The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-06-28
rHr purrcuIrIEs Ar rAsAMA.

up against in many long years. As Is we'll known, the plan of the Canal It. self has caused an almost endless amount of discussion and contention, and we cannot say that it is even yet finally settled. whether 1t shall be a sea-level ditch. or whether locks and dams shall be used. and how many. and the precise location of the big cst. are all questions about which there have been radical differences of opinion. and which are likely to continue until the work is finished--if 1t ever Is, for of that no one is assured. It is a stu pendous work, and ample time should be given to plans and surveys. for there Is more than one way in which mis- take would be a serious matter.
 But granting that the experts and en- gineers shall become fully agreed and satisfied as to the location and mechan- ical construction of the Canal. that Is only the preface of the work. The real difnculty comes up in connection with the work itself. and here enters into the equation a factor which may fully
  highest skin and resources of the sci- entifc world. That difiiculty or ob- stacle is a climatic one and its size and extent are just fairly beginning to be realized and understood.
 It has always been known. from the days when first the white man ventured on 1t, that the Isthmus is exceedingly unhealthy, especially for the white man of temperate attitudes That fact Is so well known and established that no argument is required to sustain 1t. Almost the entire region through which the canal is to be built Is little better than a pest hole. To adopt the Ian guage of a contemporary, 'the canal zone is noted for the many deadly dis eases that turk in it's jungles and swamps. Not less deadly than the cobras and other venomous reptiles that lie hiden in the rank vegetation of the tropics are the climatic levers. enteric disorders and malarial miesmas that often prove fatal within a few hours to the unacclimated visitor to that land of gorgeous and deceitfui beauty. An tidotes to serpents' stings are common, but man has found no prophylactic against the invisible enemies, the dis ease germs, that foat in the air and are everywhere in the low lying isthmus."
 This is the region in which white men must live--aid die, either as laborers or as engineers, bosses. superintend- ents and various other positions which cannot be filled by natives or by ne- groes A large percentage of the men who take up the work must be white men, preferably Americans. Evidences multiply shat a white man from the United States would be about as safe in a pest-house as he will on the Isthmus while present conditions prevail. That those who have ventured there arc seeing the danger and fleeing from 1t is a certainty. There was lately yer itable hegira of officials and clerks on account of the yellow fever. and the recent return of Chief Engineer Wal lace emphasizes the danger and disor- ganization among Americans.
 We of the South do not need to be | told of the deadly nature of yellow fe- yer or of the demoralization caused in any city or community by its advent | We have had a number of epidemics of | it and know its danger Better meth ods of sanitation and more intelligent treatment together with rigid and in | telligent quarantine measures have robbed 1t of many of its terrors, but even now a well defined case of 1t in Montgomery or other Southern city would cause a panic and an exodus of those who could get away. and many of them would not stand on the order of their going. so great is the dread | of it.,
 If this is true of Alabama, for ex- ample, and if 1t causes many deaths in our comparatively healthy region, what may be expected of 1t in Panama, a very nursery and breeding place for 1t and other deadly fevers7 Unless the entire canal zone can be cleansed. pu- rified and put through a thorough and effective process of sanitation. an epi- demic of yellow fever may be expected at any season and the consequences will be awful.
 To add to the dangers of the situa- tion we have the announcement that cases of the fearful bubonic plague have appeared, and 1t is not surprising. People from all parts of Europe, Asia, and Africa will flock to the region for various reasons. and no surprise need be felt, if some from the plague-strick- en portions of Asia are among them. This is the terrible Black Death which has so frequently spread over and de- vastated parts of the Old World, and which is more to be feared and dread ed than any disease to which humanity is subject Should 1t actually obtain foothold in the canal zone, we may say farewell to all hope of keeping Amer leans or white Europeans there while the plague lasts. If. to the various forms of miasmatic fevers, including yellow fever, which are at home on the Isthmus. the plague is to be added, the result can hardly be in doubt. White people cannot be induced to brave such an accumulated list of horrors.
 And so we repeat that our Govern ment has on its shoulders one of the most discouraging problems that 1t has ever faced, in all probability. With the resources at It's command, aided by the discoveries and improvements in med ical science and sanitation. the region may be made safe for white Ameri-