THE PROPOSED AMERICAN INTEROCEANIC CANAL 305 



states in his last annual report that the canal belonging to that 

 company was abandoned because " the cost of transportation by 

 that route was too great as compared with other methods." In 

 a letter dated July 8, 1899, the secretary of the company in- 

 forms me that the views expressed in the report just mentioned 

 "have been more than vindicated by subsequent results in the 

 company's operations." 



The enormous falling-off in the tonnage of the Erie and 

 Welland Canals, and the changes and astounding reductions in 

 the traffic of rivers in all sections of this country as a result of 

 the competition of rival railroads point in the same direction. 

 During the 16 years from 1876 to 1892 the tonnage of freights 

 transported on the lower Mississippi fell 41 2 per cent, the ton- 

 nage on competing railroads increased 350 per cent, and the sea 

 traffic of New Orleans increased 70 per cent. This deflection of 

 commerce from the Mississippi to competing railroads is still 

 going on. 



The Sault Ste Marie Canal has no parallel in the world as to 

 the commodities which pass through it or the conditions under 

 which its commerce exists. Any attempt, therefore, to predict 

 the success of the Nicaragua or Panama Canal from the success 

 of the Sault Ste Marie Canal is glaringly absurd. 



The Suez Canal connects great commercial and industrial na- 

 tions, whereas the most striking physical aspect of an} 7 American 

 isthmian canal is that it would' connect two vast unproductive 

 oceans. The Suez Canal has no competing railroad, but the 

 wonderful progress, of railroad building in Asia and the grand 

 schemes of railroad construction now being agitated in Europe 

 and in Persia, India, and China seem to forecast an era of rail- 

 road construction which in time will serioush 7 affect the traffic of 

 the Suez Canal. A single competing railroad as effective as any 

 one of the transcontinental lines which connect the Atlantic and 

 Pacific coasts of the United States would at once take from the 

 Suez Canal the entire carriage of passengers, the mails, express 

 goods, perishable goods, and fast freights generally, leaving to it 

 only the lower class of freights,- for which sailing vessels, by the 

 old Cape of Good Hop6 route', would be, as they are today, sharp 

 competitors. This is an economic fact beyond all question. 



Let the government of the United States institute a thorough 

 and impartial investigation of all these conditions, and no longer 

 leave them to be determined b} 7 the speculations of canal pro- 

 ponents, who not only fail to make known the facts upon which 



