The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-01-13

| c point. stand today monuments to the ut ter wreck of the French efforts to cut this waterway. Upon their roof combs, over their deep piazas, over every other house upon the point. as over the City of Colon proper, now walk the fnnumerabie focks of turkey buzzards that infest the tsth- mus and impart gruesome aspect to every detail of the landscape. Over the point swamp grass. cacti. tropical vines. palms and other isthmian vegetation grow so freely as to cucumber and litter the drives, once such beautiful stretches of soundless sand. Life on the point is not more bearable now than 1t is in the other parts of Colon. a fact the Canal Commission from the United States dis covered when. after a weeks residence In the De Lesseps house, 1t sought quarters elsewhere. The buildings, once intended for the executive and administrative forces of the canal company have been given over to the natives, and over the whole place, with its improvements gone to ruin, broods the pestilential atmosphere so characteristic of Colon.
 Open Roadstead a Menace.
 It is at Colon, however, that all of the canal work of the future must center, a fact which makes pertinent the ques- tion of sanitation. of which. for the en- tire Isthmus, shall write in another and early letter. It Is here, too, that the com mercial activity of the Isthmus must prfn- cipally center, fact which should turn the attention of the American Congress to this harbor. As things now stand Co., Ion has no harbor. Limon Bay is an open roadstead, into which rolls all the swell of the Caribbean. and into which sweep several times each winter 'northers"- storms most destructive to shipping. The docks at Colon face the open sea. and weather hereabouts is so treacherous that vessels must lie at all times with a full head of steam in their boilers, ready on a moments warning to slip anchors and stHrs out to sea to escape being driven on Ga rocks of Cristobal Colon Point, whe they are sure to go unless they can reach the open water before a "norther" strikes them. Across Limon Bay. dist ance of about three miles, Is Toro Point and beyond that Is the Chagres River Within this bay is water deep and ample enough to float all the shipping of the world. but protection of some sort must be afforded by a new breakwater. built outward from both Toro Point and the Island of Manzanilla. or whether it shall be by breakwater formed by extending Cristobal Colon Point. supplemented by extensive dredging operations, so as to furnish anchorage back of the point, Is problem the Canal Commission named by President Roosevelt must decide. Pro- tectlon of some sort must, however. be furnished, for visits to Colon are now a menace to every ship making them, and commerce across the Isthmus, either by rail or through the canal, cannot be great ly stimulated until adequate harbor fa- cilities shall be provided. At the present time Colon's commerce is limited entirely to transisthmian ship ments. The trade of the place itself is small, for there are no industries in Co., lon. and the native consumption of man. ufaetured goods is inconsequential. The transisthmian traffic Is, however. sufi- cient to bring to Colon on regular visits the steamships of several lines. forming regular connections for the port with the United States. Europe, Central and South America, the Gulf ports and the West In dian Islands. This trade amounts to nearly a million tons annually. and nc less than 800 ships visit this port every year. These ships get away us quickly as possible, however. for the harbor is too dangerous and the dread disease toe constant for them to tarry as long as they might.
 A City May Be Made Here.
 That there Is the foundation existing here for a city of much commercial i'm portance is a fact nobody can dispute. but not until 1t shall have been rebuilt aftel having been consigned to the flames, ant not until the harbor is improved at a cos of millions of dollars, can Colon expec | to take that rank as a commercial cente
 to which 1t Is geographically entitled. l | is. without doubt, one of the meanest ant most unhealthy, one of the ugliest ant most immoral places on the face of thu
 earth. and this, is the consequence of tn
 railroads policy, now half a century old of making no effort to improve any DOT ton of it save that which is used b! the railroad itself. Had this concern be
 gun fifty years ago to develop and i'm prove the whole of Colon as 1t has de
 veloped and improved the railroad guar | ter. there would be little room today fo
 criticism of the city. As it is there i
 room for nothing else. for, as a recen
 arrival on the Isthmus expressed it afte
 an hours drive about Colon: This sur
 is the limit; the worst civilization ha
 ever known or produced"