Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1888-12-28
CURRENT AFFAIRS.
SOME LVTERESTING FACTS

About the DE Les-eps Canal scheme
aud the Way the Work has been Car
ried on.
Looking back at the work which NJ. de
Lesseps has been carrying ON for the last
eight years, it is easy TO see the number Of
avoidable mistakes that have been made
When in May, 1879 the international Con
gress on the question of canal between
the Atlantic and Pacific oceans met in Par
is NJ. de Lesseps was determined that the
project known as the Lieut. Wyse plan
should be favorably acted upon. One rea-
was a Frenchman, and, as the other plans
proposed we're by engineers of other ma
tionalities NJ de Lessepss sense of patriot
ism may have led him TO favor this particu-
lar project. Besides this, Lieut. Wyse's
plan was the only one that contemplated a
sea level canal, without the use Of locks
His estimate of the cost Of the work was
500, ,OO0, 900, but the committee ON tech
nique Of the international congress, which
went over his plan, found that it would
cost $3.50, 900, 600, aud this without making
any allowance for expenses of the commits
sion, interest on the money expended, sala
ry Of engineers, or the cost of preventing
water from interfering with the work The
other plans, such as those Of Mr. Menocal
and Commodore now AdmiraD Selfridge,
were less costly, but their propositions in.
volved the use Of locks as a means of car
rying the canal over elevated lands in the
centre of the isthmus and the Wyse plan
was adopted at the insistence Of NJ de Les
brated English engineer, Sir John Hawk
shaw, who had 50 mt several years at the
isthmus Of Panama and who was thorough
ly acquainted with the typographical feat
ures Of the country.
Not only was an expensive and problem
atical method adopted, but from first to last
there seems to have been complete ab
>ence of careful administration Reports
that have come from the isthuus Of Panama
during the last five or six years have been
filled with accounts Of the Wasteful way in
which the work of canal construction has
been carried on. Machinery costing mill
ions of dollars has been left to rust and de
'hN III lne SN uullS NOIk mas bttu unuef
taken at points aud under conditions so un.
favorable to its successful prosecution that
It has been found necessary 10 do it over
again while contracts to large amounts
have been given out in manner suggestive
Of favortism and corporate corruption
| nder the best Of management the work
would have been one of enormous expense,
and its completion problematical but under
the way in which it has been carried on the
best informed have repeatedly asserted that
the company was certain 10 20 into bank
ruptcy.
Realizing the magnitude Of the task he
had undertaken, a year and half ago NJ
lie Iesseps changed his plan, abandoned the
,ea-level idea, and arranged to have the
canal carried across the country by means
IF eight or ten locks. thus decreasing the
cost Of construction If this method had
been part of the original plan, the canal
10y this time might have been in successful
operation but the change in policy was
made at too late day to save the company
from the emharraSsments arising from va
rious errors The confidence with which
VI de Lesseps was regarded by the French
people had been broken. and with it his
power 10 raise more money. The debt Of
the canal company had swelled 10 enormous
so that If the canal were now
it i, not at all probable that the
cient for a long time TO come to pay the in
terest on its debt, to say nothing of divi-
dends to the holders Of its shares.