Democratic Sentinel, Volume 12, Number 50, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 January 1889 — THAT BANKRUPT CANAL. [ARTICLE]

THAT BANKRUPT CANAL.

M. DE LEBSEPS* GREAT SCHEME FAILS FOR VARIOUS REASONS. The Panama Canal Company Announces that It Will Not Be Able to Continue — Action of the French Chamber of Deputies—Late News by Wire. [London special telegram.] The Panama Canal Company has defaulted on the payment of a quarter’s interest, 3,750.000 francs on 500,000,000 francs, which is the par value of the bonds issued prior to the lottery bonds. The French Chamber of Deputies has voted urgency for legislation, which, by legally postponing the evil day three months, enables the company to evade the ordinary penalties of bankruptcy. The failure of the last attempted loan was unexpectedly complete. M. de Lesseps asked for about $75,000,000, and at the same time he announced that if the people should lend him $26,000,000 (taking 400,000 bonds at $65 each) he would go on with the work. M. de Lesseps and his colleagues have resigned from the Tribunal of the Seine. At their request the tribunal appointed M. Hue, M. Baudelot. and M. de Nounandie to settle up the Panama Canal Company affairs. DE LESSEPS BROKEN DOWN. e> The Failure of His Panama Scheme Unnerves Him. [Paris telegram.] The embarrassment of the Panama Canal Company was the topic of excited controversy in all public places. Ten minutes after the vote was given in the Chamber a Figaro correspondent called on De Lesseps. “Eh bien, monsieur, do you know the result of the vote?” asked the correspondent. “No,” replied De Lesseps. "The Government bill is rejected.” De Lesseps suddenly became pale; he was speechless; he placed a handkerchief to his lips to stifle a cry. Then becoming calm he said: “Mais e’est impossible;” then in a murmur he repeated: “Cost impossible.” "C’est indigne." exclaimed Mme. de Lesseps. "I do not believe it,” broke in De Lesseps, vehemently, ‘that a French Chamber will thus sacrifice the interests of the nation. They forget that a milliard and a half of savings of the French people are compromised by this vote, and they could have saved all this by a firm decision. This will be a triumpti for our enemies and disaster for our flag.” Le Figaro says editorially: “The Chamber plays into the hands of the Americans, who always predicted the non-completion of the canal, and it is a blunder the republic will be the first to suffer for.” THE FEELING IN NEW YORK. Men Who Had Invested in De Lesseps* Scheme Will Not Own Up. [New York telegram.] Nobody in. Wall street will admit bow that he lias had any sort of interest in the Panama Canal scheme. Those who were most boastful of their relations with it are now more than discreetly silent, and glibly repudiate all their past utterances. A brief order by cable gave instructions to Count Colone, the head of the New York office, to refund to Americans all subscriptions made to the collapsed bond scheme, and directing him to stop all payment demanded on any account. No instructions reached here from official sources, though Wall street was deluged with cable dispatches telling of financial trouble, probable and possible, apprehended in Paris and throughout France. How great an interest Americans have in the collapsed company is not to be easily ascertained. It is declared on authority that not less than $150,000, and nrobablv $250,000, was subscribed here for the bonds. “The effect of the failure of the Panama Canal scheme on the Nicaragua Canal enterprise," said a representative of the latter, “is difficult to estimate. It removes from our way a possible claimant to rivalry as a waterway, but further than this and the probable concentration of attention and interest in the Nicaragua Canal I can see no immediate effect. We have never seriously regarded the Panama Canal as a rival, because even if the Panama route had been possible it would have made impracticable the general use of sailing vessels on account of the windless area that extends info the Pacific from the vicinity of Panama Bay. The Panama Canal would have been as useless for sailing craft as the Suez Canal, through which only one jailing vessel has ever passed, and that was a pleasure yacht. We have every reason to believe that we shall begin work on the canal next spring and that we shall then push it forward to completion with the utmost rapidity. From the very best engineering opinions that we have been able to secure the maximum of time will not exceed six years.”