PANAMA CANAL.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1387, 13 March 1912, Page 5

PANAMA CANAL.

MAXIMUAI TOLLS FIXED,

Rl Telegraph—Press Association- CoDTi.'gni Washington, March 11. By If voles to ■!, the House of ■Representatives Committee on luter-State Commerce adopted the Government's Panama Canal Bill. The measure gives the Pjesident authority to fix tolls within certain restrictions. The maximum toll is to bo six shillings per ton and the minimum not less than an amount sufficient to operate and maintain (lie canal efficiently. The President is given power to make all appointments, including that of a Governor of_ the Canal -/.one. It is not proposed lo place tolls on the vessels of the United States or the Republic of Panama. Vessels controlled by railway companies are to be absolutely prohibited passage through the canal. The same provision affects vessels belonging to any shipping ring.

GETTING BUSINESS FOR THE CANAL, SOME NOVEL IDEAS. The United States Government, in anticipation of the completion of the Panama Canal within two years, is grappling with questions of world-wide interest relative to the management and methods of administration of the waterway after it shall have been thrown open to tho shipping of tho world. That the actual building of the undertaking will have been disposed of in the first half of 1913 is promised by Colonel George W. Goethals, the army "engineer, who is to all intents and purposes "king" of the Panama Zone. True, the date of the official opening is January 1, 1915. This will ! givo the force operating the canal ample tinio to fit itself by study and experience for the handling of shipping and putting tho vessels through the locks. Hut in the meantime (wrote an Amen, can press correspondent some little time ago! the important question.of tolls has to bs decided; also whether the Panama Zone shall be under a one-man administration or placed under the supervision ot a commission, whether United States shipping shall bo permitted to use the canal tree of tolls or otherwise given an advantage over the shipping of the rrst of the woi'Wl, and 'whether the American Government will enter into the business enterprise of supplying shipping with coal, food, repair facilities, etc., to the exclusion of private persons or corporations. To these and other problems the Toft Administration is now giving considerable thought and time. Colonel Gccthals, who by general consent is tho man entitled to more credit than any other single man for the businesslike way in which the gigantic project has been carried out, has stimulated discussion of the matters referred to by publicly expressing his own very positive views. Jn interviews and-in lectures, notably one before the National Geographical Society, the canal builder has stated that in his opinion the operating of the "ditch" is going to prove a bigger job than (he building of it. How to Make it Pay, Colonel Goethals is one of those who believe that the canal call be so operated as to meet running expenses and return to the American people interest on its investment of j;CO,sUU,ooo—the present estimated cost of the world's eighth wonder. A Hat rato of 1 dollar per ton on shipping has been suggested by tlm colonel as a proper toll. Tho transcontinental railways insist that such a rate would make competition by them impossible. Colonel Goethals replies that the greater the traffic through the canal (he greater tho increase of short business to the railways from coast points to inland cities.; The" Tehuantcpec railway route through Mexico will be a vigorous competitor of tho canal, and has long resorted to preferential charges, there being nothing stable about its rates. With dollar tolls, however, it is believed shipping would prefer the- canal to the Tehii. autepec railway. The matter of transferring American shipping through the canal tree of charge is complicated by,the agreement with Great Britain under the terms of which shipping of the United States may receive no preference. The biggest American shipping interests, however, suggest as a way round the treaty provision that the tolls paid by American shippers should be repaid to them out of tho United States Treasury. Congress, which has the final say in fixing tolls, is not considered likely to make this concession to local shipping interests. But Colonel Goethals has other plans formaking the canal pay, apnrt entirely from tho collection of tolls. He proposes that tho United States Government run the business end of the canal as a monopoly, for the double purpose of rendering the waterway attractive to the shipping of tho world and making money. In an interview furnished tho New York "Outlook," Colonel Goethals thus outlines his plan:— Irresistible Attraction's, "Leaving out of the question for the moment the matter of tolls, which is obviously of first importance, let me outlino the uses to which I want the organisation now in existence put. First, it must bs known that the canal will bring Singapore nearer to Bremen than the Suez Canal brings it. But shippers in Germany are not preparing to change their route's to the Orient yet. Shorter distance alone, with oven an equal toll rate, is not enough to influence Germany or any other Power tq_ route her Orient trade via Panama. We must offer other considerations. Wc must offer besides nerfect service through the canal itself, and at a rate beyond competition, service heretofore denied deepsea shipping everywhere except at terminal ports. We must be nbio to take charge of a ship from tho moment sho enters the canal, and by the time she has reached open wator on tho other side have made her, to all intents and purpose?, a new ship, if she needs that much fixing. If we keep in operation our machine shops, if we build and run coaling stations at both ends of the canal, if we hav*j huge laundries, with a day and night force, if wo have on hand materials of every kind a ship can need, from foodstuffs to engine parts—if, in a word, the United States will do what it never has yet clone, exactly what individuals and corporations wilfdo if we don't establisha business management on the Canal Zone, then wo get that 375,000,000 dollars back. "If such a plant is equipped we can offer irresistible advantages to the shippers of the world. Sure of a constant, one-price coal supply, shippers could cut their bunker capacity in two, with a consequent increase in cargo-carrying capacity. The spnee devoted to the shin's laundry could be cleared for freight. Only onehalf the present food supply need be' carried. Shippers would know that repairs, however difficult, could be made in many instances while the ship was in transit through tho canal. All this I have urged done—not by a private corporation, with the usual preferential system—but by the United States. It is feasible, it is beyond doubt profitable, and is in keeping with the spirit in which the canal is being dug."