The Brandon news. (Brandon, Miss.) 1892-1961, 1905-11-23
PANAMA CANAL
TO BE SEA LEVEL
DECISION ARRIVED At AFTER
THREE MONTHS WORK.
TIE VOTE WAS EIGHT TO FIVE
'0dy Was Constituted Of the World 8
Best Emergency Talent. Men Were
From All Parts Of the World With
Big Regulations.

oAS AcQuCdC1OuS.
Washington. By vote Of s to 5,
;he board of consulting engineers of
the lsthmian Canal Commission, a
body which, if President Roosevelt
realized his. hopes the greatest and
most representative engineering talent
\ the world, placed itself upon record
rs favoring the construction Of the
Panama Canal on the sea level. This
fecision represents the outcome of
nearly three months hard work. Ear
y IN September the engineers gather
ID from all parts of the world, for the
president, DESTROYS to obtain the best
talent and to avoid foreign criticism
IN the future, had called upon gov
.rnments Of five nations, distinguish
I'd for the successful construction of
great hydraulic works, to send each
one Of their best engineers to assist
'he American engineers in the decision
II the momentous question of con-
structing the Panama Canal at sea
level or at a greater altitude, involv-
ing system Of locks.
The foreigners came to Washington
absolutely without instructions from
their own governments and without
bias, determined to be guided to their
decision solely by the facts to be pre-
sented to them in the shape of great
mass of physical data and supplement
ed by several projects, notably that
upon which the French Panama Com
pany worked SO patiently for more
than decade; that of the first Amer
lean Panama Commission; that of M.
Buneau-Verilla, the French engineer
who was in charge Of the canal works
in the last days of the French admin
istration and that of Linden w. Bates.
the Chicago civil engineer. who was
connected with great enterprises on
the Nile and elsewhere. The Ameri-
cans for their part were acquainted
with the main features Of these pro-
iects 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 ev-
cry 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 a decis-
i've vote was taken.
The Americans were not, however.
unanimous, for there is reason to- be-
heve that three Of their number, pro-
badly 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 Will be few more
meetings simply to deal with small
details ard to put into permanent
form the result Of the boards pro-
tracted meetings The foreign dele
oates 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 with this
project, such as the approval Of GER
Tain minutes and signature of papers
at a 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 charges proposed, for the
commission must pass the plans to the
president, who IN turn must stamp
them with his own approval or disap-
prevail and forward them to congress,
which, after al 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 a sea level canal
&c 1an1Iad ,,Y,on