such protection without adopting measures on this continent which the United States would deem wholly inadmissible. If the protection of the United States is relied upon, the United States must exercise such control as will enable this country to protect its natural interests and maintain the rights of those whose private capital is embarked in the work.

The United States, by loaning its credit to the Maritime Canal Company, would facilitate the construction of the canal, for one-half of what it can be built by borrowing money in the markets of the world; it would cheapen tolls and prevent foreign capital from owning and controlling the tolls of the canal. The United States has ample security for its indorsements.

The Nicaragua canal with its locks or lifts has at its highest elevation or level an abundance and safe supply of water. You search in vain throughout the Western Hemisphere for advantages possessed by the Nicaragua route for a maritime canal.

Lake Managua, which is fed by a watershed of over 8,000 square miles, is the great feeder of Lake Nicaragua. The superficial area of Lake Nicaragua is about 2,600 square miles. The highest flood in the rainy season only raises the waters of the lake two feet. It never overflows its banks.

A signal from a ship at either extremity of the canal can be read on the Atlantic or Pacific.

The Nicaragua Canal Company has completed a large amount of permanent work on the harbor of Greytown, and in building the canal without issuing bonds. The money for the work has been obtained by the sale of stock by persons interested in the company.

A railroad has been built from Greytown to the foothills. The land for the canal has been cleared out a distance of twelve miles, and dredges purchased from the Panama Company are at work in the canal and the approaches to it. The pier or breakwater at Greytown extending across the bar has been built for over 1,000 feet.

Excellent buildings have been built for the use of the company, including comfortable quarters for the laborers, hospitals, storehouses, warves and machine shops, and a supply of spring water conducted from the hills in steel pipes, a distance of thirteen miles. The forest has been cleared all the way for the excavation of the canal.

The United States cannot abandon its influence in the Nicaragua canal without abandoning our interests and influence in the Western Hemisphire, especially the interests of the people of the Western coast, the Atlantic and Gulf ports. The greatest part of the world's commerce will pass through the Nicaragua canal.

This canal will be to the United States a part of its coastwise channel from the Atlantic to the Pacific states. There is danger that the stock and bonds of the company would flow into the hands of European bankers, and with them the ultimate control and government of the canal.

The interests of the people of the United States are much greater in the proper management of the canal and its free use at reasonable tolls than foreign powers.

The business of the canal at the time of its completion, in 1897, based on reliable statistical information, is estimated at $7,000,000 tons, of which more than one-half will be between ports of the United States, or the United States and other countries; but the natural growth and development of the Pacific states and territories, greatly promoted and materially increased by the opening of the canal, will add millions of tons of traffic to the canal which present information fails to show.

The canal would open a market from the western coast of North America, including the western coast of Mexico, Central and South America, and Australia, China, Japan, India with the Gulf and Atlantic states, Europe, Asia and Africa.

The three most important waterways of the Western Hemisphere are the Mississippi and its tributaries, the Lake Superior canal with its connections,

the Welland and Erie canals, and the proposed Nicaragua canal and the remainder coast line. These waterways would, with a canal around the falls at Niagara, give, with reciprocity, great commercial facilities to the United States, and enable her, with friendly legislation, to take the foremost rank among the nations in agriculture, manufactures and commerce

The Atlantic and Gulf ports should take more interest in the ownership and control of the Nicaragua canal and not let it fall into the hands of foreign nations. They should consider its vast importance in their trade with the western coast of the Latin republics, the western coast of the United States and with Australia, China, Japan and the East Indies, as appears from the following table of distances:

From New York to the eastern entrance of the Nicaragua canal, 2,021 miles; from San Francisco to the western entrance of the Nicaragua canal is 2,578 miles; so that a vessel from South America is nearer to New York than to San Francisco, at the western entrance of the canal, by 387 miles. From Victoria to the western entrance of the canal is 3,428 miles. Brito, the western entrance to the canal, is nearer to New York than to Victoria by 1,237 miles. This plainly demonstrates the importance of the canal to the Atlantic and Gulf cities. New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Mobile, New Orleans and Galveston, with San Francisco, should subscribe for the whole stock of the Nicaragua canal and prevent its control by foreign nations.

The senators, representatives and newspapers of the Northwest who have opposed the bill for aiding the building of the Nicaragua canal should never forget that the unpatented public lands within Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin arose from cessions from the states of Virginia, Massachusetts, Connecticut and New York. That the unpatented lands which comprise the states of Tennessee, Alabama and Mississippi arose from cessions from North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia. That the original thirteen states that fought the battles of the Revolution and gained American independence have never gained any benefit from the grants of public lands in the Northwest, to schools, colleges, railroads, canals and other purposes. That these states that donated their vast territories to the United States have never derived any pecuniary benefit from the pre-emption law, the homestead law, the tree-claim law, and the various land grants to the Western states. The people of the Northwest should do justice to the Atlantic and Gulf states.

The farmers should never forget that it is the ocean transportation that carries their farm produce to the markets of the world.

In connection with the completion of the Nicaragua canal, the improvement of the Mississippi for deep water navigation from St. Paul to the Gulf of Mexico would (with whaleback ocean steamers) give the people of the Northwest two markets instead of one.

The people are taking more interest in the waterways of this hemispherethe Nicaragua canal, railroads and the Mississippi and its tributaries. Lake Superior is fed by underground rivers. By cutting a canal from Lake Superior to the Mississippi river, the Mississippi would be an outlet of Lake Superior, making the river navigable for ocean steamers (of the whaleback kind) from St. Paul to the Gulf of Mexico. Chicago should build a ship canal from Chicago to the Mississippi, which would make the Mississippi an outlet of Lake Michigan. In the event of canals connecting the waters of Lake Superior and Lake Michigan with the Mississppi and the Gulf of Mexico, the Mississippi towns could send freights to the ports of the world by whaleback ocean steamers. It would bring the farm produce of the West, under reciprocity, to the West Indies, Mexico, Central and South America, and on the completion of the Nicaragua canal, to China, Japan and Australia.

This great enterprise would benefit the whole United States and would bind the Union for ever.

RECIPROCITY.

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CHAPTER II.

THE WEST INDIES, MEXICO AND HAWAIIAN ISLANDS.

HE main lines of communication between the United States and the eighteen Southern republics represented in the Pan-American Congress at Washington run through the West Indies. For steamships plying between the United States, via New York and Brazil, St. Thomas is the coaling station, and Barbadoes the last port before reaching Brazil. Vessels in the Venezuela trade pass between Porto Rico and San Domingo. Havana is the half-way station between New York and Vera Cruz.

Nassau, Santiago, Jamaica and the ports of Hayti are in the track of steam communication between New York and the Republic of Colombia and Central America, and the vast trade, on the completion of the Nicaragua canal, in the route to Asia, Australia, China, Japan and South America.

Reciprocity will bring the three Americas in closer relations; there will be an improvement of mail communications and development of transportation facilities with the West Indies and the Western Hemisphere.

With the exception of Hayti, which is divided into two autonomous native states, all the islands belong to European nations. England and Spain hold the great mass of these islands, and France, Denmark, Sweden and the Netherlands the few remaining islands. The United States has neglected to secure a part of these islands for the extension of her commerce. She could have purchased some of these islands while her treasury was overflowing. The people in the interior have failed to see the vast importance of waterways in facilitating transportation with the markets of the world.

It is some consolation to the pride of Americans that in 1857 the island of Navassa, in the Caribbean sea, was taken possession of by a citizen of the United States, by virtue of an act of congress, passed two years previously, providing that if any citizen of the United States discover deposits of guano and takes possession of the islands in the name of the United States, the president, in his discretion, may consider the island as appertaining to the United States, and the laws of the United States respecting crimes on the high seas shall thereafter apply to crimes committed on such islands. Secretary Cass, in 1859, issued a proclamation declaring this island United States territory, and both before and since that time this country has resisted a claim of sovereignty set up by Hayti, and has in other ways recognized the island as being subject to the provisions of the act of 1855.

In 1891 the supreme court of the United States held that the island of Navassa was United States territory.

This island is valuable for its deposit of guano. It is situated in the Caribbean sea, in latitude 18 degrees 25 minutes north, longitude 75 degrees 2 minutes west. It is south of Cuba, west of Hayti and east of Jamaica. The flags of the maritime nations of Europe are constantly seen in the waters of the

West Indies, and are kept there mainly through state aid. Of the nineteen republics participating in the deliberations of the Pan-American conference the United States alone competes with Europe under its own flag for the control of the West Indian trade. There are five American steamship lines in these waters. The Pacific Mail and the Red "D" lines make no intermediate stops in the voyages to the isthmus and Venezuela. A third line, the United States & Brazil, calls at St. Thomas, Martinique and Barbadoes on the way to Rio and Santos. This is the only direct connection under the American flag with the Lesser Antilles, with the single exception of Curacoa, which is one of the calling stations of the Red "D" line. The Clyde lines, with five steamers, run with regularity to the ports of Hayti and Santo Domingo. The New York & Cuba Mail, in addition to the Mexican service with four steamers and a few tenders, has three vessels in the direct line to Havana, and two more in the south coast trade of Cuba. The last line runs through the Bahamas, stopping at Nassau on the way to and from Santiago and Cienfuegos. The West India service under the American flag is practically restricted to Cuba and Hayti and five of the smaller islands. Jamaica and all the other islands are reached from the American ports, if at all, under foreign flags. There are a few American steamers plying between the ports of the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean coast of Central America, but the bulk of this carrying trade is under the English flag. The north coast of the Republic of Colombia, with the exception of Colon, is reached from American ports by foreign lines.

BOUNTIES TO FOREIGN STEAMSHIP LINES.

The American steamship lines have to compete with foreign lines which receive government subsidies. The chief rival of the Ward Cuban line is a Spanish company which receives a subsidy of $1,750,000 per annum. Every vessel of this company plying between New York and Havana receives between $4,500 and $5,000 a trip. Each of these rival vessels receives for a single voyage four times as much as is paid to the Ward Cuban line for the entire mail service with the Bahamas, Cuba and Mexico in the course of a year. The official figures show that for the fiscal year ending 1889, the amount paid to the American line for mail transportation to the countries above named was $1,138.97. The Red "D" line, which is in competition with the Spanish company, as well as from other subsidized lines in the direct New York trade, received during the same period only $5,774.55 for a tri-monthly service. The Clyde lines for similar service with Hayti and Santo Domingo were paid $1,614.10 per annum. Is the foreign competition to continue, backed by foreign governments, to drive the Americans from the commerce of the West Indies, without the protection of our merchant marine by liberal laws by the government of the United States? The Brazil line received but $24,160.84; the Pacific Mail, for the isthmus service, received only $46,411.96. The whole amount in 1889 paid in the interest of steamers carrying the American flag and the American mail on the high seas was $109,828. The British government paid in 1889, for the West India mail service, $550,000. The British government, in 1889, paid her ships a bounty of $3,184,425. Twenty years ago she paid double this sum so as to ruin the commercial marine of the United States. Spain's shipping subsidies are largely used for the destruction of the American carrying trade with the West Indies.

France pays a heavy subsidy to three lines running from the isthmus to its own ports. Germany and Holland also subsidize steamship lines in the same quarter. Under these conditions the Americans have to contend with the subsidized commercial marine of Europe.

The Democrats, before the war, favored granting subsidies to American shippers. The Democratic congress and a Democratic president, in 1855, paid vessels sailing under the American flag $1,936,715, and there was not a year of

that decade of Democratic administration when considerably more than $1,000,000 was not expended for that purpose-oftener nearer $2,000,000 than $1,000,000. In one of President Cleveland's years the amount paid to American vessels for mail transportation was $43,319-about one-seventh of the sum contributed to foreign lines.

The United States is the only great commercial nation that deliberately neglects its shipping interests.

The five American lines now carrying the flag in the West Indies owe their maintenance during recent years largely to commercial concessions and direct subsidies from foreign governments. The United States and Brazil mail line gets an annual subsidy from Brazil of $90,000.

The United States, after inviting the eighteen republics to closer commercial union and continental trade, and proclaiming reciprocity, should at once encourage the development of our commercial marine, which will open a market for the American farmers with these Southern countries-receiving in return the products of tropical climes in return for provisions, machinery and manufactured goods. This would benefit the farmers, workingmen and business men alike.

The Bahamas lie outside the regular course of the West Indian trade, and are approached by narrow and circuitous channels. The group would be cut off from mail communication with the world if the Ward line had not been encouraged by government patronage to have its steamers call at Nassau on their way to and from the southern coast of Cuba. The British colonial administration pays for a fortnightly mail service an annual subsidy of $17,500 to this American company, which receives from its own government only from $1,200 to $1,300 for mail transportation to Mexico and Cuba.

Bahamas is well adapted for the growth of sisal, a substitute for manilla hemp.

The tariff of 1890 takes off a duty of fifteen dollars a ton on sisal hemp, which will surely benefit the American farmers.

By the tariff of 1890, which took effect April 1, 1891, the United States abandons a revenue on sugar of $55,975,610 per annum. All sugars under sixteen Dutch standard are on the free list, and sugars above that grade pay a duty of one-half a cent per pound, instead of the old rates of three cents and three and a half cents.

Seven-eighths of the sugar supply of the United States is imported from foreign countries. This free sugar will stimulate the growth of sugar in Cuba, as its enormous sugar crop is shipped exlusively to the United States.

This free sugar is not a gratuity flung with generosity to Latin America. It is an immense concession made to sugar-producing countries, containing a population of 40,000,000, who import their food supplies and manufactures, but it is a provisional arrangement dependent upon equitable reciprocity.

By the tariff act of 1890 the president is authorized to close this free market for sugar after July 1, 1892, "if he shall consider that unequal and unreasonable duties are levied in return upon agricultural and manufactured products of the United States. A contingent schedule for sugar, molasses, coffee, tea and hides is provided, and the president not only armed with power, but it is his duty, to suspend the operation of the system of tremendous gratuities temporarily in force." Latin America is expected to pay well for the free market for sugar. Those sugar-producing countries which neglect to profit by the opportunity will find the free market closed against them during the last nine months of President Harrison's term.

The Latin West Indies have been sending the bulk of their exports to the United States. In round numbers, when Cuba and Porto Rico have shipped exports of $54,000,000 to the United States, they have sent less than $10,000,000 to Spain and about $5,000,000 to Great Britain, France and Germany. "In return, when $12,000,000 of breadstuffs and manufactures have been