William L. Merry

“ I deny that it will be much more expensive to operate than the Suez Canal, which needs constant dredging to keep it from filling with desert sands, as against the nominal cost of operating modern locks at Nicaragua, proof of which we have in the cost of lockage at the Saint Mary's Canal, which now passes through its locks nearly three times the tonnage that uses the Suez Canal. ”

“ The United States Government will build a canal on a broader and more beneficent basis, for the political and military safety of our country, for the development of its commerce and industries and to secure a short cheap water route to and from our Pacific Ocean possessions. The Suez Canal which cost ninety-four millions was built to make money and earns 17 to 20 per cent. ”

“ Even now one of the main overland railway systems is quietly friendly to the Canal. Water transportation has its limitations, mainly cheapness at the expense of time. Railway transportation also has its limitations, mainly speed at increased cost. One is the complement of the other—not properly its competitor, and by carriage of cheap and bulky freight which is frequently unprofitable to railways on a long haul, water transportation can and is being used to aid railways. ”

“ To such desirable emigration the Pacific Coast will for the first time be accessible at reasonable rates. At present the few that have the means to start for the Coast by overland railways are induced to settle in the middle West, and consequently Pacific Coast population increases very slowly. The same freight steamships will then return to Atlantic Ports, with Pacific Coast products: Cape Horn will become a memory.
The United States Government has covered into its Treasury approximately $113,000,000.00 which it loaned the overland railways; the enormous land grants they keep. ”

“ In the interest of the world it must be neutralized, and the true policy of the United States is to forward that end and thus make this international highway a powerful factor for the preservation of peace. ”

“ Nature has provided against this as any canal engineer who has examined the route can prove. An abundance of fresh water under absolute control is the striking advantage developed at Nicaragua, as against the Suez Canal built through an irreclaimable sand desert, constantly encroaching upon it and necessitating constant dredging. But I may remark that the Suez canal with an expensive staff expends only 8-1/2 per cent. of gross receipts for management while the cheapest and most efficient railway in the United States uses 47 per cent. ”

“ That the Nicaragua Canal will divert maritime commerce from San Francisco and other Pacific Coast Ports is a fallacy based upon the proposition that, with the advantage of five thousand miles navigation and canal toll in their favor the merchants of Pacific Coast Ports will be unable to compete with their Atlantic Coast and European rivals. ”

“ The Nicaragua Canal can depend upon an already large commerce, yet in its incipiency. The resources of the American continent are undeveloped and its population limited. No man can place a limit upon the future commerce of this great division of the habitable world. ”

“ Will freight continue to prefer ten thousand miles greater distance around Cape Horn or higher Panama Railway Route and overland railway charges? The business of the Canal will come from new interests which it will develop and from other routes which cannot compete with it in rates. ”

“ It cannot be expected that freight can be carried by rail across the continent more than three thousand miles over two mountain chains and compete in cost with water transportation which under conditions most favorable to rail transportation costs only one-fifth, while, with heavy grades, the ratio is one by water to fifteen by rail. ”

“ The limits of this letter forbid a full discussion of navigation distances, and besides this, distances are not fully conclusive. Considerations of traffic, ocean currents, available coaling stations, and return cargoes must be taken into account. ”

“ It will give an immense impulse to United States manufactures, especially cotton and iron, and will greatly stimulate the shipbuilding industry and development of the naval power of the United States. ”