The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-11-13
Beers MAY RUIN EGYPT.
LIKELY To STOP WORLDS GREAT
EST ENGINEERING EFFORT.

Men Now Mt Work Upon IL, at Fiji
teen Cents Day-MOst Productive
Land in the WOrId TO he Reclaim
ed. which VIII Reduce Taxes One
Fourth-Wfth the Improved Irri-
gatIOn From Three TO Four Crops
Year Are Made POssibIe-Rapid
Increase of Harvests VIII Make
the Cost of improvements to the
Egyptians Practically Nothing.
New York, Nov 9-One possible result
OF the Boer war that has generally been
overlooked is that it may put an end 0
the greatest engineering effort which has
ever been begun in the world-the dam
ming of the Nile. Should those compiler
tons ensue that have been foreshadowed,
the Intervention on one pretext Of another
of Russia. France and Germany, about the
first thing 10 happen would be the forced
evacuation of Egypt by the British Her
majesty would be too fully engaged in 9th
er directions to hold the country where
she has only been tolerated" as the
Frenchmen say with gritted teeth With
the withdrawal of England, the Nile i'm
provement would cease at once and an
end perhaps only a temporary end TO be
sure, would be put to the Nile enterprise.
Nothing more serious or more pitiful
could happen. The stoppage of the work
on the Nile dams would be a calamity in
volving the progress of the entire Egyp-
ton people, of whom there are over 5000
900. It would affect directly over 100000
peasants who will be put back just as
many years as the work is interrupted.
Its early completion means to these 2,OO0,-
900 the lifting of a burden of taxation IN
der which they are struggling without
hope of relief from any other source.
To the world at large the succes stub is
sue of the Nile work will mean the read
justment of physical geography on a scale
never before attempted by man. The re-
clamation of the desert Of Saraha could
alone be put in the same category. Ii Is
not alone that $500 900 acres of land will
be brought under yield; that over 500
600 900 will be added to the land values OF
the Egyptian people; that the population
of the country will be practically doubled
in few years; but that greater area OF
the surface of the earth Will be changed,
be made over as 1t were, than has ever
been affected before in the recorded his
tory of the human race since the time OF
Noah There will be nothing like this
change, except the conditions that result
ed in primeVal times when the earth I'M
derwent one of it's terrible commissions.
Where a barren rock, sandy waste now
exists, there will, on completion of the
Nile dam, spring up a vast inland sea
with a surface area of over 200 square
miles The sea or lake will extend back
into Nubia from the Egyptian frontier for
a distance of about 100 miles. To the north
the entire character of the Nile and Nile
country will be changed for a distance
of GOO miles, the changes reaching clear
into Cairo, and beyond into the delta, and
to the Mediterranean coast. For ii Is one
of the marvels of this wonderful work
that the water imprisoned behind the dam
at the little town of Assuan will bring
about the reclamation and cultivation of
vast tracts 700 miles away in the delta
TO the north. Al present only about one
third of the land lying between the two
mouths of the Nile is under cultivation. 1t
is by long odds the richest land in Egypt,
probably in the world. A comparatively
few years ago it was all marshy waste.
In 1861 there was completed, under French
supervision, what is known the bar
rage" a dam at the apex of the delta
just above Cairo. The barrage, a compar-
advely unimportant piece of work had
taken twenty-four years to build. II was
intended to raise the water level for navi-
cation purposes during the low Nile.
Though it had cost thousands of lives,
and taken a quarter of a century to con-
struct, it proved but a limited process.
So insecurity had it been planned that in
1868 the suice gates had to be hurriedly
revised to prevent the whole structure
from being swept away and washed in
sections to the Mediterranean 1t was re-
inforced by the French engineers in charge
and managed to do part of the work in
tended for it, but only a part 1t was
never strong enough to serve any great
area In the delta until the English came
into exclusive control in 1888. Then Sir
Colin Monrieff the English diplomatic
agent and actual ruler of Egypt took the
barrage in hand Under his adminstra-
tion the dam was built up, and made as
effective as its early faulty construction
permitted. Gradually the growing area in
the delta was increased until to-day some
thing over a million acres are growing
the finest cotton in the world. What was
formerly sullen unclaimed waste is now
yielding $30,O00000 annually In crops.
1t is related that the barrage worthless
as it is as an engineering work of perma-
nent value, almost cost the world the exist
ence of its most ancient and inspiring mon
uments-the great pyramids The construc-
tlon of the work was undertaken while
Mehemet Ali, 1.-THE great" was Khedive
of Egypt After he had decided on the
dam he placed Mongel Bey, a French en-
gineer, in charge.
Where am l to get the stone for the
barrage?" asked the Frenchman.
There" said Mehemet All, pointing to
heaps. Use them up, every block, if need
be"
Mehemet An, It is related, was not a gem
teman 10 be trihed with, He was an au-
tocrat of the kind who figure in The Ara
bian Nights" The engineer was literally
between the devil and the deep sea AS a
European he knew what would happen to
him if he destroyed the pyrami7s. TIE en-
tire civilized world wcu d cali down male
dictons on his head and his name would
be ever infamous where he would have it
great. on the other hand was Mehemet
Ali with all the Egyptian scorn and dis
regard for the great antiquities that
abound in the oldest country on earth.
Even to this day the Egyptians care moth
ing for these hoary monuments except as
they serve 10 attract tourists ana back
sheesh. To reason with Mehemet, there
fore, on the score of sacrifgious vaudal-
ism was worse than useless. So Mongcl
Bey got his wits to work He came TO his
master The next daV, and said thai e1ab r