The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1904-01-18

ined he had but to command it and the
waterway would appear. In this De Les
seps, without discriminating himself, gave
the cue to all his associates Money came
easily and the undertaking was such
simple one that everybody might pile up
riches to his hearts content, and still the
canal would be opened within the time
promised.
STARTED TOWARD FATAL ENDING.
If undue optimism was De Lesseps's orig
inal crime, fatal lack of investigation was
his second and greater offense. for he led
France into the thing when the whole en-
terprise was in an inchoate state. The
great engineer could entertain no PROPOSE
ton except that of a sea-level canal. The
judgment Of the engineering congress
which he caused to be convened was that
a lock canal should be built. De Lesseps
would not have it So and France believed
him rather than the more cautious engt-
neers who attended that congress. De Les
seps wanted instant action. The others
pleaded for the most careful preliminary
work. more exhaustive surveys and more
searching investigation. France accepted De
Lesseps's ideas and secuted at every sug-
geStiOn that he might be wrong ana the
others right.
So the project was started toward a fatal
ending. De Lesseps had before him no &C
curate surveys. His estimates Of what
would be required were hastily made, and
before a spadeful of earth had been turned
they We're condemned by more conservative
men as totally inadequate. De Lesseps was
wholly imaginative in his views as TO when
the work should be completed, naming
time so short as to warrant suspicion every
where except in credulous France. A little
more caution would have aVerted the most
serious mistake of all, which was the be-
ginning OF the work before Ii was known
what its end might be. What followed was
inevitable Plans were changed, contracts
were made without any intelligent idea of
the amounts they involved; the scheme Tor
a sea-level canal was abandoned and a
canal with locks projected. The actual work
was undertaken and prosecuted in the
loosest manner conceivable, and every
where was that arrant dishonesty and con-
sciencelessness that finally drove the Wnole
undertaking upon the rocks.
The story in detail of the French grating
and the wreck that followed their methods
must be told in a separate chapter. Here,
however il may be stated that in all the
French did toward building this canal they
did only one thing right; and 1t happens
that that one thing was done for them by
an American. That one thing was the Sc
lection of the route, and in that they took
Captain Lull's surveys. The French made
some changes in IL, and when they had
completed their theoretical work or laying
down a line for the canal TO follow they
brought that part of their work near TO
perfection as IL could possibly be brought.
They had fixed upon that route which, of
all those projected across Central America,
offers the fewest engineering problems, and
is, therefore, easiest, simplest and best.
1t was when the workers on theory COM
pleted their task and the actual executors
assumed the burden of responsibility that
the trouble began.
This trouble was that which caused the
stoppage Of work fourteen years ago, which
forced the liquidation of the old company,
q proceeding which extended over several
years, and which resulted in total mac
tivity on the isthmus. 1t was the same
trouble which landed Charles de Lesseps,
son Of the great engineer, In prison under a
criminal sentence. According to stories
current here, Charles de Lesseps was the
premier CRATER of the world, for it is re-
per cent. upon every contract made by the
company. All accounts-and there are men
here who are familiar with the ms and outs
of the affair-agree in placing the larger
share of the blame upon the shoulders OF
this man, who seems to have set pace for
the reckless dishonesty which evolved the
disaster. Others merely followed where he
led, and the French quickly developed the
trait of appropriating to their own use
eighty cents on every dollar which came
into their possession.
With the money, engineering skill, me-
chanical appliances and labor the French
company had at its command it should have
completed the canal, Il not in six years, as
De Lesseps promised, then in ten. Opened
to commerce, as 1t should have been in the
early nineties, it would have stood to the
end of time as a triumph of French genius
and enterprise. But to-day there is only
the wreck which stretches across the 18TH
much, and a work undone after score oil
years. Over it all is the atmosphere OF
| tragic crime-with that statute Of Column
bus pointing to a waterway the world ex-
poets the United States to build.
MERRILL A. LEAGUE.