Greene County herald. (Leakesville, Miss.) 1898-current, 1905-11-24
PANAMA GANAA
10 BIZ SEA LEVEL
BEeIsIoN ARRIVED At AFTER
THREE MONTHS WORK.
The VOTE VAS EIGHT TO FIVE
sody Was Constituted of the World i
Best Emergency Talent. Men Were
From All Parts Of the World With
Big Regulations.

Washington. BY vote of s to s.,
;he board Of consulting engineers Of
The Isthmian Canal Commission, a
body which, if President Roosevelt
realized his hopes the greatest and
host representative engineering talent
ii the world, placed itself upon record
IS fayoring the construction of the
Panama Canal on the sea level: This
decision represents the outcome of
nearly three months hard work Ear
y in September the engineers gather
i ID from all parts of the world, for the
president, desircus to obtain the best
| ;alent and to avoid foreign criticism
: in the future, had called upon gov
sffineiits of five nations, distinguish
"a for the successful construction of
great hydraulic works, to send each
one of their best engineers to assist
;he American engineers in the decision
If the momentous question of con-
itrueting the Panama Canal at sea
q evel or at greater altitude, involv-
ng a system of locks.
The foreigners came to Washington
absolutely without instructions from
'heir own governments and without
bias, determined to be guided to their
decision solely by the facts to be pre-
;erted to them in the shape of great
mass Of physical data and supplement
I'd by several projects. notably that
upon which the French-Panama Com
pany worked SO patiently for more
chan a decade; that of the first Amer
: lcan Panama Commission; that Of NJ
Buneau-Verilla, the French engineer
who was in charge of the canal works
in the last days of the French admin
!stration and that Of Lindon w. Bates
the Chicago civil engineer, who was
connected with great enterprises or
the Nile and elsewhere. The Ameri-
cans for their part were acquainted
with the main features Of these pro
jects before the bard of engineers met
in its first session. Nevertheless they
joined in the study of physical data
with their foreign colleagues. went
over countless blue prints and maps,
went to the isthmus and scanned ey-
sry inch of the proposed canal. and
had made up their minds that when
the board reconvened in Washington
about the beginning Of this month, as
to the -ype of canal they favored. IT
was not until last Tuesday, however.
that anything in the nature of decis-
i've vote was taken.
The Americans were not, however.
unanimous, for there is reason to be-
lieve that three Of their number, pro-
baby Gen. Davis and Mr.. Parsons and
Mr. Burr, joined the foreign delegates
IN this last proposition which decided
The board as favoring the sea level |
The decision was reached about noon
and the board practically completed
its labors. There willsbe a few more
meetings simply to deal with small
details and to put into permanent
form the result Of the boards pro-
tracted meetings The foreign dele
gates desire to leave for their homes
by the 9th inst To accommodate.
them in this, the full board has
agreed that they may conclude some
purely formal work connected this
project, such as the approval of GER
tain minutes and signature of papers
at special meeting to be held in
Paris in December or January.
However, there are two more impor-
tant sites at each of which there may
be great changes. proposed, for the
commission must pass the plans to the
president, who in turn must stamY
them with his own approval or disap
proval and forward them to congress
which, after all will be the court of
last resort as between the sea level
and lock canal project simply through
the fact that additional legislation
will be necessary If sea level canal
is decided upon.