TABLE I.-DISTANCES AND TIME SAVED VIA THE PANAMA CANAL AS COM-
PARED WITH THE STRAITS OF MAGELLAN BETWEEN THE ATLANTIC-
GULF PORTS OF THE UNITED STATES AND THE WEST COAST
OF NORTH AND SOUTH AMERICA

On a trip between San Francisco and New York a 10-knot freight steamer will be able to save 32 days by using the Panama Canal instead of going around by the Straits of Magellan. A 16-knot passenger steamer will be able to make the voyage in 20 days less. The saving in time and distance will be greater for New Orleans than for New York; because Gulf ports are nearer to the canal than are the Atlantic ports. From New York to the great nitrate port of Iquique 9- and 10-knot freight steamers will save from 23 to 21 days by using the Panama Canal instead of going by way of the Straits of Magellan; and even for Valparaiso, the

principal port of the agricultural section of Chile, the 10-knot steamer from New York will save 15 days by using the Panama Canal. The reduction in time and distance between the Atlantic-Gulf seaboard of the United States and the west coast of North and South America will be so great that the traffic between these two sections will, without question, use the Panama Canal.

TABLE II. — DISTANCES AND TIME SAVED VIA THE PANAMA CANAL AS COMPARED WITH THE STRAITS OF MAGELLAN BETWEEN EUROPEAN PORTS AND THE WEST COAST OF SOUTH AMERICA

Table II illustrates the effect which the canal will have upon the length and time of voyages between European ports and those of the west coast of South America. From Liverpool and from Antwerp, representative ports of north Europe, a 10-knot freight steamer can save between 11 and 12 days by using the Panama Canal to the nitrate ports. For trips to Valparaiso, the saving in time will be only about half as great as the saving in time for trips to the nitrate ports; and, if saving in distance and time were the only factor affecting the choice of routes, it is probable that the tolls that have been established for the use of the Panama Canal would divert the traffic between Europe and Chile to the Magellan route; but the cheaper cost of fuel by the Panama route, and the greater possibility of trading at intermediate ports by taking the Panama route instead of going through the Straits of Magellan, make it practically certain that but a small part of the traffic between Europe and the west coast of South America will continue to use the Magellan route after the opening of the Panama Canal.

Tables III and IV show how the Panama Canal will affect the length of routes and the time of voyages to Australia and New Zealand from New York and New Orleans and from a representative European port, Liverpool.