The western sentinel. [volume] (Winston-Salem, N.C.) 1887-1926, 1893-01-19
PANAMA CANAL SCANDAL.
A Brief History Of the Growing
IniQQltYOf the Age.
SAD STORY OF WO0LEN STOCKINGS


His Old Age-Tbe Panama Cana
Project was Not Conceived in In
iquity, but was nor Long Becon
| ing a SwindIe-Story in Nutshell
The recent resignation of the
French Cabinet and the pending tria
of Charles dc Lesseps and others will
| doubtless make interesting a short
history of the Panama iniquity.
In 1855 and following. an ambitious
young French officer. Vicompte Fer
dinand de Lesseps persuaded the
Khedive of Egypt and the Sultan OF
Turkey to allow him to cut shfE
canal through the Isthmus of SueZ tc
bring together the waters OF the Med
iterranean and the Red Seas. Al
though comparatively insignificant.
! the boldness of this enterprise soon
won for him in his native country.
| friends, influence, and most needful
of all, money.
| In spite of the fact that the great
English engineer, Stephenson, laugh
| ed his project to scOrn, the canal was
| finally completed and on November 16,
speech on that auSpiciOus at Port
Said. when the Emperor of Austria,
the Crown Prince of Orange, the EN-
| press of France and other distinguish
ed persons were present at the formal
opening of the canal. He was sixty
four years old then, but he said in the
course of his speech that he did not
intend to rest until he had done for the
Occident what heuhad accomplished
for the Orient. He would pierce the
Isthmus of Panama.
1t was eight years before step was
taken. 1t took France that long to
finish and recover from her fight with
Germany. A French engineering cx-
pedition said the undertaking was
feasible and so De Lesseps organized
and became President of the Panama
Canal Company, and opened the sub
scription books. De Lesseps called
upon the French common people to
open their
''WOOLEN STOCKINGS.
His appeal met with prompt response
and the peasantry of the provinces
and the Iaborers of the great cities
stockings, the repositories of their
scant earnings, and sent them to De
Lesseps. Their stockings were emp
tier than usual after the terrible
struggle with Germany just finished,
but sPapa de Lesseps'' was going to
make them all rich. and so they heap
ed their little savings into the Pana-
ma Company's Golfers. The ready
response. the 400. 900, 600 francs, sig
nifying such confidence touched De
Lesseps to tears.
The engineers said a Sea-level canal
IS kilometers, or about 45 miles long,
would call for the excavation Of $780,
600, 600 tons of earth, and cost 1,240,-
100000 francs or S240, ,000, ,O0O. De
Lesseps, however, said he would finish
the canal in seven years at half that
outlay of money.
Work began at both erds of the
Isthmus of Darien in 1880, when De
Lesseps was IS years old. In three
years 400, 900 francs and 100000
900 more francs were gone, and but
twelve miles of canal had been dug,
and 119, 900, 600 tons of earth exc2yat-
ed. There were some protests then,
especially when De Lesseps asked for
more money, but a commission sent
out said everything was all right, and
then the wooden stockings turned out
400. 900, 900 more francs still.
Although the newspapers, the socI-
ETY. people, the public men of France
from 1883 on to a few weeks ago,
the great work for commerce and hu-
manity he was doing, the people at
last began to distrust, from rumorS
they heard from outsiders and for
eigners. Consequently when, in No
yember, 1888, De Lcsseps tried to raise
more money by lottery, lie failed
and the Panama Company went into
liquidation, and niDe-tcnthS of the
half millions subscribers Wept over
Il. <.r
en- stockings. Half million persons
lwere direct ioosers, but four times
that many suffered from the collapse.
During the first four years only part
| Of twenty miles Of forty-five to be
completed, had been dug and there
| had been spent LOO, coo, 900 Or $780,
| COO, goo.
A GIGANTIC FRAUD.
| A government Investigating com
| mittee was the outcome of the clamoi
| incident upon the failure of the com
| pany. But of two reports only the
| one favorable to and SympathiZins
/ with the Panama Company was print
ed or made public until recently.
1t could not but be apparent from
the outset almost that the canal was
utterly impossible of completion
and that work or Semblance of it wa
kent up all the time merely for pur
poses of robbery and bribery. Nil
lions were spent in sending lying re
Dorts1of the work to the owners of th
wooden stockings. The facts that onl.
those acclimated could work in tina
malarious place; that the natives wer
too lazy to work; that the river Cha
gres, along whose course the Color
| end of the canal was projected, is 8
torrent months of every year, chang
ing it's course at any moment: that 2
miles were to be cut through hills
tone 400 feet high: all these were cor
| ccaled from the people.
At first little work was done, an
some l5 miles on the colon side and
miles on the Panama side were pal
TALLY completed. But little 'laxnes
finally led to the greatest corruption
/ men being paid enormously for dOin
little or nothing, and at the last idl'
ness. gambling and prostitution PR
vailed at Darien. Machinery sent Ou
was dumped into the bay. There wei
false estimates and accounts. If
rascal outdid himself and was threa
| ened with dismissal, he in turn ha
only to threaten to expose the comp;
nv, and he got better position. Or
| honest man went back to France
1884 borrified, and told old DeLessel
If the corruption. The Compile wei
and promised correction and purlfic