43 



Canal. The Mexicans have bettered Captain Eads" scheme for a ship 

 railway by constrncting a Hrst-class trunk line 192 miles long, with a 

 summit level below 700 feet, and adequjite harbor works at each end. The 

 trathc amounted the first year to .$3S.0(KX(K)0. This route between Atlantic 

 and I'acific ports is 1,000 to 1..W) miles and four to six days shorter than 

 the Panama route, and in comiJetition with it can hold mail, passenger 

 and fast freight transit. 



Concerning the consetjuences to follow from the opening of the Panama 

 canal, no one can predict with assurance. Whether it is a great big bluff 

 put up by the Ignited States in response to tlie world's dare, and will be of 

 value clnefly as a means of doulding the effective strengtii of our navy, or 

 whether it will tr.-uisform seai)orts and routes of trade between Europe, 

 Asia and America, and even knock down transcontinental freight rates, 

 remains to be seen. In eitlier event, it will prove well worth doing. It 

 is eminently fitting that the Great Republic should make real the dream 

 of centuries, and sliould overcome the greatest natural obstacle to com- 

 mercial progress tliat tlie world presents. Tlae enteii)rise is more com- 

 mendable and beneficent than the Crusades. Its execution is a victory 

 of peace, suriiassing in discipline,- mastery of engineering and sanitary 

 skill tlie achievements of Japan in war. The completion of the canal will 

 make the Caribbean truly the American Mediterranean. 



In the West Indies tlie negro peoples are the most interesting. They 

 immber 2,500,000 and constitute nearly the whole population of Haiti, 

 Jamaica and Barbados. Here the negro has had the longest time and 

 the best opportunity to show in a congenial environment his capacity for 

 civilization. The results under self-guidance in tlie black republics of 

 Haiti and Santo Domingo are scarcely better than those in central Africa. 

 In Jamaica and Barbados, the British Empire has no more orderly, in- 

 dustrious, intelligent, and loyal subjects than the colored people, a large 

 majority of whom are members of the church of England. The Caribbean 

 province has an area about six times that of Java and one-third as many 

 lieople. If it were as efficiently manned and managed as Java, it could 

 supply the continent with all tropical products, including rubber, coffee, 

 sugar, cocoa, fruit and spices. Who will man and manage it? 



Thus far I have tried to characterize briefly the provinces of ex- 

 tremes, those which may be called cold and dry, cold and wet, hot and dry 

 or hot and wet. I now come to those medial provinces which are called 

 temperate, but are in a sense the most intemperate of all. The climatic 



