The Roswell daily record. [volume] (Roswell, N.M.) 1903-current, 1906-12-18
The President Message
on the Panama Canal

Sewering, draining, Sutterlng anu pay
ing of the streets. Some four months
will be required before the work OF
sewerage and street Improvement will
be completed, but the progress already
made is very marked. bitches have
been dug thru the town, connecting
the salt water on both sides, and into
these tile ponds which nave served as
breeding places for the mosquitoes,
are drained. These bitches nave an
swered their purpose, for they are
probably the chief cause of the as
tonishing ~diminution in the number of
mosquitoes. More ditches of the
kind are being constructed.
Colon Water Supply.
1t was not practicable with the
force at the Commissions disposal,
and in view of the lee that the force
should be used in the larger town OF
Panama to begin this work before
early last winter. Water mains were
h laid in the town and water was
furnished to the people early in
March from a temporary reservoir.
This reservoir proved to be Of insult
ficient capacity before the end of the
dry season and the shortage was made
up by hauling water over the Pana-
ma railroad, so hat there was at all
times an ample supply of the very
best water. Since that time the new
reservoir back of Mount Hope has
been practically completed. | visited
this reservoir. 1t is a lake over a
file long and half a file broad. 1t
now carries some 100000, 900 gallons
of frst-class water. / forward here
with a photograph of this lake, togetn
er with certain other photographs OF
what I saw while l was on the 18th
mus. Nothing but a cataclysm will
hereafter render it necessary in the
dry season to haul water for the use
of Colon and Cristobal.
One of the most amusing (as well
as dishonesty attacks made upon the
Commission was in connection with
this reservoir. The writer in ques
ton usually confined himself to vague
general m%endacity; but in this case
he specifically stated that there was
no water in the vicinity fit for a res
ervoir q drank it, n it was excel
LENT, and that this particular reSer-
vol would never hold water anyway.
Accompanying this message, as l have
said above, is a photograph of the
reservoir as l myself saw it, and as it
has been in existence ever since the
article in question was published.
With typical American humor, the en-
cheering corps still at work at the
reservoir have christened a large boat
which is now used on the reservoir by
the name of the individual who thus
denied the possibility of the reser-
voir's existence.
Colon Pavements.
l rode thru the streets of Colon, see
ing them at the height of the rainy
season. after two days of almost I'M
exampled downpour, when they were
at their very worst. Taken as a
whole they were undoubtedly very
bad, as bad as Pennsylvania avenue
in Washington before Grants Admin.
istratioa. Front street is already in
thoroly satisfactory shape however.
Some of the side streets are also in
good condition. Thru three-fourtns of
the town it's now possible to wall ev-
en- during the period of tremendous rain
in low shoes without wetti1g ones
feet, owing to the Tapidity with which
the surface water is carried away in
the bitches. In the remaining one
fourth of the streets the mud is very
deep-about as deep as in the ordi-
nary street of a low-lying prairie riv-
er town of the same size in the United
States during early spring. All men
to whom l spoke were a unit IN saying
that the conditions of Colon streets
were 100 per cent better than a year
ago The most superficial examina-
ton of the town shows the progress
that has been made and is being made
in macadamizinZ the streets. Complaint
was made to me by an entirely reputa-
BILE man as to the character of some
of the material used in repairing GER
tain streets. On investigation the
complaint proved well founded, but
1t also appeared hat the use of the
material in question had been aban-
doned, the Commission after having
tried it in one or two streets finding
it not appropriate.
Complaints Not Well Founded
The result of the investigation of
this honest complaint was typical of
what occurred when / investigated
most of the other honest complaints
made to me. That is. where the COM
plants were not made wantonly or
maliciously, they almost always prov
ed due to failure to appreciate the
fact that time was necessary in the
creation and completion of this I'll
tanic work in a tropic wilderness. 1t
is impossible to avoid some mistakes
in building a giant canal thru UNCLE
covered mountains and swamps, while
at the same time sanitating tropic cit
les, and providing for the feeding and
general care of from twenty to thirty |
thousand workers. The complaints brot
to me, either of insufficient provision
in caring for some of the laborers, or
of failure to finish the pavements of
Colon, or of failure to supply water,
or of failure to build FOODS side
walks for the use of laborers IN the
rainy season, on investigation proved,
almost without exception, to be due
-nro1u IN tho ,rffAr inohslff- ~ Tho i