Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1885-11-27
CANAL Acnoss rar 1srnnus-

tudl tAe huIk WIS unOerLaKen without
that serious surveying and estimating SO
vast an undertaking required. It shows
equally conclusively that the canal cannot
be built for the 900, 600, 600 francs at which
De Lesseps estimated tie outlay, nor can
it be completed by the year 1888, ss it was
claimed it would be. These are very seri-
GUS points, as far as they go, against the
undertaking as it stands, but for a work
to cost beyond the estimate ia no
thing. That grand and successful
monument of De Lesseps's genius, the
Suez canal cost about 5000, 900 francs
more than double the estimate, yet it was
completed. The Panama canal is ap-
preaching the crisis when more than the
800, 100000 will be wanted, and it Is pre-
dicted that when the annual report is laid
before the stockholders next June the
concern will be bankrupt and the work
come to a stand. In the care of the Suez
canal the company got out of money and
the work came to a stand two or three
times, but it was built, nevertheless. That
the canal cannot be finished by 1888 is
conciusively established, but what
vast work ever is finished at the time
which was theoretically possible, but
which proved practically impossible? For
this discrepancy between cost, and time,
and the estimates they fail to square with,
Signor Rodrigues, the author of
the book, formulstes heavy charges
against De Lesseps, so that the New
York Tribune says he portrays
him as neither saint nor sage, but a
swindler. In polite language, but still
moro clearly, NJ. Rodrigues maintains that
the distinguished diplosnatist has been
obtaining money under false pretenses."
Tie people of America will be slow to ac-
cspt such a verdict IS this where a man
who for eighty years mas sustained the
reputation ID. de Lesseps enjoys to-day is
in question. Fresh from HE conquest at
SGez, having no doubt his share Of the
national Gallo vanity, he threw himself
enthusiastically into q new struggle with
rugged nature and accepted with too
ready facility the statements of those who
had examined the ground, and supplied
material for the estimates. Envy and in
terested opposition supplied him with a
sufficiency Of this kind OF mud when it
was proven over and over again that to
build the Suez canal was impossible, and
that the millions spent would lie in the deg
ert sand and It's contributors perish In
poverty for putting their trust in him, vet
suez canal shares are to-day among the
very highest aeccrities on the globe. A
rogue would, with the purchase of the
least possible material and the contraction
OF the fewest possihls shops, offices, hos
pitfalls and houses, have made the best show
BY actual work done on the canal, and on
that show appealed for more funds, most
OF which would have been required to
buy construction material and provide
other requisites. signor Rodrigues, ss
others have done before him, acknowl.
edges that the installation" ia excellent,
Building, provision of machinery, loco.
motives, the wise purchase of the Isthmus
railway, and so on, are excellent. Such
preliminary outlay swells frst expensea
and lightsns future ones, and yet De Les.
sePs incurred those expenses and conse-
gently made so much tic less show on the
cana. bed for the money spent. Such a
want OF putting the best leg foremost
hardly looks like dishonesty. The writer,
like others, fnds the Chagres river an in.
supcrable problem. There cannot bui
be doubts upon that point, but De Lssseps't
way of meeting the difficulty Is ingenious
The river in sudden freshets rises from 8
depth OF two or three fset to fo.ty feet
at the rate of six inches an hour
As the Ohio river freshets are com.
monty at the rate of twelve inches an houl
rise at Cincinnati, the rate is net fast. To
prevent the river washing away the canal
there Is to be g dam stopping its flow
where it would do damage, a tunnel thsl
will carry of the ordinary flow, and lateral
sluices will convey what exceeds a given
hight To decrease the overflow a valley
will be damned in at the upper waters,
and instead of ell the supeifuous water:
flowing eli a large portion OF them will
be retained in the vast artificial Like thus
formed and allowed . pass down when
safe to DO so. So we ineloss a vast body Of
water in the upper Mississippi and allow
it to flow out when navigation requires it.
To prepare this lake in a tropically
dedsely wooded valley is q difficult,
but not impossible, work. When
De Lssseps constructed the suez canal II
was wondered where he would get his
stone for the york in a desert of sand. He
made the desert his stone-quarry by turn.
ing the sand into ARTIFICIAL stone. Some.
thing of the same genius is seen in the way
he proposes TO deal with the terrible
Chsgres. The Chagres is a real difficulty.
however, az the stone was, and how to set.
tie the question of a French-owned canal
and our Monroe doctrine is another
Should the worst come to the worst, and the
French company give up the work, some
party, perhaps the United States, would
buy cheap what has cost the present ON.
pany dear, and be able to fnish the work
for a sum that would pay as good a profit
as the SueE canal is paying now. These
ways of meeting difficulties and battling
even nature itself are not described in
R%odrigues's book. That work was under.
taken with IN intention to writs De Les
seps and Panama canal down, in order to
prepare the ground for writing the Mica
raguan canal up. He who reads the book,
reading between the lines,' will have no
difficulty in discovering that fact.