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| President Theodore Roosevelt. |
Cortland Evening Standard, Tuesday, Jan. 21, 1902.
FAVOR PANAMA ROUTE.
President Transmits Report of Commission to Senate.
ALL THE MEMBERS SIGN REPORT.
New Panama Company Offers to Convey All Its Property, Including Railroad, for $40,000,000—Colombia Has Waived Prohibitions and a Good Title Can Be Secured.
Washington, Jan. 21.—The president sent to congress with a message, simply of transmittal, the supplemental report of the Isthmian canal commission, in which it is unanimously recommended that the offer of the new Panama Canal Company to sell all of its rights, property and unfinished work to the United States for $40,000,000 be accepted. The senate ordered the report printed in the congressional record and also as a document.
After quoting the correspondence which passed between the commission and the officers of the Panama Canal Company in Paris, the report says:
The estimated cost of constructing the Nicaragua canal is $45,630,704 more than the cost of completing the Panama canal.
The estimated annual cost of maintenance and operation is $1,300,000 greater at Nicaragua than at Panama.
The Panama route would be 134.6 miles shorter than the Nicaragua route from sea to sea, with fewer locks and less curvature, both in degree and miles. The estimated time for a deep draft vessel to pass through the Nicaragua canal was placed at 33 hours as against 12 hours for Panama, these estimates being the time of actual navigation and not including delays for winds, currents or darkness.
The offer received from the new Canal Company to convey all its property, including all its interest in the Panama railroad, to the United States will make the estimated cost of the two canals as follows: Nicaragua, $189,846,062; Panama, $184,233,358.
The transfer would give title to all the land now held by both the Panama Canal Company and the Panama Railroad Company, which covers nearly all lands required for the construction of the canal. The land held by private parties at Nicaragua must be acquired and its acquisition may prove expensive.
The question whether the new Panama Canal Company can make to a purchaser a valid title to the property formerly belonging to old company, its predecessor, has been considered and answered in the former reports of the commission, but in view of its importance, in connection with the present offer, the results of the investigations made will be again presented.
The canal company is absolutely prohibited to cede or mortgage its rights under any consideration whatever to any nation or foreign government under penalty of forfeiture. The contract with the railroad company contains a like prohibition and declares further that the pain of forfeiture will be incurred by the mere act of attempting to cede or transfer its privileges to a foreign government and such an act is declared absolutely null and of no value or effect.
But for the purpose of permitting the new Panama Canal Company to enter upon the negotiations which have resulted in the present offer Colombia has waived these prohibitions and has authorized the company to treat directly with the United States with a view to the use and occupation of territory of the former for canal purposes if our government should select the Panama route for an Isthmian canal.
The report concludes as follows:
After considering the changed conditions that now exist and all the facts and circumstances upon which its present judgment must be based, the commission is of the opinion that "the most practicable and feasible route" for an Isthmian canal to be "under the control, management and ownership of the United States," is that known as the Panama route.
The report is signed by the entire commission.
Naval Engagement at Panama.
New York, Jan. 21.—The Panama Railway Company yesterday received a cablegram from Colon saying that three insurgent and two government vessels had been sunk in the naval engagement in Panama harbor. The cablegram came from Colonel J. B. Shaler, general superintendent at Colon for the Panama Railway Company.
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| Gideon J. Scheepers. |
Protests Against Execution.
Brussels, Jan. 21.—Dr. Leyds, the European representative of the Transvaal, has addressed a protest to the powers against the execution of the Boer commandant Scheepers, whose death sentence was confirmed by Lord Kitchener, which Dr. Leyds describes as an assassination.
PAGE FOUR—EDITORIAL.
The New Chinese Exclusion Act.
The new Chinese exclusion act now before congress follows the general lines of the Geary act, which expires by limitation on May 5, 1902, though it contains certain minor provisions designed to make the smuggling of Chinese laborers still more difficult.
The entry of Chinese into the United States is limited to specified ports, and the only Chinese to be admitted at these ports are government officials, teachers, students, merchants, travelers for pleasure or curiosity and returning laborers, the last named class being required to show a certificate proving their former residence. The Chinese now resident here are required within six months of the passage of the act to obtain certificates of identification, with photographs attached, those remaining without such certificates being liable to deportation.
The new bill contains an entirely new provision forbidding Chinese in the Philippines, Hawaii and Porto Rico from entering the United States proper. In estimating this Chinese exclusion act the reader must remember that it excludes only a certain class of Chinese, that this class to a very large extent is imported into this country by the so called Chinese trading companies and that a considerable proportion of the class are not really free men and have no purpose or desire of ever becoming American citizens.
The constitutional defense of the proposed act is that laid down by the supreme court in its declaration that the right of a country to exclude aliens from its territory is essential to its independence. The diplomatic defense of the act is that the United States acknowledges the right of all other nations, including China, to exclude the classes of immigrants which this bill excludes. The social defense of the act is that it prevents the immigration of a persistently servile and alien population, whose presence is injurious to the standards alike of American labor and of American citizenship.
THE NEW STATION
Of the Łackawanna Rapidly Approaching Completion.
It is thought that the connection for the steam heat from the basement of the new Lackawanna freight house to the new passenger station will be completed today. The walls of the new passenger station are nearly completed. They are to be of plaster overhead and to within about 5 feet of the tile floor. Enameled brick forms the wainscoting and will give the rooms a tasty appearance.
The rooms of the new depot are much larger than they look to be from the outside. The walls are high and the room will be [lighted] and splendidly arranged. The building has been wired throughout for electric lights in the main waiting room next to Raiłroad-st., the lights will be hung from the ceiling entirely in four clusters. The smoking room is adjacent to the main room and is well fitted up. Closets will open from both waiting rooms.
In the freight house a large office, well calculated for the work of that department, has been fitted up in the south part. North of this is the large storeroom with platforms adjoining that give in all an unbroken floor space 220 feet long and forty-five feet wide. A double line of seven cars can be loaded or unloaded at the same time. Two pairs of Jones platform scales are set in the freight house for use. Patent lifting doors are provided, and in fact everything is up-to-date in the construction of both buildings. It is thought that the freight building will be completed in about thirty days.
CONTRACT FOR BRIDGES.
Thirteen New Iron Bridges for Cortlandville—Owego Bridge Co.
The Cortlandville town board held a meeting yesterday afternoon and opened the sealed bids submitted for putting in the thirteen news bridges in the town of Cortlandville to replace those washed out in the flood a few weeks ago. Five bids were submitted, the bidders being the Climax Road Machine Co. of Marathon, the Syracuse Construction Co., the Owego Bridge Co., the Canton Bridge Co., the Rochester Bridge and Construction Co.
The bid of the Oswego Bridge Co. was $4,350 and as this was the lowest bid; on motion, it was unanimously voted to accept it, and the contract was so awarded.
Of the thirteen bridges six are located in the village of McGrawville, on is on South Hill, three at Hoxieville, two are on the South Cortland road and one is west of the Daniel Thomas farm on the road over the hill west from Mourin's furniture store.
One wooden bridge will be put in the Olds district on the cross road north of McGrawville.
The iron bridges are to be delivered May 1, 1902, or as soon after that as the commissioner of highways is ready for them. That official has now got all his temporary bridges in working order, but of course no move can be made toward laying the mason work foundations for the permanent bridges till the frost is out of the ground in the spring and the ground has somewhat settled.
On the Freetown road there is a puzzling problem in road making. A retaining wall 1,700 feet long will have to be built if the road is put up as it should be, but this will be quite an expensive piece of work, and the commissioner is considering whether any other way can be arranged that will be less expensive.
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| Elwood Haynes driving 1894 gasoline engine automobile. |
A DANDY AUTOMOBILE
Just Secured by Cooper Brothers—Two Seated—Eight Horse Power.
Messrs. Lester and George F. Cooper, the enterprising and progressive proprietors of the foundry and machine firm of Cooper Bros., 44 River-st., Cortland, have purchased a new two seated extension top automobile for their family use, which in its way clearly outdistances anything in the line of a motor carriage that was ever brought to Cortland.
The machine is made by the Haynes-Apperson company, Kokomo, Ind., and was one of the many high grade automobiles that were on exhibition by that firm at the Pan-American exposition. It was, in fact, at the exposition that the brothers saw and settled upon their choice. The machine is built in the very best manner possible. It is propelled by twin gasoline engines, having eight-horse power. The whole wagon is covered with a fine leather top, and the seats are upholstered with leather. The weight of the wagon is 1,900 pounds. The wheels are of wood, with three and one half inch tires. It will comfortably seat five persons. The automobile will cover twenty miles an hour, and when next spring the new carriage is brought out by the owners it will take the lead not only in speed, but in beauty and appearance as well.
BREVITIES.
—Cortland Legion, No. 162. N. P. L., will hold its regular meeting this evening at 7:30 sharp.
—The Fortnightly club will meet tomorrow afternoon at 3:30 o'clock with Mrs. T. P. Bristol, 27 Lincoln-ave.
—The Primary Teachers' union will meet with Mrs. C. F. Brown, 22 Tompkins-st., this evening at 7 o'clock.
—Cortland Chapter, No. 194, R. A. M., will confer the M. M. degree upon five candidates at its regular convocation Wednesday evening.
—The churches and schools of Great Bend, Pa., have been ordered closed till further orders as a precautionary measure to prevent the spread of smallpox.
—The annual meeting of the Cortland County Sportsman's club, which was to have been held last evening, was postponed on account of a lack of a quorum.
—Word has been received in Cortland of the serious illness from typhoid fever of Pauline Eddy, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. R. D. Eddy, who moved from Cortland to Onondaga Valley last October.
—New display advertisements today are—C. F. Thompson, Coffee, etc, page 5; R. W. Mitchell, Veal, pork, etc., page 5; Opera House, "A Determined Woman, page 5; Opera House, "The Night Before Christmas," page 5.
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