The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1905-11-01
Conditions Are Chaotic. Practically
No Progress Has Been Made,
Saws the COmmissOner.
lys the Commissioner.

VIZ
ington correspondent, has interviewed
one of the commissioners who has just
returned from Panama, and that Off
claIs views of the canal are given in
the following article sent to the Sa-
vannah News:
Panama is a good place to come
away from"
This opinion was expressed by a
member of the commission especially
appointed to visit Panama and ascer-
tain what progress has been made in
the construction OF the canal, and to
form some estimate of how long it will
take to put the canal in practical OPP
GRAFTON. Also to estimate what the
construction and the maintenance of
that great isthmain waterway will cost
the people of the United States.
81 would not care to live at Pana-
ma, nor would [ care to remain there
for lengthy PERIOD, " continued the
speaker, "for the conditions make it
almost impossible for men who have
been accustomed to the simplest and
most ordinary comforts of living to
exist there"
Conditions Are Wretched.
"What are the actual conditions and
what progress has been made in the
oo~c+ruo+iO, Of +Lo oo1,1 ci,oo tho
United States bought all the rights
and privileges belonging to the
French Panama Canal Company, for
which the government paid $40, 1000,
000?"
"The conditions in Panama are
wretched. Practically no progress
whatever has been made toward the
building of the canal. We travelled
over considerable territory and in
Spected the property which our gov
eminent bought from the French Pan
anna Company. [ can not adequately
express the presen5 condition of that
so-called property. | went to Balti-
more after the tremendous fire which
recently wrecked nearly the entire com
mercial zone of that great city, and |
must say in all candor and with per-
feet frankness that the wreckage left
bv the fire fiend at Baltimore pales
into insigniicance when compared
with the wreckage along the route of
the proposed canal"
GLOW many buildings have been
erected by the United States since we
became the purchaser of the Panama
property 2"
81 do no believe we have done much
in the building line at Panama. In
fact, from my observation it appears
that the money we are spending there
is being used to rehabilitate the rem
nants of the French Panama buildings
which are left standing. [ should es-
innate that there are probably LOCO or
more of these small buildings which
our government is repairing with the
expectation that they may be occupied
by our labOrers when we commence
actual work on the canal.
Long Time Before Digging.
cat present the work on the canal
proper has not commenced, and 1t
may be long time before we are pre-
pared to begin digging. We must at
q - ,.o1~o - DnOviSiOy, for r. lyinCr care
of the labor which will have to exist
there during the construction of the
canal.
1.-THE sanitation of the isthmus is to
be looked after. Places of shelter are
to be provided and some practical ar
rangement must be made for furnish
ing suitable food for the laborers.
SAT present it is almost an impossi-
bility to obtain health-giving and sub
stantial food such as skilled laborers
REQUIRE to enable them to endure the
enervating climate and to combat the
many other inconvenience to which
they will be subjected while they are
on the isthmus. With the natives the
conditions are somewhat different.
sThey manage to subsist on dwarf
bananas, which they pick with their
toes. and some other orOpical fruit
which seems to grow wild in that eli
mate.
1T is going to be long and ted
ious lob, and he have just reached the
stage where we are preparing to begin
work. We might as well let our peo-
ple know that they must be patient if
they expect the canal to be built. 1t
is idle and misleading to give the i'm
nression that this great undertaking
can be accomplished in three, five or
even ten years. 1t may be a great
deal longer than that, and after hav-
i,,o investigated the subject carefully