THE INTEROCEANIC CANAL PROBLEM 103 



feasible. The great advance in the efficiency of scientific 

 investigation has not tended to lessen these difficulties, but 

 the admitted resources of modern engineering are acknowl- 

 edged to be sufficient to overcome them. It would, of course, 

 require many millions to accomplish the task, but a greater 

 amount of private capital each year finds means of invest- 

 ment in other directions, while large sums prefer inactivity 

 to an investment so hazardous. There is lack of neither 

 skill nor capital. The majority of the people of the United 

 States are probably of the opinion that the ship canal would 

 pay dividends upon its capital within a few years after its 

 completion, yet every company that has undertaken its con- 

 struction has failed for lack of funds. For ten or fifteen 

 years political parties in the country have been united in the 

 belief that the government should undertake this work as a 

 national project; and each year bills have been introduced 

 into Congress looking to that end, yet none of these bills 

 havs- become law. 



It is true that a large transcontinental railroad interest has 

 steadily opposed these measures, but that opposition could 

 not by itself prevail year after year, against the desire of the 

 country at largo. One must then look elsewhere for that 

 mysterious influence which seems to prevent the realization 

 of these hopes of triumph over the obstacles of nature. It 

 is probably to be found in the fear and distrust of each 

 other entertained by the commercial nations of the world. 

 While each one hesitates to make the enormous expenditure 

 necessary to the construction of a Central American ship 

 canal, each would no doubt promptly condemn exclusive 

 ownership or control by one or even several of the other 

 nations. So far, the Powers interested have been unable or 

 unwilling to fix among themselves the political status of the 

 canal when it shall have been built. It is necessary, there- 

 fore, that preliminary to the commencement of the work 

 work that will finally succeed in its object some diplomatic 

 questions of a delicate and serious character calling for 

 adjustment must be met. For the United States, these ques- 

 tions have become more complicated by reason of the recent 



