The morning call., 1893-04-06
ONLY TIME WASTED.

a telegram from B0gOta announces that
the Colombian Government has granted the
Panama Canal Company twenty months
within which to form new company and
begin afresh the construction of the canal
1t is a yalueless concession, because the
task is hopeless. Twenty years would no
more suffice than twenty months. So much
capital has been sunk with barren results
in fnolishly planned enterprise that no.
body with grain of sense would risk an
other dollar. 1t is throwing good money
after bad. Work has been so long suspended
that what has been done has largely gone
to ruin through the storms and rank vege-
table growth of the tropics. The Chagres
River never has been under control, aud its
floods have played havoc. The Culebra
cutting, even for q canal with locks, is not
abated in formidable engineering diff
culties. Costly plant is little better than
wreck Labor cannot be procured either
efficient or cheap, and white men to super
intend must be paid very high salaries, the
climate being deadly to large proportion.
AS the company is in the hands of re-
ceiYer it is legally necessary to make a show
of continuing its existence for the sake Of
the franchise and the assets assumed to
exist. But the real condition of the COM
pany resembles that of very sick man who
insists upon getting out Of bed and resum-
ing work which he is no longer fitted to
undertake.
The former editor of the Panama Star
and Herald has recently told the story of
the canal with an unsparing criticism of the
blunders perpetrated. De Lesseps was
flush from his conquest of the valley Of the
Nile. He made no allowance for the forced
fellah labor he there had to command He
did not con slider it necessary to make thor
ough surveys. He made no adequate study
OF the Chagres River and its floods. He did
not make borings TO learn what the sub
strata consisted of. II made no allowance
for hard rock to be rended by blasting
agents. He thought he could cut
through the chain of hills at Guile
bra as if they were soap or the
building stone of Paris. lie would not
consider the advisableness of locks. 1t
must he a canal open from end to end. As
it were he took the isthmus in al a glance and
went ONE to find the money. France had
such con fdence in bis integrity and capacity
that had he asked for the moon it would
have paused before considering him Insane
The supply Of funds was generous at the
outset and it was spent lavishly and reck-
lessly. The want of plans involved waste
without parallel. and when the greedy on
the spot saw how easy it was to catch the
shower of gold they did not neglect the
opportunity. So confused and unsystema-
tic was the work Of the engineers and con-
tractors that II may almost be said that it
went backward almost as fast as it went
forward. 1t was simply pOttering away at
portions of the route and accomplishing
nothing permanently. A time came when
De Lesseps could not deceive himself He
extended the time for completion. He got
Eiffel to design locks. The primary plan
OF tide-level canal was abandoned. Then
more money was needed in huge drafts that
would drain the banks, and at last in des-
perate straits, no resource was left but to
deceive the public, bride the papers, bride
the Legislature. a crop of corruption was
sown which has we'll nigh choked the vi
tally Of the French republic.
AS much money is needed now as has
been expended. What body of investors
would risk their money in such a project,
beggared by incompetency, rashness and
fraudf If France has had enough of 1t
what other country Will take it up? No
other in Europe. The United States will
have none Of it. Nicaragua is the route for
this country. When the Panama canal
promoters finally retire in despair the Co.
lomDian Government will not take up the
work. The task is beyond its strength. 1t
will allow the weeds to oblterate all traces
OF the shovel and dredger, and hold an old
horse sale Of the plant.