The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1903-02-18
Seven Years to dig Canal.

Washington, February 7.-.'With
good luck we ought to finish the Pana-
ma N seven years." said q high Gov
crnment authority officially interested
in the enterprise yesterday. "The
task may require as much as ten years
for its completion. It depends large
ly 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,
however. We shall control every
thing on the strip, which will be in
future, to all intcnts and purposes, a
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 Gid in
Cuba, establishing proper drainage,
%insuring plentiful supplies of pure
water and making cleanliness compul-
sorry in the towns along the route Of
the canal. The French company has
a fine hospita! that cost over a million
dollars which Will BE transferred to us
with the rest of its property.
eve shall employ about 80, 600
workpen 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. 1t has been urged that we
might utilize a few thousands of
Southern negroes on the job, but
such a plan would not be likely to
work satisfactorily. Colored folks
from the cotton States might suffer
from the climate Of the tropics and
they are not accustomed to live as
oheaply and simply as the darkies Of
the West Indies.
Probably the work will be given
out to contractors, who will hire the
requisite workmen at so or 60 cents q
day. which is about what labor is
worth at that part Of the world. The
contractors will give bonds to the ia
land governments to care for the ne
groes properly at the end Of q specified
time. The laborers will be fetched TO
the port Of Colon by steamers, disem-
barSed and assigned in gangs, under
gang bosses, 80 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.
sit should be realized that the prob
lem presented by the Panama Canal
is altogether different from that which
would have demanded solution in
Nicaragua. IF the latter route had
been chosen the work world have had
to begin with the cleaning away Of
forests and the .grubbius Of stumns-
in short, the opening Of a virgin tract
Of country, with a mulaitude Of diff
oulties to DO overcome as a prelimi-
nary to the excavation Of the ditch.
at Panama on the Other hand, every
thing 10 cleaned up the canal is al
ready half dug-aoourately speaking,
about 30. per cent Of the necessary
digging has been aooomplished-and
We have only to take up the task
where the French people have Left of.
I'VE are thus enabled q start at
once and without the long delay which
would have been unavoidable in Near
aqua. Even the machinery and other
apparatus-muoh Of it, at ali events
is on hand. As yet it is impossible
to say what the machinery is worth;
our experts did not take it into account
in their estimate Of the value Of the
! French oompany's property and all Of
1t will have to be overhsuled and ex-
amined. A great deal Of it ia anti
quated, undoubtedly, but much OF it
is good stuff.
There are a great many locomo.
tives, nearly all Of them brand new
I think not less than forty-fve. or
ffty-whioh are valuable assets and
represent q lot Of money. Then there
is o great number OF machines, such
as steam shovels and dredges, for
e~xcavating and carriers for removing
earth. There are thousands Of dump
carsaud miles and miles of.portable rail
way tracks. which can be picked up
from n place and laid down off.hand
in another.
"Xerxes once employed q million
soldiers in the making Of q canal, bus
those were days when digging was done