The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1906-04-27


fsrent Story, and no fault can be found.
There is no decent hotel for man or
beast, and yet Colon has to shelter
many commercial men and many trav-
elers. There is also a good deal of
criticism about the American Line
steamers, by contrast to the Royal
/ Mail and the Hamburg American, es-
pecially as regards passenger service,
but aside from this there would APP
| pear to be the best reasons for hav-
ing a higher class of boats running to
Colon, especially in connection with
the far South American service.
There is little l can say about the
canal work, as it is now progressing
except to briefly refer to the inter-
views with Chief Engineer H. E.
Stevens and several of his assistants.
Mr.. Stevens is at Culebra, about three
quarters of an hour by rail from Pan
anna. This is the most important cut
of the canal and from the buildings
one gets a fine view down through the
cut. The elevation here is about 800
feet, and an excellent location, and
healthy for the main camp
Roads and houses are being built,
the place looks like a beehive. and
coming out of it is an American sea-
side resort 1 went over the grounds
and into the quarters and examined
some of the plans. Mr.. Stevens has
today $4,000 men on his pay roll He
is daily wedding out the undesirable
men; some of these men are the vel
low journal kickers, and are "agin the
! administration,
,--Jc gre: CT E=5i::----s.
At Comanche l found a large force
, CT engineers, draughtsmen, architects,
, boss carpenters, etc. Later I went
through the so-called Culebra cut.
was impressed more than anything
. with the systematic planning out OF
the whole problem. The Culebra Sec
ton of eight miles, requires for a canal
$50 feet wide excavation of 5S,000,000
yards, lock canal basis. The great
problem is not the excavation but the
removal Of the material. An extra
track is being laid by the railway COM
pany, and a double track line at the
bottom of the ditch. Every question
m this side has been carefully worked
out, j.
One G lie old de Lessep e..s.neers
showed me the cid plans which have
been carefully preserved, end which
c"- eag'3eers went over by special
survey, an enormous and expensive
but necessary work, and found the
French figures exact in almost every
details. For seventy-two months the
French removed 100000 yards of
earth a month, and the evidence of it
is very apparent.
The real work of the canal is not
seen from the railroad. l arranged to
mess with the men, and had their reg
u1ar dinner with them. It was a good
pQudlt hitdl, NIOlCoOlilt anu WGA
cooked. For weeks in South America
and travelling under the best auspices,
l had not had better one. Referring
once more to the kickers and conspira-
tors, | learned just as / was sailing
from Colon that Mr.. Bigelow had been
here for several days quietly getting
new facts. l also saw a number of
newspaper conspirators, and certain
perverted engineers, who write reports
It is said, ito order"
l think the readers of the Interna-
ional Weekly will be glad to have an
statement of the Panama
Canal as it is, and I feel justified in
,ffering a text for a discourse on the
subject, to be addressed to the kick
RS" which is said to be one of Pres
dent Roosevelt's latest, and one that
hould become a classic: Quit
and go to boosting"
H. T. w.