Fort Mill times. [volume] (Fort Mill, S.C.) 1892-current, 1906-01-11
PRESIDENT ON THE CANAL

the Chief Executive Denounces Ae-
cusations as Work of Sensation
Mongers and Disappointed Graftsrs
Washington, Special.-The letter of
Prcsaucnt Roosevelt transmitting. 10
Congress The annual reports of the
lsthmian Canal commission and the
Panama Railroad Company, together
with Secretary Taft's letter transmit
ting the same, is Us follows:
To the Senate and House of Repre-
sentatives:
The work on the isthmus is being
admirably done, and great progress
has been made, especially during the
last nine months. The plant is being
made ready and the organization per
fected. The first work to be done YVES
the work of sanitation, the necessary
preliminary to the work of actual CON
structiou; and this has been pushed
onward with the utmost energy and
means. In short while | shall Law
before you the recommendations of
the commission and of the board of
consulting engineers as to the proper
plan 70 he adopted for the canal it
sell. together with my own recon-
medations thereon. All the work so
far has been due, not only with the
utmost eypendition, but in the most
careful and thorough amer; and
what has ben accomplished gives us
good reason to believe that the canal
will be dug in a shorter time than
has been anticipated and at an ex-
penditure within the estimated
amount. All our citizens have right
to congratulate themselves upon the
high standard of efficiency and in
tegrity which has been hitherto main
tanned by the representatives of the
government in doing this great work.
If this standard of efficiency and
integrity can be maintained in the
future ut the same level which it has
now reached, the construction of the
Panama Canal will be one of the fea-
lures to which the people of this re-
public will look back with the highest
pride.
From time to time various publica-
tions have been made, and from time
to time in the future various similar
publications doubtless will be made.
purporting to give an account of job
berry, or immortality, or inef1iciency, or
misery, as obtaining on the isthmus.
have carefully examined into each OF
these accusations which seemed
worthy of attention. In every instance
the accusations have proved To be
without foundation In any shape or
form. They spring from several
sources. Sometimes they take the
shape of statements by irresponsible
investigators of a sensational habit of
mind, incapable of observing or re-
peating with accuracy what they see
and desirous of obtaining notoriety by
widespread SANDER. More often they
originate with. or are given currency
by, individuals with a personal griev-
ance. The -mongers, both
those who stay at home and those who
visit the iSthmus, may ground their
accusations on false statements by
some engineer, who. having applied
for service on the commission and
been refused such service. now en-
deavors To discredit his successful
competitors. or by some lesser owner
or real estate who has sought action
or inaction by the commission to in
crease the value of his lots and is bit
ter because the commission cannot be
used for such purposes; or on the
tales Of disappointed bidders for con-
tracts: or of oificc-holders who have
proved incompetent or who have been
suspected OF corruption and dismissed
or who have been overcome by panic
and have He'd from the istkmus. Ev-
cry specific charge relating to jobbcry,
to immortality or to inefficiency, from
whatever source ii has come, has been
Immediately investigated, and in no
single instance have the statements
of these sensation-mongers and the
interested complainers behind them
proved true