New-York tribune., 1907-09-01
FIFTY MILLIONS WASTE
Romance of Costly Panama Canal
Expenditures.

Nothing remains but TO say. Well done The
canal viii be built" said President Roosevelt the
other day after inspecting the work of the Panama
canal which the United States have undertaken
70 complete. Thus it seems that have reached
the last stage of one of the greatest engineering
.nterprises in human history. and the story
Of which, though much OF it is now forgotten. is
about the most remarkable told of any under
taking.
A quarter of a century has gone since this gigan-
lie task of cutting a waterway through the sthmus
which connects North and South America first
begun. De Lesseps's engineering commission esti-
mated its cost at SiS 600 francs: De Lesseps him
self placed the figure at 6oe.oeOoe0 francs f24-
eaapp0. and began the stupendous work with the
llghtest and most confident of hearts Less than
eight years later his company bankrupt. with
ETa0cAoO0 Of debts and only quarter of the work
MAS completed
about by such reckless extravaganza. Il had no
iiea," wrote engineer who visited Panama a
few years after the company's collapse, until
vent and for myself what reckless, fabulous
extravaeRnce there was on the isthmus from 1881
1Ss9. The sum of s263 o00.eFD spent in build
ing about one-fourth Of the Panama Canal. Com
petent engineers say that the same work. barring
the accidents from the rising Of the Chagres River,
could be done to-day for about S35eoo,oeO- To be
exact, the De Lesseps company spent about S25o,-
Cleeo and excavated less than 100000 cubic yards
of earth and gravel
The Caifornians talk about the palmy days
when extrava gance was the rule in San Francisco
and al Virginia City, but these compare
he with the days in 1888 and 1Ss4. when men made
100000 francs profit month at Panama and Colon.
/ met one man there who sold mules and donkeys
10 tire Panama Canal Company in 1852, and made
S3G169 clear between June and September from
invested CAPITAL Of $4,000. He told Of a
from New Orleans who brought down a stock Of
rubber boots necessary in working in the swamps
and streams worth aoout S6090 and who sold the
whole lot 10 contractor for the canal company
for S5oG90 cash down
Strange tales, TOO, told Of high salaried Off
cials who gave grand balls at which champagne
drunk by the gobletful and and women
amused themselves by throwing handfuls OF gold
and silver coin ont OF the windows TO the
tVes fight and scramble the ground for It They
tell OF the orchestra OF twenty Partisan musicians
that vas kept Colon for three years at large
pense solely TO furnish music for the canal Off
Gals and their friends OF evening They tell
zoo. Of the eqUipages Of the canal company at
Colon in tbose days and OF the women and men
who played night after night baccarat with one
hand 6nd roulette with the other. These are but
samples Of the pTodigal wasting of money by the
o,m ,mpany which undertook 20 construct the canal
err whose failure brought ruin tens OF thou
sands OF investors in France And equally remark
able the description OF the state of things after
work had ceased
Machinery and apparatus that had cost millions
OF dollars were left to the swamp and for
There hundreds Of dredges brought
from France and Belgium at cost of 5000 EACH
enormous steam cranes from Birmingham worth
1850 apiece wagons. thousands Of steel rails
heaps of railway tools and steel cables-an aban-
doned and buried in dirt and rust Machinery
which had cost f7,coeooo streWn along the lire
OF the canal for a distance OF about forty miles
Ten steam pumps and reservoirs. which had cost
not less than i1000o. were lying in heap just as
they had been dumped from the cars. the Grating
not even having been removed. while at place
r~5Ta- fhar4s
vas a pile of rusted rails which had never been
used which could not have been bought under
aI99p
Rusting in sheds were a hundred and twenty
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS. French, Belgian and AIneri-
can: az the canals mouth dozen large tugboats
were lying rotten and useless. while on grass
grown decaying spur OF the construction railroad,
q few miles southwest Of the C1llebra cut, were
Philadelphia locomotive and train of seventeen
can. standing just where the engineer shut of
Etean1 when the financial bubble burst and he and
the crew left their work The soil was soft and
Epongy. and the weight Of the locomotive ana
ears had borne so heavily on the track that the
train had sunk yard deep in the ooze.
IT, the mud and made ground about the harbor
81 Colon were tons upon tons OF costly macmueiy
which had been dumped into the sea without even
having been taken from the cases Engines. with
wrong gauges imported from Belgium at enor-
nous expense, wee disposed of in this way. Ar
outer wall TO break the dash Of the waves was
and shaped for their places IN the wall which
WIS TO protect the canal from the sudden rises
Of the Chagres River. These blocks were made
in France and taken across the Atlantic by the
shipload. only 10 be dropped into the ocean.
Such in mere outline and suggestion is the story
nf the Tanton extravaganza and recklessness which
marked the history Of the first Panama company
and this Was the prelude 10 the wholesale bribery
Ano corruption which in the early 90's shook the
republic OF France to its very foundation. But in
fail and
- canal. which day viii shorten the
age from New York 70 San Francisco (for exam
ple) by more than eight thousand miles was pro-
oeeded with. As recently 1900 if estimated
that il would take f20O030eo still complete the
work (only 100000 less than De Lesseps's esti-
mate Of nearly twenty years earlier); and that
The United States has undertaken to finish the
canal they viii consider themselves fortunate il
The estimate Of six years is not far exceeded
sfom beginning TO end this great undertaking
VIII have cost little less than f10oe0oceo Of which
considerably more than half viii have been wasted.
-Tt-Bits