The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1906-06-14
SEA LEVEL CANAL FAR THE BEST

The majority report of the senate
committee on interoceanic canals draws
lessons enough from the California
earthquake to decide Congress and the
President in favor of a sea-level canal
at Panama, even if the preponderance
of commercial interests and engineering
skill had not already clearly indicated
that as the best type for our great
work on the Isthmus
Probably no spot on the face of the
earth can claim certain exemption from
violent disturbances of the earths crust
and the lsthmuS Of Panama is not re.
mote from the scenes of some of the
most destructive Of these visitations
10 build there a canal whose locks and
reservoirs would be liable to run dry by
the breaking of walls and dams would
be an unsafe investment for the scores
OF millions which the American people
have already invested and are vet to
invest in the enterprise.
A canal at sea level might be benefit
ed and made larger, rather than injured,
by violent earthquake. 1t could hard
ly be hurt beyond the necessity for
dredging debris of earth and rock
thrown into it, whereas months or
years might be required to repair the
broken locks and dams of canal rest
ing upon higher levels.
Even ii there were no question of
earthquakes the advantages of sea level
communication between the two oceans,
in peace and in war, are so great that
the construction of any other sort of a
canal would be folly. The long voyage
OF the Oregon when her presence in the
Caribbean Sea was urgently needed
should be perpetual reminder that
quick concentration of our naval forces
scattered in the Atlantic and Pacific
oceans, may some day be vitality neces-
sary to the country's safety. This
strategic advantage, the committee clear
ly shows, can best be obtained by sea-
level canal, through which as many as a
hundred ships of war could be passed in
less than twenty-four hours.
When the further fact is advanced and
not denied that lock canal would be
more easily damaged by an enemy so as
to make it useless for the time all aues-
lions as to the type of canal to be built
for strategic uses should be forever set
at rest.
Capitalizing the cost of maintenance
which would be much greater for lock
canal, the committee shows that it
would cost only about SGO,OOO,0OO more
to dig a sea-level than a lock canal
while the cost of changing lock canal
to one at sea level hereafter would be
not less than S200,000,00O.
To the Treasury of the United States
the difference in first cost of the two
types would be tritle, even if the adj
vantages of the tide level waterway
were less than they are almost univers-
ally admitted to be. The simple fact
that ship could go through sea-level
canal in eight hours while half that
time would be consumed in lifting and
lowering it from level to level, in the
locks, would more than make up for the
difference in cost of the two types.
Safe, easy and unobstructed passage is
what the commerce of this country and
of the world wants at Panama.
1t has been reported from Washington
that, the President having declared for
a lock canal, the House cannot be in
duced to enact legislation authorizing
the sea-level work. 1t is hoped that
the President and the House will recede
from their position. The country will
be satisfied with nothing less than the
best possible construction on the
1sthmus.- Louis Republic.