stock of the United States in the canal company must be a very valuable dividend-yielding property. The only fair standard of comparison that can be referred to as proof of the income of the Nicaragua Canal is found in the cost and income of the Suez Canal.

The increasing commerce of the Pacific Ocean, and especially of our coastwise trade, will doubtless greatly enhance the income of the Nicaraguan Canal as compared with that of the Suez Canal; but taking the present situation as the basis of computation, we find that the operations of the Suez Canal are a reliable basis for the statement that the stock in the Nicaraguan Canal will net an annual dividend, in gold, of at least 7 per cent.

The following statement, carefully compiled from the latest available facts that relate to the Suez Canal, is thoroughly convincing as to the future income of the Nicaragua Canal:

SUEZ CANAL.

The Suez Canal is 87 miles long, 66 of which are actual canal and 21 miles lake navigation. The canal and its appurtenances were completed on or about the 1st of January, 1870, and cost about $91,000,000. Since that time there have been expended for betterments and improvements, including the deepening of the channel, about $24,000,000 more, bringing the total cost of the canal up to about $115,000,000. The canal was originally 26 feet deep. Its present depth is 28 feet. The canal to-day is capitalized at about $90,000,000 of stock and obligations. The difference between the cost and its present capitalization in stock and bonds was made up by receipts from various sources applied to construction and improvement account, and to retirement and cancellation of stock and obligations.

It is commonly reported that the actual cost of construction did not exceed $50,000,000.

The following statement shows the number of ships and net tonnage which passed through the Suez Canal and the gross receipts therefrom from 1870 to 1894, inclusive, and the number of ships and receipts for the years 1895, 1896, and 1897; for these last three years the tonnage does not appear in the reports given to the newspapers, but its increase is indicated by the receipts, as the tolls are determined by the tonnage.

Statistics of traffic.

In 1895 the British Government bought from the Khedive of Egypt his shares in the canal (176,602) for the sum of £3,976,582, say $19,800,000. Early in April of this year the shares of the company were quoted as selling on the Paris Bourse for 3,518 francs each, which is equal to rather better than $700 each for shares the par value of which was originally 500 francs, or $100. At this price the value of the shares held by Great Britain, which cost her only $19,800,000, would be over $123,600,000.

The falling off of receipts during the year 1897 was an incident of commerce; the early months of this year, however, report a recovery in traffic which is reflected in the market price paid for the shares at the Paris Bourse. The price attained in April (3,518 francs, as above stated, or $700 per share) is the highest yet reached.

If we put the tonnage or the tolls of the Nicaragua Canal at onehalf the amount that the Suez Canal receives, and the cost at the same sum-viz, $115,000,000—we have a 9 per cent dividend paying stock, which would yield annually $6,300,000 on the $70,000,000 of stock given to the United States in this bill in payment for its indorsement of the bonds of the canal company, which is really for the benefit of the United States. This sum in ten years would pay to the stock of the United States $63,000,000, and at the rates of toll charged by the Suez Canal it would pay for the canal in that time.

This subject is more fully presented in the text of the last report of this committee to the Senate (Report 1109, Fifty-fourth Congress), which is hereto appended to preserve the historical connection of the subject.

The commission, headed by Admiral Walker, sent out to make a further examination of the survey and location of the Nicaragua Canal, after making careful examination of the harbors at Greytown and Brito, and of all the line of the canal that will connect them, have returned and are waiting to make up their final report when they have received from engineering parties still in the field the exact data upon which they can make a final estimate of the cost of the entire canal when it is completed. They have based their estimates upon actual examinations and surveys of the entire route of the canal from ocean to ocean. In their measurements and levels, as, indeed, in all the engineering work, they have found that the previous surveys of Menocal have been exact and true, so that there is no real discrepancy with their survey. This fact adds an element of certainty and reliability to Menocal's surveys that inspires the strongest confidence in the conclusion the committee feels prepared to state, that there is no real impediment to the construction of this canal at a reasonable cost, and that its permanency and usefulness as a waterway for ships are well assured.

The commissioners agree with all engineers and commissions that have heretofore surveyed or examined the line of the canal, that it is feasible and practicable as an engineering work; that it can be safely and economically constructed on the general plan adopted in the survey of the canal by the Maritime Canal Company, at a cost that is reasonable as compared with its value as a highway of commerce, and that it can be made securely permanent. They suggest a choice over difficult portions of the route of the canal between three practicable routes, and the bill herewith reported leaves the choice of any route. and any plan of construction open to the choice of the canal company. Appended to this report will be found copies of the several treaties that relate to the Nicaragua Canal, for reference.

APPENDIX 1.

[Senate Document No. 291, Fifty-fifth Congress, second session.]

NICARAGUA CANAL.

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES,

June 8, 1898.

Resolved, That the treaties, known as the Clayton-Bulwer treaty and the Frelinghuysen-Zavala treaty, relating to a maritime canal in Nicaragua, and the treaty between the United States and Nicaragua, relating to such canal, and the concessions of Nicaragua and Costa Rico to A. G. Menocal and his associates, relating to said canal, be printed together as a document for the use of the Senate. Attest:

WM. R. Cox, Secretary.

CLAYTON-BULWER TREATY OF APRIL 19, 1850.

The United States of America and Her Britannic Majesty, being desirous of consolidating the relations of amity which so happily subsist between them, by setting forth and fixing in a convention their views and intentions with reference to any means of communication by shipcanal which may be constructed between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans by the way of the river San Juan de Nicaragua and either or both of the Lakes of Nicaragua or Managua, to any port or place on the Pacific Ocean, the President of the United States has conferred full powers on John M. Clayton, Secretary of State of the United States, and Her Britannic Majesty on the Right Honorable Sir Henry Lytton Bulwer, a member of Her Majesty's most honorable privy council, knight commander of the most honorable Order of the Bath, and envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary of Her Britannic Majesty to the United States, for the aforesaid purpose; and the said plenipotentiaries having exchanged their full powers, which were found to be in proper form, have agreed to the following articles:

ARTICLE I.

The Governments of the United States and Great Britain hereby declare that neither the one nor the other will ever obtain or maintain for itself any exclusive control over the said ship canal; agreeing that neither will ever erect or maintain any fortifications commanding the same or in the vicinity thereof, or occupy, or fortify, or colonize, or assume, or exercise any dominion over Nicaragua, Costa Rica, the Mosquito coast, or any part of Central America; nor will either make use of any protection which either affords or may afford, or any alliance which either has or may have to or with any state or people, for the purpose of erecting or maintaining any such fortifications, or of occupying, fortifying, or colonizing Nicaragua, Costa Rica, the Mosquito coast, or any part of Central America, or of assuming or exercising dominion over the same; nor will the United States or Great Britain take advantage of any intimacy, or use any alliance, connection, or influence that either may possess with any state or government through whose territory the said canal may pass, for the purpose of acquiring or holding, directly or indirectly, for the citizens or subjects of the one, S. Rep. 1265-2

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any rights or advantages in regard to commerce or navigation through the said canal which shall not be offered on the same terms to the citizens or subjects of the other.

ARTICLE II.

Vessels of the United States or Great Britain traversing the said canal shall, in case of war between the contracting parties, be exempted from blockade, detention, or capture by either of the belligerents; and this provision shall extend to such a distance from the two ends of the said canal as may hereafter be found expedient to establish.

ARTICLE III.

In order to secure the construction of the said canal, the contracting parties engage that if any such canal shall be undertaken upon fair and equitable terms by any parties having the authority of the local government or governments through whose territory the same may pass, then the persons employed in making the said canal, and their property used, or to be used, for that object, shall be protected, from the commencement of the said canal to its completion, by the Governments of the United States and Great Britain, from unjust detention, confiscation, seizure, or any violence whatsoever.

ARTICLE IV.

The contracting parties will use whatever influence they respectively exercise with any state, states, or governments, possessing or claiming to possess any jurisdiction or right over the territory which the said canal shall traverse, or which shall be near the waters applicable thereto, in order to induce such states or governments to facilitate the construction of the said canal by every means in their power. And furthermore, the United States and Great Britain agree to use their good offices, wherever or however it may be most expedient, in order to procure the establishment of two free ports, one at each end of the said canal.

ARTICLE V.

The contracting parties further engage, that when the said canal shall have been completed, they will protect it from interruption, seizure, or unjust confiscation, and that they will guarantee the neutrality thereof, so that the said canal may forever be open and free, and the capital invested therein secure. Nevertheless, the Governments of the United States and Great Britain, in according their protection to the construction of the said canal, and guaranteeing its neutrality and security when completed, always understand that this protection and guarantee are granted conditionally, and may be withdrawn by both governments, or either government, if both governments, or either government, should deem that the persons or company undertaking or managing the same adopt or establish such regulations concerning the traffic thereupon as are contrary to the spirit and intention of this convention, either by making unfair discriminations in favor of the commerce of one of the contracting parties over the commerce of the other, or by imposing oppressive exactions or unreasonable tolls upon passengers, vessels, goods, wares, merchandise, or other articles. Neither party, however, shall withdraw the aforesaid protection and guarantee without first giving six months' notice to the other.