be taken into consideration, because, if the student who starts to study civil engineering or any other profession, starts in too young, he may be too young to take in the data and properly arrange it in his storehouse, which would be as unsatisfactory as if he was too old to start in to take it. I think that that is as much a matter to be considered as what form, whether it shall be practical or theoretical. My idea is that a young man should be about twenty possibly to start in to study one of these professions, and between the time he leaves his common school education until the time to go to college I think it is a good thing to take practical lessons as Mr. Randolph suggests, get a few years' practice in the field. I think then he would be of such an age that he would appreciate what he had to study, as well as young enough to thoroughly absorb it and absorb it easily, and at the same time have the advantage of his practical experience. Of course, some of this I appreciate just from my own standpoint. If I had known more about certain practical things whilst at college, I could have paid more attention and would more thoroughly have appreciated them. On the other hand, I think possibly, if I had been a shade older when I went to college, I night have absorbed the data just as easily as if I had the practical experience, but possibly, taking practical experience and a little more age, both of them together might have made me more able to thoroughly appreciate what I studied, not that I did not take some with me, I hope, but not as much as I might

have done.

Mr. Liljencrantz: It is the rule in Sweden that when a mechanical engineer has graduated, passed his examination from the institution, that he shall practice in a machine shop for three years before he can be received anywhere in a responsible position in such a shop. One of my friends, who had passed his examination, went to the Motala machine shop, where Captain Carlsund was the general manager or superintendent, and he was very cross or disagreeable to deal with. This friend of mine was very short, quite stout, and had a very jolly face. He came in to Captain Carlsund, who asked what he wanted. He said he wanted to get a position. The Captain said: "There isn't any place for you." He left and came back about three or four days later. "What are you here for again?" "I came to see if there hadn't been a vacancy." "There isn't any, and there won't be any." So he went off and waited a week. He came back the third time, and Captain Carlsund was pretty severe and told him "I don't know what you are running here for; I have told you there isn't any place, and won't be any for you; there is no use of you running back here any more." "Well," said he, "I suppose that must be so; it seems strange to me though, that in such a large shop as this there shouldn't be a place for such a little fellow as I am." He was invited into the office and got the position.

Mr. Randolph: Professor Ricketts, in the discussion I spoke of,

ABSTRACTS OF PAPERS IN FOREIGN AND AMERICAN

TRANSLATIONS AND PERIODICALS.

THE DREAM OF NAVIGATORS.

By CAPT. A. S. CROWNINSHIELD, U. S. N.

(From the North American Review, December, 1897.)

To those who have been waiting for the arousing of public interest in this great project, it seems as if the time had at last arrived when thinking men, as well as many who are not of a serious turn of mind, admit the imperative necessity of a highway of rapid transit between the two great oceans which all but encircle our continent.

Japan was formerly looked upon as a far-distant country, composed of a group of islands inhabited by an interesting people, having no political relations with the western world. Presto! and all is changed. With new rulers, a new and liberal government, a desire to expand, followed by the adoption of western methods, railroads, steamships, with a foreign commerce, an army, and, what particularly concerns us, a modern navy, she appears at our doors as a power demanding recognition.

Beyond Japan, a few hundred miles to the west, lies the Chinese Empire, with its four hundred millions of people! While Japan has advanced China has remained dormant. But will this continue? Given new rulers, a new form of government, and the adoption of western ideas, and China will throw off its yoke of conservatism, and then our Pacific States will be confronted with a second Asiatic power many times greater than Japan.

The moment that a waterway is opened across Central America, the producers of our Pacific states will be brought eight thousand miles nearer to a market.

For years past there have been exported annually from California and Oregon nearly a million tons of wheat, every bushel of which has gone around Cape Horn! All grain exported from California is at present taken to the Pacific port of shipment by the railroads.

This projected waterway will also induce immigration, and thus develop that section of our country far more than it has ever been developed by the transcontinental railways.

As a political factor in increasing the influence and power of this country in the Pacific, the canal will be far-reaching. To-day, if the United States were forced into a war with Japan over possession of the Hawaiian Islands, which to her are stepping stones.

to our continent, we should be placed at a great disadvantage; for it is a fact that at this moment Japan's naval force is greater than our own Pacific and Asiatic squadrons combined. To reinforce our Pacific fleet we should be obliged to send ships from our Atlantic squadron, forcing them to make a voyage of twelve thousand miles, thus consuming many weeks, whereas, with the canal in existence, our powerful North Atlantic squadron could be put into the Pacific within a week! Thus would the canal enable us to more than double our naval strength in the Pacific.

Commission after commission has reported favorably as to the feasibility of the Nicaragua Canal. Exhaustive surveys by our government, as well as by private companies have been made, all showing that this route is not only practicable, but that it possesses natural advantages far above all others.

We should be wise in our generation, and by legislation and such other steps as may be necessary, inaugurate without further delay the work of completing the Nicaragua Canal. Let us pierce the isthmus at the one spot which nature has already pointed out, and thus fulfill what has been for centuries the hope of commerce and the dream of navigators.

THE NICARAGUA CANAL.

By HERNANDO DE SOTO MONEY, United States Senator from Mississippi.

(From Munsey's Magazine, February, 1898.)

From the time of the earliest Spanish discoverers to the Scotchman Paterson, half-way between Columbus and our own day, English, French, Spanish and American adventurers and schemers have dreamed of piercing the American isthmus.

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**

Presidents, secretaries and senators, supported by the press, have declared the canal an American question, to be controlled by America; and when the French began work at Panama, there were frequent official assertions that, by whomsoever made, an interoceanic canal would be considered a part of the coast line of the United States.

Negotiations should at once be commenced with Great Britain to abrogate the Clayton-Bulwer treaty, in express terms. England should be allowed no excuse for any interference or partnership in control or protectorate of the canal or adjacent territory.

The next step would be to negotiate treaties with Nicaragua and Costa Rica, by which, under suitable concessions from those states, the United States, as a government, would undertake to complete, maintain and control the canal.

While the diplomat is pursuing his labors, the engineer should be at work. A board of competent engineers, drawn from the army, navy and civil life, with ample funds and unlimited as to

time, should thoroughly survey all the proposed routes in Nicaragua, and on its report it could be determined whether the canal. would justify the cost.

It is confidently believed, in advance of such an exhaustive survey, that private capital cannot be induced to invest in the enterprise. The United States must decide whether, if there were no dividends, or even a pecuniary loss, our political and commercial interests would warrant us in assuming the burden. The commission of 1895, which was ordered to report on the "feasibility, permanence and cost of the construction and completion of the canal," was unable, because of inadequate data, to draw definite conclusions, and recommended a more complete survey. The facts given by the Maritime Company's engineers were found insufficient to settle any one of the points under examination. In truth, that commission left the disagreeable impression that unless a future survey sould develop conditions more favorable than those disclosed up to that time, the decision as to the whole project must be adverse.

While not undertaking to go minutely into the estimate of the amount of tonnage from different sources which has been represented as tributary to the canal, it is safe to say that the account has been too rose-colored. This is a day of larger accumulations of capital and of lower interest than ever before. Yet the Nicaragua Canal remains without subscribers.

While the operation of the Nicaragua Canal may be at a constant loss, nevertheless the advantage to American commerce may be so great, and our wealth be so increased, that the expense may be amply compensated.

It has been claimed that our west coast would be more easily defended by the ready transfer of our warships from the Atlantic to the Pacific; but it should be remembered that the fleets of Great Britain, Germany and France could be as readily transferred by the same means, so that the attack would be as much facilitated asthe defense. It is disputable, therefore, whether our security would be more assured without a considerable increase of our navy. But whatever the cost of such an increase might be to the United States, it would be preferable to the control of the canal by any foreign nation, or even a partnership with us in the control. The first would minimize American prestige in the Central and South American states, and the second would be a virtual surrender of the Monroe doctrine, which this government cannot afford, and would not make.

PROJECTS FOR AN ISTHMIAN CANAL.

BY THE HON. DAVID TURPIE.

(From Harper's New Monthly Magazine. February, 1898.)

All the commercial countries of the civilized world have to

more than a century heartily favored the construction of a navigable waterway across the Central American isthmus. There is not a member or any government or legislative assembly in Christendorn who has ever entertained or declared any sort of opposition or hostility to that enterprise. The execution of such a design has been the desire of all nations, often attempted, anxiously waited for, baffled only by the extreme difficulty of its accomplishment.

Gen. Grant, when president of the United States, gravely impressed with the importance of this proposed work, and always very favorable to the Nicaragua route, recommended to Congress the appointment of a commission to make an inspection and examination of the same. This commission was duly selected, performed the duty assigned to it, and made its report, together with an estimate of the cost of the construction. This estimate, provisional in its character, placed the necessary expenditure for the building and completion of such canal by the Nicaragua route at $140,000,000. After this report, which was made November 18, 1874, nothing further was done by President Grant or by Congress in the premises.

It is proper to say that the Panama Canal Company has always been, and yet is, a private corporation. It is not a government work, and no congress or parliament has ever appropriated a dollar or pledged the public credit in any way in aid of the enterprise.

The most recent attempt to exploit the project of a canal by the Nicaragua route has been made by a corporation styled the Maritime Canal Company of Nicaragua. It began, as others before it had begun, by obtaining concessions from the two Central American republics which own the territory passed through by the line of the projected canal, Costa Rica and Nicaragua. These concessions bear date April 12, 1887. They allowed ten years for the building of the canal, and the Nicaragua concessions expired, by their own terms, on the 12th day of April, 1897.

The project, as a financial investment, had been blacklisted upon every exchange and market of both Europe and America for fifty years before. Capitalists had no confidence in the company, or in its plan of execution. The movement for stock subscriptions was a total failure. The company was left without money or credit, just as it had been in the beginning.

The Maritime Canal Company of Nicaragua had been incorporated by an act of Congress on the 28th day of February, 1889. One of the provisions of its charter is as follows:

"Provided, however, That nothing in this act contained shall be so construed as to commit the United States to any pecuniary liability whatever for or on account of said company; nor shall the United States be held in any wise liable or responsible in any form