The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-01-19
LITTLE DONE :... ON CANAL WORK
Merrill A. Teasue Tell.r of the Famous French Steal
 in Panama.

hold of surpassing importance: but there ! IS small consolation in all of this. That America will utilize this opportunity to the fullest nobody doubts. One must, however, regret that American opportun- | ity Is born of such hideous stigmatiza- uon or, the French nation. In this, though, we are ourselves blameable, for nad we shown quarter of a century ago l that enterprise which now characterizes our nation, we might easily have closed the door against Frances ambition to unite the waters of the two great oceans The trouble with us has been that we nave too strenuously and persistently pursued the phantom of a canal over the Nicaragua route. so. in a measure, we must share the odium this wreck heaps upon France-we. at least, gave France by our own dilatory procedure, the op- portunity to disgrace herself.
 one cannot properly appreciate the canal enterprise-now headed straight toward consummation-without un- oerstanding, in outline at least, It's history. That ground has often been traversed; shall no more than sketch 1t here. Every school child knows how Columbuss efforts to find western passage" to Asia failed. His voyages and his trials served the one great purpose. however, of stimulating a world-interest In the thing of which he had dreamed. Vasco de Cana, who sailed from Lisbon In 14e7 and reached "Calicut," India, in ts9S, having been the first man to round the Cape of Good Hope, returned in 14ss to prove that communication by water with the Far East was possible. It was In 1513 that Balboa, from some point on the isthmian strip. first beheld the Pa cific, and the scheme to cleave the isth- mus dates almost from that time.
 Early Efforts for Canal.
 As early as 1b3o-nearly four centuries ago-Charles V. of Portugal directed that survey be made for a ship canal across this country. That survey was completed In 1524, but nothing ever came of 1t. Spain, during all the years of her dominion here, cherished the project. and toward the close ,of the seventeenth century Charles III chartered company to build a canal through Nicaragua under a survey begun in 171S by Manuel Galisteo and completed in 17S1. In April, 1874, the Spanish Cortes actually decreed the construction of the canal under plans conceived by the ex- plorer Won Humboldt. Neither of these efforts produced positive results. and Spans power to do anything soon iapsed. for in 1S19 New Granada, Ecuador and Venezuela formed the Republic of Co., lombia. which was split in 1881 by the se- cession of Ecuador and Venezuela.
 
 the canal problem in 1895, when 1t pro- jected an agreement with the republic of Central America for a canal over the Nic- aragua route, and France has been in- volved since 1888, when M. M. Solomon headed French enterprise to construct the waterway. The whole scheme lapsed few years later when Aspinwall, Steph- ems and Chauncey secured from Colombia the concession for a railroad across the Nwykat tr1a IanI viously been granted to Maeto Kline, who failed to avail himself of 1t. The opening of the railroad, in 1855 blighted interest in the canal for nearly a score of years The United States was, however, coming l constantly to realize what 1t would mean to her commerce to have a short water route between her two coasts, and she was constantly calculating its possibili- ties. s,
 DeLeSseps Criminally Optimistic. In ;factSit iB Seo ouryUwu' eYIterpFises that the Panama Canal stands now as a par tially accomplished fact. Tn 1875 Captain E. P. Lull, U. 8. N.. after the most ex- haustive surveys and investigations, mapped a canal route over the line &C., | tually followed by the French company. We did nothing toward securing the nec- essary rights, however. and in May, 1876, Lieutenant l.. N. B. Wyse secured from Colombia a formal canal concession. It is that grant, with certain notifications and additions, which is now in existence, | and which is proving the bone of conten- tion between Colombia and the United States.
 Just about this time Ferdinand De Les seps won the title of "the great canal | builder" by opening the SueZ Canal to | traffic. That was an achievement which electrified the world. In France it gave to pe Lesseps a reputation which made 1t possible for him to command limitless | credit. France deemed De Jesseps's ca pabillties inexhaustible and was ready to l follow him in any enterprise he might suggest. It was at this moment that the great engineer became the original party | in the great crime which was perpetrated on the isthmus. Nobody believes him to have been personally dishonest; his con- viction on a criminal charge was really a sop thrown to outraged sentiment in France. But De Lesseps erred-and upon moral grounds most culpably-by allowing I adulation to sweep him of his feet. His | crime, without which there might have been no other attaching to the French undertaking-was the crime of undue op- | timism.
 De Lesseps was completely carried away by the praise heaped upon him, and the story of this project shows that he imag-
 
 ! waterway would appear. In this De Les- seps. without discriminating himself, gave the cue to all his associates. Money came So easily and the undertaking was such q simple one that everybody might pile up riches to his hearts content, and still l the canal would be opened within the time promised.
 Started Toward Fatal Ending. | If undue optimism was De Lesseps's or l tRinal crime, a fatal lack of investigation was his second and greater offense, for he led France into the thing when the | whole enterprise was in an inchoate state | The great engineer could entertain no proposition except that of a sea-level ca : nal. The judgment of the engineering congress which he caused to be convened was that lock canal should be built. De Lesseps would not have 1t so. and France believed him rather than the more cau- tious engineers who attended that con- gress. De Lesseps wanted instant action | The others pleaded for the most careful preliminary work. more exhaustive sur veys and more searching investigation 1 France accepted De LessepsS ideas and secuted at every suggestion that he might
 be wrong and the others right.
 So the project was started toward a
 fatal ending. De Lesseps had before him no accurate surveys. His estimates of
 what would be required were hastily made l and before a spadeful of earth had been
 turned they were condemned by more con.
 servative men as totally inadeuuate. De Lesseps was wholly imaginative in his views aa to when the work should ha