and railway connections with the richest and most advanced of modern nations, finds its greatest obstacle in the ownership of immense estates throughout its entire territory by non-residents and people who are not in sympathy with the development of its resources. In this respect the Argentine Republic has a great advantage, because of its enormous area of public lands capable of raising vast crops of wheat and other grains, and inviting the immigration of the landless. millions of old Europe. The Argentine Republic has just undergone a tremendous crisis, the result of too rapid progress, too much extravagance, and reckless investments, and it will require many years for it to recover from the loss, which is estimated at three hundred millions of dollars. But no financial depression, however severe or prolonged, can destroy that which constitutes the future and permanent wealth of that marvellous country the millions of acres of pampas that invite and await the plough. A few figures will show the enormous growth before the panic occurred there, and they are a lesson worthy of the study of every political economist. The table below exhibits the progress of the Argentine people during the last thirty years.

Republic. The northern terminus of the Argentine system is at Jujuy (pronounced Wewee) a distance of 993 miles from the capital. The distance from that point to La Paz, the capital of Bolivia, is 500 miles. From La Paz to Santa Rosa, Bolivia, a line is being constructed 220 miles in length; from Santa Rosa to Cuzco, Peru, the ancient capital of the Incas, the distance is 190 miles; from Cuzco to Santa Rosa, Ecuador, along the famous highway of the Incas, the distance is 880 miles; and from there to Bogota is 590 miles. It is therefore a distance of 3,373 miles from Buenos Ayres to Bogota, of which 1,213 are already constructed, leaving a gap of 2,160 miles to be filled.

This line would pass through the great basin of the Andes, a land of fabulous mineral wealth, and the source of the great riches of the Incas. Bolivia is undoubtedly the richest in its mineral resources of any of the South American countries, and has, probably, larger deposits of gold, silver, platinum, and other precious metals than any other section on the globe; but under present transportation facilities it is deprived of developing influences, and the mines cannot be profitably worked without modern machinery. Nothing can reach the mines or be brought away that may not be carried on the back of a mule or a llama. The mountains forbid it. But on the Atlantic side there is navigable water up the Parana River for a distance of 2,700 miles, deep enough for all the ocean ships that enter the sea of Buenos Ayres. From the head of navigation it is only 700 miles to the farthest mining district in Bolivia, and about the same distance to the diamond fields of Brazil. The sources of the Parana, the several branches of the Amazon, and the Orinoco, three of the greatest rivers in the world, are not far distant, and furnish almost uninterrupted navigation. Already a French syndicate is surveying a railroad route from Bogota to the sources of the Orinoco.

Before the fact slips from the elusive memories of men and nations, let it be recorded that Hinton Rowen Helper first publicly suggested and advocated an

intercontinental railway, and for the last ten or twelve years has not lost an opportunity to create public sentiment on three continents in favor of the scheme. No published volume ever created profounder sensation than his "Impending Crisis"; his second literary venture, entitled "The Three Americas' Railway" had no such reception. Its author was regarded by the few who read the volume as a harmless crank, with a harmless hobby.

On the 18th of July, 1879, Mr. Helper, then residing in St. Louis, placed the sum of five thousand dollars in the hands of Cyrus B. Burnham, President of the Bank of Commerce of that city, to be awarded as prizes for the best essays upon the subject of "The earliest possible construction of a longitudinal midland double track steel railway, from a point high north in North America running more or less southwardly through Mexico and Central America to a point far south in South America." The judges selected were Thomas Allen, President of the Iron Mountain Railway, Carlos S. Greely, Receiver of the Kansas Pacific Railway, and Dr. William T. Harris, then Superintendent of Public Instruction at St. Louis, and now United States Commissioner of Education.

There were forty-seven essays submitted, by forty-seven contestants: ten from Missouri, seven from New York, four from Illinois, four from Canada, three from Pennsylvania, three from Ohio, two each from Massachusetts, North Carolina, Indiana, Kansas, Nebraska, and the District of Columbia, and one each from New Hampshire, Virginia, Washington Territory and Australia. In January, 1881, the committee made their award, and the prize essays and some papers from the pen of Mr. Helper were published in a volume which attracted but little attention, and ultimately found its way to the top shelves of libraries, or second-hand book shops. The seed thus sown fell mostly upon stony ground; but it sprung forth and has borne rich fruit.

Whoever builds this road will hold the key to the treasures stored in the heart of the Southern continent, and their value has furnished food for three centu

ries of fable. A section of country as large as that which spreads between the Mississippi River and the Pacific Ocean lies there unoccupied and almost unexplored. On its borders are rich agricultural lands, fine ranges, the greatest timber resources in the world, and the silver and gold mines of Bolivia, Peru, and Ecuador. What exists within this unknown country is of course only a subject of speculation, but the farther man has gone, the greater has been his wonder. The tales of the explorers who have attempted to penetrate it sound like the recital of the old romances of Golconda and El Dorado; but the swamps and the mountains, the rivers that cannot be forded, the jungles which forbid search, the absence of food, the difficulty of transporting supplies, and the other obstacles which now prevent exploration, will eventually be overcome. The secret that has tantalized the world for more than three centuries will be disclosed by untiring and ambitious scientists.

But the construction of an Interoceanic Canal across the Isthmus is quite as essential to the promotion of commerce as the Intercontinental Railway. The great purpose of all early explorers in American waters was to discover a western passage from Europe to India, China, and other countries of the East. The Portuguese voyagers found a pathway around the Cape of Good Hope; and when Columbus started from Palos upon his memorable voyage, he had no expectation of finding a new world, but sought only to demonstrate the accuracy of the theory that the world was round, and that India could be reached by sailing westward as well as eastward. On his last and most disastrous voyage, he cruised up and down the northern coast of Central America, searching each inlet and creek and bay for the navigable passage his genius taught him should be there; but which nature, by some titanic convulsion, had closed ages before his time.

The discovery of the Straits of Magellan, and the circumnavigation of the globe by the seamen who followed him proved the truth of his theories; but the

enormous distance that must be sailed before the Pacific Ocean could be entered made it necessary to solve the problem by artificial means. As early as 1513, when the Pacific Ocean was discovered by Vasco Nunez de Balboa, the proposition of a canal across the Isthmus was suggested, but several years passed before the Spaniards abandoned the attempt to find a natural channel across the continent. As late as 1523, the Emperor Charles V. admonished Cortez to search carefully along both the western as well as the eastern shores of New Spain for what was termed El secreto del estrecho

the secret of the Straits.

In 1528, however, the fact that no passage existed became very well estabtablished, and a Commission of Engineers was appointed by the court of Spain to consider a plan for artificial water communication across the Isthmus of Darien ; but there is no record of further action until 1534, when Charles V. instructed the Governor of Panama to make an exploration and report the result. The governor, Pascual Andagoya, replied that the scheme was impracticable; but in 1540, the investigation was resumed under the direction of Philip II., and Bautuste Antonelli reported in favor of a canal across Nicaragua. In 1550, Antonio Galvao proposed four different routes, of which he considered that across Nicaragua the most practicable, and the subject was extensively discussed; but the superstitious monks, who still controlled the policy of Spain, condemned the plan as contrary to the will of the Divine Providence, who had placed a barrier there to restrain the fury of the seas.

The project has since been constantly before the people, and while a hundred companies organized for the purpose have failed, it is to be hoped that there is yet courage and capital enough in the United States to carry through the plan. The company now operating in Nicaragua is organized under a charter from the Congress of the United States, and a concession granted by the government of Nicaragua in 1887. A surveying party was sent out from New York immediately afterward, and completed its work within a year. In May, 1889, an additional

force of engineers reached Nicaragua, and two thousand men are employed in the construction department. The first work was to clear the rivers San Juanillo and Deseado for thirty miles, to render them navigable for the passage of small boats carrying supplies and stores to the different stations on the line. Trails were then cut from these rivers to cross the routes of the various surveys and camps established at intervals between the ocean and the lake.

The first important work was to provide a harbor. Previous to 1860, the harbor of Greytown was accessible to vessels drawing twenty feet of water, but through neglect a bar had formed, until, where men-of-war used to float, bulrushes and palms were growing, and steamships had to lie two miles out in the open sea and load and unload by means of surf boats. A breakwater was commenced and extended into the sea for more than a thousand feet, and now the current of the river has so far cleared its own passage that light-draft sea-going vessels can enter the harbor of San Juan del Norte.

Work in clearing the canal line of forests was begun in January, 1890, and for a distance of ten miles back from the coast the clearing has the full width of 486 feet. The same work was commenced on the west side of Lake Nicaragua in the month of November, 1890, and for a distance of nine miles has been completed. To carry the machinery to the "eastern divide," the most difficult part of the work, a railway was begun in the summer of 1890. This runs for the first ten miles over a swamp, which is at times flooded from one foot to four feet deep. The ties were first laid on a corduroy of tree trunks, and then sand was dumped from ballast wagons, the two being gradually raised as the sand was packed between them. The canal line has been opened inland for 3,000 feet for a width of 280 feet and a depth of 17 feet. The company has expended $2,000,000 in the work of engineering and construction thus far, and has complied with its contract. The great difficulty is in securing a sufficient amount of capital to carry the enterprise to com

pletion. The recent panic in the Argentine Republic, the financial troubles in Brazil, and the revolution in Chile, have caused investors to be very conservative concerning South American enterprises. The government of the United States should construct this canal and take charge of it, in accordance with the principles of the Monroe doctrine.

The last Congress made steamship communication between the United States and parts of Central and South America possible, and the wisdom of its action is already apparent. In January, 1891, but fourteen steamers left our ports for the southern continent. In January, 1892, the number was thirty-three, and the shipyards along the Atlantic Coast are busy with the construction of vessels to perform contracts already entered into. In March, 1891, but three steamers left New York for Brazil. In March, 1892, under the impetus that the reciprocity treaty with that republic had created, thirteen steamers sailed, loaded with heavy cargoes.

That the government may do much to increase the trade of its people by legislative and executive acts is not only demonstrated by the commercial history of England, Germany, and France, but with equal force by the statistics of our own exports to the Latin American countries since the movement to seek markets in their direction began. In 1860, our exports to Latin America were $45,000,000, and they varied from that amount to $63,000,000, until 1885, when, under the instructions of President Arthur, a commission was sent to Central and South America to report upon the best modes of promoting trade. This commission returned to the United States, published its reports, and began an agitation that directed the attention of the people of the country to markets which they had previously regarded with indifference. The result of this agitation is found in the reports of the Bureau of Statistics.

In 1885, the exports from the United States to those countries amounted to $62,000,000; in 1887, to $68,000,000; in 1891, to $91,000,000; and these figures do not include the enormous overland traffic with Mexico since the