The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-04-30
Not Surprised f Completed in
 Less Time
BANQUET AT CINCINNATI
The Function Given Him By 500 Busi- ness Men Is the Climax of the Secretary's Western
 Trip.

Cincinnati April 29-"If the Panama canal is not completed within eight years from now shall be greatly disappointed. It if is completed in less time than that l shall not be greatly surprised
 This statement made tonight by Secre- tary of War Taft before the Business Mems club of this city brought forth uproarous cheers, the 600 members of the club who were gathered inside the ban quet hall rising to their feet and cheer ing the statement and the speaker with tremendous enthusiasm.
 The banquet rendered to the secretary by the Business Mems club came as the climax to the last of the three days of his present western trip, and 1t was fitting continuation to the iattering recep- tion that has been extended to him on every side by his Ohio friends.
 The last official day of the secretary's western trip was like the two days which had preceded it-full of work.
 In the morning he delivered an address 10 the students of the Law school of Gin cinnau university Later he appeared on the floor of the chamber of commerce, where in response to the enthusiastic
 
 address.
 Early in the afternoon he held an ex- tended conference on the condition or Ohio politics with N. c. Wright of Cleve- land who outlined to him the exact po- sition of the majority of the leading re- publicans in the northern part of the state.
 The remainder of the day. prior to the banquet, was given over to impromptu receptions to his friends.
 On Panama Canal.
 Secretary Taft announced at the com mencement of his address that he would speak on ''The Panama Canal" and par ticularly upon the Improvements that had been made and tho steps toward the com pletion that had been accomplished since the i-sesston .1s lsis visit zto. the isthnus preceding tae one just completed.
 It is only by comparison of the con- ditions existing at the time of these vis- it's" said the secretary, that l am able to give an adequate idea of the work ethat has been accomplished and of the D esent conditions of the work. I would shRe in passing to pay a tribute of jus tice to the French people, for what they did down there has never been properly appreciated by the American people The great danger of any work of this charac- ter under the auspices of the American 
 will be undertaken before the work of preparation is completed. l do not think that the preparatory work of the last two years has been productive of any thing but the most beneficial results.
 My visits this year was to settle the question of the location of the locks, the completion of which, in my opinion, will mark the completion of the canal. It is possible, however, that the finish of the work in the Culebra Cut will be the end of our labors. In this cut there are yet to be excavated GOO cubic yards of earth, exclusive of the digging to be done on the approaches to the cut proper. In the nine miles of the cut there are now 5S steam shovels at work and they will take out on the average one million cubic yards per month This rate may be increased until we have 90 shovels at work, and then 1t will gradually decline until it will probably be somewhat below the million cubic yards per month. We will not be able to work as many shovels as we get lower down in the cut, where the space is more narrow. 1 can safely say, however, to the man who goes there now that he will see something that be- gins to look like canal and it will look more like one every day from now on.
 Compliments Stevens.
 We advertised for bids on the canal work and then declined them for the req son that we found that 1t would be neces- Bary for the contractors to have the help of capitalists and we would be compelled to allow the contractors ' per cent interest on the money they would be com pelled to borrow from the capitalists. As we could borrow money at 2 per cent this per cent proposition did not appeal greatly to us.
 II wish to pay high compliment to Chief Engineer Stevens for his work in conjunction with the canal and also for his efforts to transfer to the government the entire organization on the isthmus, which we had perfected at such great la bor. No resignations have so far come from the force which we organized and placed in operation.
 ITO us in responsibility it Is a great comfort to be able to introduce the army engineers upon the work. We have three of them there, and if one of them falls out the work will be undisturbed It is only fair to say of the army engineers that there will be no graft that they can suppress, and there will be no bad work accepted that they can supervise. No doubt engineers from civil life would act in a similar manner, but If any of you gentlemen have ever managed a work of magnitude where everybody had the right to poke in his nose and insist upon this and that, you would know how great is the relief to have that done away with The record of the army for the last fifty years is a guarantee that the work will be capably and honestly performed"