The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

26 e 8 OR Tt aN oe ber of the advisory commission which is to investigate and report upon the interurban traffic of London which has made the problem of transportation one of the studies of his life. Mr. William H. Burr is an expert of canal problems and has served as a member of both the Nicaraguan and Isth- mian Canal Commissions. He has spent a great deal of time on the Isthmus and is thoroughly acquainted with the situa- tion. His clear testimony was much valued at the time the interoceanic committee was investigating the desirability of the various routes. Gen. George W. Davis occu- pies a dual position upon the commission. He is not only an engineer of ripe judgment but he has had long experience as the governmental head of the outlying possessions. It was therefore a wise thing on the part of President Roosevelt to make Gen. Davis the civil head of the canal zone. While he has only recently assumed di- rection of the civil government of the zone he has already dem- onstrated his ability to man- age it with fairness and firm- ness. In this he has been aided by his long experience in Cuba, Porto Rico and the Philippines. Mr. Benjamin' M: Harrod and Mr. Carl Ewald Grunsky contribute greatly to the value of the commission by the di- versity of their experiences. Mr. Harrod has had much to do with the improvement of the internal waterways of the country and has charge of ex- ceedingly important operations in the Mississippi river, while Mr. Grunsky has made a spe- ciality of mining and the hand- ling of earth and rock. Col. Frank J. Hecker is a business man of much experi- ence and invaluable upon a commission of this character which has to handle not alone enermous sums of money but an army of men as well. He has been all his life associated with large operations, and during the Spanish-American war was director of transpor- tation for the government in the war department. Mr. D. I. Murphy, the secretary of the commission, com- pletes the group of able men. He has had wide experience and is well versed in the subject-matter of the present under- taking. The commission paid its first visit to the canal early in April, or within a month after the confirmation by the senate. They went over the ground very thoroughly with special ref- erence to work already performed with a view of verifying the maps and drawings made by the French company. 'These maps are of most elaborate character and represent an expen- diture of a large sum of money. But the commission discov- ered that some of them were entirely unreliable, and that little reliance could be placed upon their topography except at the immediate axis to the canal. The question, therefore, of an accurate survey is the first consideration of the committee and that is new being made under the general direction of Chief Engineer John KF. Wallace. MR. W. B PARSONS. [Copyrighted r904, by Alman & Co. It Roe Vi al Bow COMMERCIAL EFFECT OF PANAMA CANAL No one who is at all informed pretends that the Panama canal can be now or for a generation to come commercially profitable. Under the present estimates the cost of the canal to the United States will not fall below $200,000,000, which, with accumulating interest for the next ten years, will easily reach the figure of $250,000,c00. Calculated at the modest rate of 3 per cent, this would require a revenue of $3,500,000 annually to meet interest charges, but to this sum must be added the cost of maintenance and operation which will at the least estimate be several millions more. Therefore, in order to be a paying institution at all, the earnings of the Pan- ama canal will have to be very large». In, contrast with the sum to be earned in order to meet fixed charges, the total of 300,000 tons of freight which is now annually hauled at a con- siderable profit by the Panama railroad is an insignificant item. In addition it must be borne in mind that a considerable traffic now goes around the Horn to avoid these very charges of the Panama railroad, so that in- deed not much is to be expected from that source. Again the primary object of the canal is to save distance. Whatever traffic therefore can find shorter routes than Pan- ama will not use the canal. Such traffic is the greater part of the commerce between Eu- rope and Asia and Africa. The distance from London to Sing- apore is 7,400 miles and to Yokohama 1,700 miles less by iter than by. "Panaitia., it" 1s 1,200 miles shorter from Lon- don to Sydney, New South Wales, by Suez than by Pan- ama. It cannot be expected therefore that Panama will di- verge any part of this traffic. will, however, extend the markets especially of the Atlantic coast cities of the United States. It will open up hitherto inaccessible territory on the western coast of South America. While this will aid American manufacturers its benefits to the American ship is at present problematical. There are no steamship lines extending from United States ports to the eastern coast of South America which requires no canal to reach. It may, however, by widening the available market make it possible to project a steamship service should congress come to the rescue of American shipping in general. The canal affords a favorable route for the United States to Japan and to the northern ports of China, to Australia and'to New Zealand and as well, of course, to all the ports of the western coast of South America. It affords also to Europe a nearer route to the Pacific shores of North and South America, the South Sea islands and New Zealand. The Walker commission estimated that the traffic utilizing the canal at its opening would be approximately 6,700,000 tons. 'The present tonnage that passes through Suez is something like 13,000,000 tons. The commerce pass- ing through the Sault Ste. Marie canal is 35,000,000 tons an- nually, so that it can readily be seen that for some years at least the importance of the Panama canal. will be more strategical than commercial.