A GREAT SCHEME.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 300, 13 May 1911, Page 10

A GREAT SCHEME.

XKW YORK TO BUKXOS AIRES BY RAIL. A railway ride of 10,221 miles without change of carriage! Such is the latest railway dream. And it is one. that attracted wore than one railway magnate of the United States. Huntingdon, after lie had brought S.an 'Francisco into railway touch with Xew York, and thus bonded Hie Atlantic with the Pacific, suggested a longitudinal backbone of steel to the American Continent similar to the lateral vertebra he had completed. It went no further. The time was not ripe for such an enterprise. Then llarriman, when at the zenith of his power, advanced the same suggestion. I (tit even ho did not carry it through; in fact, did not take a very"pronounced step towards its consummation. Hut that a ribbon of steel .should run from Xew York to Buenos Aires—a I'an-Amcrican railway - has been brought before Pan-American Congresses ever since this conference was first instituted. The visionary American has been looking forward to the time when he can step aboard the car at NewYork and leave it finally at Buenos Aires, over 10,111)1) miles to the south. Some of the more enthusiastic go even farther, and anticipate the day when the thumb of a railway hand will rest on Xomo and the little linger on the shore of the Straits of Magellan. It is not intended that a longitudinal line should be constructed specially, but that the end should be accomplished by linking up the railway systems of the various countries comprising the two Americas. The network of the United States already extends to the southern borders of Mexico; Guatemala possesses its system; while isolated stretches of railway exist in the successive Central American States and Colombia. Farther south, Brazil, Peru, Bolivia, and the Argentine can point to more or less extensive radiations of steel for transportation purposes. The idea is that these individual networks should be linked together, and thus establish a through steel channel from north to south for the (low of traffic. The possibility of travelling from Xew York to Buenos Aires is attractive to the railway dreamer. During the past few months its feasibility has been revived by the operations of an astute and enterprising American, Mr. David E. Thompson, the first American Ambassador to Mexico, but who has now abandoned the diplomatic service for the fierce whirlpool of commerce. While serving his country in Mexico he stutdenly lighted upon the Pan-American railway created to bring the dream of Huntingdon to Maturity. It was an insignificant stretch of line measuring but some 286 miles in length, from Gambou to Mariscal in Mexico, the latter point being within a few miles of the Guatemala frontier. It had been Launched with much noise, but somehow the enterprise had been ditched, with the -result that it led practically from nowhere to nowhere. As a result it fell in desuetude, and when Thompson came along could be brought at a scrap-heap price. As a matter of fact Thompson gave less than £2,000,001) for the whole thing—lock, stock and barrel. A mere handful of £BO,OOO worth of stock which he could not secure is held by Mexican shareholders along the line. A stretch of 286 miles of line may seem a trivial link in a chain of some 10,000 miles, but the Pan-American railway, in the eyes of the owner, is destined to become a force to be reckoned 1 with. He played the Pan-American cards for all he was worth, and succeeded in securing the assistance of other South American Governments. His first move was to overhaul his newly-acquired property, and then he set to work to carry the existing communication from Gamboa over the Tehnantepec railway, controlled by the Pearson group, into Guatemala. To do this he had to throw a bridge 1200 feet long across the Suchiate river, thereby joining up with the Guatemalan railway. Then he intends to push further south, carrying with him the iron road through the Isthmian countries over the Panama Canal, to link up with the railways of the Latin republics of South America.