The Savannah morning news., 1904-01-18

nave TOO strenuously and persistentlv
pursued the phantom of canal over
the Nicaragua route, so, in measure
we must share the odium this wreck
neaps upon France-we, at least. gave
france by our own dilatory procedure
the opportunity to disgrace herself.
one cannot properly appreciate this
canal enterprise-now headed straight
toward summation-without under
standing, in outline at least. its mis-.
tory. That ground has often been
traversed; / shall no more than sketch
NJ h1re. Every school child knows
now Columbus efforts to find West
ern passage" to Asia failed. His vow
ages 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 i'm 1897 and reached
Callcut, India, in 1898, having been
! the nrst man to round the Cane of
GOOD Hope, returned in 1899 to nrova
| tnat communication by water with the
t'ar East was possible. 1t was in I51S
| that Balboa, from some point on The
| lstnmian strip, first beheld the Pacific
Gnu Tue scheme to cleave the isthmus
dates almost from that time.
Early Efforts for Canal.
AS early as 1520-nearly four CEN
turles ago Charles V of Portugal di-
rected that survey be made for a shin
| canal across this country. That sur
| Ney was completed in 1924 but moth
| ing ever came of it. Spain. DURING ali
the years of her dominion here. cher
lshed 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 1913 by Manuel Galisteo and
completed in 1881, In April, 1914. the
| spanish Cortes actually decreed the
construction of the canal under plans
| conceived by the explorer Won Hum
! boldt' Neither of these efforts pro-
auced positive results and Spain's
power to do anything soon lapsed. for
! in 1919 New Granada, Ecuador and
venezuela formed the Republic of Co.
| lombia, which was split in 1881 by the
secession of Ecuador and Venezuela.
The United States became a factor
| IN the canal problem in 1925, when it
! projected an agreement with the Re
/ public of Central America for a canal
| over the Nicaragua route, and France
mas been involved since 1898, when NJ.
| NJ, Solomon headed a French enter
prise to construct the waterway. The
whole scheme lapsed few years later.
| when Aspinwall, Stephens and Chaun-
cey secured from Colombia the con-
cession for railroad across the 18TH
| nlus-a concession which had previous
~ been granted to Maeto Kline, who
! failed to avail himself of it. The
| opening of the railroad, in 1855, blight
| ed interest in the canal for nearly a
score of years. The United States was,
| however, coming constantly to realize
| what it would mean to her commerce
to have a short water route between
g m Ian
ly calculating its possibilities.
| De Lcsseps CriminalIy Optimistic.
In fact, it is to our own enterprise
! that the Panama canal stands now as
a partially accomplished fact. In 1875
| Capt. E. P. Lull, U. S. N, after the
| most exhaustive surveys and investi-
cations, mapped a canal route over
| the line actively followed by the
! French company. We did nothing to-
| ward securing the necessary rights,
| however, and in May, 1876, Lieut.. L.
| N. B.. Wyse secured from Colombia
a formal canal concession. 1t is that
grant, with certain notifications and
| additions, which is now in existence,
and which is proving the bone of con-
tention between Colombia and the
United States.
Just about this time Ferdinand De
| LeSStpS WON lHH tue Oh In0 great
canal builder" by opening the Suez
| canal to traffic. That was an achieve
| ment which electrified the world. In
France it gave to De Lesseps a repu-
tation which made it possible for him
to command limitless credit. France
! deemed De Lesseps' capabilities mex
| haustible and was ready to follow him
in any enterprise he might suggest.
1t was at this moment that the great
| engineer became the original party in
| the great crime which was perpetrat-
ed on the isthmus. Nobody believes
| him to have been personally dishon-
! est; his conviction on d criminal
| charge was really sop thrown to out
| ragged sentiment in France. But De
Lesseps erred-and upon moral grounds
! most culpa bly-by allowing aduation
to sweep him off his feet. His crime,
1 without which there might have been
! no other attaching to the French I'M
/ dertaking-was the crime OF undue OPP
/ timism.
De Lesseps was completely carried
away by the praise heaped upon him,
| and the story of this project shows
\ that he imagined he had but to COM
mand it and the waterway would ap-
/ pear In this De Lesseps, without in
eliminating himself, gave the cue to
4 all his associates. Money came SO cas-
| ly and the undertaking was such a
| simple one that everybody might pile
up riches to his hearts content, and
| still the canal would be opened with
in the time promised.
Started Toward Fatal Ending.
If undue optimism was De Lesseps'
original crime, fatal lack of investiga-
ton was his second and greater oifense
for he led France into the thing when
the whole enterprise was in an inchoate
state. The great engineers could enter
tain no proposition except that of a
sea-leVel canal. The judgment of the
engineering congress which he caused
to be convened was that lock canal
should be built. De Lesseps would not
have it so, and France believed him
rather than the more cautious engi-
neers who attended that congress. De
Lesseps wanted instant action. The
others pleaded for the most careful pre-
liminary work. more exhaustive sur
veys and more searching investigation.
France accepted De Lesseps' ideas and
secuted at every suggestion that he
might be wrong and the others right
So the project was started toward
fatal ending. De Lesseps had before
him no accurate surveys. His estimates
of what would be required were hast
lily made, and before a spadeful of earth
had been turned they were 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
a time SO short as to warrant suspicion
everywhere except in credulous France
a little more caution would have avert
ed the most serious mistake of ali,
which was the beginning of the work
before It was known what its end might
l.