Show THE NICARAGUA CANAL IN im his hib last mes message sageL to congress Congre aa president harrison said 1 I deem it to be a matter of the highest concern to the united states that this canal nicaragua connecting the atlantic and pacific oceans and giving to us a short water communication between our ports upon those two great seas should be speedily constructed construct and and at the smallest mal lest practicable limit of cost three hundred years ago a spanish engineer bug ineer named antonio galvas pro posed a scheme for uniting the two ocean but the bishop of madrid entered his bis veto in those days the good food bishop was even more potent than the king and when the galvas et was unfolded his grace in holy horror chrunka at the idea of infringing ir on the works of the creator of course the king immediately sue one combed to the counsel of his bis prelate and the atlantic and pacific have been left since to lie apart during daring the present century several prominent engineers have given this matter considerable study captain eads eada conceived the scheme of a ship railway which at the time was considered practicable the financial necessary however did not materialism materialise materi alise w and the eads project prefect dropped I 1 nto into forgetfulness the idea of DeLes delesseps sepe was a magnificent ent one his sea level canal at the isthmus of panama attracted worldwide world wide attention his genius and fame as an engineer was such that he asty bewly obtained hundreds of millions of dollars to carry out the work but the whole scheme collapsed and nothing now remains of the de ties lesseps project but neglected graves irregular excavation wrecks of machinery and the be memory of wrecked fortunes the nicaragua scheme which president harrison so emphatically commends in his message menage and for the con of which he favors united jaw aupp rt is now the pre prevailing for wedding the tf ceans this idea first originated in 1823 when the governments of of Nic nicaragua aragA and the united stated entered into negotiation toy afia purpose of constructing the awal anal the matter dropped drooped for some liae 0 or other in 1826 it was taken aa up again out funds could not be raised the IM 1888 the nicaraguan government made some contracts with Belg belgians taue to build a cacia canal but they too failed in 1850 the late cornelius Vander built obtained i s ome concessions but nothing came of them general grant revived the idea again in 1869 surveys were made in 1872 73 in 1884 measures were taken to enter into a treaty with nicaragua the treaty was not rai ratified by the united states senate and it was finally withdrawn the nicaragua Nica canal company was next organized under the laws of redo rado it obtained some concessions from nicaragua and work was commenced it disclaimed any purpose of asking aid from the united states frates government but organization under a state law did not give it prestige enough and in the fiftieth congress a bill was introduced and passed incorporating the maritime Mara time canal company owing to the exertions of mr holman of indiana the bill was so eo mended am that the united states government not be held for any debts directly or indirectly contracted by the company however the maritime Mara time canal company was organized with warner miller of new york as president and the colorado Colo rodo organization passed out in the fifty first fint con gressan gress an attempt was made to obtain government guarantee for of canal construction bonds the guaranteeing of these lands has now become a republican party measure the president recommends it so did secretary noble in his bis report and in congress it is likely to become a party issue |