US Presidency
1909

It will also have a most beneficial effect to increasethe trade between the eastern seaboard of the United States and the westerncoast of South America, and, indeed, with some of the important ports onthe east coast of South America reached by rail from the west coast. The work on the canal is making most satisfactory progress. The typeof the canal as a lock canal was fixed by Congress after a full considerationof the conflicting reports of the majority and minority of the consultingboard, and after the recommendation of the War Department and the Executiveupon those reports. Recent suggestion that something had occurred on theIsthmus to make the lock type of the canal less feasible than it was supposedto be when the reports were made and the policy determined on led to avisit to the Isthmus of a board of competent engineers to examine the Gatundam and locks, which are the key of the lock type. The report of that boardshows nothing has occurred in the nature of newly revealed evidence whichshould change the views once formed in the original discussion.