The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-10-18
THE CANAL BY CONTRACT.

Perhaps 1t might not be exactly fair to say that the canal job has been a series of blunders land failures. but 1t certainly would not be fair or &C., curate to say that 1t has been a series of successes. One of the major blum ders, as we have all along contended. was in the adoption of the lock plan. There were so many sound arguments in favor of tho sea-level plan that 1t is useless now to discuss them. The principal arguments in favor of the lock canal were that 1t could be built much cheaper and much quicker. There is no possible way to prove this, for no human being can tell with any ap- proach to accuracy how long it would require to complete a sea-level way or what the expense would be. so those who contend that the lock would be the cheapest and quickest style cannot be proven in the wrong.
 But when the plan was decided on the next monumental blunder was com mitted when 1t was determined that the work should be done and super NiScu Uy tHS 1oNci HiIlcul uS super-confdence of Roosevelt had its effect on others. and so he was suf- fered to have his own way and under take to boss the job himself His big talk and boasts about making the dirt fly" long since ceased to possess the virtue of novelty. for observing people soon learned to take all such boasting at it's full value. About all the dirt flying that has been visible has been in the shape of money out of the Treasury as payment for not doing anything of value. The phrase How not to do 1t" was made famous by Charles Dickens. and the alleged canal builders appear to have adopted and applied 1t.
 Our Government Is becoming almost as famous for red tape delay as was the Circumlocution Office. of which Dickens also wrote. Almost from the very inception of the canal job there has been little but bitterness. jeal- ousies. prejudices and cross-purpose blundering. In no department has there been the harmony which alone could make such an undertaking sue cessful and the natural consequence is that hardly any tangible results can be shown for the money and time that have been wasted.
 Now, after all these many months of trying to do what it should never have undertaken the administration ha will let out the job to contractors AS a contemporary observes, The next best thing to doing the right thing in the right way is to correct mistake as promptly possible" The admin istration will now let out the work to others and shift the responsibility to them. We are in no hurry to pre- dict that everything will now move on smoothly and rapidly and successfully or that it will be done without ex- cessive cost To keep graft and pecu- lation out of such job will be a task as all know who keep up with the way work Is done for the Government We are assured that every proper provision is made for the equitable and effective letting and execution of the contract" As The New York Mail ex- plains it:
 Control is retained of ,the Board of Engineers who will fix the reasonable cost for the work and the reasonable time for its completion, and speed will be attained by bonuses for shortening the time and penalties for extending it. There Is to be no piecework. no pay for excavation per yard. The sue Ct ssful bidder wil be the lowest per cent of the profit on the outlay, and penal bond of $3.O00.oOO will protect the Government.
 All good Americans must unite in hoping that the "how not to do 1t" things are to come. However much any of us may have been prejudiced in favor of the sea-level plan, or however much any one may have preferred the Nicaragua route. those questions are settled. Both the route and the plan have been decided on. and now that the manner of accomplishing the job has also been decided. we can all join in the wish that 1t may be done as speedily and economically as Is consist ent with thorough efficiency. This is to be a work for all time. and neither undue haste nor parsimony should be allowed to take the place of good work We of the Gulf State region will derive vast benefit from the canal and we want good one. Let us hope that on this job the day of blunder- ing and incompetency is at an end.
 
 Maxim Gorky, who came over here to revolutionize American thought and American morals, has evidently given