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Show FRENCH PRAISE I PANAMA CANAL Engineer Returns From Visit 1 With Goethals Filled With Admiration. jj REGRET EARLY FAILURE Great Watervay Will Develop jj Trade England and Ger- Many Beneficiaries. Paris Oct. 2K--Frnnce the hnitHor I of the Sue? Canal and first to begin the work In Panama, has follower' American process on ,the rsthmua more earnestly perhaps perhaps than any other European country Regret that Prance could not have completed the work so nobly conceived tinges the appreciative comment of France ob- servers on the completion of the vast enterprise. The French government has made a study on the effects of the opening of the canal on French commerce Top miniPtrie.- of the navy, of commerce and the colonies appointed a commis-ion commis-ion of four members. M. Jullidiere. engineer in chief of the board of bridges and highways. M Douvry an engineer in the bureau of arts and manufacturers of the miuis.tr. of commerce com-merce and two naal officers, lieutenants lieu-tenants Halller and Byenayme. to In. quire into the effects of the opening of the canal on French shipping and trade in general, and particularly on French colonies in the Antilles and Oceania. Th,. commission visited the anal zone and the French colonies rerned. and examined and shipped an immense amount of material. The commissioners, after a full con sideration of all the facts at their disposal, have reported that French rommerce win nor be greatlj effected by the canal Only 2.""".' 'ons o French shipping will use the new ra;te during the first year of its open ing. nor can the commission perceive that French tonnage passincr through the canal will be likely to increase greatly, beea1 se the French mercantile mercan-tile marine generally tends rather to- j ward a reduction than an expansion England and Germany, who hold the Ureatcr part of the maritime trans port trade, will be the principal im mediate beneficiaries of the canal, bul America will, in the opinion of ih? commission, certainly take steps tc promote a rapid rrowth of he mercan tile shipping I One of the most inmortant conse quences of the opening of the canal, the commission finds, will not be merely to provide facallties for existing ex-isting commerce, but to create new traffie which will result in thc-economlc thc-economlc conquest of the Pacific and the exploitation of the natural richer-!of richer-!of the western part 01 the two American Ameri-can continents by the capital and in dustry of the eastern states of the .union The canal, the commission pre-'dicts, pre-'dicts, will profoundh modify the situ-lation situ-lation of the Atlantic and the Gulf of .Mexico ports of the United States from the point cif view of the world"9 commerce. When the American man nfactnrer has the same advantage In respect to transort over his European Euro-pean competitor, the worlds markets will be his. The rapidity with which i business will increase In the Fnited j States will hav far-reaching effects on the economic life of Europe, which will be obll;ed to transform present I wasteful methods Into a more scien tific use of labor. The United States, the French government gov-ernment investigators affirm, will obtain ob-tain an Incalculable advantage from the new canal, and Europe may even find its industrial activity diminshed. While impossible to express in figure the economic consequences, some considerations con-siderations are mentioned The lav bcore the opening of the canal. Frame, so far as transportation i? concerned, will be nearer to all points of the west coast of South Africa than the eastern ports of the United States. The day after the opening of the! ! Panama Canal, the situation will be reversed. Guayaquil. Callao and Val-jparaiso Val-jparaiso will he more than 2,000 miles I nearer ew York than to France, and New Orleans 3.000 miles. The nit tin? of the Isthmus will permit ships jfrom the eastern United States to, reach far eastern Australia more i easily Europe benefits now. not only by 1 the nonopening of the Panama Canal.) I but by the existence of the Sue.1 (Canal, but If the Americans will leave! an advantage in their nearness to the I marketa of the west coast of South America and Australia, foreign ships will carry the imports and exports of the United States should the condition! ,now existing eontinue. Thus, the i commission finds, if Europe does not j benefit commercially by the opening) of the canal, certain nations possessing: possess-ing: a powerful mercantile marine. I such as Enerlnnd end r,ermn. wt have an important part in the eeou , lomlc of the Pacific by ihe Americans. The French colonies in the West (Indies, the commerce avers, are too far out of the track of commerce to I count upon any jteat Increase In trof tie Therefor", the commission do not recommend lare expenditures on harbor improvements. In Oceania ihe commissioners found that practically all ships going through the canal to Australia and New Zealand will nec essarily eall at Tahiti, and recommend the expenditure of the equivalent of I !ii, win In the Improvement of Papeete harbor Lighthouses should be built, the channels deepened and the proper coaling station constructed I Tlie commission does not believe it 'necessary to make extensive arrangements arrange-ments for -oalinsr at Papeete, because, in its opinion and that of the prin cipal French shipowners consulted by the commission, the explosive oil en gine for ships will entirely supercede the si earn engine within from fifteen to twenty-five years While the passage pass-age of so many more ships rnnnot "all to benefit the olonies in Oceania 'the commission Is not optimistic The scarcity of labor will retard expansion Icheaper freight, however, will enable such products as cocoanut fibre, pleu-1 'tlf;l in the colonies there and much In demand in Europe to be profitably exported. M Davld-.Minner. the president of the Paris chamber of commerce has made a study of the effect on French trade on the opening of the Panama! Canal, and in talking of the subject to the Associated Press correspond- j I do not think that French manu facturers expect much immediate change In the exports of France The principal advantages, as we look upon them, will go to the United States. !the next after the United Stares, to England. "The canal will open up trade for i hr west coast of North and South America. The exports of Franee are largely fin- fabrics and other articles of taste and luxury, The onflderable trade which we alread have with the western coast of the Am-rlcas will Increase with the development of (those countries We i annot help but profit In the future. But I feet tha (England and some other countries of Europe are better organized for sea traffic with the western coast of the Americas than is France. "France does no offer the heavy fr'-ihts Which encourage the increase. nor only In the number of American lines, but In the classes of shis which carry hea y freights and which from such a material adjunct io the merchant merch-ant marine of England. "Of course, the Panama Canal will develop the trade of china, Australia and Indies The easier access to the enormous Chinese markets will not Immediately benefit France We hav allowed ourselves to be outdistanced by England, and the requirements in i those markets have not teen of the i kind that especially encourage French man -facturers. The textiles so largely large-ly shipped from England and the United States to China are far roars ! er and are made in larger quantities than the fabrics we produce in France : We make a specialty of finer articles BUCh as are not manufactured Jn i enormous quantities As the taste of the Chinese P0OpH becomes Europeanized. they will find! ihat France can better supply them j with finer goods than other couoriea in this way, France Will benefit In' the far east in the future more than immediately after the opening of he Panama Canal. " The Suez Canal, created by the French enterprise, has its head office in Pari6. A study has been made 1 there is a probable effect of the opening of the Panama ('anal The j a I ' union is that (be tonnage passing through the Suez t'anal will not be re-1 duced by more than five to eight per j cent This reduction will almost cer- j talnly be made up within three of four years, possibly in less time, by the natural expansion of the Suez I Canal trafic. The best relations have! -,lr.-..,lv K ..i.kllL.j I .L. l an r-ci'i .t nr-t-ll 1X1 IM I 31irJ IH."IV.fl'U "lie officials o: the Suez Canal and those (Of the Panama Canal. Prof Emory I rohnson, the American rommls6i"n r was in consultation with the Suez I ''anal management during the early (half of September, and It is under-stood under-stood that he will report in favor of usin. iii Panama exactly the WttH rules of tonna2e measurement a are now used In "he Sue, f'anul It bad beeu expected by the Suez people that American yonnage Charges, alth.. th nomlnallv precisely the same as the Sues tl.20 per net ton were In re-! ality, ovlng to he difference In American Ameri-can measurements, three per cent i less. "Co-operation raiher than competition competi-tion is the key word of he relationship relation-ship between the two canals, ' said M Max P.ertrand, the general set re-tary re-tary of the Suez I ana Company We occupy two different spheres and : fill two independent needs. The greatest cordiality exists between the governors of the two waterways The French official of Panama'J rival waterway praised eloquent lv the! methods which have been employed in I executing the giganrk engineering ' task, but preferred not to discus the effect upon the trade of the Suez M I lonnart. the director-general of the Suez Canal, said at the annual meet i ing of the shareholders recently that j the revenues of the company would ' not be diminished by the opening of the Panama Canal |