316 PLANS FOR REACHING THE SOUTH POLE 



freight now carried by rail will be diverted, but the amount will 

 be small, and will be more than made good by the increased 

 traffic that will result from the industrial and commercial de- 

 velopment produced by the canal. The railroads having the 

 heaviest traffic in the United States are those which serve the ter- 

 ritory adjacent to our Great Lakes, upon which there is an 

 enormous freight business done. In Germany the railroads 

 carrying the largest volumes of traffic are in Westphalia, through 

 which flows the Rhine, the busiest waterway on the continent 

 of Europe. The interoceanic canal will not only increase the 

 total volume of business done by the transcontinental railroads, 

 but it will also increase the ratio which the local freight will bear 

 to the total traffic. The canal can only carry its traffic between 

 the seaports ; the railroads must collect and distribute the com- 

 modities it transports, and that means a larger amount of local 

 freight, the business from which the roads derive their best profits. 

 The policy of territorial expansion which we have apparently 

 decided to adopt is fraught with many duties and. not a few 

 dangers. Some public leaders are opposing the acquisition of 

 colonies, but no one is opposed to the acquisition of trade and 

 the expansion of our commerce. The necessity for promoting 

 our foreign trade is recognized by all parties and sections, and 

 our attention is being directed more and more to securing our 

 full share of the prospectively large trade of the countries of the 

 Pacific. In order to compete successfully with Europe in the 

 Pacific we need the canal across the American isthmus. 



PLANS FOR REACHING THE SOUTH POLE 



By Gilbert H. Grosvenor 



The return of the Belgica in early spring, with the splendid 

 record of being the first vessel to pass a winter within the Ant- 

 arctic circle, and the bold landing of Captain Borchgrevink and 

 his scientific staff on Victoria Land, where they are now making 

 the first attempt ever made by man to winter on Antarctic land, 

 have given great impetus to the projected Antarctic expeditions 

 from England and Germany. Announcement is made that the 

 British government is ready to grant a subsidy of $200,000 for 

 the Antarctic expedition that is to set out in the summer of 1901 

 under the joint patronage of the Royal Society and of the Royal 



