Dodge City times. [volume] (Dodge City, Kan.) 1876-1892, 1880-04-03
CAPT. EAD.'s SCHEME.

Prom the n. Y. Tribune.l


James h. Eads, at the Albemarle Hotel,
yesterday afternoon, and learned that
he is thoroughly in earnest in reference
to his ship-railway project, and is con-
fident Of getting il in course of con-
struction in few months after Congress
shall have passed the bill introduced
into the House by Mr.. Wells, of Missou-
ri, and in the Senate by Senator Vest.
Captain Eads expressed the opinion that
the DE Lesseps canal project was now
virtually dead He continued with ref
erence to the bill advocating his plans
rs follows:
sit authorizes a corporation TO build
the necessary works across the Isthmus
anywhere between North and South
America, after securing from the Cen
trail American States the necessary con-
cessions. 1t guarantees the protection
of the United States TO the franchises
he may secure and to the works he may
construct. and provides for the detail of
two ships of war, officers and men, TO
aid in the necessary surveys for the
works. After the works are completed,
and loaded ship of specified tonnage
shall have been safely and satisfactorily
transferred from ocean to ocean, the
guarantee of tine United States Govern
ment of six per cent. dividends on $780,
600. 0c0 of stock shall take effect for
thirty years; and in consideration of this
guarantee the United States shall have
the right to fix and alter the rate of tolls
AT its pleasure am confident of sue
cess, and think il the sheerest waste Of
time on the part of Congress or the pub
lie to be discussing n canal when bet
ter method, which can be put in opera
ton in one-quarter of the time ana for
one-quarter of the money, has the high
est and most emphatic approval of the
ablest engineers and shipbuilders in
America and Europe. If NJ. de Lesseps
were an engineer he would not spend
his time on a scheme so hopeless as
canal. 1t is hopeless, because capital is
timid and conservative, and il is not GO
ing TO be put into a canal when q better
and much cheaper method is urged and
has the approval of experts of the very
highest standing. Men will not put
money into the canal, at any rate, until
the cheaper method is shown to be Wis
ionsry, and this is simply impossible to
he shown, because the more the ship
railway is discussed and examined the
more simple and practical will it APP
pear. The discussion that has now
opened reminds one of the discussion
which preceded my proposition in 1873,
TO deepen the mouth of the Mis-
sissippi by jetties. Almost every
one thought the Fort St. Philip
canal was the only way the river could
be opened. said other rivers had been
successfully treated by the jetty system
Yes, oh yes, but they were all small
rivers, was the reply. To-day | urge
that vessels are transported by rail and
have been for forty years, and the
answer is the same, Yes, yes, but they
are small ones-canal-boats, schooners,
and the like In the jetty controversy
the opposers said the quantity of sand
and mud that was carried in the Missis-
sippi River was so great that it could
not be controlled; and to- day they cry
out the cargo is so great in big ship
that she can not be carried without
straining the ship. The most eminent
shipbuilders in the world say this is all
mistake. They tell us that one of the
imperatives rules of their art requires
that ship shall be built of such
strength that if she be lifted up by a
force at each end, and without support
in the middle, she shall remain unin-
jured; and, in like manner, if she be
supported only ut the middle, her hull
shall be so stiff that it will not be in
jured thereby. | am not without
practical knowledge myself on this point.
| have built fourteen iron-clad YES
sells for the United States. The
first eight she ever owned l
built, aud | know that the strength
of a ships hull, to stand the storm
of the ocean. must be calculated just a
we calculate the strength of a bridge
glrder. Naval architects in calculating
tho rapuiSita rn;,.e mass ~ IRON fn,. ships