highest concern to
the United States that this canal, connecting the waters of
the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, and giving to us a short
water communication between our ports upon those two great
seas, should be speedily constructed, and at the smallest
practical limit of cost. The gain in freights to the people
and the direct saving to the government of the United
States in the use of its naval vessels would pay the entire
cost of the work within a short series of years. The report
of the Secretary of the Navy shows the saving in our naval
expenditures which would result. The Senator from Alabama,
Mr. Morgan, in his argument upon this subject before the
Senate of the last session, did not overestimate the
importance of the work when he said that 'The canal is the
most important subject now connected with the commercial
growth and progress of the United States.'"

And in his message of 1892 that:

"It is impossible to overestimate the value from every
standpoint of this great enterprise, and I hope that there
will be time, even in this Congress, to give it an impetus
that will insure the early completion of the canal and
secure to the United States its proper relation to it when
completed."

It is sincerely to be hoped that the people of the United States can be
convinced of the advisability of extending government aid to this
enterprise. It must be admitted that the experience of our government
with the Pacific railroads has created a strong prejudice among the
masses against such subsidies as were granted to those corporations, but
it is probable, with the people on the alert, that Congress would not
again permit great impositions to be practiced against the government.
When the great advantages to be derived by the people of the United
States from the use of this canal and the small outlay required are
considered, it would seem to be a wise policy for our government at once
to take such steps as are necessary to secure the early completion and
the future control of this great international highway.

CHAPTER II.

THE HISTORY OF RAILROADS.

In making inquiry into those inventions and improvements which were the
precursors of the modern railroad, we meet early the desire to render
the movement of wagons easier by a smooth roadway. Traces of this may be
found even in ancient times