Transcriber's Note
Italic font is indicated by _underscores_.
Bold text is indicated by +plus signs+.
Superscripted letters are indicated by a preceding ^ sign.
_Panama to Patagonia_
[Illustration: A Mountain Bridge]
_Panama to Patagonia_
_The Isthmian Canal_
_And the West Coast Countries of
South America_
_By_
_Charles M. Pepper_
_Author of “Tomorrow in Cuba”_
_With Maps and Illustrations_
[Illustration]
_Chicago_
_A. C. McClurg & Co._
_1906_
Copyright
A. C. McClurg & Co.
1906
Entered at Stationers’ Hall
Published March 24, 1906
THE UNIVERSITY PRESS, CAMBRIDGE, U. S. A.
THIS BOOK IS AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED
to
+My Wife+
KITTIE ROSE PEPPER
and to
+My Daughter+
NORITA ROSE PEPPER
COMRADES IN MANY TRAVELS
PREFACE
My purpose in this work is to consider and describe the effect
of the Panama Canal on the West Coast countries of South America
from the year 1905. At this period its construction by the United
States may be said to have begun. If my own deep conviction that
this influence makes powerfully for their industrial development
and their political stability be an illusion, the pages which
follow may afford the disbelievers grounds for pointing out wrong
premises or false conclusions. “We doubt” long has been the dogma
of the North American and the European in everything relating to
the permanency of progress in the Spanish-American Republics. “I
believe” is yet only the creed of the individual. A huge material
fact obtruding itself may secure a listening ear from the doubters.
The Canal obtrudes.
The severely practical Northern mind finds itself in a brain-fog
with reference to the Southern Continent. Speculative reasoning
regarding new forces of civilization does not appeal to it. It wants
the concrete circumstances. Now the Canal is not an abstraction.
The industrial and commercial energies which it wakens are not
abstractions. The interoceanic waterway is a national undertaking,
but it shows the way to individual enterprise. More than the gates
of chance are opened to American youth. They are the gates of
opportunity. Consequently the need of knowledge.
The number of recent books relating to the history of South America
seems to indicate a demand for this knowledge in its primary form.
They open the path for a volume which may be limited more strictly
to industrial, fiscal, and political information. For that reason,
while not overlooking the historical element in the institutions and
governmental systems, I have not thought it necessary to consider
them chronologically from the colonial epoch or even from the era
of independence.
The effort to divorce economic and social forces from places and
peoples in order to analyze a principle usually is so barren
that I have not attempted it. Places have their significance,
and people are the human material. Customs and institutions are
only understood properly in their environment. So many excellent
descriptive works have been written about South America that I have
sought to subordinate these features; yet since the information
applies to localities something about them could not entirely be
omitted. Moreover, I have that abounding faith which leads me to
look forward to the time when the engineering marvels of the Canal
construction may prove enough of a magnet to draw thither the
travelled American who would know what his country is doing and
who, once on the Isthmus, will be likely to continue down the West
Coast with a view to determining the relative attractions of the
noble Andes and the Alps. Yet I have made no attempt to preserve
the form of continuous narrative. The treatment of the subject
does not demand it.
To South American friends who may be offended at the frankness or
the bluntness of the views expressed, a word may be communicated.
The confidences extended me while on an official mission widened
my own vision of the aspirations of their public men. At the same
time they conveyed the idea that the economic evolution to which
all look forward will come more swiftly if reactionary tendencies
are combated more openly and aggressively. Opinions on the policy
of the United States being uttered with freedom, I have not thought
it necessary to adopt the apologetic attitude in regard to other
Republics. In seeking the constructive elements in the national
life and character of the South American countries, it has been
with the undisguised hope that the contact and the impact of North
American character may be a reciprocal influence.
Acknowledgment of material for the general map, which amplifies
that of the permanent Pan-American Railway Committee, is due its
chairman, Hon. H. G. Davis, whose faith in the future relation of
the United States to the other American countries is an example to
the generation which will share the benefits both of the Canal and
of railroad construction.
C. M. P.
Washington, D. C.
January, 1906.
CONTENTS
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
CHAPTER II
TRAVEL HINTS
Adopting Local Customs--Value of the Spanish
Language--Knowledge of People Obtained through Their
Speech--English in Trade--Serviceable Clothing in
Different Climates--Moderation in Diet--Coffee at its True
Worth--Wines and Mineral Waters--Native Dishes--Tropical
Fruits--_Aguacate_ and _Cheremoya_ Palatal Luxuries--Hotels
and Hotel-keepers--Baggage Afloat and Ashore--Outfits for
the Andes: Food and Animals--West Coast Quarantines--Money
Mediums--The Common Maladies and How to Treat Them 21
CHAPTER III
THE ISTHMUS OF PANAMA
Canal Entrance--Colon in Architectural
Transformation--Unchanging Climate--Historic Waterway
Routes--Columbus and the Early Explorers--Darien
and San Blas--East and West Directions--Life along
the Railway--Chagres River and Culebra Cut--Three
Panamas--Pacific Mouth of the Canal--Functions of
the Republic--Natural Resources--Agriculture and
Timber--Road-building--United States Authority on the
Zone--Labor and Laborers--Misleading Comparisons with
Cuba--The First Year’s Experience 37
CHAPTER IV
A GLIMPSE OF ECUADOR
Tranquil Ship Life--Dissolving View of Panama Bay--The
Comforting Antarctic Current--Seeking Cotopaxi and
Chimborazo--Up the Guayas River--Activity in Guayaquil
Harbor--Old and New Town--Shipping via the Isthmus and
Cape Horn--Chocolate and Rubber Exports--Railway toward
Quito--A Charming Capital--Cuenca’s Industries--Cereals
in the Inter-Andine Region--Forest District--Minerals
in the South--Population--Galapagos Islands--Political
Equilibrium--National Finances 57
CHAPTER V
PERUVIAN SHORE TOWNS
Pizarro’s Landing-place at Tumbez--Last Sight of the
Green Coast--Paita’s Spacious Bay--Lively Harbor
Scenes--An Interesting and Sandy Town--Its Climatic
and Other Legends--Future Amazon Gateway--Sugar and
Rice Ports--Eten and Pacasmayo--Transcontinental
Trail--Cajamarca--Chimbote’s Naval Advantages--Supe’s
Attractions--Ancon’s Historic Treaty--Callao’s
Excellent Harbor--Importance of the Shipping--Customs
Collections--Pisco’s Varied Products--Rough Seas at
Mollendo--Bolivian and Peruvian Commerce for the Canal 73
CHAPTER VI
LIMA AND THE CORDILLERAS
Pleasing Historic Memories--Moorish Churches and Andalusian
Art--Pizarro’s Remains in the Cathedral--Transmitted
Incidents of the Earthquake--The Palace, or Government
Building--General Castilla’s Humor--Decay of the
Bull-fight--Cultured Society of the Capital--Foreign
Element--San Francisco Monastery--Municipal
Progress--Chamber of Commerce--A Trip up the Famous
Oroya Railway--Masterwork of Henry Meiggs--Heights and
Distances--Little Hell--The Great Galera Tunnel--Around
Oroya--Railroad to Cerro de Pasco Mines--American
Enterprise in the Heart of the Andes 89
CHAPTER VII
AREQUIPA AND LAKE TITICACA
Capital of Southern Peru--Through the Desert to the
Coast--Crescent Sand-hills--A Mirage--Down the
_Cañon_--Quilca as a Haven of Unrest--Arequipa
Again--Religious Institutions--Prevalence of
Indian Race--Wool and Other Industries--Harvard
Observatory--Railroading over Volcanic Ranges--Mountain
Sickness at High Crossing--Branch Line toward
Cuzco--Inambari Rubber Regions--Puno on the Lake Shore 109
CHAPTER VIII
THE REGIONS AND THEIR RESOURCES
Topography a Key to Economic Resources--Coast, Sierra,
and Montaña--Cotton in the Coast Zone--Piura’s High
Quality--Lima and Pisco Product--Prices--Increase
Probable--Sugar-cane as a Staple--Probability of
Growth--Rice as an Export and an Import--Irrigation
Prospects--Mines in the Sierra--Geographical Distribution
of the Deposits--Live-stock on the High Plains--Rubber
in the Forest Region--Iquitos on the Amazon a Smart
Port--Government Regulations for the Gum Industry 123
CHAPTER IX
WATERWAYS AND RAILWAYS
Importance of River System--Existing Lines of
Railroads--Pan-American Links--Lease of State Roads
to Peruvian Corporation of London--Unfulfilled
Stipulations--Law for Guaranty of Capital Invested in New
Enterprises--Routes from Amazon to the Pacific--National
Policy for Their Construction--Central Highway, Callao to
Iquitos--The Pichis--Railroad and Navigation--Surveys in
Northern Peru--Comparative Distances--Experiences with
First Projects--Future Building Contemporaneous with
Panama Canal 137
CHAPTER X
THE PEOPLE AND THEIR INCREASE
Density of Population in Time of the Incas--Three Million
Inhabitants Now Probable--Census of 1876--Interior
Country Not Sparsely Populated--Aboriginal Indian
Race and Mixed Blood--Fascinating History of the
Quichuas--Tribal Customs--Superstition--Negroes
and Chinese Coolies--Immigration Movements of the
Future--Wages--European Colonization--Cause of Chanchamayo
Valley Failure--Climatic and Other Conditions Favorable--An
Enthusiast’s Faith 151
CHAPTER XI
PERU’S GROWING STABILITY
Seeds of Revolution Running Out--Educated Classes Not the
Sole Conservative Force--President Candamo’s Peacemaking
Administration--Crisis Precipitated by his Death--Triumph
of Civil Party in the Choice of his Successor--President
Pardo’s Liberal and Progressive Policies--Growth in
Popular Institutions--Form of Peruvian Constitution
and Government--Attitude of the Church--Rights of
Foreigners--Sources of Revenue--Stubborn Adherence to
Gold Standard--Interoceanic Canal’s Aid in the National
Development 164
CHAPTER XII
ALONG COAST TO MAGELLAN STRAITS
Arica, the Emerald Gem of the West Coast--Memorable
Earthquake History--A Future Emporium of Commerce for
the Canal--Iquique the Nitrate Port--Value of the
Trade--Antofagasta’s Copper Exports--Caldera and the
Trans-Andine Railway to Argentina--Valparaiso’s Preëminence
among Pacific Ports--Extensive Shipping and Execrable
Harbor--Plans for Improvement--No Fear of Loss from the
Interoceanic Waterway--Coal and Copper at Lota--Concepcion
and Other Towns--Rough Passage into the Straits--Cape
Pillar--Punta Arenas, the Southernmost Town of the
World--Trade and Future 180
CHAPTER XIII
LIFE IN THE CHILEAN CAPITAL
Railway along Aconcagua River Valley--Project of Wheelright,
the Yankee--Santiago’s Craggy Height of Santa Lucia--A
Walk along the Alameda--Historic and Other Statues--The
Capital a Fanlike City--Public Edifices--Dwellings of
the Poor--Impression of the People at the Celebration
of Corpus Christi--Some Notes on the Climate--Habits
and Customs--“The Morning for Sleep”--Independence of
Chilean Women--Sunday for Society--Fondness for Athletic
Sports--Newspapers an Institution of the Country 201
CHAPTER XIV
NITRATE OF SODA AN ALADDIN’S LAMP
Extensive Use of Nitrates as Fertilizers--Enormous
Contributions to Chilean Revenues--_Résumé_ of
Exportations--Description of the Industry--How the
Deposits Lie--Iodine a By-product--Stock of Saltpetre in
Reserve--The Trust and Production--Estimates of Ultimate
Exhaustion--A Third of a Century More of Prosperous
Existence--Shipments Not Affected by Panama Canal--Copper
a Source of Wealth--Output in Northern Districts--Further
Development--Coal--Silver Mines Productive in the
Past--Prospect of Future Exploitation 217
CHAPTER XV
CHILE’S UNIQUE POLITICAL HISTORY
National Life a Growth--Anarchy after Independence--Presidents
Prieto, Bulnes, Montt, Perez--Constitution of 1833--Liberal
Modifications--The Governing Groups--Civil War under
President Balmaceda--His Tragic End--Triumph of his
Policies--Political System of To-day--Government by the
One Hundred Families--Relative Power of the Executive and
the Congress--Election Methods Illustrated--Ecclesiastical
Tendencies--Proposed Parliamentary Reforms--Ministerial
Crises--Party Control 232
CHAPTER XVI
PALPITATING SOCIAL QUESTIONS
Existence of the Roto Discovered--Mob Rule in
Valparaiso--Indian and Caucasian Race Mixture--Disquieting
Social Phenomena--Grievances against the
Church--Transition to the Proletariat--Lack of Army and
Navy Opportunity--Not Unthrifty as a Class--Showings of
Santiago Savings Bank--Excessive Mortality--Need of State
Sanitation--Discussion of Economic Relation--Changes in
National Tendencies--Industrial Policies to Placate the
Roto 248
CHAPTER XVII
CHILE’S INDUSTRIAL FUTURE
Agricultural Possibilities of the Central Valley--Its
Extent--Wheat for Export--Timber Lands of the South--Wool
in the Magellan Territory--Grape Culture--Mills
and Factories--Public Works Policy--Longitudinal
and Other Railway Lines--Drawbacks in Government
Ownership--Trans-Andine Road--Higher Levels of Foreign
Commerce--Development of Shipping--Population--Experiments
in Colonization--Internal and External Debt--Gold
Redemption Fund--Final Word about the Nitrates 262
CHAPTER XVIII
WAYFARING IN BOLIVIA--THE ROYAL ANDES
Old Spanish Trail from Argentina--Customs Outpost at
Majo--Sublime Mountain View--Primitive Native
Life--Sunbeaten Limestone Hills--Vale of Santa
Rosa--Tupiza’s People and Their Pursuits--Ladies’
Fashions among the Indian Women--Across the Chichas
Cordilleras--Barren Vegetation--Experience with Siroche,
or Mountain Sickness--Personal Discomforts--Hard
Riding--Portugalete Pass--Alpacas and Llamas--Sierra of
San Vicente--Uyuni a Dark Ribbon on a White Plain--Mine
Enthusiasts--Foreign Consulates 278
CHAPTER XIX
WAYFARING IN BOLIVIA--THE CENTRAL PLATEAU
A Hill-broken Table-land--By Rail along the
Cordillera of the Friars--Challapata and Lake
Poöpo--Smelters--Spanish Ear-marks in Oruro--By Stage
to La Paz--Fellow-passengers--Misadventures--Indian
Tombs at Caracollo--Sicasica a High-up Town, 14,000
Feet--Meeting-place of Quichuas and Aymarás--First Sight
of the Famed Illimani Peaks--Characteristics of the Indian
Life--Responsibility of the Priesthood--Position of the
Women--Panorama of La Paz from the Heights--The Capital
in Fact--Cosmopolitan Society 297
CHAPTER XX
THE MEXICO OF SOUTH AMERICA
Depression and Revival of Mining Industry--Bolivia’s Tin
Deposits and Their Extension--Oruro, Chorolque, Potosi,
and La Paz Districts--Silver Regions--Potosi’s Output
through the Centuries--Pulacayo’s Record--Mines at
Great Heights--Trend of the Copper Veins--Corocoro a
Lake Superior Region--Three Gold Districts--Bismuth
and Borax--Bituminous Coal and Petroleum--Tropical
Agriculture--Some Rubber Forests Left--Coffee for
Export--Coca and Quinine--Cotton 313
CHAPTER XXI
BOLIVIAN NATIONAL POLICY
Panama Canal as Outlet for Mid-continent Country--Railways for
Internal Development--Intercontinental Backbone--Proposed
Network of Lines--Use Made of Brazilian Indemnity--Chilean
Construction from Arica--Human Material for National
Development--Census of 1900--Aymará Race--Wise
Governmental Handling of Indian Problems--Immigration
Measures--Climatic Variations--Political Stability--General
Pando’s Labors--Status of Foreigners--Revenues and
Trade--Commercial Significance of Treaty with Chile--Gold
Legislation--A Canal View 331
CHAPTER XXII
NEW BASIS OF THE MONROE DOCTRINE
John Quincy Adams’ Advice--Canning’s Trade Statesmanship--Lack
of Industrial and Commercial Element--Excess of
Benevolent Impulse--Forgotten Chapters of the Doctrine’s
History--The Ecuador Episode--President Roosevelt’s
Interpretation--Diplomatic Declarations--Spectres of
Territorial Absorption--Change Caused by Cuba--Progress
of South American Countries--European Attitude on
Economic Value of Latin America--German and English
Methods--Proximity of Markets to United States Trade
Centres--Conclusion 351
APPENDIX--Hydrographic Tables of Distances 373
INDEX 379
TABLES 399
ILLUSTRATIONS
Page
A Mountain Bridge _Frontispiece_
Scene on the Chagres River 10
Swamp Section of the Canal 10
The Atlantic Entrance to the Canal 10
Abandoned Machinery--Two Views 18
Pineapple Garden 28
Banana Grove 28
The De Lesseps House, Colon 44
Caribbean Cocoa Palms 44
Panama Natives from the Swamp Country 50
Panama Natives from the Mountains 50
Ruins at Panama--Two Views 54
The Waterfront at Guayaquil 60
The Wharf at Duran 60
Weed-killer Plant, Guayaquil and Quito Railway 64
Railway Spraying Cart 64
Cacao Trees 70
View of Mollendo Harbor and Railway Yards 86
Interior of Cathedral, Lima 92
Church of San Francisco, Lima 94
Church of San Augustin, Lima 94
Scene on the Oroya Railway, Chicla Station 98
Scene on the Oroya Railway, San Bartolomew Switchback
and Grade 102
Pyramid of Junin 106
Independence Monument, Lima 106
View of Arequipa and the Crater of El Misti 114
Ruins of an Inca Fortress at Cuzco 120
A Farmhouse in the Forest Region 130
View of Oroya, the Inter-Andine Crossroads 142
Group of Peruvian _Cholos_ 154
Portrait of José Pardo, President of Peru 170
View of Arica 182
Scene in the Harbor of Valparaiso, showing the Arturo
Prat Statue 190
View of Talcahuano 194
Scenes at the Straits of Magellan; Cape Pillar, the
Evangelist Islands, and Cape Froward 198
Scene on the Aconcagua River 202
View of Los Andes 210
The Roman Aqueduct on Santa Lucia, Santiago 214
Group of Araucanian Indian Women 250
“Christ of the Andes” 270
Sandstone Pillars near Tupiza 286
Bolivian Indian Women Weaving 292
Aymará Indian Woman and Child 292
Scene in the Plaza at Oruro 302
Ancient Tombs at Caracollo 302
Primitive Methods of Tin-crushing 302
A Drove of Llamas on the Pampa 306
View of the Cathedral, La Paz 310
Gathering Coca Leaves in the Yungas--Two Views 328
Portrait of Ismael Montes, President of Bolivia 344
MAPS
Page
I. The United States and other American Countries--Transportation
Routes 2
II. General Plan of the Panama Canal 38
III. Peruvian Waterways and Railways 138
IV. Bolivian Railway Routes 334
PANAMA TO PATAGONIA
CHAPTER I
ECONOMIC EFFECT OF THE CANAL
_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._
The effect of the Panama Canal on the West Coast industrial
development and the reciprocal influence of this South American
progress on the waterway are economic facts. The citizen of the
United States who would know the subject in a wider range than the
mere gratification of his patriotic impulses and his national pride,
should turn to the study of commercial geography, the potential
political economy of unexploited natural resources. The European
statesman, jealously watchful of trade conditions in the New World
and the causes which modify them, will follow these channels without
suggestion.
Whether the digging of the Canal take ten, fifteen, or twenty years,
does not affect its industrial value. The Spanish-American, with
his inherited inertia and his lack of initiative, in waiting for
to-morrow would be content if the work consumed half a century. What
Humboldt prophesied of the Southern Continent as the seat of future
civilization, what Agassiz predicted of the Andean and the Amazon
populations, he is sure now will be realized. He even reverts to
his favorite method of comparing the square miles of Belgium with
the square miles of his own South American country, whichever one
it may be, and exhibits the latter’s possibilities for the human
race by explaining the number of people it can sustain when it
shall have as many inhabitants to the square mile as has Belgium.
Yet while he believes that the destiny of the Southern Continent
is at the threshold of realization, Yankee impatience only would
amuse him. Since the interoceanic waterway and all its benefits are
to be, what matter a few years? Time, says the Castilian proverb,
is the element. This philosophic Latin view may serve as a curb to
fault-finding if the construction work on the Canal seems to halt
while the engineering obstacles are studied and experiments are
made in order to determine the best means to overcome them.
But though the Spanish-American, who is of the race that controls
the West Coast countries of South America, is patient in his waiting
for ultimate results, he does not fail to grasp the immediate
effect. All the processes of the economic evolution unroll before
his mental vision. For Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Chile, and Bolivia,
the standard already has been set, and the goal towards which
they must work has been fixed. Their national policies and their
commercial and industrial growth at once come under the stimulus
of the waterway. “The Panama Canal,” said the leader of public
thought in one of the Republics, “will precipitate our commercial
evolution.” It is the spring from which will gush the streams of
immigration.
[Illustration:
MAP
OF
THE UNITED STATES
AND
OTHER AMERICAN COUNTRIES
SHOWING THE CHIEF OCEAN AND RAIL
TRANSPORTATION ROUTES
1906
]
In the present volume I shall have little to say of Colombia, for
though the Isthmus of Panama is the reception-room of that country,
the Canal is to be considered jointly with relation to the Caribbean
and the Pacific shores. I include Bolivia because, while as a
political division it is not ocean-bordering, geographically it is
a Pacific coast country on account of its outlet through Chilean
and Peruvian seaports.
Population in South America is not marked by periods of phenomenal
increase. Henry Clay, in his generous pleas for the recognition of
the struggling Republics, was led in the warmth of his imagination
to foresee the day when they would have 72,000,000 and we would
have 40,000,000 inhabitants. The population of the United States
was then less than 10,000,000. Clay spoke when the resources of the
Louisiana Purchase were still distrusted by many conservative public
men, and long before Daniel Webster had delivered his celebrated
philippic against the Oregon region as a worthless area of deserts
and shifting sands. Mindful of the slow growth in the Southern
Hemisphere, I make no predictions of sudden leaps, but merely seek
to indicate what proportion of the present and future inhabitants
comes within the sphere of the Canal.
The population of western Colombia and of Ecuador, Peru, Chile, and
Bolivia is approximately 11,000,000, dwelling chiefly along the
seacoast. It has been assumed that only this long slope of almost
continuous mountain wall from Panama to Patagonia is subject to the
direct influence of the Canal, and that the barrier of the Andes
makes all the rest of the South American continent dependent on
Atlantic outlets. The assumption is presumptuous. It is based on
an unflattering lack of geographical knowledge and on a complete
ignorance of political and economic conditions.
The primary mistake is in considering the Coast Cordilleras as the
principal chain. The great rampart of the Andes in places is hundreds
of miles across. Productive plains and fertile valleys lie on the
western side of the Continental Divide as well as on the Atlantic
slope. Besides, there are many bifurcations of these lofty ranges
which must be pierced toward the Pacific. The mineral belt with
its incalculable wealth, after centuries only partially exploited,
has its basis of profitable production and export by means of the
water transport of the Pacific. And greatest of all the facts is
the certainty that railways will bore through the granite ramparts
in a westerly direction. The central spine or backbone of the
Intercontinental or Pan-American trunk line is not all a dream, and
from its links spurs will shoot out toward the Pacific. It would
have been as reasonable to imagine that the Rocky Mountains could
forever shut in the region between them and the Sierra Nevadas,
barring all outlet to the Atlantic and the Gulf of Mexico, as to
suppose that the Pacific Ocean from Panama south is everlastingly
restricted to the fringe of coast for its commerce. This is in the
industrial sense and aside from the reasons of national polity which
by railway enterprises on the part of the various governments are
causing the Andes to disappear.
The grain fields and pastures of Argentina lie close to the Pacific.
How close? Within less than 200 miles. The pampas of the western
and northwestern provinces are from 500 to 1,200 miles distant from
the Atlantic seaboard. The pressure of the agricultural population
is westward. A generation--perhaps a decade--will bring it to the
slopes of the Andes. The first railway to join the Atlantic and the
Pacific, that from Buenos Ayres to Valparaiso, will be completed by
means of a spiral tunnel long before vessels are propelled through
the Canal.
But Valparaiso is far south, so far that, in the opinion of some
authorities, it is the limit of the Canal radius. Let this be
granted momentarily while the map is scanned. Place the thumb on
the Chilean port of Caldera, 400 miles north of Valparaiso; the
index finger on Tucuman, and the middle finger on Cordoba. The
lines forking from these Argentine cities forecast the next chapter
of railway expansion. Let it be known also that Nature, in kindly
mood, has formed a saddle in the mountain range in this section,
and that engineering surveys of routes through the depression are
the basis of projects which only await a larger agricultural area
under cultivation in order to become railway enterprises with an
assured commercial basis. Both Cordoba and Tucuman will be in rail
communication with the Pacific coast some years before the waterway
is finished. Nor are these the only trans-Andine lines in prospect.
They serve the purposes of illustration, so that a description of
the others may be omitted. I cite the first two in order that it
may be known there is an Argentine relation to the Canal, and a
highly important one as to population and as to the exports and
imports which are the foundation of maritime and rail traffic.
If this suggestion is new and strange, I follow it by a more
startling proposition. As one result of the Panama Canal, a measure
of Amazonian commerce will flow to and from the Pacific.
To begin with, there is the nearness. By several trans-Andine routes
the navigable affluents of the Amazon are less than 300 miles from
the coast. Steamships of 800 tons navigate as far as Yurimaguas on
the Huallaga River, which was the historic route of the Spaniards
over the Continental Divide. Steam vessels also go up the Marañon
from Iquitos, 425 miles to the Falls of Manserriche, which by several
practicable railway routes are within less than 400 miles of the
Bay of Paita. Minor Peruvian ports below Paita are able to offset
its shipping advantages by shorter trails. Not more than 225 miles
of difficult railway construction are necessary to open to a large
section of the vast Amazon region the commerce of Callao, Peru’s
chief port.
In relation to the Amazon as a feeder, it has to be recognized
that the Andes form a greater obstacle than in Argentina, and that
the river basins will be populated much more slowly and never so
densely as the Argentine pampas and sierras. But the mighty stream
is within the sphere of the Canal, as I shall have occasion to
explain more fully in subsequent chapters. For the present purpose
a single illustration, perhaps fanciful, will answer.
It may seem a far cry from the 200,000 telephones used by the
farmers of Indiana, the trolleys which tangle their way through
that State, and the automobiles and bicycles which traverse the
country roads, to the gum forests of South America. But the world’s
hunger for crude rubber is a growing one. Bicycles, the infinite
variety of motors, electric lighting, and telephones, all demand
more of this article; and the 55,000 tons, which was substantially
the world’s production in 1905, is insufficient for future needs.
This increasing demand will stimulate the rubber production of an
extensive region in northeastern Peru, and Peru has imperative
reasons of national policy for wanting to turn that traffic down her
own rivers, and across and over the Andes to the Pacific, instead
of letting it flow out through Brazilian territory. Iquitos, the
centre of this commerce, is 2,300 miles up the Amazon from Para,
and Para is 3,000 miles from New York, a total of 5,300 miles by
the all-water route. By river and future rail Iquitos is, at the
furthest, 800 miles from Paita, and Paita, via Panama, is a little
short of 3,100 miles from New York; so that the total distance is
less than 4,000 miles. New Orleans by the isthmian route is within
3,300 miles of the Peruvian rubber metropolis.
Instead of the Pacific commerce being limited to the seashore strip
after the Panama Canal is dug, the view which receives attention
in South America is the probable influence of the waterway in
diverting traffic from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Trade may not
be turned upstream, and commerce is slow to leave established lines
of transportation, but trade-waves are not so fixed as isothermal
lines. They may show variations until the current finds its natural
course to the newer markets created.
I do not mean from this to infer that the aggregate commerce of
the Atlantic coast countries of South America will be lessened by
the Panama Canal. Tropical Brazil, for an indefinite period, will
continue to supply the bulk of the coffee consumed, and the maritime
movement will follow the existing courses of navigation. Temperate
Brazil, the Argentine Republic, and Uruguay will develop as the
granary and the grazing-ground of the world in proportion as the
United States consumes its own wheat and beef. Their exports increase
with the widening of the market for these staple products. Political
economists and crop statisticians have been slow to perceive that
the extension of the area of agricultural cultivation and the
growth of population in this great cereal region depend more on the
ability of Europe to take the surplus grain, beef, and mutton than
on the demands for home consumption. Public men, especially in the
Argentine Republic, in their measures for encouraging immigration
also have neglected to take into account this overshadowing economic
factor. But it explains why during certain periods immigration
has been almost stationary, while at other periods the incoming
of settlers for the field and farm has been a rushing one. As a
natural balance, therefore, for the diversion of traffic to the
Pacific coast through the agency of the artificial waterway, the
Atlantic slope has the certainty of steadily growing exports of
agricultural products.
As regards Argentina, the coming railways to the Pacific, of which
I have made mention, mean that a quantity of the cereals, wool,
and hides will find their outlet by these routes; and a larger
volume of the exchange for them--farm tools, cottons and woollens,
mineral oils, and miscellaneous merchandise--will obtain the
cheaper and shorter transit through the Canal and down the West
Coast. Thus, without damage to the Atlantic commerce, the Pacific
coast traffic will form a larger proportion in the total of South
American commerce than in the past. This is especially true with
reference to the United States. The trade-wave north and south may
be accounted one of the phenomena of international intercourse. It
is not tidal, but a brief comparison shows its growing volume. In
1894 Argentina took from the United States goods to the value of
$4,863,000, and sent in return products worth $3,497,000. In 1904
the exports were $10,751,000, and the imports $20,702,000, and in
the following year they were increasing.
The commercial relation of the West Coast countries may better be
exhibited by tabulation in the following form:
+---------+-----------------------------+---------------------------+
| | Exports to United States[1] |Imports from United States |
+---------+------------+----------------+-------------+-------------+
| | =1894= | =1904= | =1894= | =1904= |
+---------+------------+----------------+-------------+-------------+
| Chile |$3,536,000 |$10,685,000 | $2,272,000 | $4,880,000 |
| Peru | 491,000 | 3,008,000 | 591,000 | 3,961,000 |
| Ecuador| 816,000 | 2,347,000 | 761,000 | 1,354,000 |
+---------+------------+----------------+-------------+-------------+
| Total |$4,843,000 |$16,040,000 | $3,624,000 |$10,195,000 |
+---------+------------+----------------+-------------+-------------+
| 1 See _Foreign Commerce of the United States, Annual Review, |
| 1904_. |
+-------------------------------------------------------------------+
Here, within the extremes of the eleven years, is an increase in
the foreign commerce between the West Coast countries named and the
United States from $8,467,000 to $26,235,000 as measured by the
annual volume. The growth continued in the subsequent twelvemonth.
It is a forcible illustration of the north and south trade-wave
movement. Under the further stimulus of the Canal for industrial
development and commercial growth the contribution to traffic for
the waterway will be not inconsiderable.
[Illustration: Swamp Section of the Canal--The Atlantic Entrance
to the Canal--Scene on the Chagres River]
An analysis of the West Coast foreign commerce for a given year
shows it to have exceeded $211,000,000, with a rising tendency. The
intercoast trade, which is included under the foreign head, may be
placed at $11,000,000 to $12,000,000. There is left, therefore,
approximately $200,000,000 of international traffic for Europe and
the United States.
If the international traffic were to remain stationary, the amount
that would be diverted from the Cape Horn or the Magellan route
through the Canal would be important, but the overshadowing element
in the waterway as an economic factor is the certainty of an
increase in the foreign trade. The marked feature of the West Coast
countries in recent years is the growth in consumptive capacity as
shown by the imports, for the increase in population has not been
large. Oriental trade may be diverted from other channels through
the Canal, but western South American commerce may look for growth
in volume on account of internal development of the countries which
are tributary to it. In this view it may be doubted whether the
estimate that 75 per cent of the Canal traffic will be between ports
north of the same parallels of latitude will prove correct. The
north and south trade-waves may be watched for an indication of
the proportion of waterway freight that will go south, keeping in
mind that New York is almost on a direct line north of the western
South American ports.
These West Coast markets may be studied with reference to the
shortening of distance. We may take the fact that from Colon to New
York is 1,981 miles, and from Colon to New Orleans 1,380 miles; add
the 48 miles of future waterway and then make our comparisons of
the ports along the coast--Guayaquil, Callao, Valparaiso--with the
distance through the Straits of Magellan or around Cape Horn. We
also may figure on the national policy of the United States, which
will not be to treat the Canal as strictly a commercial proposition.
The fixing of the toll rates is not near enough to furnish the
basis of definite calculation any more than is the possibility of
estimating the total prospective tonnage each year, though the
guesses have ranged from 300,000 to 10,500,000 tons.
The steamers which ply between New York, Hamburg, or Liverpool and
the Pacific coast ports vary from 3,000 to 6,500 tons. That hardly
may be taken as the measure of carrying capacity of the major part
of the vessels which will pass through the Canal, but on such a
basis the estimate may be made of the saving in coal consumption,
and the radius within which it will be cheaper to use the Canal
than to double Cape Horn or thread the difficult and dangerous
passage through the Straits. For New Orleans, Mobile, and the other
Gulf ports, the element of distance is not comparative, because
heretofore no direct maritime movement between them and the West
Coast of South America has been maintained. With the waterway once
open the whole Mississippi Valley becomes the beneficiary. Nor does
the talk of carrying coal and other cargoes from Pittsburg through
Panama to Patagonia without breaking bulk appear fantastic.
Variations in the steamers’ courses are responsible for the
differences in the tables of distances usually given, but they
are not important.[1] The relation in nautical miles of the chief
shipping-ports on the West Coast to trade centres may be set forth
as follows:
Miles
New York to Colon 1,981
Colon to Panama 48
Panama to Guayaquil 835
“ “ Paita 1,052
“ “ Callao 1,569
“ “ Mollendo 1,928
“ “ Arica 2,161
“ “ Iquique 2,267
“ “ Antofagasta 2,418
“ “ Valparaiso 3,076
1 See Appendix for tables of the Hydrographic Office of the United
States Navy.
This brings Valparaiso within 5,100 miles of New York by way of
Panama; but with the omission of all the intervening ports except
Iquique, Callao, and Guayaquil, it would be less than 5,000 miles.
By way of the Straits the distance from Valparaiso is usually
accounted 9,000 miles, touching at Montevideo and the Brazilian
ports. When the Straits are avoided and Cape Horn is doubled, from
the Cape to Pernambuco is 3,468 miles, and from Pernambuco to New
York 3,696 miles. Either by the Straits or around the Cape the
total is almost twice the distance via Panama.
Colon is 4,720 miles from Liverpool, and the relative advantages of
the West Coast ports between Valparaiso and Panama may be calculated
in the proportion of their respective distances. From Valparaiso
to Liverpool via Panama is 7,600 to 7,800 miles according to the
vessel’s schedule of wayports on the Pacific. From Valparaiso to
Liverpool, through the Straits of Magellan, is 9,800 miles, touching
at the Falkland Islands, and about 300 miles shorter by omitting
them.
For Hamburg the saving in distance by the isthmian route may be
placed at 2,400 miles. Proceeding north from Valparaiso, the loss by
Cape Horn is in inverse proportion. Fifteen hundred miles north of
Valparaiso is the central Peruvian port of Callao, which therefore
has 3,000 miles’ gain in distance by Panama to Hamburg instead of
by Cape Horn.
I have given these general figures before reciting details on the
maritime commerce of the various countries. They show how the
economic value of the Canal to them is primarily a question of
subtraction,--the difference between the coal needed on the longer
sea voyage and the Canal tolls. But the question of the return cargo
also enters into the calculation and is distinctly in favor of the
waterway, as is also that of the duration of maritime insurance.
No statistics are available which show the commerce of the western
departments of Colombia; and the unsettled state of that country
for years past gives no index of what its potential traffic may be.
But the valley of Cauca in its variety of agricultural and mineral
resources is a kingdom in itself. It is a future commercial feeder
to the Canal.
The foreign trade of Ecuador amounted in the latest available year to
$19,000,000.[2] Substantially all of it constitutes what might be
called light freight, and a part of it now goes across the Isthmus
by transshipment. Yet the portion which follows the longer route
around Cape Horn or through the Straits is not small. The traffic
flows through Guayaquil as in a single stream. Guayaquil, by way
of Panama, is 2,864 miles from New York and 2,263 miles from New
Orleans; by the Cape Horn route it is 11,470 miles to New York.
The entire foreign commerce of Ecuador in the future is for the
Panama Canal, except the excess which follows up the coast to San
Francisco and beyond.
2 Statistics obtained by New York Chamber of Commerce for 1904.
The foreign commerce of Peru may be placed above $40,000,000
annually.[3] The bulk of the traffic is now via the Straits of
Magellan and Cape Horn. From Callao to New York, by way of Cape
Horn, is 10,700 miles. By way of Panama it is 3,600 miles, only a
little longer than from New York to San Francisco or from New York
to Mexico City by the transcontinental railroad lines. In reference
to Peru, it also is to be noted that the heaviest exports are from
the ports north of Callao. Sugar is the largest marine freight in
quantity, and this comes from Salaverry and other ports fully 500
miles north. Much of this raw sugar is now carried around Cape
Horn, though some of it is left at the Chilean ports to be refined
for the West Coast consumption. When the Canal is opened, with the
exception of this Chilean traffic, all the raw sugar of Peru will
be shipped through it to New Orleans, New York, or Liverpool.
3 Estimated on the basis of the calendar year 1904, when the total
was $41,000,000, according to the report of the British Consul
General.
Through the port of Mollendo, 360 miles south of Callao, come the
ores, the metals, and the wools, both of southern Peru and of
Bolivia. Some of the minerals may continue their course around the
Horn, and also the guano which Peru in the future may export, but
not all of these cargoes will find the longer route cheaper. All the
wools will take the shorter route. Some wool is sent up the coast
and transshipped across the Isthmus by the railways. This method
is also followed in the shipment to Liverpool of some of the raw
cotton raised in southern Peru. The whole of this light freight is
traffic for the interoceanic waterway.
Bolivian commerce finds its outlet and inlet, chiefly through
Chilean and Peruvian seaports, to the amount of $18,000,000 a year.
Small as this is, the bulk of it follows the Cape Horn and Magellan
routes, though some of the European merchandise is imported on the
Atlantic slope through Argentina. The silver and copper ores are
transported principally through the port of Antofagasta, which is
650 miles north of Valparaiso. For the mineral freights, Canal tolls
may neutralize the advantage of the shortened distance via Panama to
Liverpool, or may not compensate for the lessened coal consumption.
But whether they do or not, the general merchandise from England
and from Germany, not being bulky, will have the shorter course and
probably the cheaper one on the return voyage through the Canal.
But Antofagasta, though of growing importance, is not likely to be
indefinitely the chief port of export for Bolivia. The building of
a railway from the great central plateau to Arica makes it certain
that the copper output of Bolivia, much of the tin, and part of the
silver product in time will be shipped through that port, while
it will be a natural inlet for imported merchandise. Arica is so
close to Mollendo--only 233 miles--that with regard to distances it
may be considered on the same basis. The mineral and other internal
developments, which are to fix the industrial status of Bolivia and
which I shall have occasion to discuss in subsequent chapters, have
a very direct relation to the facilities that will be afforded by
the isthmian waterway.
Formerly it was thought that Chile would be seriously harmed by the
Panama Canal. In the commercial sense this supposition does not
bear scrutiny. Chile’s foreign trade is approximately $130,000,000
annually, with a tendency to reach $150,000,000. By far the heaviest
proportion of this commerce is the shipments of the nitrates of soda
or saltpetre fertilizers. Iquique is the principal shipping-point.
The sailing-ships are the cheapest carriers for these bulky cargoes,
and tolls based on tonnage may make it unprofitable to transport a
large portion of them through the interoceanic channel. There is
also the other consideration that the vessels which bring coal to
the Chilean ports from Australia and from Newcastle secure their
return cargoes of nitrates. These fertilizers being a natural
monopoly, Chile will have the benefit of the industry, and the
Panama Canal in no way can lessen this traffic. In its permanent
effect the waterway can have little influence on the nitrates,
because the deposits will be worked out not many years after its
completion. Within a third of a century, or forty years at the
furthest, the exhaustion of the saltpetre beds will have begun, and
the cargoes of fertilizers will be lessening before that time.[4]
In any aspect of the broad future of the Canal and its effect on
the West Coast, the nitrates of Chile need not be considered as an
influencing factor.
4 See Chapter XIV, Nitrate of Soda.
But it may be said that until the interoceanic canal is actually open
these subjects are too remote to call for immediate consideration.
This view does not hold when analysis is made of the swift
recognition of its effect by South American countries. There are
present-day influences which are clear enough to be taken into
account.
For the entire West Coast there is at once a beneficial result in
having the Canal an enterprise of the United States government. This
is the equal treatment which must be accorded all the steamship
companies in transshipping freight over the Panama Railway. The line
was operated in the interest of the transcontinental railroads to
prevent competition. Under this arrangement little regard was shown
for the traffic from the coast south of Panama. The result of the
control of the isthmian railway line by the transcontinental roads
was against encouraging the steamship lines to seek to increase
their freight between Valparaiso and the intervening ports to
Panama for transshipment, because the Panama Railway exacted what
it pleased.[5] With the stock of the company vested in the United
States, hereafter all traffic agreements must be made on the basis
of equality. This is a very important factor in the tendency of the
West Coast countries to mould their national policies for industrial
development and commercial expansion. It enables them to enjoy some
of the benefits of the Canal without waiting for its completion.
It means more shipping from the year 1906 on.
5 In the memorial presented in 1905 to the United States government
by the diplomatic representatives of various South American
Republics, asking for fair treatment in Panama railroad rates,
these statements were made:
It may be calculated that the most distant ports of our respective
Republics are from New York, 4,500 miles, via Panama. From those
same ports to New York there is a distance of over 11,000 miles,
via Magellan; and, nevertheless, the transportation by this last
route and the transportation by steamer from our ports to Europe,
are on an average from 25 to 30 per cent cheaper than our commerce
with New York via Panama.
The Peruvian sugar pays, by the Isthmus, 30 shillings sterling a
ton, and 23 shillings sterling a ton via Magellan.
The cacao of Guayaquil, via Panama, pays to Europe from 52 to 58
shillings a ton, and to New York 65 to 68 shillings a ton.
From Hamburg shipments of rice from India are constantly being made
to Ecuador, via Panama, at the rate of from 30 to 33 shillings
sterling per ton of 2,240 pounds, or, say, from $7.50 to $8 per ton;
while the same article from New York pays at the rate of $0.60 per
100 pounds, or, say, $13.20 per ton,--an overcharge of almost 75
per cent. Twelve coal-oil stoves, which in New York, free-on-board,
cost from $45 to $48, pay on the coast of Ecuador and of Peru 30
and 37½ cents, respectively, per cubic foot, or, say, $19.20 to
$21, which represents 42.66 per cent upon the cost price. The same
article bought in Germany would pay a freight of from $6.40 to
$6.75.
An international good also comes from the presence of the United
States on the Isthmus in the capacity of a sanitary authority. It
will not be hampered, as at home, by state quarantine systems. The
example of what it is doing at Panama will be of immense benefit to
all the ports south to Valparaiso. Its resources and its assistance
will be at the disposal of the various governments which may seek
its aid. With them power is centralized, and they will be able to
coöperate effectually. The International Sanitary Bureau, with
headquarters in Washington, for which provision was made by the
Pan-American Conference held in Mexico, may become a vital
force through this means. Epidemics and plagues, of which the most
malignant is the yellow fever, may never be entirely wiped out,
but that their area can be restricted and their ravages infinitely
lessened will be demonstrated by a few years’ experience. Commerce
will be immensely the gainer, and the trade of the West Coast may
look for a steady and natural growth in proportion as the epidemic
diseases of the seaports are controlled.
[Illustration: Abandoned Machinery]
The influence of the gold standard of Panama will be helpful to
commerce, though it will not in itself cause the several Republics
which are on a silver or a paper basis to change to gold. But
they will be benefited by being neighbors to financial stability.
Uniformity of exchange will be promoted, and the inconveniences
of travellers will be lessened. The fact that the currency of the
United States is legal tender in the Panama Republic will help
merchants and shippers at home, who heretofore have had to make their
transactions entirely on the basis of the English pound sterling
or the French franc.
In an outline of the general subject some attention should be
paid to the inevitable overflow of energy and capital after they
once become engaged in building the waterway and in supplementary
projects. No one who understands the constructive American character
doubts that the capitalists and contractors enlisted in the work
will fare forth to seek other fields. It happens that coincident
with the beginning of the Canal construction by the United States,
the West Coast countries are entering upon definite policies of
harbor and municipal improvements and other forms of public works,
including railway building. There is also the new era of the mines.
The industrial impulse is one of the immediate economic effects
of the Canal. It appeals to the American spirit. It will find a
quickening response. In subsequent chapters I therefore venture to
indicate its field of activity, with such suggestions as may be of
practical worth.