The Paducah evening sun. [volume] (Paducah, Ky.) 1906-1929, 1906-12-17

as | have said above. is photo
graph OF the reservoir as myself
saw it and as it has been in exist
ence ever since the article In ques-
ion, was published With typical Am
erican humor, the engineering corps
still at work at the reservoir have |
chrstened a large boat which is now |
used on the reservoir by the name !
of the individual who thus denied
the possibility of the reservoirs ex-
istence
Colon Pavements.
rode thru the streets of Colon,
seeing them at the height of the
rainy season, after two days of al
most unexampled downpour, when
the were at their very worst. Taken
as a whole they were undoubtedly
very bad; as bad as Pennsylvania
avenue in Washington before Grants
administration. Front street Is al
ready in thoroly satisfactory shape.
however. Some of the side streets are
also In good condition. In others the
change in the streets Is rapidly going
on. Thru three-fourths of the town
liz is now possible TO walk, even dur
/ ing the period of tremendous rain,
In low shoes without wetting ones
feet. owing to the rapidly with
which the surface water Is carried
away in the bitches. In. the remaining
one-fourth OF the streets the mud
is very deep-about as deep as In
the ordinary street of a low-lying
prairie river town of the same size in
the United states during early
spring. All men to whom I spoke
were a unit in saying that the. condi-
tons of the Colon streets we're 100
per cent, better than year ago
Complaints Not Well Founded.
The result of the investigation OF
this honest complaint was typical OF
what occurred when | Investigated
most of the other honest complaints
made to me. That Is. where the COM
plants were not made wantonly or
maliciously they almost always
the fact that time was necessary In
the creation and completion of this |
Titantic work in a tropic wilderness. |
II is impossible to avoid ssome mis-
takes in building a giant canal thru
jungle-covered nfountSins and |
swamps while at the same time san
itating tropic cities and providing
for the feeding and general care OF
from twenty to thirty thousand
workers The complaints brought to
me, either OF insufficient provision In
caring for some of the laborers, or
of failure to finish the 'pavements OF
Colon. or of failure TO supply water,
or of failure to build wooden side
walks for tie use of the laborers in
the rainy season. on investigation
proved. almost without exception. to
be due merely to the utter inability
of the commission to do everything
at once. - ..tf-, ..,,...
For INSTANCE, it was imperative
that Panama. which had the high
est death rate and where the chance
of a yellow fever epidemic was
strongest, should be cared for first;
yet most Of the complaints as to the
delay in taking care of Colon were
due to the inability or unwillingness
to appreciate this simple fact.
Unjust Criticism.
Care and forethought havo been
exercised by the commission, and
nothing has reflected more credit up
on them than their refusal either to
go ahead too fast or to be deferred
by the fear of criticism from not
going ahead fast enough. IL is curl
Gus to note the fact that many of the
most severe critics of the commission
criticize them for precisely opposite
reasons, some complaining bitterly
that the work is not in more ad-
vanced condition, while the others
that 1t has been rushed
with such haste that there has been
preparation for the by
giene and comfort of the employees.
As a matter OF fact neither criticism
is just. It would have been impossi-
bic to go quicker than the commits !
sion has gone, for such quicknessl
would have meant insufficient prepa-
ration. On the other hand, to refuse
to do anything until every possible
future contingency had been met
would have caused wholly unwar-
ranted delay. The right course to fol-
low was exactly the course which has
been followed. Every reasonable pre-
paration was made in advance, the
hygienic conditions in especial being
made as nearly perfect as possible;
while on the other hand there has
been no timid refusal to push for
ward the work because of inability
10 anticipate every possible emergen-
oy. for, of course. many defects can
only be shown by the working Of the
system in actual practice.
In addition to attending to the
health of the employees. II is OF course
necessary to provide for policing the
Zone. This is done by a police force
which at present numbers over 200