Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-11-23
WASTE OF MILLIONS.
Lives and Money Taken to Panama
and Dumped in the Mud.
CORRUPTION AND EITRAvAGANCE
In the Canal Enterprise That Will Appall
the Whole World.
NDEsCRIBABLE RUIN ON THE ISTHMUs
ESPECIAL rELKeRAM TO THE DISPATCH! !!

ESPECIAL TELEGRAM TO THE pIsPATcH.I
NEW YORK, Nov. 22-''Its q strange
picture-the psndemonium that reigns in
the French Chamber of Deputies, contrssted
with the desolation and almost indescribs.
bic ruin at Panama." said gentleman who
recently returned from Panama to a reporter
this morning. ''Over !, 500 900, 900 francs
have been taken out of France, carried
down there and dumped into the mud.
Thousands of lives have been sacrificed and
drained off the black population of the An
titles as no war or pestilence could have
done.
ut will be a long time before the world
will believe what insane methods of eI-
penditure have led to the bursting of the
Panama bubble and the loss of $500, 900, 900
TO France. The engineers began the work
with crude survey of the Isthmus, which
was found to be so imperfect that the whole
thing had to be thrown away and a new
survey made after S1OO oOo, 600 had been
spent Just east of the city of Panama
$1,000 hospital was erected without
considering the drainage facilities.
Gross Mistakes and Extrav1gances.
cit was intended to carry the sewerage into
q
stream into the bay of Panama. After it
had been built the city of Panama resolved
that the system of drainage threat
ened the health of the town, and at an extra
expenditure of $500, 600 the drainage was
carried into another valley. One of the
superintendents, whose residence cost the
company S160, 600. built driveway at a cost
of S675, 900 in order to inspect the works
from his carriage.
q IL
track few miles west from Culebra They
cost $3.50, but they had never lifted q
yard of earth when condemned by the en-
gineers of the company, and run off en- to a
side track to rot. 1 saw q train OF 80 loco
motives, beautiful engines, painted and
shining, apparently fit to fire up and start
on an hours notice. l took nv penknife and
dug the rivets out of the boilers and with
my hands broke of the brass-cocks and
gauges. A shipload of machinery from
France was landed at Aspinwall, loaded
aboard the cars and sent out on to the line
of the canal After certain time the rail-
road company notified the engineers of the
canal that unless the cars were unloaded be-
fore certain date the machinery would be
dumped of by the railroad employees
Machinery Dumped Into the Swamp.
"When the day arrived the cars were
hauled to a swamp and the whole shipload
of engines, boilers, tools and an entire plant
for machine shop were thrown in the mud
and in month had sunk out of sight
When $3.50. 000, 600 had been spent all the
plans were changed again, the estimated
cost of the canal again increased, this time
10 $500, ,0O0,0 or 9, 800. 900, 900 francs The
idea OF constructing canal at ocean level
without locks was abandoned.
"A new plan was made, new surveys ex-
tended and the Nxhole rbipr hacup
again on the scheme of constructing tre-
mendous reservoirs up in the mountains
back of Culebra to retain the waters of the
Chagres river and to raise the canal over
the hills by locks and drop it again to the
ocean level This work was begun blindlv
in the desperation of the engineers to ac-
complish something and was prosecuted
until the Chagres river had washed
away their steel bridges, filled their e1cava-
tlons again and presented q problem so for
mldable that the engineers actually deter
mined to build two canals, one for COM
merce and the other to control the Chrages
river. and at last abandoned even that and
declared the river uncomfortable.
A Cost That Will Appar.
'The city of Aspinwall stands on made
ground-an island off shore-that was con-
structed by the company to hold the plant
intended for operations on the Atlantic. If
the investigation of the French Chamber
reveals the cost and methods of construc-
tion of that island, the world will stand
appalled,. When the salaries of the Off
cials of the company and the habits
of their lives on the Isthmus are
exposed the world will laugh. When the
picture is drawn of the great charnel holes
between Panama and Aspinwall, where the
bodies of the thousands of the dead were
thrown to rot day and night for months and
years, and when the CHASTITY details of the |
awful crimes against humanity that were
committed there have all been told the |
world will be Mortified.
'But constrasted with all this is a fact |
that Americans can be proud Of The only |
contract that was ever awarded and honestly |
carried out on the Panama Canal was held |
bv an American contractor. 1t was the |
work of dredging in from Aspinwall toward |
the hills. The work was taken BY Henry |
B. SIavin, who received his money, built a |
dozen of the most powerful dredges that |
have ever been constructed, took them to |
Panama and completed his contract within |
the time limit. He worked on an entirely |
different system from the Frenchmen. He |
took his own men, took cara of them in his |
own way, lost comparatively few lives and |
did his work WELL. ;"