Effect of the Canal on the Interest of the Valley of the Mississippi—Pacific Railroad as a Rival of the Isthmean Canal—Rates of Freight on Ocean, Lakes, Rivers, Canals, and Railroads—San Francisco and the Trade of China and Japan—Considerations of General Interest—Probable Revenue.

The products of the Valley of the Mississippi and its tributaries may be collected at points along the river, to be shipped direct for China, Japan, Australia; and the products of the Orient may be brought, without breaking bulk, to Galveston, New Orleans, Mobile, Pensacola, Appalachicola, and even Memphis, Cairo, St. Louis, Louisville, and Cincinnati, thence to be distributed by the river system, which extends throughout the States of the South, and reaches even to the borders of British America. With one, or at most two, transshipments, the produce of the Indies may be transported, by the way of the Illinois river, or the projected improvement of the Fox and Wisconsin rivers, to Chicago and Lake Michigan, thence to be distributed throughout the shores of the northern lakes.

Teas, silks, Japanese and East India goods may be transported by way of the ship canal and the Mississippi river, and delivered at St. Louis at one-third or one-fourth the cost of transportation of the same articles by the Pacific railroad. While the Pacific railroad is a great national highway, bringing into political and commercial union two great sections of the country, building up cities, opening mines, bringing under cultivation a vast extent of arable land along its route, the proposed canal across the American Isthmus must be the sole dispenser of the bulkier products of China and the Indies.

The question may be asked how far the railroads constructed and to be constructed between the Atlantic and Pacific, especially within the limits of the United States of America, may supersede the commercial advantages which would result from the canalization of the Isthmus?

Trade has always increased in proportion to the facilities for transportation; and it is evident that, even in the most populous country, the reciprocal relation of production and consumption may be increased by a better organization and a more judicious application of labor. In all cases of competition between railroads with canal, lake, or coast trade, the result has been the reduction of rates and the increase in the quantity of material transported. Two railroads, American and Canadian, skirt the shores of the Northern Lakes, making, with the line of lake steamers, three competing lines. The consequence of this rivalry has been a reduction upon freight during the summer months, to enable the two roads to compete with the lake route and canal.

To exhibit the relative cost of different methods of transportation, a statement is subjoined. The following table, compiled from different sources, exhibits the cost per ton per mile of transportation of freight upon the ocean, lakes, rivers, canals, and railroads:

The railroad rates above given have been established upon thoroughfares favorable for the attainment of a minimum. But upon all roads to be constructed between the Atlantic and Pacific, much higher rates must prevail for many years. Hurried construction, through a wilderness deficient in material and obstructed by hostile savages, must increase the cost of construction. For the same reason, the execution of the work is likely to be defective and the location of the route imperfect. The expense of alteration and repair must be proportionately increased. The cost of stations, machine shops, depots of fuel, and supply of water must far exceed the disbursements for the same objects in a settled country, possessing the advantages of skilled labor and convenient transportation.

To meet the additional expense, the rates for passengers and freights will have to be increased to probably six or eight times the value assigned for ordinary grades.

On the other hand, ocean transportation by way of the Isthmean Canal, collecting by tolls enough to pay the cost of repair—say one dollar per ton transit, or one cent per ton per mile for fifty miles—would be but one-fourth the average rate per ton per mile for the three thousand miles of transportation on the Pacific Railroad.

Passengers will always take the quickest route. Valuable packages of goods, gold, and silver, and even teas and small packages of costly silks, will be transported by the railroad. The Pacific coast and the interior country lying between the head of navigation of the tributaries of the Mississippi, will receive the commodities of the East chiefly through the port of San Francisco.

The following table shows the relative distances of San Francisco and London from Oriental ports:

From the above table it is evident that England will have a formidable rival for the trade of the East in the Pacific ports, and the interior which they will be called on to supply.

It is manifest that an intermarine canal is not impracticable to American talent and energy. It can undoubtedly be executed by international coÖperation. It is demanded by the common interest, commercial, political, and social, of all peoples. It is supported by humanitarian considerations, immediate in their influence, broad and practical in their relations to the interests of society.

The chief obstacle to its execution is its cost, which would be nearly double that of the Suez Canal. Mr. Kelly estimates that 3,090,000 tons would pass through the American canal yearly. Assuming that its total cost will be 150 millions of dollars, the revenue from tolls, at the rate of one cent per ton per mile, would amount to nearly twenty per cent. of the entire outlay.

No work, so costly nor fraught with such stupendous consequences, has ever been attempted by man. The history of civilization is the history of the efforts of man to assert the right and to increase the means of individual development. The monuments of science, skill, and industry, left by ancient nations to perpetuate the names and conquests of Kings and Pharaohs, were wrung by oppression from suffering men.

To us is left the opportunity for a more extended organization—a combined world movement—in the interest of science and religion, for the extension of liberty, and for the diffusion of civilization among the races of mankind.

Less than the cost of one year of war, will establish for all time—only to be shaken by a paroxysm of nature—this enduring monument of peace and good will, and will secure to the United States a conquest pregnant with vast moral and political possibilities. It is an object worthy of consideration.

Fifty years ago the Pacific Railroad, the Panama Railroad, the Mt. Cenis Tunnel, the International Telegraph and the Suez Canal, were visionary schemes. It seemed the acmÉ of poetical fiction when the poet spoke of girdling the earth in forty minutes, as the work of supernatural agency. Sir Humphrey Davy, making science the basis of fiction, attempted to arrive at some conception of the composition of distant planets and the nature of their inhabitants. We can now send a message across the Atlantic in a minute, and know with certainty something of the composition of planets, stars, and nebulÆ. These achievements have become the common property of the civilized world.

The piercement of the Isthmus does not involve greater practical nor intellectual difficulties. Neither science, ability, nor energy, is wanting. Conviction of its utility, sufficiently wide spread to secure the popular good will, and leading to a national movement in favor of combined international action, will secure the early completion of this great marine highway.

To secure popular favor it seems only necessary to exhibit the material advantages which must flow from its execution. Some of the facts, showing how far the completion of the canal would affect the commerce of the world, have been stated.

A small space may be given to the probable revenue. The moderate estimate given in Admiral Davis’s report may be assumed as a basis, which may be safety taken as doubling itself in ten years.

The tonnage which would pass the Isthmus yearly is, at one dollar per ton toll, $3,094,070.

This estimate is undoubtedly less than the revenue which will be received.

No conjectural estimate is made of the probable development of the agricultural and mineral wealth of the valleys of the Mississippi and the Amazon, of the shores of the Gulf of Mexico, Caribbean Sea, and Pacific coast of America. And yet, in attempting to form an idea of the probable revenue and actual value of this canal, all the industrial resources called into being by its influence should be taken into consideration. It is like opening the gate to commerce, which, for centuries, man has struggled to unlock.

No event in history has been followed by more marvelous consequences than the discovery of Columbus. So closely is man bound up with matter, that every conquest of nature not only adds to his material comfort, but opens new fields for the moral and intellectual progress of the race. America not only opened new industrial resources, but afforded the population of Europe an opportunity to escape from the social, moral, and physical oppression of caste, bigotry, and capital, which had become intolerable.

If we could lift the veil which conceals the future, and could see “the vision of the world and the wonder that will be,” it is not improbable that we should see the vast elements of progress latent in the American continents, working out their legitimate and logical results, as wonderful as those which have transpired since the colonization of America.

We should see the industrial resources—which have drawn thither in the struggle for existence the most energetic of the races of the globe—giving occupation to a happy and united people. The hum of industry, and the din of the steam hammers, would mingle together with smoke of furnaces and of factories, above the inexhaustible coal fields of Pennsylvania, Virginia, Illinois, and Iowa. The grain of Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana, and Kansas would be shipped to New Orleans, to be exchanged for the cotton and sugar of the South, and the coffee, dyes, and tobacco of Costa Rico, Havana, and Ambelema; the magnificent table lands of Mexico, Guatemala, Yucatan, and the plateau of BogotÁ, occupied by a people more highly cultivated and capable of appreciating the grandeur of the scenery and salubrity of the climate, and of utilizing the fertility of the soil and the physical advantages of those most favored regions.

Opulent cities would spring up in the bays of Tampa, Mobile, and Pensacola. New Orleans, Galveston, and Vera Cruz would rival Marseilles and ancient Venice. From the ports of Carthagena, Sabanilla, Maracaibo, and Para, would be shipped the produce of the valleys of the Magdelina and the Amazon. Great as would be the transformations effected by these changes, they would be less than those which have transformed the continent of America into a congeries of civilized States.

Such speculations have a sober basis of fact. They are not wholly useless if they attract the attention of those who have more time for patient investigation. Sufficient has been said to show that the objects to be attained merit consideration.