The daily morning journal and courier., 1906-12-18
New Records for Excavation.

l mage haul of individual locomotives. l ! hope to see the growth of a healthy spirit of emulation between the differ ent shovel and locomotive crews, just I such a spirit as has grown on our bat | tie ships between the different gun ! crews in matters of craftsmanship. l Passing thru the cut the amount of new work can be seen at 8 glance. In l one place the entire side of hill had | been taken out recently by twenty seven tons of dynamite, which were ex- ploded al one blast. At another place was given a Presidential salute of | twenty-one charges of dynamite. On the top notch of the Culebra cut the
 prism is now as wide as it will be; all told, the canal bed at this point has now been sunk about 200 feet below what it originally was. It will have to be sunk about 190 feet farther. Thru
 out the cut the drilling, blasting, show cling and hauling are going on with constantly increasing energy, the huge
 shovels being prest up, as if they were
 mountain howitzers into the most un- likely looking places, where they eat LuSlI NdS IHlO lIle IilllSlueS.
 Railway Improvements.
 The most advanced methods, not only in construction, but in railroad man agement, have been applied in the
 Zone, with corresponding economics in time and cost, This has been shown in
 the handling of the tonnage from ships into cars, and from cars into ships on
 the Panama railroad, where, thanks
 largely to the efficiency of General
 Manager Bierd, the saving in time and cost, has been noteworthy. My examl-
 nations tended to show that some of
 the departments had doubtless neces- | sarily) become Yer-developed, and
 could now be reduced or subordinated | without impairment of efficiency and l with a saving of cost The chairman
 of the commission, Mr. Shonts, has all | matters of this kind constantly in view and Is now recognizing the govern
 ment of the Zone, so as to make he l form of administration both more fieXi-
 ble and less expensive, subordinatng
 everything to direct efficiency with Q | view to the work of he canal conn mission. From time 10 time changes of
 this kind will undoubtedly have to be
 made, for 1t must be remembered that
 in this giant work of construction, it
 is continually necessary to develop de-
 partments or bureaus, which are vital
 for the time being, but which soon be-
 come useless; just as it will be contln-
 ually necessary to put up buildings | and even to erect towns which in ten
 years will once more give place to jun 1 gle or will then be at the bottom of the great lakes at the ends of the canal.
 Critics and Doubling Thomases.
 It is not only natural, but inevitable,
 that work as gigantic as this which has been undertaken on the Isthmus
 should arouse every species of hostility
 and criticism. The conditions are so
 new and so trying, and the work so
 vast, that it would be absolutely ont of
 the question that mistakes should not
 be made. Checks will occur. Unf9re-
 seen difficulties will arise. From time
 to time seemingly well-settled plans | will have to be changed. At present l twenty-five thousand men are engaged
 on tho task After a while the number
 will be doubled In such a multitude 1t 1 is inevitable that there should be here and there scoundrel. Very many of 1 the poorer class of laborers lack the mental development to protect them selves against either the raaeality of
 others or their own folly, and 1t is not
 possible for human wisdom to devise l plan by which they can invariably be | protected. Tn @ place which has been
 for ages a hyword for unhetlthfulness, and with so large a congregation of l strangers suddenly put down and set
 to hard work, there will now and then i be shortcomings in administration; l there will be unlookt+for accidents to
 delay the excavation of the cut or the l building of the dams and locks, Each
 such incident will be entirely natural,
 and, even tho serious, no one of them will mean more than a little extra de- | lay or trouble, Yet each, when diseov cred by sensation mongers and retailei
 to timid folk of little faith, will serve as an excuse for the belief that the
 whole work is being badly managed. | Experiments will continually be tried in housing in hygiene, in street repair ing, in dredging and in digging earth and rock Now and then an experi-
 ment will be failure; and among 1 those who hear of 1t, a certain propor tion of doubting Thomases will at once believe that the whole work is a fail
 ure, Doubtless here and there some minor rascality will be uncovered; but
 as to this, I have to say that after the
 most panstaking inquiry I have been
 unable to find a single reputable person
 who had so much as heard of any seri- ous accusations effecting the honesty of
 the commission or of any responsible officer under it. l append letter deal
 ing with the most serious charge, that of the ownership of lote in Colon; the
 charge was not advanced by a reputa-
 ble man, and is utterly baseless. It is not too much to say that the whole at-
 mosphere of the commission breathes honesty as it breathes efficiency and
 energy. Above all, the work has been kept absolutely clear of politics. 1
 have never heard even a suggestion of spells politics in connection with it.
 I have investigated every complaint brought to me for which there seemed to be any shadow of foundation In
 two or three cases, all of which I have indicated in the course of this message, I came to the conclusion that there was foundation for the complaint, and that the methods of the commission in the