The Savannah morning news., 1904-01-19

is not a small one, however, and we
shall probably discover before we are
through with the job of making it
serviceable that in getting it for the
expense of overhauling we have driven
a good bargain with the French own
ers. That part of this machinery which
now lies in the water of the eXcavated
portion of the sea-level sections of the
canal will doubtless prove utterly
valueless. 1t has lain in it's present
position for fourteen years, settling
slowly in the silt that has filled these
portions of the proposed waterway,
rusting and rotting until to repair it
would be almost impossible. OF this
machinery there are lining the canal on
either side of the isthmus countless
dredges, monster machines that origl-
nally cost hundreds of thousands OF
dollars each; steam, 5elf-navtgatlng
scows that came from the yards of
their builders under their own power;
steam launches and inspection and bar
rack boats. many of which nave been
sunk to preserve them. In their day
these vessels composed as fine and per-
feet a floating equipment as could be
procured-certainly there was more of
it than could possibly have been re-
quired had the French plans been
wholly intelligent and the management
entirely honest.
OF other machinery there is an in
finite variety. From Colon to Panama
the land is literally encumbered with
it; the railroad runs through an ave-
nue. of frame and corrugated iron
magazines where it is stored. On
Cristobal Colon Point there are mil
lions of tons of it that have never
been taken from the crates and pack
ing cases; along the line of the canal,
even in the densest parts OF the Jun
giles, there are acres and acres or 1t
that was unloaded from the cars and
left to stand idle and neglected, no
attempt having been made to preserve
it beyond coating the exposed bearing
parts with white lead.
This material includes drainage pipe
of the largest diameter ever rolled,
the piles of which covers acres in the
vicinity of Colon; hundreds of locomo-
tives, Belgian type; pumps and all
| their appliances; portable and sta
tionary engines; hoistinG derricks; tri-
pods, and all the accessories for cable
| ways: steam shovels and other mon
! ster excaVating devices; thousands of
| dumping cars; hulls and machinery
| for dredges and scows; in short, a
more generous supply of every neces-
sary and superfluous device that the
mind of a gang of grafters, bent on
realizing commission on contracts,
placed at eXorbitant prices, could think
! to purchase.
Advantages We Secure.
This machinery-none of it is less
| than fifteen years old-is far from be-
| ing available even after its renovation.
| Much of it will be found obsolete in
! the light of the recent gigantic strides
made in mechanical devices. Great
quantities of it will, however, be Gag
erly sought by the contractors who
/ will do the actual canal work, for por-
tions of it can certainly be used to al
most as good advantage as could new
| er and more modern tools. The loco
motives, for instance, need only over
| hauling to be made serviceable, al
| though they are antiquated in style
! and of a foreign pattern. The dump
ing cars, too, need only to be pulled
out of the tangle of reeds and vines in
which they are now imbedded to be
turned to serviceable account. Out of
the masses of dredging machinery now
on the ground efficient dredges may be
constructed by assembling unimpaired
and serviceable parts. The portable
and stationary engines are ready for
use and the portable hosting derricks
require little save new cars for plat
forms.
From this it follows that, besides the
saving in time the United States will
fifth of the required work. there will
be a marked saving in the cash outlay
resulting from our ability to turn
available parts of this immense stock
of machinery over to the contractors,
thereby enabling them to hasten exc
cution of their contracts. These are
advantages possessed by the Panama
route that influenced the Walker Com
mission to prefer this route over any
other, after the New Panama Com
pany consented to part with all it's
properties for 100000. 1 am not at
tempting to show in any detail the su-
periority of Panama over Nicaragua
as a canal route. My purpose is mere
ly to present conditions here, where
the work is we'll on the way and much
material on the ground. These condi-
tions are in themselves a mighty ar
gument in Panama's favor for surely
1t is simpler, and will be quicker for
us to complete work already one
fifth done than it would be for us to
begin at the very beginning, as we
should have to do at Nicaragua. With
the enterprise here in it's present state
American ingenuity, energy, honesty
and determination can complete the
canal and open it to commerce in a
shorter time than 1t took the French
to steal $20O,00O,0O0. Should we fail in
this, or should the work involve an
outlay equal to the French pilfering,
we shall prove ourselves a sorry lot
of canal builders