Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-03-25
UNCLE SANS BARGAIN
Panama Canal Considered q
Cheap Purchase.
VALUABLE SCRAPHEAP
ADMIRAL WALKER SAVED THE
GOVERNMENT ABOUT 100000
Engines, Barges, Dredges and Drills
Representing Vast Outlay That
Can Still Be Used.
VALUABLE SCRAPHEAP
Copyright. 1905 by Frank C. Corpenter)

Copyright, 1905 by Frank G. Carpenter)
Special Correspondence of The Evening Star.
PANAMA.
When Uncle Sam bought the Panama canal
for $i0CO,CG1 he got the right of way across
the isthmus. the Panama railroad, scratch
through the mountains, a lot of old build
Ings and a scrap heap. This letter deals
with the scrap heap. In others | may show
what he got with the Panama railroad, the
hundreds of thousands of acres that came
with the canal the millions of dollars
worth of valuable digging represented by
the scratch through the mountains, and
also the worth of the 5000 old buildings in
the work of the present. Each forms
separate part of Uncle Sans bargain,
the best he has made since he bought Louis
iana of Napoleon more than a hundred
years ago.
In order to show you just what the scrap
heap is worth l have gone with Paymaster
Tobey. the chief of the department of ma
terial and supplies, in a special train over
the ,sthmus visiting warehouse after ware
house and yard after yard examining the
material as 1t lies upon the shelves and
out in the open. | despair of giving you
an adequate idea of its quantity and va
ricty. There are all told, 10 great store.
houses, fifteen enormous warehouses and
points up and down 100 square miles of
territory, reaching from the Atlantic to
the Pacific.
The contents of the buildings and yards
are so great that l venture they would
cover if they could be spread out in one
place, a 5no-acre farm. as deep as your
waist and leave plenty over for fence
twice shat high around the edges.
These materials have all been inventoried
by the French. and in their balance sheet
they are valued at $290J1,0J0. This is a
book estimate; but our experts tell me that
they are really worth one-fOurth that
amount to us for use and for sale. In the
purchase of the canal this stuff was not
counted; but Admiral Walker, the chair
man of the commission. insisted that it be
thrown in for good measure AS a result
we got it for nothing. and the admiral
thereby saved the United States just
$1,000 900
The French Account Books.
The idea prevails that the French kept
no accounts of anything. that they took no
care of their machinery and that everything
we received was rusted and rotten. This
is not so. The best of their machinery was
kept under cover, much of it was painted
with white lead, while coal oil was squirted
over bolts. nuts and journal boxes to keep
them from rusting.
AS to bookkeeperS. | doubt whether the
French have their equals. l looked yester
day over the ledgers which contain list of
these supplies. The pages are like copper
plate engraving and the system of accounts
is perfect. There eighteen of these
books. each high as a table, as thick as
the biggest family Bible and as heavy as a
ten-year-ol old boy. Each is bound with brass
plates at the top and bottom, making it
look more like the missal of a monastery
than a business account book. To give an
idea of the size l had Paymaster Jackson
hold one of the books open while | photo
graphed it,
Each ledger contains five hundred pages
There are eighteen books that they
have, all told, 10000 pages. all COW
cred with figures. Paymaster Tobey
says that duplicates of these books were
kept in Paris, and that the hundreds of
thousands of items scattered through the
store houses, sheds and parks care
fully labeled to correspond with the ledgers
that he can give order from them and
be sure that the supplies will be found in
the store house as here registered. TIL sys-
TEN of account keeping is much the same
that of the United States navy, and the
books are of great value to the material
md supplies department, which has to know
where everything is and be ready to furnish
L at a moments notice. whether it be a
pound of nails or pair of scissors, steam
barge locomotive.
The French Balance Sheet.
Before l take you through the shops let
me mention some of the larger items on the
French balance sheet. The small ones are
so many that their names alone would fill
a page of this newspaper. We have here