The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-03-15
ON THE PANAMA CANAL
ABOUT THREE THOUSAND MEN HAVE
BEEN QUIETLY PUT TO WORK.
And the Great Project May BE Sue
cessful-Paris PIunderers Compelled
to DisgOrge Millions.
Cyrus c. Adams. in St. Louis Globe-Demo-


Seven years ago nearly everybody said the
do not know what the end will be- but the
great scheme is not dead On the contrary
it shows signs of surprising vitality.
ordered and paid for. and about 5000 men
by good. honest toll. There are no sine
cures for anybody, and no faint of scandal
attaches 20 the new regime. Our news
papers have been telling about the bill re-
Gently before Congress in aid of the pro-
posed Nicaragua canal; and in the same
issue they have announced that the Pana-
ma Canal Company contracted for the serv
ices of some thousands of laborers. TO be
supplied from Jamaica, and is paying Co.
lombia $4,000 month to police the sec
tions of the canal that are completed or
building
What does all this mean? Seven years
ago it looked as though the hard savings
of some 100000 French working people had
been engulfed beyond recall in this big
ditch, and the jobbery and robbery that
made the project the scandal of the age.
The financial collapse was complete;
it was proved that about three-sev-
enths of every franc had gone. not
into the canal work, but into the cor
ruption fund and the advertising schemes;
and to crown all. eminent engineers said
that Count De Lesseps had been trying all
those years to achieve the impossible.
How was confidence restored in a scheme
so covered with scandal and disaster?
What is the company? Whence comes
the money it is using. who is behind it.
and what are its plans and prospects?
These are interesting questions, and will
be answered here fully enough TO show that
many persons really think there is some
logical basis for resuming work on the
Panama canal.
Early in 1855 the De Lesseps Company
found itself unable to wheedle another dol
lar out of the French public, which had
invested 26O, 900 in its snareS. OF this
vast sum of money. obtained in nine years,
$40, coo 600 had been put into the canal, and
the balance. 20.0G0000, had been swallowed
UP in Paris by the company promoters, the
subdized newspapers, the politicians and
the Out-and-out thieves who had their fin
ger In the pie. The orange was squeezed
dry. all payments We're suspended. work on
the canal was stopped. and the company
went into liquidation on March Is, 1889
This was nearly four years before the
storm of the Panama canal scandal burst.
though many knew it was brewing and was
sure to come. The old company could not
be be- dea as an th VAST Whi G0ud
pure waste? There was no answer until it
was ascertained Just what had been ac-
poets of completing the canal if funds were
provided. So the receiver of the company.
NJ Brunei. sent an able commission to
We'll as French engineers. and the report it
submitted in May. 1890. was very i'm
portant because it was the basis of all that
has since been done.
A CAUTIOUS REPORT
This report. in eight pamphlets. each
treating a special phase of the work, was
very cautious and serious in its tone. The
main points were that the work accom-
plished had been we'll done; that the enor-
nous plant was well adapted for the work
and was in good condition. and that it was
feasible to complete the canal, not as sea-
level channel but canal with locks, at
further cost of $50, 000, 900, including inte--
est the Investment and an allowance of
20 per cent. for unexpected expenses. These
estimates, based on a canal of a given
width and depth, were only provisional, the
commission said, though based largely upon
technical study of the work. The tom
mage passing through the completed canal
in the first year was estimated at i 900 900
tons. and twelve years after the opening at
6,O00.0 600 TONS with net toll receipts for the
twelfth year OF S12. $50 600, after deducting
COlombiaS per cent. and allowing for re-
pairs and betterments. The proposed rate
of toll was about % per cent. higher than
that of the SueZ canal.
Many French engineers who read this re-
port said ii was conservative, and they be-
the work were liberal. The estimates were
reduced, however, before work was re-
sumed in the fall of 1894. Engineers who
had spent months on the ground declared
that the difficulty of controlling the
Chagres river under the new plans OF work
that had been prepared and of preventing
than they had anticipated, and they re-
duced the estimates OF cost by about $780,.
When France read the long report Of the
commission the question everybody asked
was: What will the country do about it?''
Many thought the national honor was in
volved. The canal had been dug a third of
the way across the isthmus. The work
achieved and the plant on the grounds
could not be duplicated the commission
said, for less than $50, 900, 900. French work
ingmen had paid for this work at much
higher rate. and now the COlombians were
using the canal. a navigable highway for
and other heavy freight. The interest this
discussion revived and maintained among
the people was the first great result of the
commissions report for il led the Legisa-
ture in France TO take significant action
In 1891 a committee of the Chamber of
Deputies was appointed to examine into
the affairs of the defunct company with a
view to the completion of the canal, with
the aid, Of the French government If this
found to be feasible. The committee
reported in favor of completing the canal.
but advised that France make arrange
ments with other maritime powers to share
in guaranteeing the principal and interest
on the capital subscribed; also that the
minister of justice should ascertain whether
contractors had obtained eXorbitant prices
by fraud received pay for work that
had not been done. This led to the inquiry
that made the Panama scandal known to
the whole world.
1t was finally agreed that the time was
not Opportune to ask the cooperation of
other nations. but from that day to this
everything has been done with the tacit
approval of the French government That
France holds itself responsible for the final
completion of the work yet is not at all
probable: that she is promoting the work
now doing and will not permit the stock
holders who advanced money for the re-
sumption of work to suffer loss i'm case the
enterprise Is after all. failure. is un-
doubtedly true. Every step taken has been
tentative. Every expenditure has been well
within the means provided. The policy I'm
a sentence. has been to save the project:
to keep it moving slowly and to wait for
better times.
Then Colombia had TO be propitiated. She
had seen the vanishing of her hopes. The
enterprise that was TO bring much profit to
her treasury had fallen by the way The
country felt very sore over De Lesseps' fail
ure, and when the receiver of the company
placed a barrier across the entrace to the
canal TO prevent the people from using IT
as water highway Colombia quickly re-
moved the obstacle and told her citizens TO
get what good they could of il. The canal
concession was soon 10 run out. and unless
Colombia renewed il there would be no
canal. II took long 20 convince the repub-
lie that any good could come out of France
but the impediments were at last removed
and the concession was extended for two
years. pending the organizing of a new
company and later the time for forming
the company and reSuming work was ex-
tended To Oct. 81. 1894. and Colombia. for
cash i'm hand and i'm prospect. granted a