The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1897-04-30
THE PANAMA CANAL.

The Panama canal is by no means as
dead as many people are inclined to
think. In quiet way the French have
recovered themselves and have set to
work digging the great ditch again.
Some of the men who had received
money from the old concern were
forced to disgorge their i'll gotten
gains; among the principal o. these
was Eiffel, famous for his tower in
Paris. He had received pay in adj
vance for ten locks which, of course,
had never been built. He had to hand
back $2,000,000. Others of the horde
who had MIXED the Panama COW dry,
were also forced to repay some of their
plumber and finally quite little cap
ital was got together and to this was
added fresh subscription among the
shareholders themselves. The conces-
sion, which had nearly run out, was
on.
The canal is to have ten locks and
the water is to be supplied to the
higher locks by means of immense
reservoirs. These will store the sur
plus water during the floods on the
Chagres river and, in the dry season,
afford a reserve supply for filling the
canal when required The canal has
now sixteen miles completed on the
Colon or Aspinwall side. and four
miles on the Panama side and it is
now claimed that it will be completed
in 1904. Dates are, however, fallacious.
1t must be remembered that the Pan
anna canal was to be finished in 1880,
then in 1885. and then it's completion
was put off year by year until the
grand financial smash came.
If ever the canal is completed it will
stand as a monument of what can be
done by perseverance in the face of
unparalleled disaster. The people
working upon the canal have died like
sheep with the rot. There are no sta
tistics of how many lives have been
lost during the progress of the work,
and it is not likely that the company
is DESTROYS of looking up such things.
Then when expenses were cut down
and wages lowered there was grand
riot and the workmen tried to burn
Aspinwall and threatened to destroy
the railway and what portions of the
canal was in working order-but that
was overcome and the workmen re-
turned to work, though some drifted
away to South America and Mexico to
swell the horde of rascaldom which
can be found in all the large sea ports
along the coast. But the death of the
laborers. the unruliness of the work
ers, sinks into insignificance beside the
scheme caused in France. 1t may be
regarded as the browning commercial
scandal of a century which has pre-
scented more commercial scandals than
any before it. That the enterprise goes
on shows the faith the French have
in it,
The work is now Ding on steadily
and not in feverish way, as former
~. The financial basis is sound and
a very large number of engineers con-
slider that it will be carried through
is the Cassandra brigade, which pre-
diets nothing but failure in the long
run.
We in the islands are, of course, in
terested in the canal prospects. To us,
however, it does not matter which
scheme is carried through, so long as
one of the schemes proves successful.
With either the Panama or the Near
aqua canal carried out, the geograph-
ical position of these islands will give
them a very commanding position on
this ocean, and our harbors would
swarm with ships from all parts of
the world. That is, if we had cable.
For without a cable our position
would avail us very little. There looks,
however, a far better chance for get
ting a cable quickly than there is for
bringing either of the canals to a sue
cessful conclusion. Meanwhile French
money is poured into the Panama
Canal Treasury, and New York en-
cheering firms supply machinery for
the work, so some one is getting a
Benefit now. 1t is to be hoped the
whole world win, in time.