Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-08-04
TWO GREAT ENTERPRISES.
Engineering Projects of the Holland
er and the Yankee.

Engineering Projects of the Holland
er and the Yankee.
From the Kansas City Journal.
While the United States is scheming tc
build vast reservoirs in the mountains OF
the desert region to be used as a water
source for the irrigation of large areas OF
farm land the government of Holland Is
engaged in the no less interesting work OF
retaining from the sea great tracts of
land which will be used for agricultural
purposes. This Dutch enterprise is almost
worthy Of comparison with our building OF
the Panama canal. at least so far as cost
is concerned. 1t involves the draining OF
the great Zuyder Zee through a step-by-
step process that eventually will make dry
land of the whole of It.
First dixie will be built across the
mouth of the sea. a distance of twenty four
miles. at a cost of $16.OOO.O00. After this
dixie has been completed and the inflow OF
sea water is under control. a corner of the
imprisoned sea will be surrounded by dikes
and the water pumped out from an area OF
about $1,000 acres. This step In the work Is
figured at a cost of 5000 600 and it is to be
followed by the diking of another area of
the sea to the extent Of 240.OU acres. and
then the remainder of the sea Is to be pump
ed out. adding 225.000 acres to the total. The
cost OF the enterprise Is fixed at SIS 900.
The work is to be performed by the govern
ment and it will be financed by the issue of
bonds bearing 2.6 per cent interest. The
land reclaimed is to be held by the govern
ment and rented to farmers at a rate sufff-
Gent to pay interest and maintenance.
which is figured at about 81 an acre per
year.
our own enterprise of building the Panama
canal and it leads naturally to a COMPARE
son OF the methods of the two countries.
For ten years a commission appointed by
the Holland government has been weighing
the Zuyder Zee project With the proven
Dial caution of the Dutch everywhere, the
commissioners have pondered deeply over
every phase of the undertaking, and each
year found them drifting little nearer to
the hnai report. which the government has
ADOPTED. Here In America ten months was
all too long for our canal commission to de-
eide upon the preliminaries Of that greater
Undertaking. We went at it with slap
dash that would have given the slow-mov-
ing burghers of Holland case of nervous
prostration. Furthermore. we expect to
finish the canal. even though 1t involves
twice the work and twice the cost in seven
years as against the thirty-three which has
been estimated as the shortest possible
time In which the Holland project can be
brought to completion
But Is 1T certain that in throwing caution
to the winds and dashing helter-skelter at
every task which presents itself, either
public OF private. we are to be admired
above our Dutch friends across the sea,
who proceed about their business with such
a contemDlative slowness of motion that
one might think time crawls instead of run
ming away. When Jack embalmed in pre-
cious memory by Mark Twain declared to
the guide who had been telling him about
Moses and the Israelites. Forty years!
Why Ben Halliday would put EN- across in
forty hours!' he touched the most vibrant
chord of national pride and glory, but is it
true note which we hear sounded? In
these clustering July days when tinkling
water calls. and the outrageous mountain
shades seem to beckon. it Is hard to work
up much enthusiasm over the spirit of push
which puts EN- across in forty hours. In
truth. for the time being. so long as the
strenuous sun is doing such strenuous
business. we must envy the deliberate
Dutchman who talks ten years before be-
ginning a Job which we would do in three,
and whose calm life flows always in such
low and placid currents.