The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-01-21
MILL DO WHAT
 FRANCE DID NOT
United States Will Be Guided By Previous Failures.
BY MERRILL A. TEAGUE. Special Correspon lent of The Advertiser.

Panama. P. R., Dec. g. 19o3.-In some Of the things the French did while pre-. tending to build a canal across the isth. mus lie striking lessons of what the Uni ted States must carefully avci5 doing That the contractors, supervisors, inspec- tors and administrators under the United States will not steal $ooo,00O, ,0oo, as did the French. goes without saying: but where a work is of such magnitude it Is valuable to know just where lie the opportunities for graft, from which our own country fs by no means free. Knowing this. lt will be possible to avoid the work of the graft CTS, some of whom will inevitably appear in connection with the enterprise under the United States direction.
 That We shall not. as did the original French projectors. plunge into the actual task of construction with only hazy ideas or the real amount of work to he done is certain. Our plans will have been defi- nitely formulated, down to the last detail ca requirement, before a contract Is let or spadeful of earth turned. The French wasted countless millions. without secur. Ing any substantial returns. by starting to build a sea-level canal. and then aban- doning that scheme for q lock system Other millions were wasted in projecting the lock system, for it was proposed at first that the Chagres river should be di-
 
 stalled. This plan was changed the third alteration involving an enormous outlay. In favor of a combined sea-level, artifi- cial lake and lock-system canal. Money was sunk most recklessly in trying/to ar rive at an intelligent plan for construct ing the waterway. and even when the French finally settled upon a scheme they chose the most expensive and tedious of all the plans considered.
 The Eraraah p1a,, s,a Gn1AraJ
 This final plan contemplated a work of infinitely greater magnitude than we pro- pose, for from the time we began to con- sfder the project from the practical en- gineerfng standpoint our activity has been in the direction of simpli1cation. The French project, after a fixed deter imitation had been keached, provided for a sea-level channel from Colon to Bohio. at which latter point there should be a monster dam. with locks. forming an ar tificial lake extending to- Bas Obispo, a distance of about fourteen miles. At Bas Obispo there was to be another dam. with locks, forming a level reaching to Para jso, six miles away on-the western slope of the Cordilleras Mountains. At Paraiso were to be other locks. opening the way to a lower level which was to end at Pedro Miguel, two miles distant, where there was to be another set of locks. and
 
 Birafiores, where, with another set of locks, the sea-level section on the Pacific side would begin. This meant the construction of five lock dams and canal with six distinct levels, and would have required five locking op- erations to pass a ship from ocean to ocean. As a necessary auxiliary. to fur nish water supply for the Bas Obispo- Pa raiso, Paraiso.Pedro Miguel and Pedro Miguel-Miranores levels. 1t was proposed to build a supply canal to the eastward, tapping the Chagres river at Alhejuela. nine miles away in the higher ranges of the Cordilleras Mountains, with storage reservoirs to insure fully supply of wa ter for those levels during the dry sea son. This plan reduced the amount of cutting required at Culebra, as under it ships would have passed through the mountains artificial gorge on the highest of all levels--the Bas po-Paraiso-but this advantage was more than offset by the enormous cost of constructing the lock dams at Bas Obispo, Paraiso and Pedro Miguel. and of the auxiliary canal