The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1907-03-19
Uncle Sam Plenty Good Enough.


New York Sum- We respectfully
submit that there is now sojourning on
the isthmus of Panama, in charge Of
the digging there, a government con-
tractor whose efficiency and response
bility are such as to render superflu-
Gus the presence of any syndicate. We
think our intelligent readers win agree
with us after some brief intercourse
with arithmetic.
The respectable name of this con-
tractor is Samuel and he is repre-
sented on the isthmus by Mr.. Stevens
mot Frederick @. Stevens, the state
superintendent of public works in
New York, promoter and financier of
canal digging enterprises, but John F.
Stevens, the chief engineer of the
Panama canal. The latter Mr.. Stew
ems has neither wept his way to ce-
lebrity in the fashion of the Weary
Wallaces, nor lectured and written for
the benefit of the general public so
much about canal progress as some of
the Giftofgod Shonts'. Yet he un-
doubtedly knows what is going on at
Culebra
The time required for the construc-
ton of the lock waterway at the S57
foot level may be regarded as identical
with the time required to dig this
great cut through the main ridge be-
tween Mile $3.50 and Mile $3.50 of the
canal. While the excavation at Cule-
bra is proceeding all other work on the
canal and it's appurtenances can be
achieved, barring local difficulties as
yet unknown or disclosed. Thus
| Culebra measures the whole job.
When the reports of the majority
and minority of the board of consulting
engineers were prepared year age
last month there remained to be exca-
waited in the Culebra cut, according to
the then latest available figures. 3d.
l650,00O cubic yards. The record
achievement for the fifteen months
from July /, 1904, to Oct 1, 1905, was
only 911.309 cubic yards, a monthly
| average of little more than 10000
yards. At that rate Culebra would
have been dug and the canal finished
in, the year of grace 1861, about the
time of President Roosevlt's 10Srd
birthday.
What is this we now hear from thS
obtrusive Mr.. Stevens on the isthmust
For the month of January just past
the official figures reported to Wash
ington are 566,670 cubic yards of actual
Excavation at Culebra. In other
words, the increase in the rate of ex-
cavation accomplished by the United
States government, as sole contractor
for the canal has been from 7O,65t
yards in January 1905, to 566,670 yards
in January, 1907; and IL this. rate car
+, be maintained as the average for al
the months to come, even without any
former gain from improved appliances
experience and a larger supply of labor
the cut would be made and the cana
finished in between sixty seven and
sixty-eight months-that is to say, In
less than six years, or about the tim6
President Rooseylt's successor is com
plotting his term OF Office
There has been nothing more en-
couraging from the canal since the
Panama route was selected 1t strike
us that the more or less expensive
services Of Mr.. Oliver, Mr.. Stevens
Mr.. Mcdonald and their proposed as
sociates can be in the hands of the
most capable contractor and organizer
Of effort on the face of the globe, and
1t Is proceeding splendidly.