The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1905-12-14
NOT ACTUALLY
DIGGING CANAL
About 1900 Men Now Rustling
Around on the Isthmus
WALLACE IS CRITICISED
WORK OF FORMER ENGINEER
USELESS.

.AlASHINGTON, Dec. ls.-ln making
w public all the testimony taken
Yesterday by the senate commit
tee on appropriations in relation TO the
Panama. canal emergency bill, the SEN
ate has diclosed in greater detail the
work on the isthmus than has been
given TO all the reports of The isthmian
canal commission or others authorized
10 discuss canal affairs The testimony
taken during the meeting covers
eichty-eight printed pages, devoted al
most wholly 10 examination of Score
tarv Of War Taft, Theodore Z. Shonts,
chairman of the commission. j. Il
Bishop. secretary, and u. W. Ross,
general purchasing officer. u deVei-
oped during the testimony of Secretary
Taft and Mr.. Ross that IS per cent Of
the materials purchased by the COM
mission were shipped from the United
States. and Of the > per cent Of foreign
materials nearly the entire amount
was secured on the isthmus.
None of them Digging.
II vas stated that there are about
l. 600 men employed on the isthmuS IN
canal work, but that none of these IS
now engaged in cXCuvating. The work
oi digging the canal was stopped when
Mr.. stevens went TO the isthmus IN
July last as chief engineer. Mr.. Taft
said that 4.000 of the men were en-
ploved in the sanitation department
and $4,000 In track work, construction
of buildings. in machine work ana put
ting together the equipment in getting
ready for the work Of oXcaVating.
Continuing, Mr.. Taft said:
Dab at Wallace.
'.IIr- stevens states-and I think Mr..
Shonts agrees with him-that Former
Chief Engineer Wallace made mis-
take in expending what he did eNpend
for actual excavation work in the
Culebra cut. 1t was not done for the
purpose of excavation, although It dld
accomplish. To the extent 20 which
there was excavation. work which may
not have 10 he done again. But il was
dCue for the purpose of making esti-
mates as 10 the cost, and AiT. Stevens
thinks that the material which was
removed was deposited at places from
which il will have TO be again removed
and that estimates based upon those
experiments, therefore. are estimates
based upon what do not Qssimilate TO
the actual work 10 be done
so that it really was not good sam
pie work." asked Senator Hale.
NO, sir" replied Mr.. Taft. ''Of
course, the great problem there is not
excavation The great problem is
transportation and the disposing of the
waste. Dirt taken from Culebra cut has
To be hauled By rail from four 10 fif-
teen miles"
Criticism by shonts.
SIR. Shonts then said of the work
done by MIR. Wallace:
He selected the easy work at the
top of the cut, where he had gravity
hauls. He wasted at the nearest place
he could. and misled himself and other
people by taking the cost per cubic
yard thus arrived at during the most
favorable circumstances, as being the
unit cost at which he could do the en-
tire work. For that reason his work
was practically wasted
1t was stated by Mr.. Shonts that
under Mr.. Wallace's direction dirt was
removed during the dry season at q
cost of 43 cents per cubic yard, but
that the cost was increased 10 $50 a
yard during the wet season.
Members of the committee having
expressed surprise at the great differ
ence. Mr.. Shonts said:
There could not have been so much
difference If Wallace had properly ball
lasted his trucks, so that when the sea-
son came on his cars would not get Oft
the track so much"
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