The daily morning journal and courier., 1905-11-21
TYPE OF CANAL NOT
 DEFINITELY DECIDED.
STILL AN OPEN QUESTION WHETHER IT WILL RE SEA
 LEVEL.

Strong Opposition Developing and De-
 cisiOn May Yet be Reached to BuiId
 Lock CanaI-GeneraI Davis oriti-
 cised for Voting With Foreign Con-
 suIting Engineers for Sea Level
 WaterWay-FormerIy for Locks and
 Largely Because of Him Congress
 Adopted Panama Route.
 washington. Nov 2O.-Although the board Of consulting engineers has de- cided in favor of sea level canal. il is yet an open question whether tho Panama canal shall be sea level or a lock water way The decision of the board of consulting engineers is not final. The decision of the board was reached by a vote of 8 to 5 in favor of the sea level project. General Davis and Messrs. Burr and Parsons joining with the five foreign engineers against a lock canal.
 The report of the board Of engineers probably will not be submitted to President Roosevelt for five or Six weeks. As to the character of the great project, the report will not be unani- nous. In fact, two reports, one by the majority and one by the minority will be submitted. These reports, tha president will lay before the canal commission and Chief Engineer Stevens for the isthmus to take up the subtect with the commission and with the pres ident.
 Several callers on the president to- day discussed with him the decision of the board of consulting engineers to build sea level canal. Among the callers was Representative Mann of Illinois, a member of the interstate and foreign commerce conlmittee of the house which deals with canal mat ters. Incidentally, MT. Mann criticised General Davis and MT. Burr, members of the board, for their agreement with five of the foreign engineers to make the canal sea level waterway. It was largely on the reeommenda- | ton of General Davis and Mrs. Burr l said MT. Mann in favor of a lock canal that congress decided in favor of l the Panama canal. Now they join 1 with the foreign engineers in support of a sea level canal that will cost tens of millions of dollars more. That is the way the money goes.''
 MT. Mann indicated his belief that no difficulty would be experienced in con- gress in procuring the legislation nec- essary to provide funds to continue the construction of the canal. Chief Engineer Stevens of the Pana- ma commission will leave Colon for l Washington next Thursday. He is coming to give the commission in- formation upon different phases of the work on the isthmus, but more par- ticularly his views as to the type of . canal
 These views are already known to the officials who are in charge of the canal work, but an official statement from the engineer is desired. Mr. Stevens told officials who recently visited the isthmus that if a sea-leyel canal was to be constructed the government ought to put boys under twenty years of age in charge of it, so that they would last until the work was completed. The visit of Chief Engineer Stevens for the especial purpose of giving his views as to the type of canal indicates that the judgment of the consulting board of engineers is not to definitely determine the type, but that the commission will earnestly take up the subject and make recommendations From what has been said by members of the commission, and the views already officially ex- pressed by them, there seems little doubt but that they will disagree with the recommendation of the consulting board, which has voted to recommend g sea-level canal.
 Members of the consulting board were about the commission rooms to-day, ut no formal meeting will be held until Thursday. This may be the last regl- l lar meeting of the board.
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