The Republic of Panama 



6 7 



judgment of the old Spanish explorers 

 that they also settled upon practically 

 this route as the most feasible and prac- 

 ticable for the same purpose. 



The proposed Panama line, favorably 

 reported upon by the Isthmian Canal 

 Commission and now adopted as the 

 basis of the treaty being negotiated be- 

 tween the United States and the Repub- 

 lic of Panama, begins at Colon and ex- 

 tends in a southeasterly direction to a 

 point on the Bay of Panama near the 

 city of that name, and has a total length 

 of 49.^7 miles between the six-fathom 

 curves in the two oceans. At the pres- 

 ent time the city of Colon has a popu- 

 lation of probably about 3,000 people, 

 while the city of Panama has a popula- 

 tion of perhaps 25,000 people. The 

 population scattered along the line of 

 the railroad may add ten to fifteen thou- 

 sand more, making a total of perhaps 

 forty to forty-five thousand people in 

 the 10-mile strip of territory between 

 the two oceans within which the rail- 

 road is found and the canal will be 

 built. 



THE PLAN OF DE LESSEPS 



This canal route is that which was 

 adopted at the International Scientific 

 Congress convened in Paris in May, 

 1879, under the auspices of Ferdinand 

 de Lesseps, the concession for the canal 

 having been obtained from the Repub- 

 lic of Colombia in the preceding year by 

 Lieut. L. N. B. Wyse, a French naval 

 officer. This congress not only se- 

 lected the Panama route, but also 

 decided that the waterway to be con- 

 structed should be a sea-level canal. 

 A company entitled " Compagnie Uni- 

 verselle du Canal Interoceanique," and 

 commonly known as the Old Panama 

 Canal Company, was immediately or- 

 ganized to construct the work. After 

 various efforts it financed the enterprise 

 and began work, which was prosecuted 

 until May 15, 1889, when the company 

 went into bankruptcy, and its effects 



were put into the hands of a liquidator, 

 an officer of the French court corre- 

 sponding closely to the American re- 

 ceiver. 



Prior to the bankruptcy of the old 

 company the project for a sea-level 

 canal was temporarily abandoned in the 

 hope that the funds available might be 

 sufficient for the construction of a lock 

 canal. After various vicissitudes the 

 new Panama Canal Company was or- 

 ganized on the 20th of October, 1894 

 Work was resumed on the canal imme- 

 diately thereafter, and has been contin- 

 ued until the present time, the force 

 employed, however, being small. The 

 old company raised by the sale of stocks 

 and bonds not far from $246,000,000, 

 and it has been stated that the number 

 of persons holding the securities was 

 over two hundred thousand. 



When the concession for building the 

 Panama Railroad was secured from the 

 Colombian Government, control of all 

 available transportation routes across 

 the Isthmus in the territory of the present 

 Republic of Panama was covered by it. 

 The construction of the ship canal by 

 the old Panama Canal Company was 

 therefore subject to the rights conveyed 

 in the Panama Railroad concession. In 

 order to control this feature of the situa- 

 tion, therefore the old Panama Company 

 purchased nearly the entire stock of the 

 railroad company, which thus became a 

 part of the assets of the new Panama 

 Canal Company. 



THE RECOMMENDATIONS OF THE 

 ISTHMIAN COMMISSION 



When the Isthmian Canal Commission 

 made its first visit of investigation of the 

 canal routes four years ago, it found a 

 large amount of excavation and other 

 work done along the line of the canal, 

 as well as a large amount of land, build- 

 ings, structures, and many plans and 

 papers, all constituting a part of the 

 property of the new Panama Canal Com- 

 pany. All this property was situated on 



