The Washington times., 1906-08-19
BIGELOW ERUPTS
SECOND TINE ON
PANAMA AFFAIRS
After Sojourn On 18th
mus He UphOlds His
Earlier Articles.

After some months of quiescence'
Poulmey Bigelow is once more IN
coalition Of eruption. He has written
another magazine article about the
canal and the canal zone. which appears
in the September Cosmopolitan. just Is
sued.
Mr.. BigeIow, whose earlier cOntribu-
tions 10 the subject caused such a tre-
mendous furor and led TO his being
summoned before the Senate Commit
Tee on Canals. is 10 write three articles
i'm the present series. He spent six
weeks on the isthmus preparing for the
task. and his opening article suggests
that he proposes, as a result Of a more
serious and detailed study OF conditions
on the zone. 10 prove in substance most
Of the charges ne made in his Independ-
ent writings
The observation, by way OF introduc-
ton, that canal building is older than
history. and thai the SIeZ canal was
first begun about fourteen centuries be-
fore the Christian era. is not calculated
To- cheer folks who claim a lock ditch
al Panama can be built in eight and
one of tie sea-leyel type in twelve!
But things have changed considerably
since the Pharaohs dug canals. The la
bor problem was easier in those days,
il is true, one forgotten Rameses had
10000 workmen perish on the ditch,
but nobody accused him OF violating the
contract labor law.
Four Difficulties to Face.
The mo5ern building of Suez's ditch,
Mr.. Bigel0w points out, was hedged
about by four sorts of difHculties-dIp-
Iomatic. financial labor, and admins
trative. In all these respects, he thinks
the French AZ Suez had a harder prob
lem than We have al Panama. He omits
entirely 40 mention engineering as one
Of the problems. The diplomatic ana
financial problems. he assumes. have
now been solved. there remain the labor
and administrative difficulties with
which 10 struggle. These, NJ, Bigelow
discusses.
cit Is mainly the incompetent or the
c0rrupt." De declares, who care to risk
their reputation cor their liver) on the
isthmus under present conditions Most
of these iucompeteuts have passed so
called civil service eXaminauon-and
thar is why the Panamau thinks our
civil service examinations are little bet
ter than IA farce. When man tells you
ON the isthmus that ne is an engineer
YOU don't know whether he has tended
"a soda fountain or run an ele-
yar0r
Speculation IN Land.
Go 10 the Panama railway, which is
owned 10y the United States Govern
ment. and YOU viii find that many OF
the canal officials own lots on this
pestiferous island. and consequently
have "a pecunlary interest I'm ConEest-
ing population here so that rents may
rise. Colon has almost doubled its
population within the last six months.
but so far from affording the people
more space on which to build, our OH
ciaIs there consistently refuse To furnish
relief We permit the buildings 70
crowd one against the other, thus
shutting out fresh air and encouraging
disease. In other words, II a cruel ruler
were proposing the best means for
diminishing population, he could study
with advantage our present municipal
government OF Colon. but To do this ne
must not coufine his studies 10 officially
doctnred reports
"Our administration permits no road
from Colon out to the healthful hills