The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1904-01-20
Where Millions Were Wasea by
the French Panama Canal COMPANY

have been filled. There is not one of these
machines, but countless numbers of them,
with hulls, boilers, scoops and all other APP
purtenances strewn promiscuously from one
end of the isthmus to the other. They are
unanswerable proof of a rattle-brained con-
Struction scheme inspired by desire to in
crease the amount of the stealing, for no
sane man can believe that had il not been
for the larger cost of dredging, and the
larger commissions the grafters would have
realized this idea would ever have been en-
tertained or the machinery purchased.
WRONG GAUGE LOCOMOTIVES.
In crossing the railroad fill from Colon to
the mainland, one comes quickly to one of
the work actua done. Here is a sample
of the methods. told in the words Of my
informant
1.-The firm of - Bros. one of the richest
and best-known contracting concerns in the
States, traces all its wealth to the graft it
worked down here. This firm secured a
contract for dredging an important section
of the canal on the sea level. 1t was man.
aged by knowing men, and when they ar
rived here they promptly proceeded TO bride
the inspectors detailed to supervise their
contract, and all other approachable Off
Gals. Millions Of dollars were involved in
the contract, and this firm collected the
whole amount, after its work had been
passed upon and approved by the French
officials. Go over that section of the canal
ditch for so perfectly were the contractors
protected by the grafters upon the French
company that they simply picked up the
dirt from one side of the dredgeS and
dumped 1T on the other. In other words
they merely lifted it over the hull of the
dredge the inspectors taking the depth of
the excavation on that side where the
dredging was being DONE ordering full pay
ment for perfect and completed contract"
That this and similar stories are true is
not TO be disputed. On the Culebra cut
q galloway. nerfcCtlV with
engines, carriers, tripods and all the Access
series. The cost of this machinery, which
breaking the Back OF the Cordilleras, was
thousands of dollars. 1t has never been
used for single minute, but the contractor
who sold 1t at an exorbitant price, got his
payment
WHERE WE MAY LEARN
have given glimpse only Of the actuali-
ties of the French management. Every
where on the isthmus examples similar to
those have related might be cited to prove
the rank dishonesty of the original French
promoters, but such proof is hardly neces-
sary. The wreck of the whole scheme the
bankruptcy of the original company and the
helplessness of the new concern, the wiping
out of fortunes and carefully accumulate
savings IN France, the criminal prosecution
of the De Lesseps and their accomplices
and the shattering of the honor of France
go TO prove more substantially than do
these evidences of graft, the enormity Of
the crime which was perpetrated here.
That the United States should in any way
emulate France in these matters is an un-
thinkable proposition We start with the
advantage of the French example; we shall
know by the French experience where to
expect graft and how to prevent it, and if
we should be disposed to be dishonest the
memory of how France stigmatized herself
and wrecked the work she undertook should
stimulate our honesty and make us to do
nell md oil xxrnr 70
end only in baldest and most unblushng
| thievery. MERRILL a. LEAGUE.