CHAPTER I

ECONOMIC EFFECT OF THE CANAL Page

Philosophic Spanish-American View--Henry Clay’s Mistaken Population Prophecy--The Andes Not a Canal Limitation--Intercontinental Railway Spurs--Argentina and the Amazon as Feeders--Centres of Cereal Production--Crude Rubber--Atlantic and Pacific Traffic--Growth of West Coast Commerce--North and South Trade-wave--Distances via Panama, Cape Horn, and the Straits of Magellan--Waterway Tolls and Coal Consumption--Ecuador and Peru--Bolivia and Chile--Isthmian Railroad Rates--Value of United States Sanitary Authority--American Element in New Industrial Life 1