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MAP OF STEAMSHIP LINES, SHOWING THE PRESENT COURSE OF AMERICAN FOREIGN COMMERCE.

utilized by great corporations desirous of preserving monopolies.

Their fears are in reality futile, for the canal would not only bring about cheap freight rates, of immense service to the community at large, but would also surely conduce to increased business and larger incomes for the railway lines. It would, there can be no doubt, help greatly to create on the whole Pacific Slope, as far east as the Rockies, a field of business, a new market, yielding profits transcending all now derived from trans-continental carriage.

The pressing question for the Pacific Slope, in its present stage of development, is how best to reach and utilize the markets of the Atlantic States and Europe, and, in order to accomplish this purpose, a more efficient means of communication,—one less costly, quicker, surer, -is required, and this is only to be had by opening a passage across the isthmus from the Pacific to the Atlantic. Of immense value to the people generally of the whole United States, the Nicaragua Canal is a matter of special importance to the Pacific coast. As in the case of similar projects elsewhere, the far-reaching changes which would be effected seem to have been incompletely realized. At any rate it has received a surprisingly inadequate measure of support in the very quarter which would be most benefited. The present acute depression in California has, however, stimulated interest in the question, and the community seem at last to be alive to the importance of the canal. "The development of our commerce, our industries, our international influence, and

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NICARAGUA AS A SHORT LINE BETWEEN NEW YORK AND SAN FRANCISCO.

our political and military safety, all demand the prompt construction of the Nicaragua Canal," says a recent circular letter of the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce.

When the subject of the canal was first seriously raised on the Pacific Slope, about 1880, it was said that the trans-continental railways would furnish the necessary economical transportation for wheat to the Atlantic ports, whence it could be cheaply shipped to Europe. That promise remains unfulfilled, and the Cape Horn route, with its enormous detour, still takes the Pacific wheat trade.

The time for transportation will be reduced by the canal to twenty-five days, and the distance decreased by about 10,000 miles. The canal will open the markets of Northern Europe to Californian fruits and garden products. The export lumber trade of the North-west will receive a great stimulus. In 1886 the lumber trade of Oregon and Washington shipped 6,000,000 cubic feet, and a couple of years later the amount cut was 706,985,000. The forests of Washington are stated to contain not less than 175,000,000,000 feet of uncut yellow and red fir, and Oregon to possess 25,000 square miles of timber land; in fact, as William H. Seward said, the entire region of Oregon, Washington, British Columbia, and Alaska, seems destined to become a ship yard for the supply of all nations. Cargoes are now sent to Europe by Cape Horn, or by rail to the eastern seaboard and thence trans-shipped. When they can be carried at largely decreased cost, and much more rapidly, the trade will grow with giant strides. with giant strides. In addition to wheat

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NICARAGUA AS A SHORT LINE BETWEEN NEW YORK AND PACIFIC.

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