Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1906-12-27

lACEAoVAb 80 JIM SPSN@
message on the Panama canal to Con
gress Monday. He tells at great length
of his personal experiences on his re-
cent trip to the canal zone, and scores
the critics and slanderers Of the canal
commission. On this point the Presi-
dent says:
"Where the slanderers are Of foreign
origin l have no concern with them.
Where they are Americans I feel for
them the heartiest contempt and indig-
nation; because in a spirit of wantOn
dishonesty and malice they are trying
to interfere with and hamper the exc
cution of the greatest work Of the
kind ever attempted and are seeking
to bring to naught the efforts of their
countrynen to put to the credit Of
America one of the giant feats Of the
ages.
THE outrageous accusations of these
s~landerers constitute a gross libel upon
a body of public servant S who for
trained intelligence, expert ability,
high character and devotion to duty
have never been eXcelled anywhere"
Following is the Presidents message
in part.
In the month Of November | visited the
Isthmus of Panama, going over the Canal
Zone with considerable care and also Wis
tied the cities of Panama and Colon,
which are not in the Zone or under the
United States flag, but as to which the
United States government, through It's
agents., exercises control for certain SAN
itary purposes. l was three days ashore
not a sufficient length of time to allow
an exhaustive investigation of the min
utia of the work of any single depart
ment, still less to pass judgment on the
engineering problems, but enough to en-
able me to get a clear idea of the salient
features of the great work and OF the
progress that has been made as regards
the sanitation of the Zone, Colon and
Panama. the caring for II housing OF
the employees, and the actual digging OF
the canal. The Zone is a narrow strip
OF land, and it car be inspected much as
one can inspect fifty or sixty miles OF
a great railroad, at the point where it
runs through mountains or overcomes
other natural obstacles.
| chose the month of November for my
WISH purity DbcduSe IL is liz ihlhicol
month of the year, the month in which
the work goes forward at the greatest
disadvantage. and one of the two months
which the medical department of the
French Canal Company found most I'M
healthy.
| inspected the Ancon Hospital. going
through various wards both for white pa
tients and for colored patients. | inspect
ed portions of the co%nstabulary Gone po-
lice), examining the men individually. l
also examined certain of the schools and
saw the school children, both white and
colored. speaking with certain of the
teachers.
At the Culebra cut-the spot in which
most work will have to be done in any
event, we watched the different steam
Shovels working; we saw the drilling and
blasting; we saw many of the dirt trains
(of the two different types used). both
carrying the earth away from the steam
shovels and depositing it on the dumps
some of the dumps being run out in the
jungle merely to get rid of the earth.
while in other cases they are being used
for double tracking the railway and in
preparing to build the great dams. |
visited many of the different villages. in
specting thoroughly many different build
ings-the local receiving hospitals, the
houses in which workmen live. as well as
the commissary stores, and the machine
shops.
Talks with Scores of WOrlSmen.
| talked with scores of different men
superintendents and head of departments,
divisions and bureaus; steam shovel men,
machiniSts. conductors, engineers, clerks,
wives of the American employees, health
officers, colored laborers, colored attend
ants. and managers of the commissary
stores where food is sold to the colored
laborers; wives of the colored employees
who are married.
Each day from twelve to eighteen hours
were spent in going over and inspecting
all there was to be seen, and in eXamin-
ing various employees. Throughout my
trim ! was accompanied by the surgeon
general of the army. DR.. Rixey by the
chairman of the Isthmian Canal Commits
sion, Mr.. Shonts by Chief Engineer Ste
vens; by DR.. Gorgas, the chief sanitary
officer of the commission by Mr. Bishop,
the secretary of the commission by Mr..
Ripley. the principal assistant engineer;
BY Jackson Smith. who has had practical
charge of collecting and handling the la
boring force: by Mr.. Bierd. general man
ager of the railway, and by -Ai. Rogers,
the general counsel of the commission !;
and many other officials joined US from
time to time.
Pays Tribute to Work of French.
| wish to pay a tribute to the amount
of work done by the French Canal Com
pany under very difficult circumstances.
Many of the buildings they put up We're
excellent and are still in use, though.
naturally, the houses are now getting out
of repair and are being used as dwellings
only until other houses can be built. and
much of the work they did in the Guile
bra cut. and some of the work they did
in digging has been of direct and real
beneft. This country has never made a
better investment than the S40.000,000
which it paid to the French compan for
work and betterments. including espe-
cialy the Panama railroad.
An inspection of the ground at the
height of the rainy season served to con-
vince me of the wisdom of Congress in
refusing TO adept either a high-level or
a sea-ievei canal. There seems to be a
universal agreement among all people
competent TO judge that the Panama
route. the one actually chosen, is much
superior to both the Nicaragua and
Darien routes.
The wisdom of the canal management
has been shown in nothing more clearly
thar in the way in which the foundations
of the work have been laid. To have
yielded TO the natural impotence of i'll
informed outsiders and begun all kinds of
experiments in work prior to Il thorough
sanitation of the isthmus, and to a fairly
satisfactory working out of the problem
of getting and keeping a sufficient labor
supply. would have been disastrous. The
various preliminary measures had to be
taken first and these could not be taken
so as to allow us to begin the real work
of construction prior to Jan. 1 of the
present year. 1t then became necessary
to have the type of the cana decided. and
the only delay has been the necessary de-
lay until the Doth day of June, the date
when the Congress definitely and wisely
settled thai we should nave IN Sj-foot
level canal. Immediately after that the
work began in hard earnest and has been
continued with increasing vigor ever
since: and it will continue so TO progress
in the future. When the contracts are
let the conditions will be such as TO in
sure a constantly increasing amount of
performance.
Sanitation Is Successful.
The first great problem to be solved,
upon the solution of which the success of
the rest of the work depended. was the
problem of sanitation. 1t must he remem-