In 1999 its spacious harbor was taxed to its utmost capacity to accommodate the world's commerce while en route through the Nicaraguan Canal, which was opened to navigation in 1915, having cost its American investors $195,000,000. The proximity of Vera Cruz to the canal rendered that city an available port, bringing to it a wonderful volume of trade and commerce, and as Vera Cruz in 1999 was merely the ocean outlet of Washington, it will be readily appreciated that the opening of the Nicaraguan Canal and the volume of traffic it diverted in that direction, added materially to the importance of that region as the seat in 1999 of our national government. The completion of the Nicaragua Canal in 1915 was a triumph to the American science of engineering, yet so tardy in conception and execution that it reflected at best only an uncertain honor. It should have been constructed and opened to navigation as early [Importance of the Canal.] as 1885. It was a case of sheer neglect on the part of America. As soon as the Panama bubble exploded and Frenchmen discovered that they had been hoodwinked by speculators, America should have lost no time in constructing the Nicaragua Canal. The lesson of the Spanish War has taught America the value of an ocean canal connecting the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. With the possession of the Philippines and an enormous Oriental trade the operation of this canal became a factor of the highest importance to America. An American fleet of warships in the spacious bay of Vera Cruz, only two hundred miles away from Washington, was enabled in 1999 to steam through the canal into the Pacific in only a few hours' time and proceed to Hawaii and the Orient in short order. This was a great improvement on the "good old days" of 1899 when war vessels and transports, leaving New York to go to Manila, had to crawl around the tempestuous Horn or travel via. Suez. The construction of the interoceanic canal added greatly to the importance of the new location for our National capital in the State of Mexico. Vera Cruz became the rendezvous of the world's commerce. The central location of Washington in the State of Mexico, midway between the two great continents, proved an advantageous and commanding one and was eminently satisfactory to all sections of the great American Republic in 1999. In considering the vast importance of ocean canal navigation to the Americas, it is well to ascertain what became of the Philippine Islands and China in 1999.