two days to reach New York and then, if the steamer sails immediately, the time is reduced to twelve days; but, as the sailings are only three a month, it is oftener twenty days in making the passage, and freight requires a much longer time, in some cases thirty or thirty-five days. By the establishment of faster and more direct lines of steamers time could be shortened at least one-third, and the expense of freight transportation reduced in a corresponding degree.

But trade is no longer done to any extent by correspondence. The buyer and seller must meet each other. Acquaintance fosters confidence, and confidence is the foundation of all trade. Wherever foreign merchants have obtained mastery in the market of Latin America it has been by sending agents to study the tastes and the wants of the buyers, and to lay before them samples of the merchandise they have to sell, and by furnishing prompt and cheap transportation facilities. Commercial travelers from the United States are seldom, if ever, seen in the mercantile cities of the Southern countries, and the buyers for those markets seldom visit the warehouses of the merchants of the United States. This is in a large part attributable to the lack of proper means of communication. The merchant of any of these countries can take his stateroom upon a swift steamer, and after a comfortable and restful voyage spend a month in examining the manufactures and show-rooms of European countries. He can make the acquaintance of those who are seeking his custom, and establish his credit and buy whatever he finds suitable for his customers, but he has no such facilities in his trade with the United States.

It will doubtless be several years before quick lines of communication would become self-supporting; and in order to induce capitalists to invest their means in such enterprises they must be assured of stated assistance for a term of years.

It is impossible to estimate the increase of trade that such facilities for communication and transportation would at once bring to the American republics. The purchasing power of the countries of Central America and the Spanish

Main is not alone to be considered, but the west coast of South America has a commerce far above $100,000,000 a year. The distance from the ports of Chili to those of Europe through the Straits of Magellan is nearly 9,000 miles, and the voyage requires more than thirty days, while from Peru and Ecuador the distance is much greater. A line of fast steamers from the United States to Colon, in connection with a similar one down the west coast of South America, would bring Valparaiso within eighteen. or twenty days of Chicago and St. Louis. London could be reached from Valparaiso by way of New Orleans or New York in much less time than by the direct voyage through the straits, and the journey would be so much more agreeable that the passenger as well as the freight traffic would be to a great extent diverted in this way.

From official data before the committee it is plain that the countries bordering on the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea appreciate the necessity for direct and quick communication with foreign ports, and for its control inthe interest alike of their producers and consumers, and they indicate in their public policies and general convictions that governmental assistance, whether in the form of mail contracts or otherwise, is essential to the service demanded by public interests. Mexico pays the Pacific Mail Steam-ship Company for the western coast service $30,000 yearly; Guatemala, $24,000; Salvador, $24,000; Nicaragua, $6,000; Honduras, $5,000, and Costa Rica, $12,000, in the form of postal compensation.

Plans have been proposed by capitalists in this country for the establishment of a direct and rapid steam-ship service between Tampa, Fla., and Mobile, Ala., and the ports of Colon, Port Limon (Costa Rica), and Greytown, Nicaragua. The town of Tampa is situated on the west coast of Florida, 666 miles from Havana and 1,200 miles from Colon, by the measurement of the United States Navy Department. It has a safe and commodious harbor, sufficient to float the largest ships, and without bar or other obstruction at its entrance. The natural advantages of this port have been supplemented by the construction of wharves, docks, hotels and driveways, and freight can be

transported from the railroad cars to the ships at the minimum of time and expense.

The Government of the United States has already established a fast railway mail service between New England, New York, and Pennsylvania, and Tampa, to connect them with the Havana steamers, making the distance from New York City in thirty-six hours, and touching the principal cities of the Atlantic coast, where mails from the west are collected, as the trains pass daily. The distance from Chicago, St. Louis, Cincinnati, and other great cities of the West to Tampa is about the same as that from New York to Tampa and from those cities to New York, and the railway connections are such that a letter from Chicago via Tampa to ports of the Caribbean Sea would have the same advantage of speed and transportation as a letter from New York, and freight from the Western cities for such port would be carried by rail to Tampa as quickly and as cheaply as to New York.

The distance from Tampa to Colon, taking that port as an illustration, both as to time and mileage, is much less than from New York, the time being five and a half days, while the steamers at present in use between New York and Colon make the journey in eight to nine days. It could not be expected that the exporters of New York would avail themselves of this advantage of time in the shipment of heavy merchandise, for the cost would be much greater if sent part way by rail, but for mail and passengers it would be found very convenient; while the merchants and the manufacturers of Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago, St. Louis, and other cities of the West, who produce most of the articles shipped to South America, would not only be able to place their merchandise upon the docks of Tampa in the same time and at the same cost that is required to deliver it in New York, but with much greater convenience and less cost, so far as wharfage and handling at the terminal points are concerned.

The same holds true of merchandise imported into the United States from the Southern republics for consumption in the Southern and Western States. The merchants of Chicago, some months ago, sent to the President of this

Conference a memorial for the establishment of steamship facilities at Tampa, which is in accordance with the foregoing facts. The merchants and manufacturers of the Southern portion of the United States would derive great benefit by the establishment of the proposed line, and the rapidly developing industries from that section seem to be entitled to special consideration. At the same time, in addition to the advantages already pointed out, all those engaged in trade between the United States and the countries bordering on the Gulf of Mexico, the Caribbean Sea, and the Pacific Ocean would enjoy the great benefits of competition.

With properly constructed steamers the proposed line would be of incalculable service to those engaged in the shipment of fruit and other perishable articles, which suffer severely from long voyages and bad weather at sea. A very large portion of the fruit coming to the United States from Central and South America is consumed in the Southern and Western cities of the United States, and the same is true of coffee, hides, and other merchandise, while the principal articles of export from the United States come mainly from the same cities; the flour from Richmond and Minneapolis, provisions from Chicago, refined petroleum from Cleveland, and furniture from Grand Rapids, while Georgia and the Carolinas, as well as other Southern States, are largely interested in the shipment of cotton goods.

But the greatest advantage to be derived from such a line would be the improvement in mail and passenger transportation between the United States and the ports east, west, and south of Colon, the time from New York to the latter port being shortened to five and a half days or six days, if, as suggested, the proposed steamers make a deviation from a direct line from Tampa to Port Limon and Greytown. The voyage from Tampa to Colon, 1,200 miles, would be made by fast steamers in less than five days, and by rapid railway trains either New York or Chicago could be reached from the latter port in six and a half days. Such an improvement upon present facilities for travel is worthy of the careful consideration of the

Delegates to this Conference and of the Governments they represent.

The plan above suggested for a line of steamers from Tampa to Colon proposes that the steamers, if established, shall visit the city of Mobile regularly to deliver and receive freight, after having landed their mail, passengers, and freight at Tampa.

There are also many considerations in favor of New Orleans as an outport. The geograpical position of New Orleans at the mouth of the Mississippi makes it the natural outlet not only to Central and South America, but to other ports of the world, for the products of the great valley this river drains, which constitute the bulk of the exportable commodities of the United States. The breadstuffs, the provisions, the agricultural machinery and implements, the furniture, and petroleum, and the centers of their production are all within convenient distance of water transportation. In many instances the construction. of rival railway lines has diverted commerce from natural to artificial channels, but the difference in distance from Chicago and St. Louis to the ports of the Gulf and the Caribbean Sea via New Orleans is so great as to offer advantages over New York as an outport that could not be overlooked if proper steam-ship facilities to these ports were furnished.

There are already several lines of steam-ships of a comparatively insignificant tonnage between New Orleans and the Central American ports. They represent a growing sentiment and a growing sympathy which should be encou aged and fostere by the several Governments interested. These steam-ships have already done much to increase the exports as well as the imports of New Orleans, but they have been established and sustained by private enterprise, the assistance given them by the United States Government having been so small as to be unworthy of consideration compared with the aid extended them by some of the Spanish American Governments.

It has been maintained before the committee that the portion of the United States most interested in the development of direct traffic between New Orleans and the

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