The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1906-08-17
WORK ON THE CANAL
It Is Progressing Under Sat-
isfactory Conditions.
AILAT 10 q AIN nv nm nnKE
WHAT Is SAID BY BROOKE.
Government Knocking Out Unsan-
itarY Spots and Making Country
There fit 10 Live in.
rom Saturdays Daily.

| George d. Brooke, superintendent OF
motive power and machinery for the
sthmian canal commission, is spending a
furlough at his home in Minneapolis.
Mr.. Brooke talked interestingly to a
Journal reporter, saying among other
things
| Panama is a fine country to live in,
the Isthmian canal is the greatest and
most interesting engineering project the
world has ever known, and the men who
have been circulating stories about the
evils of the country and the lmpossi-
bilities of the work are not telling the
truth. They are usually men who have
been discharged for cause OF have some
imagined grievance.
'The sanitary conditions on the istl-
mus are as good as, or better than, those
in Texas and the other southern states
continued Mr. Brooke 1--WE now have
more than $4,000 men at work on the
canal and railroad and during the TWEEN
ty-one months of my stay we have Tot
had one case of yellow fever. Malaria
of course, there is, but this is brought on
largely by lack of care and indiscretions
A man of fairly temperate habits can go
into that country without materially
changing his mode of living.
1--WE have made many changes and
Improvements. We have paved the
streets of the towns, furnished pure
water supplies, cut down the bacteria
breeding fungus which used to grow in
ways increased. the healthfulness of the
place. When first went there New Or
leans quarantined against Panama; now
Panama guarantees against New Or
leans OF course the isthmus is not a
summer resort, and a man must take
reasonable care of himself and must take
his two to four grains c. quinine every
day. That is one thing wouldn't do at
| first, but touch of malaria brought
me to it, 1t is peculiar, but in that eli
mate quinine in large quantities does not
bother you and has no effect on your
sight OF hearing, as it does in the north
ern ATTITUDES.
''The most remarkable thing about the
canal work, and the one that always
impresses the visitor, is its magnitude
The people in the states have no coneep-
of its difficulties. Before l went to Pan
anna | thought l had had enough expert
ence in the engineering work. When
began the work there found that the
only use my experience was to me was
to give me the capacity to study out the
| best methods to be used there. The con-
litions are so entirely different, every
thing has to be done on so much larger
scale than anything | had ever seen or
heard of, that the problems presented
by the Panama canal all have to be
solved by reverting to first principles.
My experience there has meant more to
me than | can tell, and am thoroughly
in love with the work
"In the first place, think of moving
$4,000 men away from their homes, put
ting them all to work and providing for
their board and lodging in wild and
unsettled country. Is that little UNI
dertaking? We now have things down
to a working basis. The whole forty
en-mile length of the canal is one
camp or city. We have three mann
moth hotels, two more are under con-
struction for the laborers, and we are
now building one that will have every
modern improvement, convenience and
elegance. This will be done in time TO
receive President Roosevelt when he
visits the isthmus next year.
"Then came the problems of the en-
cheering work. The country is made
up of series of hills that seem as though
they had simply been pushed up together
are no defined strata and our methods of
handling the building of the canal have
to be changed continually to cope with
changed conditions. The 22-foot tide
on the Pacific coast and the lS-inch tide
on the Atlantic also gave us food for
thought, and the INDIGESTION as to whether
the canal should be made on sea level
was another cause of much worry and
extra work
'The railroad also required much la
Dor. We have double tracked it's fifty
two miles, and will probably have to
triple track, and will probably have to
locomotive shops i'll operation and are
building Others We have forty four
new mogul locomotives of ninety -one
tons each. We are building steam SHOW
ell shops, and the shovels that we use
are larger than any l ever saw before.
They have e-yard dip and handle
| from five to six-ton rocks.
"The locks are also monster prob
| lens, and | think it is safe to say that