19deny that one of the things necessary to a SUOCO 88ful re union is the completion of communicating lines in Central America. Our chief interest, at the moment, in seeing an improvement in Central American rail communications is to link Guatemala, Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua together.
This is necessary to their development.
It will bring these markets just that much nearer the American store and generally improve our commercial relations with that section. a) It has taken me as many as 19 days to get from Guatemala to Salvador 18 of them waited for a boat on the 19th boarded the ship and rode about sixty miles from San Jose de Guatemala to Acajutla. But for the rainy season, which made roads impassable, could have traversed the distance on horseback from capital to capital within a week.
To connect these countries by rail it 18 but necessary to build from Zaoapa, Guatemala, to Santa Ana, Salvador, a distance of about 105 miles. 6) San Salvador may be connected with the Bay of Fonseca by constructing the link between that City and San Vicente, a distance of not more than 40 miles. c) The Bay of Fonseca furnishes quick water communication from La Union, the Salvadoran port to Honduran port of San Lorongo and Nicaraguan port of Tompisque. a) When the Ferrocaril del Sur in Ni oaragua builds a branch from Chinandega to a point within Fonseca Bay three of the five central American countries will be within easy 8000 88 of each other. o) Then it is planned to construct a link of railway from La Union, Salvador, through Honduras to Nicaragua. 1) All of the above railway construction forms part of the original Pan American line which it was hoped would give Panama a rail connection with New York. We may not favor the larger idea but we certainly cannot deny that building the links mentioned above will be a good thing for our commerce. If it were gigantic