not well bo loss than $5,000,000 per an
num , and you Imvo altogether $10,000-
000 per year to bo mot by an income of
$0,000,000. Taking my own estimate of
$250,000,000 as the cost and I have a
good deal of respect for my own esti
mate in a matter of this kind you have
$15,000,000 per annum as the charge
against this canal , as against an income
of $0,000,000. Statisticians onMdo of
Congress and ( he government figure the
probable tonnage as low in Rome cases as
5100,000 tons a year instead of 4,000,000
tons.
"But oven on the violent , assumption
that toll should bo charged on the ton
nage passing through the canal sufficient
lo pay this $15,000,000 , let me tell yon
that the railroads of this country can bo
contracted with to take the same ton
nage by rail between Now York and
San Francisco and deliver it in less than
half the time , insuring the goods besides ,
for that name or less sum.
"Some people , also , would disregard
the commerce question and make the
canal free of toll to ships built in Amer
ican shipyards , of American capital and
by American labor , and filled with
American merchandise.
"The carrying trade of the United
States is almost exclusively in the hands
of foreign vessels.
"Cannot any intelligent man then
understand that the discrimination
against foreign vessels is going to drive
them to the Suez waterway , and that the
tonnage through Nicaragua , confined
almost exclusively to American vessels ,
would result in the government's getting
practically no income from the venture ?
"Some people , however , are in favor
of disregarding entirely the question of
commercial value that is , of getting
returns on the vast investment and
making it a free canal ; but why the
American people should saddle them
selves with an enormous burden of this
kind , the chief benefits of which are to
innro to foreign nations , which own
05 { per cent , of the tonnage of the seas ,
is beyond my comprehension ; and , il
you reflect upon it , I think it will be
beyond yours.
"As between the Sue/ and Nicaragua
canals , the business between Western
Europe and Eastern Asia would natur
ally go the way of the Suez canal , which
is the shortest lino. The Suez canal
ought not to have cost more than a tenth
of what the Nicaragua canal will cost ,
as in the former case it was only the
digging out between the Mediterranean
and the Red Seas of what I have no
doubt was the bed of an old seaway
between those bodies of water ; the
material being sandpit- " was easily dug
and the watersof the two seas were
V stf"1/
allowed to unite again as they had no
doubt unitedfmony years before. There
is no railrogSjto compete with the Suez
canal , w.hioffconneots . great commeroial
and indjMtrial nations ; * whereas , an
American isthmian canal would connect
two vast unproductive oceans. The
signs of the times are that some of the
great schemes of railroad building in
Asia will bo carried through , and , if a
single railroad as effective as any one of
the transcontinental lines which connect
the Atlantic and Pacific coasts of the
United States should bo built to com
pete with the Suez canal , it would at
once take from that water-way the
entire carriage of passengers , mails , ex
press and perishable goods , and high-
cost freights generally , leaving to it
only the lower-class freights , the insur
ance on which is small , while the time
is not important.
' 'Of course itv ould bo somewhat differ
ent in handling the business eastward
between Asia and the east coast of
America , for it would have to be put
into ships , and the ships not controlled
by the American railroads would hold
the tonnage as long as they could , which
would , of course , send some ships
through the Nicaragua canal , as in fol
lowing that route they would hold the
business from start to finish ; but in
doing this they would steer clear of our
west-coast cities , and this would do
much harm to those towns , and they
would find when too late that they were
on the shun pike and not on the main
lino.
"Neither the Panama nor the Nicara
gua canal is on the line of any great
independent commercial movement.
They are merely points at which certain
ocean-steamer lines would touch. The
total tonnage passing through the Suez
canal the first six months of 1808 was
nearly 5,000,000 tons , and of this only
some fifteen hundred odd tons , or 8-100
of 1 per cent was American J For that
same period the tonnage entered at ports
of the United States from foreign coun
tries amounted to nearly twenty-one
and three-quarter millions , and only 16
per cent of this was American. It
would certninly seem that wo , as a
nation , could bettor afford to work up
our merchant marine to respectable pro
portions by all the legitimate and liberal
moans in our power before we entered
on the construction of a canal , 90 per
cent of the benefits of which , if any ,
would inure to ships of other nations.
The Suez canal hns an advantage over
the Nicaragua route for the trade be
tween Western Europe and Manila.
"Thou , again , the Suez canal is a sea-
level canal , whereas the Nicaragua canal
involves 220 feet of lockage. A great
economic factor in all this traffic is the
price of coal , and in this and in the
location of coaling stations the Sue ?
route is greatly superior to either
Nicaragua or Panama.
"And there is a consideration with re
gard to the proposed Nicaragua caua'
that I think is probably not given duo
weight. While the average rainfall at
Suez is about two inches annually , the
precipitation at the eastern end of the
Nicaragua canal has amounted to
; wouty-ilve feet in a single year. This
vitally affects the question of the per
manence of earthworks , and bears
importantly on the question of navi
gation.
"They tell us that the Nicaragua canal
is a military necessity , but I think not ,
and , in fact , I think the arguments
against it on military grounds ought to
be convincing. With such a canal open
to all the nations of the earth , in time
of war none of them would have an
advantage over the other. All the great
nations of Western Europe could send
their ships of war through it so as to
reach our western coast , say , in twenty-
five days. Without the canal they
would have to send their battleships
around Capo Horn or go through the
Straits of Magellan , occupying , say ,
eighty , and the enemy could prevent
our using the canal the same as wo
could prevent their using it , so that it
would seem to me that the best thing to
be done in time of war would bo to blow
up the locks in order that no ships could
use the canal. Our government could
contract with five railroads , or , for that
matter , with any one of five , to trans
port all the men and munitions of war
that they would need in any six months
across the continent to San Francisco in
forty days , and could transport a million
of men in ten days if the need should bo
great. "
MORMONS EXPLORING.
Everybody knows that the peculiar
doctrines of the church of the Latter
Day Saints rest on certain wonderful
gold plates found by Joseph Smith , and
that Mr. Smith , after reading thorn with
miraculous spectacles , explained to the
rest of the world how America had been
peopled by Jews , who immigrated direct
from Palestine some centuries before
Christ ; but there has been a charitable
doubt in the minds of their friends as to
how much intelligent Mormons claimed
to believe of this ( excuse us ) outlandish
yarn. But they are at all events keep
ing up appearances , for an exploration
party has just been sent out by their
college , to find , or at least to look for ,
traces of those ancient Israelites' jour-
neyings in Central America.
It is most satisfactory to have
anybody honestly investigating Ameri
can antiquities at any time ; but it will
bo curious to see whether this party
does find any more golden plates and
miraculous spectacles , or any missing
volumes of Nephi's diary , or any fur
ther special revelations of this sort. It
is currently thought to bo about an even
chance. In such a case , while one
would be confirmed in his idea that the
Mormon church is a skillfully-managed
body , he would hardly find them rising
in his estimation as hopeful parts of the
America of the future.