When questioned as to his objections to the Industrial Report, the
President said that "if it had been accepted the independence of the
Republic would have been lost." Provided certain obstacles were
removed, he was in favour of taking over the railway. The profits of
the railway were divided at the rate of five per cent, to the Company,
ten per cent, to the shareholders, and eighty-five per cent, to the
State. The shareholders, according to him, were not the Netherlands
Company. As regards dynamite, it was the corner-stone of the State's
independence.