Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1903-02-28
8tiseetlanepas &sadins.
SEVEN YEARS TO DIG CANAL.


with good luck we ought to finish
the Panama canal In seven years,
said a high government authority Of
ficially interested in the enterprise re-
Gently. "The task may require as
much as ten years for it's completion.
It depends largely upon the health of
the laborers employed. An epidemic
Of bubonic plague or cholera might put
us back a good deal.
"Such a misfortune Is exactly what
we shall take most pains to avoid, how
ever. We shall control everything on
the strip, which will be in future, to all
intents and purposes, part Of the
United States; and our first care will
be to fix matters as we want them In
a sanitary way. We shall clean up
things just as we did in Cuba, estab-
Fishing proper drainage, insuring plen-
tiful supplies Of pure water and MAX
ing cleanliness compulsory in the
towns along the route Of the canal.
The French company has a fine hospi-
tai that cost over a million dollars
which will be transferred to US with
the rest Of It's property.
I'VE shall employ about 10000 work.
men on the canal as soon as we get
things fairly started, and this army Of
laborers will be drawn mainly from
Jamaica and other West Indian islands.
It has been urged that we might util-
/ Io -
Negroes on the job, but such plan
would not be likely to work satisfac-
torily. Colored folks from the cotton
states might suffer from the climate
of the tropics and they are not accus-
toned to live as cheaply and simply
as the darkies Of the West Indies.
Probably the work will be given out
to contractors, who will hire the re-
quisite workmen at so or go cents a
day, which is about what labor is
worth in that part Of the world. The
contractors will give bond to the is
land governments to care for the Ne
groes properly and return them at the
end of a specified time. The laborers
will be fetched to the port Of Colon by
steamers, disembarked and assigned in
gangs, under gang bosses, to various
points along the line of the canal.
Work will be carried on in all parts Of
the ditch simultaneously in order to
bring the enterprise to completion as
quickly as possible.
"It should be realized that the prob
lem presented by the Panama canal
Is altogether different from that which
would have demanded solution in MIC
aragua. If the latter route had been
chosen the work would have had to be-
gin with the clearing away Of forests
and the grubbing Of stumps-in short,
the opening Of virgin tract OF coun-
try, with a multitude Of difficulties to
be overcome as a preliminary to the
excavation Of the ditch. At Panama,
on the other hand, everything is clean
ed up; the canal is already half dug
accurately speaking, about 80 per cent.
Of the necessary digging has been ac-
complished-and we have only to take
| up the task where the French people
have left off.
1--WE are thus enabled to start at
once and without the long delay which
would have been unavoidable in Mica
ragua. Even the machinery and other
apparatus of it, at all events
Is on hand. AS yet 1t is impossible to
say what the machinery is worth; our
experts did not take 1t into account In
their estimate OF the. value Of the
French company's property and all Of
1t will have to be overhauled and ex-
amined. A great deal Of 1t Is anti
quated, undoubtedly, but much Of it is
good stuff.
There are a great many locomo-
tives, nearly all Of them brand newt
think not less than forty-five or fifty
which are valuable assets and repre-
sent lot of money. Then there is a
great number Of machines, such as
steam shovels and dredges, for exca-
waiting and carriers for removing earth.
There are thousands Of dumpcars and
|
tracks, which can be picked up from
one place and laid down off-handed In
another.
"Xerxes once employed million SOL
diers in the making of a canal, but
those were days when digging was
done by hand with spade and
pickaxe. In these modern times
such work is accomplished by ma
chinery. Steam shovels pick up
the earth, which is conveyed by
trolley carriers to cars and transported
with the help Of locomotives to con-
venient places, where 1t Is dumped.
Where rock has to be- removed blast
ing is done, Of course; but fortunately
there is very little rock to be excavated
along the Panama route.
NECESSARILY a great deal OF expen-
sive machinery will have to be pur-
chased. Much of the apparatus now on
hand must go to the scrap heap to be
replaced with the newest and most-up-
to-date machines. With American en-
ergy and unlimited funds behind the
enterprise the digging OF the canal will
be carried forward with great rapidity.
1t Is even now in progress, in sort
Of fashion, about 1,5OO laborers in the
employ of the French company being
engaged on the work.
"The estimated cost Of completing
the ditch Is s144,OOO,OOO. 1t will be for
ty-seven miles in length, though the
isthmus is only forty miles wide, the
route traversed being far from straight.
The bottom width Of the canal will be
$50 feet, it's width at the top varying
with the formation. Where it passes
through rock, Of course, its sides will