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Show nilfe v ' I HE PANAMA CANAL n'nCr By Frederic J. Haskin u Pol- . ' XnX Tho Completion. ?UN, Canal Zone, July 23. tho last stroke of work ou the to at this place lias been struck, 'lBUk rSam will be ready to present his i'c ditch to an applauding world. 'Sfiimo will bo some years in the i as there is much yet to bo s fc Twenty million cubic yards of A Sal will havo to bo put into it, iiCKest set of locks in the world, -fikfflCfing 1,300,000 cubic yards of con-tfMFjfniasonry, con-tfMFjfniasonry, will havo to be con-l con-l .JsjW. and fourteen pairs of prates Vpfcvo to be designed and built. But tho experiments havo been JQ listed aud tho work of constructing 7)51 m begins in oarnest. it will go ?wd with a rush. With the three jBwnlls of the locks aggregating hBOOO linear feet, it will be possi-ft' possi-ft' work twenty .-concrete mixing JHMt once. In a recent piece of jBpction work in the. states a single plant maintained i'or a consid-?8,tinie consid-?8,tinie an nverago of 400 cubic ""Tftyof concretcput in place per day, naximum of 300 cubic feet was ' DfjjBnring that on the zone onh' ten ftvrork constantly, wiih an output 3fli of cJ,cubic yards each per day, they j Wflflnish the locks in 520 working nWil?r wo nn a Quartr years. At "iito they would bo using about jTTviS'ns. or about 125 carloads of ma-flfa ma-flfa day, which is loss than a fif-RYOFof fif-RYOFof tho weight of material taken Culebra cut every dnj. Add to line tho four years the board of T"ting engineers estimated it would 3to make the excavations for the ites, and tho one year thej' fig- It would tako to build the lock IflftYand oven if the three operations iHiriiot be carried forward at the ftnne, it would be only a Jittlo (than seven yenrs. from tile time 'lllatfork began until it is completed. jijb. to excavations are proceeding so Att!5moro rapidly that tho work will Bly be done several years earlier WOjfhe board of engineers expected. JSf P6 therefore pretty safe to assume ibme time not long after tho end tractijycar 1912, that eventful day will Jl Wosij-when the canal will bo opened to ,5 It is easy to imagine that it 11261'E? a Krca daj No nation is so PfcSfrom tho center of civilization JftSSSjjt&vill not feel the benefits the ca-"rW ca-"rW afford. It is probable that no will consider itself too far re-t'froin re-t'froin tho scene to have represcn-'"s represcn-'"s of its navy, its merchant mn-'tnd mn-'tnd its people thero to take part IVTOja groat celebration. Long before uot shovelful of dirt has been dis- I posed of the United States probably 1 -will send out invitations to the nations of tho earth to help celebrate the successful termination of the immense task of breaking down the m barrier ' which, since the beginning of time, has , separatod t-.vo oceans. Warships, steamships, steam-ships, sailing vessels, every Kind aud condition of craft will bravo the dangers dan-gers of tho deep to help make memorable mem-orable the event. . No one is prophet onough to foretel how much the completed canal will mean to tho world's commerce. Wq ! know that it will bring every port ot I Europe nearly 7000 miles nearer to the I western part'of tho United States. Can- nd:i and Mexico. Wo realize that it will i bring our own Atlantic seaboard S000 'miles closer by water to our Paci.ic ' coast than it how is, and that Canada 'will enjov a corresponding benefit, we ' recall that it took the Oregon sixty-five davs to sail around Cape. Horn, when, hail tho canal boon built, she could have made tho trip in nineteen days. We are told that a million tons of mcrchandifio are annunlly landed on the isthmus by tho 1000 steamers which visit its ports in that time Wo recognize rec-ognize that the vast trade which now coos through the Straits of Magellan and around the Horn will pass through tho Panama canal. But wo cannot more than roughly predict tho great diversion of trado which will take place, or tho changes on the map of tho world which win result. The capture of Constantinople by tho Turks resulted in tho discovery of America, It cut off the gTcat route to India and the Oriont. and stopped the rich trade betwoen the West and the East. Thus it was that Columbus was ; led to sail west "in search of a passage started Be Gama on bis trip around the Cape of Good Hopo, also in search of another pnssageway to India and the East. The Panama, canal will not lead to the discovery of another homispherc, but as the closing of a line of travel did load to the discovery of our world, so tho opening of a now lino of travel tho cnnal will lead to the discovery of new worlds of commerce. The action of the Turks in cutting off a route to tho East ended the world-supremacy world-supremacy of Genoa, of Florence, and of Venice. Their harbors, once teeming teem-ing with shipping from the ends of tho then known world, were deserted and all but abandoned. Their commorcial supremacy passod away forever. And while they were losing their grip on tho maritime situation other cities began be-gan to rise and figure as tho centers of the world's commerce. So will it bo with the opening of the Panama canal. With a deep waterway from the Great Lakes to the Gulf the whole of the vast Mississippi basin will find an outlet out-let direct to the markets of tho. world. Grain rales from Chicago, St. Louis, Kansas City, New Orleans and Galveston Galves-ton to Pacific points will bo cheaper I than a railroad could ever give. Tho J great central plnins of Canada, with their vast output, and still vaster pos- sibilitics, of grain, will find it cheaper to reach Oriental markets by way of tho Mississippi river and the Panama J canal. All of this will give the great Mississippi valley an important position posi-tion in the commercial affairs of the nation even beyond that she already holds. Sir Walter Raleigh once exclaimed that the nation which controlled the Isthmus of Durieu would rulo the world. Tho fulfillment of the prophecy seems near. A United States waterway means a deep United States interest in tho affairs of the Caribbean, and the. day may yet conic when the dream of JeiTerson shall bo realized a Confederated Confed-erated West Indies under an Amoricau protectorate. Porto Rico ia already ourfl. Cuba is under our protection. Jamaica is proving no longer an important im-portant asset to England, and the growing grow-ing desire of the commercial interests of the island for annexation to the United States ma3' yet bo gratified b -friendly treaty. San Domingo and Hayti aro gradually drifting to the point Trhcro each will require a guardian guar-dian and tho TTnited States will not let any other nation assume such a role. Even in Mexico the wish for annexation an-nexation is said to be strong, President Presi-dent Diaz himself being rcliabl- reported report-ed as having said that within fifty years Mexico, with a half billion dollars dol-lars of American money invested in her enterprises, will be seeking a political union with the United States. Stranger things have happened to the map of the world than that Canada, whoso interests, aims and aspirations are one with our own, should ultimately become a part of us, and so we may yet literally lit-erally fulfill a prediction mado several hundred 3cars ago by the far-seeing Raleigh. Tt is probable that in the decade or two following the completion of tho canal tho tolls collected from it will not pay for its upkeep and tho interest on the investment. If it costs $300,000,- i 000 tho interest on that amount at only 3 per cent would be $9,000,000 a year. Add to that a million dollars for up keep, and at the rate of toll charged by the Suez canal $1.70 per ton it would take 5,900,000 tons of cargo a 3'car to .yield enough toll to make the ; enterprise break even commercially. ! But while we may not expect much, in , the way of additions to a sinking J fund on' the cost for a good while, tho j experience of many canals is that it , will ultimately pay for itself commercially, com-mercially, not to count the immense strategic advantage it will give the United States. The tonnago of the Suez canal increased from 430,609 tons in 1S70 to S.-MS.383 in 1895, and to 13,401. S35 in 1904. The maximum ' yearly dividends permitted is 25 per "cent, and there has to bo a constant lowering of tolls to keep them down to that point. I Tho total tonnago of the Kiel canal has increased from 1,500,000 in IS9( to 4.990.000 in 1004. Our own "Soo" canal shows remarkable increases in traffic, perhaps be.yond anything its promoters over dreamed of. Its total tonnngo today is about 25,000,000 tons, as compared with 8,500,000 tons in 1890. It is expected that ultimately the Panama canal will be as much ahead of tho "Soo" canal as the "Soo" is ahead of the Suez today. Pfirhans the most immediate benefit tho American people will derive from tho canal will be the opening up of new trade with South America. Under the stimulus of this great waterway ' American enterprise will doubtless en-.iov en-.iov a new awakening, and will push itself iuto tho opportunities which await it in that laud of promise be-vond be-vond tho equator. Today South America Amer-ica buys only $1 worth of stuff from the United States where she buys $7 worth from Europe. On the other hand, we buy moro of her exports than all tho rest of "the world put togethor. Every student of economy concedes that "thero is nothing to prevent our getting as much of her import business busi-ness as we get of her export business, except indifference to the o""orhiuity. The Panama canal may be expected to i-hauge this, and if it does, with all its tremendous cost it would still in the long run be a pretty cheap missionary. mission-ary. The canal is a work" which will hastcu the day when the federation of the world and the parliament of man will be an accomplished fact. (Copv-right, (Copv-right, 190S, bv Frederic J. Haskin). |