The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1898-03-20

anew. Il believe 1t would be cheaper
in the end. We now have dredges that
will scoop up rocks such as those quar-
ried for building houses like dirt, and
with the right tools work can be done
at low cost"
"How much will 1t cost to finish the
canal?"
1T Is all guessWork, but I believe
that 5O,000, 900 would make a sea-level
canal here, and think a sea-level ca
nal would be far better than any lock
system. If the French would give up
the Panama canal. 1 should like to see
Americans buy 1t and run it. It is
certainly the shortest and I believe.
the cheapest place on the isthmus for
a canal, and here you can tell just
about what 1t would cost. The French
have paid the expenses of the expert
ments; they have done great deal of
work. and sooner or later I believe
there will be a canal here"
Millions of Dollars Rotting.
Mr.. Wards remark about the anti
anated machinery of the canal Is
founded on some very bitter facts. Ma
ch1rery which cost millions upon mil
lions is now lying along the line Of the
canal. rotting and rusting. There are
expensive dredges which cost fortunes
now utterly worthle--- Enough car
wheels to equip a trunk line of railroad
are scattered from one end of the 18TH
mus to the other, and the rotten trucks,
If their pieces could be put together,
would make a train half way across the
iSthmuS. The variety of wasted ma
chinery and rotting property-is indie
scribable. I crumbled up wooden car
beds with my fingers, and walked a
mile or so on discarded and rusted ma
ri inn ha ay1fi IL OPf h.
canal. L saw sheds filled with costly
but now comparatively useless engines,
and as I looked at the evidences of
waste and extravaganza all about me
L could not help thinking of the thrifty
peasants, or the Wooden Stockings of
France, as De LesseDs used to call
them, from where the most Of this vast
sum came. The French officials poured
cut money here for years. They bought
everything by wholesale. When the old
company stopped work they had on
hand, among other things, $50 floating
derricks, o1S0 towboats and launches,
5000 iron dumping wagons, 100 miles of
railroad track for4the canal work, and
over 10000 cars.
This, you must remember, was scat
tered along a distance not much great
er than that between New York and
Baltimore. They had built beautiful
cottages on every hill and slightly place
from the Atlantic to the Pacific. There
were 5000 buildings along the line of
the canal, and some Of these are oc-
cupied by negroes today. They had
constructed quarters for 10000 work.
men. They had 12O steam pumps. 200
reservoirs and more than 100 miles of
water pipe. Most of this stuff is use
less now, and a vast amount has been
thrown aside, as the freights are so
high that it would not pay to carry
it away. The officials made money out
of nearly every contract, and the more
they bought the more they made SO
when a car or train ran off the track
or fell down an embankment, they let
it lie and used some of the surplus re-
naming. You can see such overturned
cars at almost any point on the old
works.
Money Flowed Like Water.
Those were the days when money
was the cheapest of all things here.
Loads of it were carried across the 18TH
mus on the cars. and men made for
tunes in a month. cEiffel. the man who
built the. big. tower, had one contract
which netted him five millions. New
York parties, including Henry B. Slavin
and the American Constructing and