The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-09-18
LOCK CANAL
IS THE PLAN OF THE PANAMA Ex-
 PERTs.
Board of Consulting Engineers Dooni' sea-Level Ditch by Attitude --Gain In Time for
 ghfum

sea-Level Ditch by Attitude --Gain in Time for
 ships.
 Waiter Wellman's Washington Special to Chicago Record-Herald.
 It is almost as good as settled that the Panama Canal is to have locks and l that It is not to be sea-level canal. | The members of the board of consult ing engineers have not as yet come to a formal decision on this important matter. and are not likely to do so till after they have made their forthcom- | ing visit to the isthmus. But members of the board privately say they have l little or no doubt as to what their final conclusion is to be. One mem
 Der of the board said he believed the | report of the engineer commission | would be strongly in favor of lock canal and added:
 | The one great argument in favor of la sea-levei channel is that it would make the better canal because ships could go through 1t more expeditions | ly and with less danger But upon l careful examination of the subject most of us have come to the conclu-
 sion the argument is not well founded. Tn point of fact, ships could pass | through a properly constructed lock | canal quicker than through sea-leVel canal It Is not the locks that con-
 sume time. because big ship can go | through a modern lock in twenty-five | to thirty miMutes. If the locks are l placed at the termini of the canal the | locking will practically consume no | time at all, for ships always tie up an | hour or two on arriving in & canal port | and do the same at the other .end be- l tore putting to sea again. One Of the plans we have under consideration calls l for a canal with only two locks, one at either end; and this plan Is very attractive, It will stand a good chance l to be adopted if We find there are no difficulties about the lock foundations,
 We are we'll aware." continued this member of the board, that there is popular impression a sea-1evel canal means the best canal. and that the American people believe they can af- | ford the best canal that can be built. | But this is a mistake. in my opinion. There must be one lock anyway, even ' in a so-ca1eed sea-level canal. One more lock is a small consideration. With a lock canal we can, within 1 reasonable cost, get a pretty straight channel, and cross-section large ! enough to meet all the demands of the present and the future. The area and alignment of the canal are far more | important than the absence of locks. With a wide. deep channel. giving plenty of water and steerage way, the
 time lost In going through one lock eff
 we call 1t time lost) may be compen-
 sated for many times over by the speed at which ships steam through the 1 whole forty-seven miles. To make a | sea-level canal. and give it sufficient
 width and depth through the Culebra 1 Ridge. would run the total cost to aI-
 most prohibitive figures. These are | some of the reasons why the opinion leaf atNAE Nf Ha
 running strongly to canal with at least two locks" *.---.'.
 Most of the members of the engineer ] ing board have returned from their
 visit to the President at Oyster Bay.
 They say the President urged them to make report to him as soon as pos
 sible, but he did not indicate whether
 or not he had preference as to the l type of the canal The President care- 1 fully refraned from expressing an l opinion on that subject, because he did not want to seem to be trying to in-
 huence the expert engineers. In fact.
 he plainly told them he wanted their 1 best judgment of the whole question of
 type, regardless of any outside opinion
 or prejudice5.
 The engineers hope to be able to pre-
 sent their report in November or De-
 cember. and President Roosevelt will
 send it to Congress. There Is at pres
 ent no statute defining the type of
 the canal. Unless Congress takes ac-
 ton the President Is free to adopt any plan he sees fit. No one believes that
 ekher the President or Congress will
 go contrary to the recommendations of
 the board of consulting engineers a
 body which embraces the best engi-
 neering talent in the world And all
 the indications now are that a lock canal Is to be the recommendation of the board.
 Not only naval officers, but members of Congress and engineers generally are keenly interested in the outcome of the Bennington courtmartial. If the defense which 1t is understood Commander Young, the captain of the unfortunate vessel, will rely on for his eXoneration Is accepted by the court, not only must he be acquitted of all neglect of duty, but the burden of re- sponsibility will be shifted on the Navy Department, and 1t seems almost i'm possible that a congressional investi- gation can be avoided.
 Commander Young is alleged to claim that not only did he know the defective condition of the boilers of the Bennington. but the Navy Department knew 1t equally as we'll He Is said to have reported frequently to the de partment that the boilers were so rot
 ten that they endangered the safety of the vtssef and the lives of it's crew. but no attention was paid to his reports or his warnings of disaster So impressed was Commander Young with the dan ger he incurred that he issued impera- tive orders to his engineer officers never under any circumstances to raise more than about one-half the steam pressure that the boilers were nomi- nally supposed to stand. It will be urged that Commander Young took every precs ution, but it was beyond the power of any man to prevent rotten boilers from exploding when the Navy Department kept them in active ser vice long after they should have been sent to the scrap heap and in face of repeated warnings given by the commanding officer, who knew the risk he ran.
 By coincidence l received today two i letters from widely separated parts of | the country One was from promi- | nent Senator and the other from an equally prominent member of the House Both of my correspondents wrote about purely personal matters. 1 put both, curtousIy enough, referred to | the Bennington disaster. the nistalre apparently made by Congress in merg- | ing me engineer corps of the navy in | the line and the advIsability of Con
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