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Show THE PANAMA CANAL. Recently representatives of the Commercial clubs of Boston, St. Louis, Chicago and Cincinnati visited the Isthmus of Panama and the West Indies and they return filled with enthusiasm over the prospects. pros-pects. ' " , They took in the entire canal and the work being be-ing done was carefully examined. They, make special mention of the work being done by machinery in excavating ex-cavating and disposing of the debris. - Bradstreet's had a correspondent with the company, com-pany, and he 'quotes Mr. Elihu Thompson of Boston Bos-ton as saying that the canal is. the greatest piece of engineering work the world have ever seen.. Gov. Francis of Missouri said that the forty millions mil-lions of dollars paid for the canal was the best investment in-vestment of a commercial character the United States ever made, and he adds: "The work we have seen today not only demonstrates demon-strates the truth of what I have said, but establishes the fact that the French are entitled to great credit for what they did." ' The general opinion of the-visitors was that the sanitary conditions are such that white men can do the work, and that the canal will be finished within the next decade. We think Gov. Francis is a little too rash in his assertions. The. Louisiana Purchase was a commercial com-mercial transaction and rather exceeds even the purchase pur-chase of a right-of-way across the Isthmus of Panama. Pana-ma. Mr. Seward made rather a healthy purchase when he bought Alaska for $7,250,000. More than that amount has been taken from one mine in Alaska. Alas-ka. Several times that amount has been taken in seals. Very many times that amount has been taken in gold and the work is hardly begun the empire up there is hardly scratched. -California was captured from Mexico, but a little commercial transaction gave Mexico $15,000,-000 $15,000,-000 to quiet the title to the Golden State, with Utah, Arizona and New Mexico included. The Panama Canal will be a good thing when finished. It will be a great monument to American pluck and money as well as American skill, but it is not all the world, and it will be in working condition several years before it will begin to pay. the interest on what it cost. |