The passage of such a measure in Congress was at that time considered by many to be particularly indiscreet, in view of the fact that the Walker commission, for whose expenses $1,000,000 had been appropriated, was still engaged in the examination of the various routes. An international scientific commission of high authority had recently pronounced the Panama project entirely feasible and had placed the cost at only $102,000,000; it seemed, therefore, highly desirable that Admiral Walker's coming report should be received before either Mr. Hepburn's or Mr. Sullivan's bills should become law.

Both bills were amended in committee, and as amended were reported back to their respective Houses in January and February. Consideration of these bills for the moment was delayed by the stress of other and more important business, but the friends of both of them felt confident that early action would be taken, and that some sort of a canal bill would receive the sanction of both Houses before the end of the term; the sudden appearance of the Hay-Pauncefote treaty, with its unexpected provisions, effectually blocked for a time all further action upon the pending bills. Although it seemed highly improbable that final action on either measure could be reached during that session of Congress, the Hepburn bill nevertheless passed the House by the overwhelming majority of 225 to 35 votes (May 2).

The bill ignored all the private companies, and enacted that the United States Government should "acquire from the states of Costa Rica and Nicaragua, for and in behalf of the United States, control of such portion of territory now belonging to Costa Rica and Nicaragua as may be desirable and necessary on which to excavate, construct, and defend a canal of such depth," etc. It provided for such fortifications along the route "as will be required for the safety and protection of said canal and harbors." An appropriation of $10,000,000 was called for to enable the Secretary of War to enter upon contracts for "materials and work that may be deemed necessary for the proper excavation, construction, defence and completion of said canal, to be paid for as appro

priations may from time to time be hereafter made, not to exceed in the aggregate $140,000,000."

The passage of this bill in the House marked the desire so generally felt throughout the country that the United States Government should construct an isthmian canal; but its passage was also ill timed, in view of the fact that the Hay-Pauncefote treaty was then before the Senate awaiting confirmation. The provisions of the treaty and of the bill, in so far as they related to the political control of the canal, were diametrically opposed, and the sudden passage of the bill in pointed contempt of the treaty was a measure well calculated to impugn the good faith of the nation. The bill failed to pass the Senate.

On February 13 (1900), another canal bill was introduced into the House by Mr. Levy of New York, which differed essentially from all previous measures looking to the construction of a Central American canal. Following the tenor of the Hay-Pauncefote treaty, which was then before the Senate, it provided for negotiations between the United States and other maritime nations, with a view to securing international coöperation and contribution according to the ship tonnage of the various nations in the construction of a neutralized ship canal. This bill was far too radical to meet with favor in the House.

A comprehensive glance at the history and development of the canal problem in Central America discloses the following facts:

First, it was the object of the early navigators to find a natural strait connecting the two oceans.

Second, when the absence of such a natural waterway was definitely determined, the purpose was conceived to construct. an artificial one.

Third, a number of projects were considered and discussed looking to this end during the sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

Fourth, the United States became interested in the ques

tion in the early part of the nineteenth century, after the independence of the Central American states had been established.

Fifth, other nations then became interested in the project, and numerous surveys were made covering not less than six possible routes. The early surveys were superficial, and wholly worthless in the light of more modern engineering science.

Sixth, the result of later surveys has been to reject all except the Panama and Nicaragua routes. French interest became focussed upon Panama, and the United States favored. the Nicaraguan route.

Seventh, the failure and collapse of the French Panama Company had left for a time a clear field to the American companies in Nicaragua; but when the latter companies were driven to insolvency and inactivity, nothing less than governmental aid seemed to promise success.

Eighth, the result of recent surveys, combined with the experience of those who have attempted construction of the work, has been to demonstrate that the physical difficulties in the way and the probable cost of construction are greater than formerly supposed. While the advanced skill of engineering science has devised improved means of overcoming physical difficulties, it has at the same time developed many obstacles hitherto undiscovered.

Ninth, a recent phase of the question is a growing distrust in the ability of any private company to complete the work of constructing a Central American canal. For ten years past Congress has tended toward a policy of placing the work upon a national basis. This tendency reached its culmination in the 56th Congress by the introduction of bills into both Houses looking exclusively to governmental construction of the canal.

The great majority of the people of Europe and America have always believed that this convenient doorway to the Pacific should be opened to the world's commerce. The query naturally arises, Why, after three hundred years of effort, has it never been done? In spite of the physical difficulties, the work has at all times been considered

feasible. The great advance in the efficiency of scientific investigation has not tended to lessen these difficulties, but the admitted resources of modern engineering are acknowledged to be sufficient to overcome them. It would, of course, require many millions to accomplish the task, but a greater amount of private capital each year finds means of investment in other directions, while large sums prefer inactivity to an investment so hazardous. There is lack of neither skill nor capital. The majority of the people of the United States are probably of the opinion that the ship canal would pay dividends upon its capital within a few years after its completion, yet every company that has undertaken its construction has failed for lack of funds. For ten or fifteen years political parties in the country have been united in the belief that the government should undertake this work as a national project; and each year bills have been introduced into Congress looking to that end, yet none of these bills have become law.

It is true that a large transcontinental railroad interest has steadily opposed these measures, but that opposition could not by itself prevail year after year, against the desire of the country at large. One must then look elsewhere for that mysterious influence which seems to prevent the realization of these hopes of triumph over the obstacles of nature. It is probably to be found in the fear and distrust of each other entertained by the commercial nations of the world. While each one hesitates to make the enormous expenditure necessary to the construction of a Central American ship canal, each would no doubt promptly condemn exclusive ownership or control by one or even several of the other nations. So far, the Powers interested have been unable or unwilling to fix among themselves the political status of the canal when it shall have been built. It is necessary, therefore, that preliminary to the commencement of the work work that will finally succeed in its object—some diplomatic questions of a delicate and serious character calling for adjustment must be met. For the United States, these questions have become more complicated by reason of the recent

development of public sentiment which indicates a purpose to claim, and possibly to demand, full and absolute political, if not commercial, control of any Central American canal wherever and whenever it may be built.

A review of the diplomatic aspects of this canal problem must be taken, and to make its history the more intelligible, it must be treated in connection with early events in Central America, out of which these international questions arose.

II

The earliest Spanish discoverers and explorers in the Western Hemisphere were followed almost immediately by numbers of their countrymen who came to win fortune in the New World. Considering the many perils of unknown seas and the many risks ashore, these Spanish pioneers founded flourishing colonies in Central and South America in a surprisingly short time. The Anglo-Saxon navigators, for the greater part, limited their field of exploration to the mainland of North America, and the colonists from the colder climates of Northern Europe sought regions where the winters brought snow and ice.

For quite a hundred years the Spanish enjoyed an unlimited monopoly of the trade connected with the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea. In the sixteenth century Spain, at the zenith of her power and strength, grew opulent upon the rich returns from her transatlantic possessions. But her fleets of galleons, which took home the treasures of America, offered great temptations to piracy by certain adventurous spirits in Europe and America. In the early part of the seventeenth century, the famous "Buccaneers of the Spanish Main” appeared like so many harpies to prey upon these richly laden vessels of Spain. They came in steadily increasing numbers, sometimes founding settlements of their own in the West Indian Islands, whence they made excursions for robbery and plunder. Among these companies of roving freebooters a band of Englishmen found for themselves a safe and convenient rendezvous in the lagoons of the Mosquito Coast of Nicaragua.