the most enthu-
siaStic partisans Of a new canal, Sena-
| tor McKellar of Tennessee, declared
some time ago that the Panama Canal
had not sufficient capacity to take care
Of the needs of mteroceanic traffic as
it will be few years hence. He said:
! Fourteen years ago the United States
| Government completed the construction
| of the Panama Canal Already there
are signs that the canal is performing
very nearly all the work of which 1t is
capable If traffic through that canal
should increase during the next 10
years as it has during the last IA, busi-
ness will be clogged and ships must be
/ turned away within only few years.
/ 1t is absolutely necessary that there
should be another canal dug. and be-
lieve that it should be dug across
| Nicaragua"
Senator McKellar introduced some
years ago bill authorizing the building
Of the Nicaraguan Canal and provid-
| ing the funds for financing the work.
The bill still is in the hands Of the
committee to which it was referred, but
a. number of Congressman and news
paper writer's have since been thinking
that Senator McKellar was right.
Traffic Increase Cited.
| According to the figures given out by
the advocates of the Nicaraguan Canal,
the steamer traffic in the Panama Canal
had been increasing to an alarming de-
gree. Since it was opened the annual
total Of transits had increased from
LOTS to 6,456, about 500 per cent.
This meant, they contended, that in 10
| be unable to keep pace with the prog
ress of traffic and world trade.
The Panama press views the situation
differently. Congestion and excess Of
traffic in the Panama Canal do not
exist, according to the PanamanS.
They declare that traffic through the
| canal is in fact increasing. but so gradu-
ally that the increase will not have be-
come a danger in even so years from
now. The largest daily average has
| only reached 40 per cent of the total
operating capacity of the canal, and this
with only one set of locks in operation.
| Should traffic become congested, they
say, the proper thing to do would be to
add new set of locks to the canal.
This would permit a daily average Of
10 or rs ships, that Is, an approximate
total of 27,300 ships year, which they
believe Is far beyond the figure the
| canal will have reached in 10 years.
Commenting on the unlikelihood Of
| such tremendous increase in traffic, one
of the Latin American papers wonders
| whence so many ships would come. and
adds: THE question arises as to where
| they would come from and where they
would go and what they would carry.
Certainly, not even the most patriotic
of American shippers will build ships
| and send them to Panama for the mere
pleasure Of paying tolls and having
them pass through the Canal"
Another opponent of the Nicarauguan
Canal pictured the situation to me in
| these words: Imagine great hotel in
given place" he said, "the construc-
tion of which has cost a lot of money.
This hotel Is only operating to fourth
of its full capacity, for it lacks Gus
| toners. though in spite of this it is
profitable. Would it be advisable to
build another large hotel across the
| street, costing twice as much, when
there are not customers enough to fill
the first one?"
According to this simile, and speaking
| in f1gurative terms, the United States