TC 
 
 774 
 
 S844s 
 
 STEVENS 
 
 SKETCH OF THE PANAMA 
 CANAL
 
 THE LIBRARY 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES
 
 A SKETCH OF 
 
 PANAMA CANAL 
 
 ITS ,. 
 PAST, PRESENT AND POSSIBLE FUTURE 
 
 January, 1908 JNO. F. STEVENS
 
 -re 
 -nt 
 
 A SKETCH OF 
 THE PANAMA CANAL 
 
 ITS 
 
 PAST, PRESENT AND POSSIBLE FUTURE 
 
 The conception of the possibility of uniting, by artificial means, 
 the waters of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, was a resultant of the 
 many, and often visionary projects entertained by the bold, and gen- 
 erally unscrupulous spirits who not only ruled Spain when she was at 
 the zenith of her power, but carried her flag and prestige to all parts of 
 the New World, as it was then known. With few exceptions, every 
 agitation, great or small, of any part of the human race, which has cul- 
 minated in a movement to seize, explore and hold distant regions by 
 force of arms, has been dictated by avarice. The fabulous reports 
 brought to Spain by Columbus and by the early adventurers who fol- 
 lowed him, of the wealth in gold, silver and precious stones in the new 
 countries, raised up a horde of legalized bandits, whose exploits his- 
 tory has, with more or less accuracy, set forth. 
 
 Columbus, as we know, died without knowledge of what lands he 
 had touched, believing them to be a part of what was then popularly 
 called Cathay, or what is now known as the East Indies. Balboa, by 
 his trip into the unknown wilderness, first demonstrated that, beyond 
 the lands so far only really seen from a ship's deck, there existed 
 another body of water, which was finally proven to dwarf the Atlantic 
 in size, and which was separated from it, by only a comparatively nar- 
 row strip of land. Balboa early fell a victim to the jealousy of his 
 fellow-adventurers, was not permitted to live to extend his discoveries, 
 but he was followed by others as enterprising and unscrupulous.
 
 The timbers of the first ship which plowed the waters of the 
 Pacific Ocean., manned by white men, as far as history, or tradition, if 
 you please, tells us, were laid in a small bay on the southern side of the 
 isthmus of Darien, by one of these adventurers, and these timbers 
 were cut on the shores of the Atlantic, hewn into shape and carried 
 across the isthmus to the shore of the Pacific, and were there put 
 together for the first voyage into the unknown sea. This work was 
 performed by natives, seized and held as slaves by the Spaniards, whom 
 without such enforced labor could have done little, but whom with the 
 cross in one hand and the sword and torch in the other, forced the 
 civilization of mediaeval Europe, onto the greater part of the new 
 world. 
 
 It is a far cry from the vision of this small band of Spanish ex- 
 plorers, taking a month with their miserable slaves to carry their small 
 ship across the isthmus, to the vision of some future great admiral, 
 steaming with a fleet of modern war ships, manned by the pride and 
 glory of the United States, making the same trip in 8 hours but 
 the latter is a prospect that should be realized within a comparatively 
 short time. 
 
 The conquests of Peru, and the spoliation of her wealth by Pizarro 
 and the men who followed him, are matters of history. The most 
 natural route by which all the spoils of conquest, which were claimed 
 by the Crown of Spain, could be sent home was by the west coast 
 of South America, thence across the isthmus and over the Atlantic to 
 Spain. This practice, with the necessity for a port on the south side 
 of the isthmus brought into existence the city of Panama, and from 
 Panama northward across the isthmus, the Spaniards constructed a 
 road, paved with stone, wide enough for two heavily laden mules to 
 pass, and over which for years crossed and re-crossed the pack trains, 
 which kept open the lines of communication between the Pacific Ocean 
 and the plate ships of Spain. This old road still exists, and the writer 
 has traveled over miles of it still in fairly good condition, and giving 
 ample evidence of the thoroughness with which such works were then 
 carried out. 
 
 All of these millions of treasure did not reach Spain: Panama 
 in those early days was accounted the richest city on earth, in pro- 
 portion to the number of its inhabitants, and we can be well assured 
 that it took full toll of all treasure passing its portals. Then, too,
 
 the English lay in wait, by trail and on sea, and Drake, Hawkins, 
 Morgan and the rest, played the part of the eagle to the fish hawk, 
 robbing the latter early and often of his prey. Buccaneer Morgan 
 finally captured the original city of Panama, burned it, butchered many 
 of its people, and scattered the rest into the jungles, from which years 
 afterwards they collected and built the city of Panama which now 
 exists, and which is near the south end of the canal now under con- 
 struction. 
 
 History alleges that the idea of cutting a ship-way across the 
 isthmus, to avoid the long and dangerous passage around the Horn, 
 took shape in those early days, even going to the extent of carrying out 
 of extensive explorations to select a feasible route. Be that as it may, 
 nothing tangible resulted for more than 300 years. Possibly, this 
 delay can in part be explained by an edict, which it is said that Philip 
 the Second promulgated, that of prohibiting any Spanish subject from 
 even mentioning such a project on penalty of death, and which edict, 
 it is said, has never been revoked, and there are yet people who point 
 to this law, as a proof of the great wisdom of Philip a claim which 
 the writer is not prepared to dispute. 
 
 Lord Nelson suggested a canal at Nicaragua in 1780, and early 
 in the last century Baron Humbolt is said to have mapped several 
 routes, one of which, was over the line practically now adopted. Spain 
 also woke up again along in 1820 and talked canal, but as she lost 
 control of the isthmus about that time, she did nothing. Along about 
 1840 several of the Central American states tried to interest Louis 
 Phillipe in the project, but without success. The rush of travel and 
 business resulting from the discovery of gold in California in 1849, 
 so stimulated interest until as a consequence the Panama Eailroad was 
 built and opened in 1855. From this time on, different schemes were 
 proposed, and in 1879, the French becoming interested, surveys were 
 carried on by Lieutenant Wyse, a Frenchman, who a year before had 
 secured a concession from Colombia to build a ship canal. 
 
 Ferdinand DeLesseps, with the prestige of, and fresh from the 
 completion of the Suez Canal, took up the matter, and a congress con- 
 vened by him in Paris decided in favor of a canal from Limon Bay 
 (Colon), on the Atlantic side, to Panama Bay on the Pacific side. 
 This Congress also decided a sea-level canal should be the type to be 
 built.
 
 Previous to this time, in 1852, the United States had undertaken 
 and carried out at spasmodic intervals, surveys for a canal at Nica- 
 ragua, and in 1889 an American company was formed for the purpose 
 of constructing a canal, along the lines developed at the latter place, 
 but nothing of practical importance was accomplished, beyond the com- 
 pletion of surveys. 
 
 Attention had also been called to what is known as the Darien 
 Eoute, some 100 miles eastward from the Panama Eoute, and it has 
 been thoroughly reconnoitered, though no close instrumental surveys 
 have been made. 
 
 Some features of this route are favorable : There are fairly good 
 harbors at each end, and it is the shortest route across the isthmus, of 
 any of the three which time and study have selected as the only ones 
 worthy of consideration, but its adoption necessitates the construction 
 and maintenance of a tunnel nearly five miles long a proposition 
 which owing to its size and importance, and the difficulty of securing 
 an absolutely safe and sound roof, it is believed our best engineers 
 would hesitate to endorse. Still, the Darien Eoute has its able advo- 
 cates some yet on the floor of Congress. 
 
 Right here, the writer gives as his individual opinion, that grant- 
 ing an inter-oceanic canal is to be built, that physically, financially, and 
 for all other reasons, and after all arguments are balanced, the decision 
 choosing the Panama Eoute, so-called, is the correct one. 
 
 In 1881, after organization and preliminaries had been attended 
 to, active operations by the DeLesseps Co. it having secured the 
 Colombian concession from Lieutenant Wyse was begun. The 
 Canal Company purchased the Panama Railroad from the com- 
 pany which up to that time (1882), had owned and operated it. 
 Besides, from its location, laying as it does, not only along but upon, 
 in a number of places, lands actually needed for the construction of 
 the canal, its importance as an adjunct to, as furnishing the necessary 
 means of transporting not only the supplies over, but the waste ma- 
 terial from the canal prism, its control by the canal builders became 
 and is yet an absolute necessity. 
 
 The history of the DeLesseps attempt to build the Panama Canal 
 is set forth at such length and in such details in various publications 
 that a lengthy resume of it here is unnecessary.
 
 As noted previously, the original decision was for a sea-level water- 
 way, but as time went on, as vast sums of money were raised and spent 
 without commensurate progress, it was decided to abandon the sea-level 
 idea and substitute locks, and to the trained eye of an engineer the 
 history of those years, as money became harder and harder to raise, is 
 plainly written on the face of the work. First a two-lock plan was 
 attempted, then more and more locks were added, until the holes in the 
 ground for these locks, which the writer found, apparently increased in 
 number as the bank account grew less a pathetic story, needing no 
 words to understand. 
 
 In 1888, the company broke with a crash that attracted world- 
 wide attention, and which before its echoes died away dragged many a 
 name before honored, into the dust and undoubtedly hastened De- 
 Lesseps' death. At the time of cessation of the work, it is likely more 
 than $250,000,000 had been spent, and conservatively not over 1-6 of 
 the actual work had been accomplished. And fully more vital, a satis- 
 factory plan to care for the most important, in fact the one prominent 
 engineering feature of the whole enterprise the control of the Chagres 
 River and its tributaries, had not been solved or adopted. 
 
 In 1891, the company having been reorganized, an extension of the 
 concession was granted by the Colombian Government, and work was 
 again begun, and continued in a very small way just enough to hold 
 the concession until the United States took over from the new French 
 company all its property, plant and interest in the project, by the pay- 
 ment to it of $40,000,000, which arrangement, all things considered, 
 was a fair, without being a great bargain for the United States. 
 
 As certain rights and privileges not held by the French company, 
 and consequently not transferred to the United States, were considered 
 necessary, negotiations looking to the making of an arrangement with 
 Colombia, were begun, and after long delays a fairly satisfactory treaty 
 was formulated, which, however, was rejected by Colombia in 1903 
 quite unexpectedly, it is said, by the officials of the United States. But 
 by a curious coincidence, shortly after the rejection by Colombia of the 
 proposed treaty, the Province of Panama, an integral part of Colombia, 
 seceded from its allegiance to, and by one of those comic opera revo- 
 lutions, separated from Colombia, and set up an independent republic 
 of its own. How this was accomplished is perhaps a matter of correct
 
 public history perhaps not. There are critical people yet, who in the 
 blindness of partisan spirit, still decry the alleged actions of the United 
 States at the time of this revolution, but an honest judgment would 
 indicate that this matter should be considered as a closed incident. 
 Kegardless of any ethical question involved, there would seem to be 
 times in political history, when the principle of the end justifying the 
 means, would apply. Be that as it may, the practical result was, that 
 the United States was enabled to effect a satisfactory treaty with the 
 new Republic of Panama, failing in which, it would probably have 
 been forced to revert to Nicaragua, if it desired to build a canal, as it 
 had fully determined to do. Among other details of the arrangement 
 with Panama, was the payment, under certain terms, of $10.000,000 
 by the United States to the new republic thus the United States 
 obtained a clear field from all parties interested, by the payment of 
 $50,000,000. 
 
 Under this treaty the United States gained the sovereignty over a 
 strip of land 10 miles in width, 5 miles on either side of the center line 
 of the canal, extending from the usual 3-mile limit in the Carribean 
 Sea to the same limit in the Pacific Ocean at Panama. This right, 
 however, is not clearly understood by the average man : It is not a fee 
 simple, but it is probably broad enough to answer all purposes. 
 
 It grants to the United States power to locate, construct, main- 
 tain and forever operate a ship canal, connecting the two oceans, with 
 ample power to establish governmental, including police and sanitary 
 regulations. Excluded from the ten-mile strip are the two cities of 
 Colon and Panama. The power of the United States to regulate sani- 
 tary matters, however, extends over these two cities. The United 
 States also has authority, in case it becomes in its opinion necessary, to 
 preserve order, to enter these cities with armed forces and take pos- 
 session of them. The United States also practically guarantees the 
 Eepublic of Panama all needed assistance, armed or otherwise, to 
 enable it to preserve its independence. 
 
 Since the occupancy of the canal zone by the United States, it 
 has maintained large bodies of police and marines, both in a highly 
 efficient condition, and until about one year ago, kept a war vessel in 
 commission in the harbor of Panama. There is little likelihood of 
 serious trouble, unless as between the two political parties into which
 
 the people of Panama are about equally divided. If, however, the 
 present government of Panama should in its blindness attempt to 
 seriously antagonize our interests, probably another cardboard revolu- 
 tion would curiously enough be pulled off, and a more complaisant 
 government be set up, or, as many declare, the United States would 
 openly assume control of the entire Eepublic, either by martial law, or 
 by some form of territorial government. Be that as it may, the 
 situation is entirely safe, providing too much is not taken for granted. 
 The ways of the Latin Americans are not our ways, and the entente 
 cordial can best be preserved, by our keeping a paving block close by 
 to drop the hand onto, in case ordinary argument should need a point. 
 
 The Act of Congress which authorized the President to proceed 
 with the construction of the canal, placed almost unlimited power in 
 his hands, as to details of route, type and size of canal, the chief 
 limiting clause which, it may be noted, leaves much to his judgment, 
 reading as follows: The Canal "shall be of sufficient capacity and 
 depth as shall afford convenient passage for the vessels of the largest 
 tonnage and greatest draft now in use and such as may be reasonably 
 anticipated." 
 
 In order to obtain the advantage of the best engineering advice 
 upon the many general problems involved, the President appointed a 
 board of consulting engineers, the members being eminent in their 
 profession, both American and European. After a visit of inspec- 
 tion to the isthmus and due consultation, the board made two reports, 
 the majority one favoring a sea-level, and the minority a lock plan, 
 both reports, however, concurring in the other general features. After 
 a long time, the whole matter was referred to Congress. The latter 
 body, after examinations and debates, voted in favor of the minority, 
 or lock-level plan the one under which work is now being prosecuted. 
 
 It would require very much more time than is now available 
 to sum up even, the various reasons which the writer believes justify 
 the final decision in favor of a lock canal. He went to the isthmus 
 as Chief Engineer, rather in favor of a sea-level plan, which he 
 abandoned after personal study of the conditions. As he has reason 
 to believe his influence was quite potent in the decision, he feels that 
 this one service to the country is enough for a life time, in helping to 
 save the fatal consequences of a wrong conclusion, as he knows a 
 decision in favor of a sea-level canal would have been.
 
 Briefly expressed, is an extract from a report to the Canal Com- 
 mission, of date January 26th, 1906, as follows : 
 
 "The sum of my conclusions is, therefore, that all things con- 
 sidered, the lock or high-level canal is preferable to the sea-level type, 
 so-called, for the following reasons : 
 
 "It will provide a safe and a quicker passage for ships, and there- 
 fore will be of greater capacity. 
 
 "It will provide, beyond question, the best solution of the vital 
 problem of how safely to care for the flood waters of the Chagres and 
 other streams. 
 
 "Provision is made for enlarging its capacity to almost any ex- 
 tent at very much less expense of time and money than can be provided 
 for by any sea-level plan. 
 
 "Its cost of operation, maintenance, and fixed charges will be very 
 much less than any sea-level canal. 
 
 "The time and cost of its construction will be not more than one- 
 half that of a canal of the sea-level type. 
 
 "The element of time might become, in case of war, actual or 
 threatened, one of such importance that measured, not by years but 
 by months, or even days, the entire cost of the canal would seem 
 trivial in comparison. 
 
 "Finally, even at the same cost in time and money for each type, 
 I would favor the favor the adoption of the high-level lock canal plan in 
 preference to that of the proposed sea-level canal. 
 
 "I therefore recommend the adoption of the plan for an eighty- 
 five-foot summit-level lock canal, as set forth in the minority report 
 of the Consulting Board of Engineers. 
 
 ''Very respectfully, 
 "JNO. F. STEVENS, Chief Engineer." 
 
 To go back to the time when the United States took formal pos- 
 session by purchase from the French company and by treaty with 
 Panama : This Commission appointed by the President to supervise 
 
 8
 
 the work proceeded to the isthmus, began the work of organization 
 of the preliminaries, and the thousand and one details naturally per- 
 taining to such an enterprise, received under such conditions, in a tropi- 
 cal climate and the mention of the latter condition brings us directly 
 to the underlying important feature of sanitation, and the consequent 
 good health of employes without which nothing but failure could re- 
 sult. 
 
 Probably no spot on earth previous to two years ago, had and it 
 largely deserved it a worse reputation for diseases of various kinds, 
 than Panama, It will never be known how many employes of all 
 colors lost their lives during the French occupancy. Very little was 
 known of modern sanitation, at least very little was practiced by them, 
 and even if their finances had held out, it is probable death and disease 
 would have conquered them in the end. But by the knowledge our 
 army medical men had gained in Cuba as to the true cause and means 
 of preventing yellow fever, that white man's scourge of the tropics has 
 been eliminated, and the percentage of malaria and malarial fevers has 
 been reduced more than one-half. Colon, at the northern, and 
 Panama, at the southern terminus of the canal, were, two and a half 
 years ago, two of the most forbidding, dirtiest, and from a white- 
 man's point of view, unhealthiest places on earth. Today, they are- 
 and have been for more than a year past, especially Panama, cleaner 
 and more sanitary than the average New England city ; paved through- 
 out, provided with modern sewerage and water systems, they are at 
 once a tribute to the energy and intelligence of those Americans who 
 made them possible, and a standing reproach to those Americans who 
 for the sake of a little printed notoriety, have so far prostituted them- 
 selves, as to send forth to the world, statements which were not only 
 false, but palpably known by themselves to be false when issued. 
 
 This work of sanitation and municipal improvements in these two 
 cities has cost the United States a very large amount of money, which 
 the treaty provides it shall be repaid after a long term of years, and 
 there is a reasonable probability we will be so repaid, but if we are not, 
 the value of this work to us will be four-fold of all that it cost, in the 
 health and life of our employes. 
 
 The same careful attention to sanitation has been given to all parts 
 of the zone where our employes, either whites or blacks, work or live, 
 and today the health conditions of the canal zone are better than they 
 
 9
 
 are along lands in the United States bordering on the Gulf of Mexico, 
 and it may be believed the zone is a preferable place of residence. The 
 heat is not intense, as measured by the thermometer, but the humidity 
 is excessive, and without doubt the climate is a trying one on this 
 account, to the average person accustomed to the high latitudes. This 
 objection is provided for, however, by the United States granting to 
 all its employes coming from the United States a six-weeks' yearly 
 leave of absence with pay. This provision, with the practice of 
 ordinary good habits, will carry the average man along in good health, 
 and as safely as he will probably be in the United States. 
 
 The Commission at Ancon, near Panama, and at Colon, have large 
 and well equipped hospitals, at which, free of charge, all its employes, 
 white or black, are given the most modern medical care and treatment 
 all under the charge of experienced doctors and trained nurses. The 
 privileges of these hospitals are not only free to all employes but they 
 are also complusory, and as a result from month to month, the sick and 
 death rate of the zone per capita, has been gradually decreasing, until 
 now it compares favorably with that of the average American city. 
 Certain diseases, like Typhoid, Diptheria, etc., have never been pre- 
 valent there, and as far as Yellow Fever is concerned, it is now simply 
 a matter of the enforcement of strict quarantine regulations against 
 other, and less fortunate countries, to keep the zone entirely free of it. 
 
 The government of the zone is administered by the Canal Com- 
 mission through one of its members who acts as Civil Administrator, 
 having direction of the courts, police force, schools, post offices, 
 customs, and all the functions which go to make up a well ordered 
 government. Law and order are as well maintained and life and 
 property are as safe, as in well settled parts of the United States. Up 
 to this time, no case is recalled that has been brought to the United 
 States Supreme Court, and possibly the latter has no jurisdiction. 
 There are three circuit court judges, who sitting en bane, form a 
 supreme court. All the judicial and civil machinery has thus far 
 worked smoothly, and it is believed it is well adapted to serve the 
 purpose for which it was created. 
 
 The length of the proposed canal, from deep water to deep water, 
 will be about 50 miles, the width varying, as below, these widths as 
 noted being at the extreme bottom of the canal sections : 
 
 10
 
 From the Carribean Sea, near Colon, 1,000 feet for about 7 miles 
 to Gatun Dam and Locks; from Gatun Locks a minimum width of 
 1,000 feet through Gatun Lake (to be formed by the Gatun Dam) over 
 a distance of about 26 miles; thence about 2 miles of a width of 500 
 feet to the north end of Culebra Cut ; then 300 feet wide for about 3 
 miles ; then 200 feet for about 4 miles ; then 300 feet wide for 2 miles, 
 to the locks of Pedro Miguel, the south end of the Culebra Cut ; then 
 through Lake Sosa, some 5 miles, 1,000 feet minimum width, to the 
 locks of La Boca ; then 3 miles to deep water in the Pacific Ocean with 
 a width of 1,000 feet. 
 
 These dimensions are given in some detail, as showing, from their 
 generous proportions, that a fair rate of speed can at all places be 
 maintained by ships while passing through the canal, excepting 
 through the locks proper, which comprise but an insignificant portion 
 of the entire distance. 
 
 A modification of the plans for locks and dams near the southern 
 end of the canal, has been recently made, which will be referred to 
 later on. 
 
 A brief study of the map will show, that owing to the peculiar 
 twist of the isthmus, near its narrowest part, the actual direction of the 
 canal is not east and west, as popularly supposed, but from northwest, 
 at the Atlantic end, to southeast, at the Pacific end, and that in fact, 
 Panama, on the Pacific side, is 22 miles east of Colon, on the Atlantic 
 side, so that the use of the terms north and south ends of the canal, is 
 entirely proper. 
 
 In formulating the plans for any canal at Panama, the one great 
 overshadowing engineering problem that had to be solved before success 
 could be expected, was the control of the flood waters of the Chagres 
 River, and its large tributaries. This river, rising in the mountains of 
 the Darien country some 100 or more miles east of the canal, flows 
 almost directly west, thence by an abrupt turn, its course changes to the 
 north and northwest, emptying into the Carribean Sea about 5 miles 
 west of Limon Bay, in which the canal finds its northern terminus. 
 Thus, for nearly 30 miles the canal follows the valley of the Chagres 
 River a stream which fluctuates in the dry season, from a flow of 600 
 to nearly 110,000 cubic feet per second, in the rainy season. 
 
 11
 
 At several points along this part of the river, the valley narrows 
 in, and at one point (Gatun) it is less than 1 miles in width, at an 
 elevation of 100 feet above sea level, and it is at this point, suitable 
 foundations having been found to exist, the gigantic works known as 
 the Gatun Locks and Dam were projected, and are now in course of 
 construction. The dam is to be of earth, will be about 7,800 feet long 
 on top, 100 feet in width on top, and ^ mile wide, or thick, at the 
 bottom. It will be 135 feet high, and will contain approximately 
 22,000,000 cubic yards of material, the greater part of which will be 
 placed by powerful hydraulic pumps, thus insuring solidity of con- 
 struction, that only nature under favorable conditions can rival. This 
 material will be clay, with a very slight mixture of fine sand an ideal 
 material, to produce, so placed, a mass comparable only to a mountain 
 one that will resist water, decay, earthquake, or any known force of 
 nature or man, within imaginable limits. 
 
 It will, by closing up the valley of the Chagres Eiver, form a lake 
 of some 30 odd miles in length, as measured by the main valley, and 
 covering approximately an area of 140 square miles really a vast 
 inland fresh- water sea; the elevation of the water being at normal 85 
 feet above mean sea level, this water above the dam, through which 
 passes the line of navigation, being from a maximum of 75 feet to a 
 minimum of 45 feet in depth over the entire distance. 
 
 Through the high, natural ground at the east end of the dam 
 will be built triple locks, in duplicate, each lock lifting or lowering, as 
 the case may be, a ship 28 1-3 feet, a total of 85 feet, or the difference 
 in elevation of Gatun Lake, formed by the dam, and the sea-level 
 waters of the Atlantic Ocean which will be brought to the locks by the 7 
 miles of open, 1,000 feet wide channel, mentioned above. On other 
 very high ground, nearly in the center of the dam, will be constructed 
 the necessary regulating works, by which the height of the water in the 
 lake will be controlled, storing it up for the dry, and allowing it to 
 flow gradually away during the flood periods, as conditions may require. 
 
 These regulating works, and the main locks also, will rest their 
 entire length and breadth on rock not earth; not mud; but rock, 
 really a species of sand rock sufficiently hard to insure first-class foun- 
 dations, and to set at rest all fears of the stability of the works. That 
 the character of these foundations is first-class, was known long ago to 
 the people directly responsible for them, and had been amply proven 
 by numerous borings and test-pits, but to satisfy a senseless clamor 
 
 12
 
 set up and encouraged by ignorant critics, the Secretary of War 
 in whose hands next to the President, is the general direction of all 
 canal affairs took a committee of three of the best known and ablest 
 of our American engineers last year to Gatun. These gentlemen, after 
 a thorough, personal examination, concurred in a report which fully 
 confirmed all previous ones of the Chief Engineer, and which should 
 have settled for all time the questions raised; but very recently the 
 Commission has given out a statement quite superfluous that ad- 
 ditional borings have been made, and that rock exists everywhere under 
 the proposed locks, and a splendid foundation is assured another 
 case of the Dutch taking Holland. 
 
 The earthen dam will rest on a stratum of impervious clay, nearly 
 200 feet thick, lying on the same kind of rock that the locks will rest 
 upon. Altogether the foundations of both locks and dam are ideal, 
 and all notions to the contrary can be dismissed from the mind. 
 
 The control of the flood waters of the Chagres is simple, and 
 the plan can be easily understood by anyone, whether engineer or not : 
 It is merely accomplished by the formation of a lake, into which the 
 flood waters will pour, at such distances from the sailing line of ships 
 that these flood waters can be entirely ignored. Supposing the Con- 
 necticut Eiver rose in flood, and that Long Island Sound, or rather 
 its waters, extended ten miles up the river, from thirty to fifty feet 
 deep, the valley being from 1 to 3 miles wide: What effect then 
 would the flood in the Connecticut Eiver have on a ship sailing in the 
 Sound, a mile away from the point where the river joined the Sound ? 
 None whatever the ship's people would not know that there was a 
 flood, unless from some slight discoloration of the water. And this is 
 all there is to it simple of solution, like most problems, when sub- 
 jected to the analysis of cold common sense, and a remedy of like char- 
 acter applied. 
 
 Leaving the lake, the line of the canal enters the famous Culebra 
 Cut, which will be about 9 miles in length, and is directly through 
 the backbone of the Cordilleras the watershed between the Atlantic 
 and Pacific Oceans. The mountains along the line of the canal 
 rise to an extreme height of some 1200 feet above the sea, and probably 
 it was from some one of these peaks, that Balboa first caught sight of 
 the peaceful ocean, the waters of which ripple as calmly, and which 
 present a view at Panama, which for loveliness is said to rival that of 
 the Bay of Naples. 
 
 13
 
 The bottom of the canal prism in the Cut, allowing for the 
 40 feet of water, will then be 45 feet above sea level, the surface of 
 the water being the same elevation as that of Gatun Lake, or plus 
 85. At the highest point the top of the Cut was originally some 
 280 feet above the bottom, but the French dug away some 120 
 feet, and now in depth, there are about 120 feet yet to go down. 
 This figure, however, does not adequately express the relative amount 
 of work to be done. When the United States assumed charge of the 
 enterprise, changes in line, increases in width, a more proper adjust- 
 ment of slopes, etc., which were made, all contributed to swell the total 
 yardage to be moved. An approximate summary of the various items 
 showed about 60,000,000 cubic yards of excavation to be taken from 
 the prism in Culebra Cut, of which probably 80% is rock, of dif- 
 ferent degrees of hardness, and this vast amount of material was 
 not to be dug out and placed in waste banks immediately alongside of 
 the excavation, but the greater part must be hauled miles by railway 
 trains to find room for disposal. 
 
 The work of drilling, of loosening up by blasting, ready for the 
 big steam shovels, while appalling, was only one feature: Hundreds 
 of miles of track must be laid, locomotives by the hundred, cars by 
 the thousand, and all the myriad special adjuncts of shops and mach- 
 inery, requisite to repair and maintain all such plant had to be 
 created, and when the writer reached the zone the last day of July, 
 1905, he thinks he may truly say, he faced about as discouraging a prop- 
 osition as ever presented itself to a construction engineer. 
 
 Passing to the south end of Culebra Cut, the locks and dam at 
 Pedro Miguel are reached. Here, by duplicate locks, with a lift or 
 drop of 30 feet, as the case may be, the change from the 85-foot 
 level, is to be made to the level of Lake Sosa, 55 feet above the 
 level of mean tide in the Pacific Ocean. The plan adopted two years 
 ago was to build two earthen dams at La Boca, near the shores of 
 Panama Bay, closing up the valley of the Bio Grande, in precisely 
 similar manner to the plan adopted at Gatun, thus forming a lake, 
 4 miles in length, giving a minumum depth of 45 feet of water 
 with a sailing channel not less than 1,000 feet in width. In Sosa 
 Mountain an isolated rock butte against which the dams were to 
 rest, two locks en flight, in duplicate, each with a drop of 27| feet, 
 were to be constructed, thus delivering ships practically into a 3-mile 
 sea-level channel, leading to deep water in Panama Bay and the 
 Pacific Ocean. 
 
 14
 
 Thus the water-way really was to consist of one stretch of canal; 
 then of a long, wide deep lake (Gatun) ; then throughout a channel 
 (Culebra Cut), of varying widths; then through a smaller lake; and 
 finally through another channel into the waters of the Pacific Ocean. 
 This was practically the plan of the minority of the Consulting Board 
 of Engineers, but has very lately been modified' to this extent : 
 
 It is now decided to build the dam and locks at the south terminus, 
 some 3 miles further inland, and thus to extend the sea-level sec- 
 tion up and through what has been known as the proposed Lake 
 Sosa. This particularly if the press accounts are correct is a wise 
 move. The writer for long months fruitlessly sought by borings to 
 discover suitable foundations for locks and dam at or near Miraflores. 
 the point finally selected. Since that time, however, changes in the 
 plans of the locks, having the effect of dropping the walls and bottom 
 of the same, have rendered sites available now for these works, that a 
 year ago were not tenable; and, too, it is an open question if such 
 changes in the lock plans, if not altogether unnecessary and question- 
 able, have not added millions to their cost, far in excess of any saving 
 in changes of location, and have not added to their efficiency, economy, 
 or safety of operation. 
 
 This is a point, however, upon which the writer reserves his judg- 
 ment, until he is more fully conservant with all the factors in the case. 
 In any event, the best plan should be chosen, regardless of expense 
 within reasonable limits. In regard to this change the writer quotes 
 from the same report made by him to the Canal Commission, referred 
 to previously, as of date January 26, 1906 : 
 
 "As regards the plan and alignment of the canal at the Pacific 
 end, I am still inclined to my former expressed opinion that, on 
 account of the military and sanitary features, the location of all the 
 locks at Miraflores and Pedro Miguel, instead of part of them at 
 La Boca, with the necessary dam at the same place, will be found more 
 satisfactory; but as the latter plan will cost about $6,000,000 less to 
 construct than the former one, I am ready to waive my views in favor 
 of the latter plan, although simply on account of the difference in the 
 estimated cost" which shows that the matter was then seriously con- 
 sidered, and that "there is nothing new under the sun." 
 
 The first, or so-called Walker Commission, was unfortunate in 
 many ways, which are immaterial here. The second commission the 
 
 15
 
 one the writer had to do with was more fortunate in its make-up, but 
 it had its limitations. When he reached Panama the last of July, 
 1905, conditions could have been much worse, but they were bad 
 enough. No real start at any effective work on the canal proper had 
 been made, no adequate organization had been effected, sanitary re- 
 forms were really just beginning, little new plant had been provided 
 and little that was absolutely necessary had been ordered. In the 
 organization which existed, no co-operation was apparent, and no 
 systematic plans, as far as the writer could discover, had been formu- 
 lated towards the carrying out of the work along lines promising any 
 degree of success. 
 
 And worse than all, over and above, in the diseased imagination 
 of the disjointed force of white employes, hovered the angel of death, 
 in the shape of Yellow Fever, a number of cases of which were then 
 prevailing, and from which several deaths had occurred. What many 
 of the intelligent men seemed to expect was an order from Washington 
 to abandon the work and go home. To provide housing for this army, 
 to properly feed, to instill into them faith in the ultimate sucess of 
 the work, to weed out the faint-hearted and incompetent, to create an 
 organization fitting to undertake the tremendous work, and to fill its 
 ranks with the proper material, was a. task of heroic proportions. No 
 one will ever know, no one can realize the call on mind and body which 
 was made upon a few for weary months, while all the necessary prelimi- 
 nary work was being planned and carried forward, and no attempt 
 was or could be made to carry on actual construction, until such pre- 
 liminaries were well in hand. And the only gleams of light and 
 encouragement, were the weekly arrivals of newspapers from the States, 
 criticizing and complaining because the dirt was not flying. 
 
 While the French turned over to us square miles of engines, cars, 
 dredges and tools of every description, very few of them were of any 
 value, and those that were used were only used until proper modern ones 
 could be substituted, but as time wore on, as new plant arrived and 
 was put in service, as proper food and housing was provided, as im- 
 proved health conditions prevailed, as the majority saw that uncon- 
 sciously, perhaps, to them a real, effective organization, working 
 steadily but surely towards a definite and intelligent end, had been 
 made, the whole situation changed for the better ; and that the organiza- 
 tion was effective, the plant well designed, and all the preliminary work 
 was fairly well done, is evident from the fact that the construction of 
 
 16
 
 the canal since the real beginning, without any addition to plant al- 
 ready in hand or under order, or material change in organization, has 
 gone steadily on, and in amount has surprised the friends and con- 
 founded the enemies of the enterprise. 
 
 When Congress finally in June, 1906 decided upon the type of 
 canal, then operations went on faster and faster, and the real start 
 towards digging began in January, 1907, and the amount of work done 
 steadily increased, until in March last, 750,000 and in April 889,000 
 cubic yards were removed from Culebra Cut a record which stood 
 until a month ago. 
 
 In passing, it is well to say that the date of the completion of the 
 canal depends upon the completion of two items of the work that of 
 Gatun Locks and that of Culebra Cut, and that some of the yardage 
 now being taken out and reported monthly, while necessarily must be 
 done sometime, could with perfect propriety be deferred, much of it, 
 for four years, thus saving the interest on the cost of such work for 
 the period named, and from a business point of view undoubtedly 
 should be postponed. 
 
 Eeference has been made to the importance of the Panama Rail- 
 road to the work of construction: Lying as it does immediately 
 along the line of the canal, it affords the only practicable means for 
 disposing of the millions of yards of waste material coming from 
 Culebra Cut. Huge systems of tracks have been planned and laid in 
 the Cut, on which are handled hundreds of work trains loaded by the 
 steam shovels with rock and earth, these systems of work tracks being 
 connected at proper intervals with the main tracks of the Panama 
 Railroad, over which the trains run to the dumping ground, or waste 
 banks, some of the latter being 15 miles distant. 
 
 A view into and over the Cut from several points is one long to be 
 remembered, and one which has never been seen before: Practically 
 at a glance, one can see from 20 to 40 of the largest steam shovels ever 
 built, dozens of trains, shuttling back and forth, air and other power 
 rock drills by the hundreds, compressor plants, machine shops all 
 clipping away, with thousands of men black and white, working on 
 the many and varied things there are to do; and over all, hangs a 
 pall of coal smoke that would gladden the heart of a suburban resident, 
 if he could only find some one to complain to about it. 
 
 17
 
 The rejuvenation of the Panama Bailroad was one of the hardest 
 problems that had to be met in getting ready to push the canal con- 
 struction. It had but a single track, practically no sidings or station 
 buildings, a worn out telegraph line, no terminals worthy the name, 
 and motive power and rolling stock that were obsolete 20 years before. 
 While a fair amount of new equipment had been ordered, little or 
 nothing had been done to place the road in proper shape to handle the 
 heavy business suddenly thrown upon it. Traffic, both that pertaining 
 to the canal and commercial, local and through, was nearly at a stand- 
 still; thousands of tons of through freight were piled in cars, ware- 
 houses, and on docks, and some of these shipments had lain from 
 3 months to a year and a half, in the hands of the railroad company, 
 and in many cases even the shipping papers and records of this freight 
 had been lost. 
 
 All these congested conditions had to be cleaned up, the road re- 
 built, reorganized in its operating features and personnel, taking care 
 at the same time of a constantly increasing traffic. All this was ac- 
 complished, so that the Panama Eailroad one year ago was placed in a 
 condition, both from a physical and operating standpoint, fit to compare 
 favorably with the average of our best American roads. 
 
 The creation of Lake G-atun will necessitate the re-location and 
 rebuilding of some 40 miles of the railroad, to place it above the lake 
 level, which work is already under way, and will be completed before 
 the work on the canal proper is done. Meanwhile, the road is handling 
 the canal business, as well as the commercial business, the latter being, 
 however as it has been for the last two years badly handicapped by 
 the very inefficient service of the Pacific Mail Steamship Co., whose 
 ships form the connecting link, between it, at Panama, San Francisco 
 and the various ports of call along the Central American and Mexican 
 
 Among the great problems that had to be solved, was the securing 
 and care of the vast army of skilled and unskilled laborers, the 
 clerical and supervising forces requisite to carry on the work. The 
 skilled forces were, and are still, recruited in the United States by 
 agencies established here at various points. At first, much difficulty 
 was experienced in securing the right class of men in the requisite 
 numbers, owing to the bad reputation which the isthmus bore, and this 
 
 18
 
 trouble was needlessly continued long months, by the malicious attacks 
 through the press, by some of our American writers, whose motives, 
 to be charitable, can only be ascribed to a morbid desire for notoriety. 
 By patient and intelligent efforts, however, the situation improved, 
 until a year and more ago it became satisfactory, and today the 
 supply of first-class material along the lines of clerical force and skilled 
 labor, is in excess of the demand. The high rate of wages paid, which 
 together with the other privileges enjoyed by these employes, make 
 employment under the Commission, usually much more attractive than 
 any they can secure in the United States. 
 
 The supplying of the unskilled labor has been much more perplex- 
 ing and unsatisfactory. Practically all of this class of labor in the 
 tropics, has for years been drawn from one source that of the blacks 
 living in the different islands in, and adjacent to the Carribean Sea, 
 and it is largely from these islands that the present force of laborers is 
 recruited. 
 
 Their value as laborers, however, is very low under any condition, 
 and the writer soon found in taking charge of the work, that if the 
 canal was to be completed in any reasonable time, or expense, some 
 other source for obtaining labor must be developed, not only to obtain 
 a better grade and surer supply, but to eliminate the sense of security 
 these people possessed, by the feeling that they had control of the 
 situation by having a labor monoply. Several plans were discussed and 
 finally an agent was sent to Europe, who after some delay succeeded in 
 directing to the isthmus, through the various steamship companies, a 
 stream of Gallegos, the people living in the Biscayan Provinces of 
 Spain, Italians and Greeks; so that for some time the labor situation 
 has been well in hand as far as numbers are concerned. 
 
 The grade is low, and the consequent result will, of course, be a 
 large increase in the cost of the canal, as compared with what the work 
 would cost, if carried out where the best ordinary labor could be pro- 
 cured. The writer favored the introduction of Chinese, whom from 
 personal experience, he knows to be superior from every point of view, 
 but the threads of political necessity sometimes run through the warp 
 even of business, so that from some unexplained reason he was never 
 able to get the authority necessary to carry his plan into effect. The 
 negroes are paid ten cents and the Europeans twenty cents per hour, 
 in gold. There are some 20 odd thousand of the former and prob- 
 
 19
 
 ably 6,000 of the latter, and the net result is that, taking our best 
 white labor here in the United States as a basis of comparison, a day's 
 labor, by reason of lack of efficiency of the blacks, is costing the United 
 States on the canal work at least 3 dollars, and this will swell the final 
 cost of the canal many millions. The nationality of these laborers, 
 their hours of work, and their rates of pay, have about the same effect 
 on labor in the United States, as if the work were located in the planet 
 Mars, but as .political factors, they probably have value. 
 
 All employes, white and black, of every grade, are given free of 
 rent, with free lights and fuel, comfortable, furnished houses. The 
 task of supplying all these wants was a tremendous one. While we 
 took over from the French many hundreds of houses of various classes 
 and capacities, all of them had to be rebuilt and made sanitary, and in 
 addition, new dwelling-houses and quarters by the thousands, hotels and 
 eating-houses, hospitals, school houses, court houses, post offices, jails, 
 commissary buildings, fire engine-houses, shops and railway buildings 
 of every description, club houses, and, indeed, the list alone is too long 
 even to enumerate, had to be provided. 
 
 On the pay-rolls of the building construction, alone, for two years, 
 were carried more than 4,000 men, and including buildings, docks, 
 etc., there was used in 18 months by the writer over 80,000,000 feet 
 B.M. equivalent to nearly 6,000 carloads of lumber, brought from 
 Puget Sound and the Gulf States. 
 
 Then, the problem of feeding this army remembering that it 
 was 2,000 and more miles from its base of supplies was a great one. 
 After much deliberation, the plan of the Commission of supplying 
 meals to all, excepting those married employes who preferred to keep 
 house for themselves, was adopted, and it has been and is, despite criti- 
 cism, a great success. Commissary and other needed supplies are sold 
 to employes under carefully-guarded regulations, generally as cheaply, 
 and in some cases cheaper than the same cost us right here in the 
 United States, and about the same class of meals is furnished in the 
 Commission eating-houses for 30 cents, as the average meal through- 
 out the United States is served for 50 cents. Of course, there are 
 and will be complaints. There are complaints in our 5 dollar-a-day 
 hotels here, and there will be so long as time and human nature 
 endures, but the facts are as stated. The record made by the Com- 
 mission in housing and caring for these employes, is one that can be 
 
 20
 
 pointed to with pride, and no one who was able to, and would work 
 has gone hungry. No Dooley can say as on another occasion : "Well, 
 the glorious war is over, and the byes are starving at Montauk, as they 
 did at Tampa/' 
 
 As to the length of time necessary to complete the canal : This 
 depends upon many conditions, some of them which may change so 
 as to disarrange all calculations. Two years ago, the writer went on 
 record that the work should be done, and the canal opened by January 
 1, 1915, and he still holds to this opinion. As before stated, the limit- 
 ing factors are Gatun Locks and Culebra Cut. No night work has 
 yet been done at either place at Culebra, while it is possible, it is not 
 advisable ; conditions are not such that economical night work there is 
 practicable nor is it necessary. An average of 1,000,000 yards 
 monthly will complete this Cut in 4^ years, and last month this 
 amount was taken out, but a rate of progress possible now in Culebra 
 Cut, cannot be maintained during the removal of the lower part of 
 the prism for several reasons, but 5 to 5 years should be ample, and 
 it is not believed that the locks and dam at Gatun can be built in less 
 than that time. They might be, by working night and day, which 
 plan will probably be pursued. Conservatively then, allowing proper 
 time for contingencies, 7 years more should see the canal in operation. 
 
 Now, as to its probable cost : All estimates are guesswork, based 
 upon experience gained under conditions similar to the ones under 
 consideration. Without entering into the various discussions of pre- 
 vious or present time, the writer believes $200,000,000, in addition to 
 those paid the French company and Panama, should fully complete 
 the canal, as well as cover the cost of necessary adjuncts, such as 
 government, sanitation, etc. However, such changes in lock plans, as 
 before mentioned, with others recently discussed, will add millions to 
 this cost, and should not be adopted unless for better reasons than have- 
 yet been set forth publicly. From 12 to 30 millions can easily be 
 added by such changes, and so any estimate, until all these factors 
 are fully determined, is largely speculative. In any case, it may be 
 taken as true, if any previous estimates of the cost of the lock type are 
 proven to be too low, as based on original plans, then it is absolutely 
 certain that estimates of the cost of a sea-level canal, would have proven 
 also to have been too low, to a very much more marked extent. 
 
 The most practicable questions of all to be considered, and the 
 correct answers to which, time only can give, are: Of what benefit 
 
 21
 
 will this canal be to the people of the United States, who are mortgag- 
 ing themselves to pay for it? And, will it pay, measured in dollars 
 and cents ? 
 
 Taking then the two values, the military and the commercial: 
 As far as the former is concerned, it undoubtedly will be of some value, 
 but not to the great extent hastily assumed. If the United States is to 
 retain its place among the first-class powers, nothing appears to be 
 clearer, than that it must be as well armed as its neighbors when they 
 disarm, then we can, and not until then. Peace conferences are all 
 right theoretically, but so far no evidence has been given that anything 
 of value, as looking towards permanent peace, has evolved from them. 
 Indeed, the last one at the Hague, to judge from reports, should rather 
 have been named a War Conference, as it dealt mostly with ways of 
 amending the existing rules, so as to enable war to be made more 
 easily. The United States must, then, maintain a big navy, and, it is 
 believed, two of them one on the Atlantic and one on the Pacific 
 Ocean. 
 
 Nations nowadays when intending to go to war, do not publish 
 their intentions and wait for proposals they begin to fight and 
 declare war later on as witness the recent Japanese-Eussian fracas. 
 As David Harum said, "find out what the other fellow is going to do to 
 you, and do it to him first" will be the policy, and this view is empha- 
 sized, when yearly it becomes more evident that the future great inter- 
 national wars will be fought on sea and not on land. 
 
 With the Panama Canal completed, it will take a modern war 
 fleet, moving as a unit, at least 17 days to steam from Hampton Roads 
 to San Francisco, or vice versa; and 17 days is a long time to wait 
 when 13-inch shells are mussing up one's front yard. No, the idea 
 that a nary can be thrown from one ocean to another, like a hot 
 potato from hand to hand, does not appeal to a practical mind, and the 
 writer believes that a navy to be of value must be somewhat in the 
 immediate vicinity of the trouble which will come quickly if it comes 
 at all. 
 
 And, too, as the improbable is what generally happens at such 
 times, supposing in case of war with some of our Oriental neighbors, 
 that the enemy's war ships should quietly elude our one wandering 
 tramp fleet, somewhere in the vast expanses of the Pacific Ocean, and
 
 they should capture the Panama Canal, and get control of our coal 
 supply, and war materials. The people of New England have had one 
 vision of a hostile fleet playing hide-and-seek on the Atlantic, and if 
 memory serves correctly, their feelings and actions at the time did not 
 indicate that they are anxiously looking for a similar experience. No, 
 rest assured, our expenditures for a proper naval program will not be 
 lessened, but will rather be largely increased by the Panama Canal, and 
 the necessity for fully protecting it in time of war, by naval, as well as 
 by land defences. 
 
 The question of the commercial value of the canal to the United 
 States, is one upon which individual judgment will vary greatly. 
 Without assuming to take decided ground either pro or con, it may be 
 pertinent to call attention to a few points that seem to bear directly on 
 the matter, and which may at least serve to give food for thought to 
 those who may be interested. 
 
 No exact records, of course, exist, but as nearly as can be deter- 
 mined, not to exceed 5% of the population of the world lives south 
 of the equator, and not over \\% live in South America west of the 
 Andes Mountains, and the great majority of these, are people whose 
 wants are primitive, and whose products are insignificant. The great 
 bulk of the people of South America live, and always will, east of the 
 Andes, in Brazil, Argentine Republic, Uruguay, and Paraguay, and all 
 these people, both east and west, are bound by ties of race, of family, of 
 business, to Europe, and east of the Andes Mountains the traffic will 
 gravitate as surely, by reason of the immense navigable rivers and by 
 the systems of railway now being constructed, toward, and to the 
 Atlantic Ocean, as an apple drops from a tree to the ground. 
 
 We need no Panama Canal to give us the cream of the business 
 from Venezuela, the Guianas, Brazil, the Argentine Eepublic : Do we 
 get it? No. Today, if you want to go to Brazil, or any country south 
 of there, you will go first to some European port and take a ship from 
 there to your destination. There is a vast empire which covers 
 southern Ecuador, eastern Peru, all of Bolivia and western Brazil; 
 probably 1,000,000 square miles in extent; unsurpassed in timber, 
 mineral and agricultural wealth, and all practically lying in the 
 water-shed of the Amazon. This river is navigable by ocean ships to 
 the heart of this country, and by light draft vessels to the very foot-
 
 hills of the Andes Mountains. Eailways already projected, can and 
 will be built eventually, on water grades to connect with the heads of 
 navigation on numerous streams, and the millions of tons of the 
 products, of this now virgin wilderness, will drop down the Amazon 
 by the cheapest form of transportation, and will have the world for a 
 market. As the writer sees the future, very little of this business can 
 or will be forced up, and over the high summits of the Andes Moun- 
 tains to find shipping at the western South American ports. Traffic 
 moves along the lines of least resistance, and only a temporary violation 
 of natural laws, can change what appears to be written as the future of 
 South American commerce. 
 
 Let us take a concrete instance, which is clearly outside the realm 
 of speculation: The Panama Eailroad yearly handles from Panama 
 to Colon about 700,000 sacks of coffee about 75% of the crop grown 
 in the western part of the Central American States. Only about 2Q% 
 of this yearly production of coffee comes to the United States the 
 rest goes to Europe; and this division of the through east-bound traffic 
 on the Panama Eailroad is nearly correct when applied to all classes of 
 shipments, even to the west-bound business. The writer, through the 
 Panama Eailroad handled all the ships that called at Colon and 
 Panama, or La Boca, its sea-port. There were last year 11 regular 
 lines of steamships doing business at Colon, 9 of them flying a foreign 
 flag, and two of them the American flag, and of these two, one was the 
 Panama Eailroad Steamship Co., owned by the United States and 
 employed almost exclusively in handling canal supplies ; the other the 
 United States Fruit Company, which did little or no business there. 
 If, then, we are to benefit so greatly in the future, by business trans- 
 ported through the Panama Canal, why do we not benefit to a greater 
 extent, now, by business coming over the Panama Eailroad ? 
 
 By reason of the canal, we can expect nothing from Africa, nor 
 from Australia, nor from the few scattered, insignificant, from a traf- 
 fic standpoint, coral islands in the South Pacific Ocean. What, then, 
 is left us ? The trade of the west coast of the United States, which we 
 have already ; that of Hawaii, the Philippines, China and Japan. Now, 
 what are we going to sell these people, and what will they buy from us 
 that will be routed through the canal ? 
 
 Coal? We can hardly mine enough now to keep our factories 
 and railroads going and our houses warm, and besides our great unde- 
 
 24
 
 veloped coal resources, lie nearer to the Pacific Ocean than they do the 
 Atlantic or Gulf of Mexico. 
 
 Wheat ? By 10 years from now, with one-half of the usual yearly 
 increase in our population, not one bushel of wheat will be exported 
 from the United States ; if it is, it will go by the way of our Pacific 
 ports. 
 
 Lumber? Within a very short time, at the rate we are now ex- 
 hausting our forests, we will be importing lumber, and already German 
 forestry experts have looked over our probable wants, and are now rais- 
 ing timber in Germany, expecting to sell it to us as they undoubtedly 
 will. 
 
 Iron and iron products? China has iron and coal to a much 
 greater extent than we have, and we can hardly hope to compete with 
 her in her own natural markets, in the face of her cheap labor, even 
 if we could eliminate the cost of thousands of miles of transportation. 
 Enough is known of the immense deposits of coal and iron in China to 
 warrant the belief that with proper development which is sure to come 
 of her manufacturing and transportation facilities along these lines, 
 that she will in the future be able to control the markets of the east, 
 and possibly compete with us right here at home. 
 
 Cotton and cotton products? Possibly, we may along this line 
 develop considerable trade, but we have to watch the cotton fields of 
 Egypt and Indies, and in the production of bread-stuff, Siberia will 
 some time rival if not outclass the United States and the northwest 
 territory combined. 
 
 Hawaii will send us sugar some of it is now coming by way of 
 the Tehuantepec Railway, recently completed. 
 
 What the Philippines can send us, no no can now tell ; possibly 
 lumber, jute, sugar and coffee. So far, they have given us nothing in 
 return for vast expenditures, excepting a large and juicy lemon. 
 
 China and Japan send us silks, rice, matting, etc., but thus far the 
 ships of the few lines that are plying between our Pacific ports and 
 those of Japan and China, have been run at a loss, excepting two 
 foreign lines, which are heavily subsidized, and altogether the prospect 
 
 25
 
 of enormous shipments to us from China and Japan does not seem to 
 be flattering, unless such shipments are made of raw material, like 
 coal, iron and lumber. 
 
 The center of population of the United States is already a long 
 distance west of the Allegheny Mountains, and the cost of transporta- 
 tion from the interior to the Atlantic, and thence over the long route by 
 way of Panama, will undoubtedly be more for most kinds of shipments, 
 than the cost directly over the route by way of our Pacific ports. 
 
 And it must not be forgotten that land transportation in the 
 United States has not come to a standstill : Our western railways are 
 becoming more and more a factor, and our Pacific ports of greater 
 importance yearly. Our business will demand, and political and other 
 interests will give way, so that the necessary funds can and will be 
 secured to increase the capacity of the present, and to add new lines, so 
 that as the productions of our factories, our fields, and our mines, 
 increase, so will the means of transportation multiply, and the cost 
 decrease, from the interior to the Pacific Ocean. 
 
 A study of the globe will reveal that as comparing the northern 
 with the southern hemisphere, the former contains within itself, by 
 reason of its immensely larger land areas, by far the greater proportion 
 of all that is of material value in the world. The great majority of 
 all that is produced and of all that is consumed, is by people living 
 north of tie Tropic of Cancer. Emigration and traffic, therefore, 
 moves largely on parallel lines of latitude, and not of longitude; and 
 just so long as the demand continues as it is now, for faster and faster 
 transportation of every product, whether perishable or not, whether 
 food products or those of iron, of copper, of wood, cotton, lumber, or 
 any other, it is difficult to figure out any great tonnage the Panama 
 Canal will handle, in which the United States will be directly inter- 
 
 The case of Europe is different, and the canal will undoubtedly be 
 of large benefit to her much more than it will be to the United 
 States. Europe has its tenacles fastened upon the trade of western 
 South and Central America what there is of it. Let a naked native 
 appear on the sea-shore in the tropics with a canoe-load, or a sack of 
 cocoa, or ivory nuts, or of copra, and the chances are good that in a 
 couple of hours the smoke of a German steamer will show up on the 
 
 26
 
 horizon, and his purchaser is at hand one that does business his way, 
 that caters to his wants, and who does not try to sell him a warming- 
 pan when he wants a pink shirt and a plug hat. 
 
 When we learn, as we may, that some form of reciprocity in our 
 commercial laws, some encouragement of our merchant marine, such as 
 is extended to its subjects by other countries, is a necessity, and when 
 we realize if we ever can that our belief in our own infallibility and 
 capacity, is not shared by the rest of the world; when we find from 
 bitter experience, that conceit is not the only valuable asset in foreign 
 trade, and that some concessions must be made to secure customers, 
 then possibly, in the distant future, some of the millions going into 
 the "big ditch" will come back to us, and the generations to come will 
 grant to our memories, the tribute of great foresight. 
 
 Granting the total cost of the canal will be, exclusive of the interest 
 charge during construction, as it is now claimed, $300,000,000 : The 
 yearly interest on this amount at two per cent, will be $6,000,000, to 
 which must be added the cost of maintenance and operation, say, $2,- 
 400,000, also a sinking fund of $10,000,000, to provide at the end of 
 thirty years an amount sufficient to retire the bonds. Thus we will 
 have a yearly charge of $18,400,000, to be met by gross earnings, which 
 must come from tolls on passing traffic. The Suez Canal was thirty- 
 six years in attaining a yearly traffic of 11,160,000 net tons. This 
 amount of traffic applied to the Panama Canal, with a rate of toll of 
 $1.50 per ton the highest rate yet suggested would give a gross 
 yearly revenue of $16,740,000 $1,660,000 less than enough to meet 
 fixed, and operating charges in its thirty-sixth year. 
 
 The Suez Canal, opened in 1870, showed a net tonnage the first 
 year of 400,000, which has gradually increased in thirty-six years to 
 11,160,000 net tons in 1906 (and by net tonnage is meant the actual 
 tonnage on which, under our rules of measurement, tolls would be col- 
 lected), the average yearly net tonnage since being approximately 
 5,298,700, which at $1.50 per ton would produce a gross revenue of 
 $7,948,050, leaving a yearly average deficit, if applied to the Panama 
 Canal, of $10,451,950, or in 36 years, an accumulated deficit of $376,- 
 270,200, to which may be added, the interest charge if the $300,000,- 
 000 does not cover it during the period of construction, making a 
 grand total of $400,000,000, which must be provided for from other 
 sources than earnings. 
 
 27
 
 Plainly, then, the Panama Canal must handle a larger tonnage 
 each year from the very opening than the Suez Canal did after thirty- 
 sir years, as any rate of toll calculated to make it self-sustaining would 
 be simply prohibitory. Still, he is a rash man, who recklessly assumes 
 the role of the prophet as regards the extension, and the possibilities of 
 commerce. We had better trust that the brighest dreams will be real- 
 ized, and let the coming generations do the worrying about the financial 
 future of the completed canal. 
 
 Meanwhile, for any one who has the opportunity and inclination to 
 take a three-weeks' trip from New York, there certainly, in the same 
 time and at the same expense, cannot be found elsewhere in the world, 
 so many things in which every American should take a deep interest, as 
 can be found in a week's visit to the Canal Zone.
 
 romwhichftwas borrawed.
 
 UC SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY