88 AMERICAN DIPLOMATIC QUESTIONS 



presentation of the claims to governmental recognition and 

 encouragement by the agents of the three rival companies. 



The Panama Company presented an unexpectedly strong 

 case. They had to their credit one fairly good andtrrrerexcel- 

 lent harbor upon the Atlantic and Pacific sides of the isthmus, 

 nearly one-half of the entire work of excavation completed, 

 an existing railroad paralleling the route of the canal, good 

 concessions, and a force of three thousand men actually at 

 work in the field. The company was shown to be solvent 

 and its prospects bright. It asked for no financial aid, only 

 to be spared adverse legislation. " We have a right to 

 assume," concluded the attorney for the company, " that the 

 Panama canal is a necessary, if not the controlling, factor in 

 the solution of the isthmian canal problem." 



The representatives of the Maritime Canal Company 

 devoted their testimony largely to a defence of the company's 

 rights under its concession from Nicaragua, and to explana- 

 . tions why it had failed to complete the canal within the 

 ten years' limit as therein specified. They stoutly maintained 

 that their concession had not properly lapsed, notwithstand- 

 ing their own failures. As against the Panama route, they 

 urged the superior advantages of their own, alleging a better 

 harbor on the Atlantic side, fewer miles of actual canaliza- 

 tion, shorter canal termini for vessels with northern port 

 terminals, better advantages in the matter of trade winds ; 

 and finally, as a convincing argument, they showed that the 

 Panama route involved diplomatic difficulties in the way of 

 exploitation, which made it far less deserving of public notice 

 than their own project in Nicaragua. Having referred to the 

 financial panic of 1893, and its effects upon the company, Mr. 

 Hiram Hitchcock, president of the Maritime Company, said : 

 " This condition of affairs has necessarily led to a waiting 

 attitude on the part of the company, during which time its 

 franchises and possessions have been actively coveted by 

 aspiring rival routes and interests, sometimes under the indi- 

 rect inspiration of foreign powers ; and it has encountered 

 criticisms and direct opposition of enemies in the United 

 States and Central America. In the face of all this, the com- 



