UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. (RAILROADS FOREIGN RELATIONS.) 



677 



$20,780,766. The average toll per message was 

 25.7 cents. 



The American Telephone Company on Jan. 1, 

 1902, had 823,193 miles of wire on poles, 17,947 

 miles on buildings, and 4,200 miles of submarine 

 wire. The total length of wire was 1,729,619 

 miles. The number of exchanges was 1,411; 

 branch oflices, 1,594; number of circuits, 592,467; 

 number of stations, 1,020,647; number of em- 

 ployees, 40,864. The number of instruments was 

 2,525,606. The number of conversations was over 

 2,425,000,000 during the year, an average of 7,531,- 

 701 a day. The long-distance telephone system 

 had 14,886 miles of poles and cable and 198,684 

 miles of wire. 



Railroads. The length of railroads in the 

 United States as estimated by the Interstate Com- 

 merce Commission was 197,237 miles in 1901, in- 

 cluding 1,162 miles of unofficial lines. The in- 

 crease in the year was 3,892 miles. The number 

 of miles operated in 1901 is estimated at 195,886. 

 The capital stock of the railroads was $5,978,796,- 

 249; bonded debt, $6,035,469,741; gross earnings, 

 $1,612,448,826 in 1901; net earnings, $520,294,727; 

 interest paid, $261,645,714; dividends, $156,887,- 

 283. The railroad mileage in 1902 is estimated at 

 195,886 miles, with 70,105 miles of second track 

 and sidings; total length of track, 265,992 miles. 

 The cost of railroads and equipment was $10,717,- 

 752,155, besides $1,976,518,412 invested otherwise. 

 Including unfunded debt, sinking-funds, and cur- 

 rent accounts, the total stock and liabilities 

 amounted to $12,926,900,521, while assets were 

 figured at $13,308,029,032, giving a surplus of 

 $381,068,511. On 194,974 miles operated in 1901 

 were carried 600,485,790 passengers and 1,084,- 

 066,451 tons of freight. Receipts from passengers 

 .were $360,710,686; from freight, $1,126,267,652; 

 from miscellaneous sources, $125,478,488. The 

 surplus earned during the year after paying in- 

 terest and dividends was $111,308,194. 



Foreign Relations. The ratifications of the 

 Hay-Pauricefote treaty, signed at Washington 

 Nov. 18, 1901, were exchanged on Feb. 21. On 

 Jan. 22, 1903, a convention was signed at Wash- 

 ington by Secretary Hay and the Colombian 

 Chargt d'Affaires, Tomas Herban, relative to the 

 Completion of the Panama ship-canal by the Uni- 

 ted States pursuant to the act of Congress ap- 

 proved June 28, 1902. The Colombian Govern- 

 ment authorizes the new Panama Canal Company 

 to sell to the United States its rights and proper- 

 ties and its shares in the Panama Railroad, the Re- 

 public of Colombia reserving its shares in the new 

 French company, for which it will receive their 

 full nominal value. The United States shall have 

 the exclusive right for the term of one hundred 

 years^ renewable at the option of the United 

 States for periods of similar duration to construct, 

 operate, and protect the maritime canal, with or 

 without locks, such canal to be of sufficient depth 

 and capacity for vessels of the largest tonnage 

 and greatest draft now engaged in commerce, and 

 such as may be reasonably anticipated, and also 

 the same rights for the construction, operation, 

 and protection of the Panama Railroad and of rail- 

 way telegraph and telephone lines, canals, dikes, 

 dams, and reservoirs and such other auxiliary 

 works as may be necessary. To enable the United 

 States to exercise the rights and privileges granted 

 this treaty the Republic of Colombia grants 

 use and control, for the term of one hundred 



irs, renewable at the option of the United 



ites, of a zone of territory along the route of the 

 inal 5 kilometers in width on either side thereof, 



easured from its center line, including therein 

 ic necessary auxiliary canals, not exceeding in 



any case 15 miles from the main canal, and other 

 works, together with 10 fathoms of water in the 

 Bay of Limon in extension of the canal, and at 

 least 3 marine miles from mean low-water mark 

 from each terminus of the canal. Ihis grant 

 shall not include the cities of Panama and Colon, 

 except so far as lands and other property therein 

 are now owned by or in possession of the canal or 

 railroad company, shall be neutral territory, and 

 the United States shall continue to guarantee their 

 neutrality and the sovereignty of Colombia. In 

 furtherance of this provision there shall be created 

 a joint commission by the governments of Colom- 

 bia and the United States that shall establish and 

 enforce sanitary and police regulations. 



The rights and privileges granted to the United 

 States shall not affect the sovereignty of the Re- 

 public of Colombia over the territory within whose 

 boundaries such rights and privileges are to be 

 exercised. The United States freely acknowledges 

 and recognizes the sovereignty and disavows any 

 intention to impair it in any way whatever or to 

 increase its territory at the expense of Colombia 

 or of any of the sister republics in Central or 

 South America, but, on the contrary, it desires 

 to strengthen the power of the republics on this 

 continent and to promote, develop, and maintain 

 their prosperity and independence. The Repub- 

 lic of Colombia authorizes the United States to 

 construct and maintain at each entrance and ter- 

 minus of the proposed canal a port for vessels, 

 with suitable lighthouses and other aids to navi- 

 gation, and the United States is authorized to use 

 and occupy within the limits of the zone fixed 

 by this convention such parts of the coast-line 

 and islands adjacent as are necessary for this pur- 

 pose, including the construction and maintenance 

 of breakwaters, coaling stations, docks, and other 

 appropriate works. The United States will give 

 attention to works of drainage along the line of 

 the canal in order to prevent the invasion of epi- 

 demics, will organize hospitals, and will supply 

 the towns of Panama and Colon with the neces- 

 sary aqueducts and drainage-works in order to 

 prevent their becoming centers of infection on ac- 

 count of their proximity to the canal. The Re- 

 public of Colombia agrees that it will not cede or 

 lease to any foreign Government any of its islands 

 or harbors within or adjacent to the Bay of Pana- 

 ma, nor on the Atlantic coast of Colombia between 

 the Atrato river and the western boundary of the 

 Department of Panama, for the purpose of estab- 

 lishing fortifications, naval or coaling stations, 

 military posts, docks, or other works that might 

 interfere with the construction, maintenance, op- 

 eration, protection, safety and free use of the 

 canal. In order to enable Colombia to comply 

 with this stipulation, the Government of the 

 United States agrees to give Colombia the mate- 

 rial support that may be required in order to pre- 

 vent the occupation of said island and ports, guar- 

 anteeing there the sovereignty of Colombia. The 

 Republic of Colombia includes in the grant the 

 privilege to control rights conferred upon it by 

 the waters of Chagres river and other streams, 

 lakes, and lagoons, to raise and lower the levels of 

 the waters and to deflect them, and to impound 

 any such waters and to overflow any lands neces- 

 sary for the due exercise of ^uch grants and rights 

 to the United States, and to rectify, construct, and 

 improve the navigation of any such rivers, streams, 

 lakes, and lagoons. All damages caused to pri- 

 vate landowners by inundation or by the devia- 

 tion of watercourses or in other ways arising out 

 of the construction or operation of the canal, shall 

 in each case be appraised and settled by a joint 

 commission. The ports leading to the canal, in- 



