The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-05-02
THE PANAMA CANAL.
Work on De Lesseps's Abandoned
Project Has Been Resume

Modern Machinery.
Seven years ago it was believed that
the Panama canal project was dead beyond
resurrection. Now it shows signs of sur
prising vitality. Dredges are at work, ma
chinery has been ordered and paid for, and
about 1900 men on the pay roll have to
earn their money by good honest toll.
There are no sinecGres for anybody and no
faint of scandal attaches to the new re-
gime.
Early in 1889 the De Lesseps Company
found itself unable~to wheedle another dol
lar out of the French public, which had in
vested $3.50. 100000 in it's shares. OF this vast
sum of honey obtained in nine years, $140,-
oOO.0OO had been put into the canal. and the
balance. $120, 600, 600. had been swallowed M
in Paris by the company promoters, the
subsidized newspapers, the politicians and
the out and out thieves who had their fin
gers in the pie. The orange was squeezed
dry, ali payments We're suspended, work on
the canal was stopped and the company
went into liquidation on March Is, 1889.
After the exposure of the receiver of the
company M. Brunei sent q commission to
Panama to find out if all this vast eXpen-
diture had been pure waste. The report, in
eight pamphlets, each treating a special
phase OF the work, was very cautious and
serious in it's tone. The main points We're
that the work accomplished had been well
done, and that it was feasible to complete
the canal. not as a. sea level channel. as
Count de Lesseps had first planned, but as
a canal with locks, at a further cost of
SlS0.0N.O00. including interest on the invest
ment, and an allowance of 20 per cent. for
unexpected expenditures This estimate was
- WNtNP ANNUSCh PoOJVVutVOV -OIl IdleI re-
ports.
The new company was legally constituted
IN Paris on Oct. q, 1894, just in time to
save the concessions. Stockholders repre-
senting 722, 600 of the old shares met in Paris
and subscribed 81, 900, 600 with which to begin
work. The treasury received further large
contributions from some of the men who
had so mercilessly bled the old concern.
The government had a heavy hand on
them, they were under sentence of impris-
onment, and no mitigation of the penalty
was to be obtained in any other way thar
by disgorging all they could of their ill-got-
ten gains. Cornelius Herr, a fugitive in
England. paid $300, 900 to the new treasurer.
M. Eiffel. whose tower made him famous.
had received a large sum in advance, for
building ten locks, which he was to com
plete about the time the company failed.
and he had not yet begun the work. He
enriched the new company by S2,G00,00
The executors of Baron Reinach added
$300.00 TO the fund. The courts compelled
a Spectator who had absorbed large sums
for pretended services in floating bonds. to
give up $500. 600. Thus the company had
81, 100000 with which to set the wheels in
molten, and Mr.. Hange, who had been APP
started labOreTS digging on the Culebra sec
ton. There were only a few hundred of
them, but the concession was saved. and
the work has not been SUSPENDED since,
except during the strike of 1885.
The canal, as now planned, is to have
ten locks. and water is to be supplied to
the higher locks by means of immense
reservoirs. which will relieve the floods of
the Chagres river, and in the dry season
The latest report is that, With the work
already one for a distance of sixteen
miles from Colon and four miles from
Panama. there is no doubt that the canal
can be completed within the required time.
The work is not being pushed, however,
as it was for a long time under the De
LessepS regime. but the rate Of progress
is being accelerated Several dirt holsters
and eonveyors, costing $4,000 apiece. were
recently shipped from New York city. and
it is said the company intends to place
one hundred of them in use, enough to dis
pose of $1,000 cubic meters of dirt or stone
every ten hours. The company is not maxi
sound financial basis. and it has the respect
and announcement of those who have re-
before it. 1t is needless TO make any pre-
d~ictions, but there seems to be a reason
able prospect that the French enterprise
will gradually be pushed through to sue
cess.