The Hartford republican. (Hartford, Ky.) 18??-1926, 1905-11-24
PANAMA CANAL,
Advisory Board Decides in Fa-
vOr of the Sea Level Plan
Unfinished French Work of fiji
teen Miles Procured by the
United States.
Especial 10 Tur RrrrplicANl

ISpeclul 10 lHE ltEf'hil'AN'l
Washington. ID. c., Nov. %. The
International Board of consulting
Engineers who are acting in advisory
capacity to the Panama Canal Com
missional voted this week on the
subject of the type of canal to be
adopted. Their decision was in fa-,
vor of a Sea level canal and the work
can proceed with more rapidity.
But up 10 date there has been a
great deal done, how much very
few people in the United States
seems TO know or care. There has
been great deal of criticism of the
canal commission for not proceeding
faster. But the fact is that the
work has been pushed as rapidly as
possible considering the number of
changes in the commission and en-
gineer that have been necessary.
-
The decision as to the type of can
al marks an important period
in the work and is just as well to
consider at this moment what
has already been accomplished. In
the first place the isthmus has been
cleaned up as it was never thought
possible to do it. In fact the work
of the sanitary corps under Col.
Groges has been as important as the
digging of the canal itself. For the
sanitation of the lsthmus has made
it habitable strip. The French
tried to do the canal work without
the preliminary sanitation and failed
utterly. OF course partisan critics
will profess themselves skeptical of
the amount of work actually done.
But the records of the war Depart
ment state the following as some of
the things accomplished. A sewer
system has been advised for the
town of Panama and is half complet-
ed. The town is being paved with
brick for the easier cleaning and
policing, and there has been installed
a complete system of water works so
that for the first time in three CEN
turtles the inhabitants will have good
drainage and pure drinking supply.
There will be three other water sys-
TENS necessary, one for the Culebra,
one Empire and third for Cristobal
and Colon. All these are under way.
By cleaning the towns and killing
the mosquitoes, the yellow fever
cases have been reduced from 81 in
July to 8 in October. There are
now $4,000 laborers on the ground
and the rate of sickness in only rs
per 1000 which would be considered
moderate in a northern climate.
-.
In the line of actual construction
the Uuited States inherited the UNI
finished French work which consist
ed of fifteen miles of sea level canal
at the North end and five miles at the
South. The work has eaten into the
great Cuebra Hill to point lao feet
above sea level. This hill is $40 feet
high and ten miles wide and has
been the great bugbear of a canal
line at Panama. There are 20 steam
shovels now on the ground and sixty
more ordered or on their way to the
scene of the work. The Panama
railway has been double tracked
with the exception of nine miles
which will soon by doubled also.
This is not bad showing for the
work up to date. There has been a
deal of opposition to the canal from
the railroad interest which will of
course be affected by it aud there
probably will by a great many more
calamity bowls to the effect that it
is an engineering impossibility. But
one can consider the progress made
with a great deal of satisfaction
and the assurance that in about five
years the work will be completed
"