The Roswell daily record. [volume] (Roswell, N.M.) 1903-current, 1907-01-28

speech was delivered Saturday night
by Theodore p. Shonts, before the
Commercial Club:
Mr.. President and Gentlemen of the
Commercial Club:
1t has been suggested TO me by one
of your members who is a valueu
friend of mine tia | can not do better
in speaking to you this evening about
the Panama Canal than to tell you
First. The amount of work done by
h French:
Second. The amount of work done
by the Americans since the French
abandoned the task, and
Third. What the actual conditions
on the Isthmus are to-day.
With your permission. / will follow
this outline IN my earlier remarks,
though in doing S o l may repeat some
of the statements which / made be
fore the Knife-and-Fork Club at Kan
saS City on Thursday evening.
The French were altogether about
twelve years on the Isthmus, about
ten years of which were devoted to
active work of construction During
that. period they spent S250.00O, 900
aud accomplished a total excavation
of about IS. 600. 900 cubic yards. 1t is
generally believed that a large portion
of this mons was misappropriated.
oAa a Z util Vi II was SduahoCAC GU
undoubtedly in the purchase of use
less machinery. AS the greater part
of the excavation was for a sea-level
canal. much of il will be of no value
in the construction of a lock canal.
Roughly speaking. however, it may
be said that one-half the excavation
was the backbone of the divide and
was useful york. A substantial part
of the excavated material was so de-
nnCirpd alnno tho nrnnnSnd limo nf 90.
nal that ii will have to be moved
again in the present work, because
the canal we are constructing will
be more than twice the width of that
proposed by the French. Their sea-
level plan contemplated a canal ~
feet wide and 29.5 feet deep; their
subsequent lock plan was for a canal
9S feet wide and 29.5 feet deep.
The canal we are constructing will
have through the great cut a bottom
width of 200 feet and a depth of As
feet. For two-thirds of its entire
length it will have a width. exceeding
500 feet. If the French had finished
either one of the canals contemplated
by them, it would now be so made
quate to the demands of existing ship
ping that it would be closed to naVl-
cation ami be in process of recoastruc
ton into a canal of double width n
depth. AS the French left the great
cut, the distance across from the high
est point on eac side was about $50
feet. When our canal is completed
this distance will be about AQ00 feet.
The additional $50 feet must b taken
from the slopes OF either side for
their entire distance, and whatever
the French placed there or elsewhere
within the lines of our canal prism
will have to be r~ehandled.
The French had on the Istnmus
when they gave possession to the
Americans about 1000 buildings, most
ly houses for the employees. some ex-
cellent hospitals. and some storehous-
es n machine shops. Many OF these
buildings were capable of repair and
have been put INTO service. They left
a vast quantity of machinery, all of
1t twenty or twenty-five years out of
date and virtually worthless. Their
locomotives and rolling stock for the
railway, as well as he rails of the
road, were also out of date, too light
for modern use. and utilized only be-
no others were available. They
mad constructed only suca docks and
.wharves as were absolutely neces-
sary for h discharge of material and
machinery shipped from abroad, and
they had no terminal or switching
yards on the railway worthy of the
name.
Aside from the erecting fine aospi-
tails. they had lone nothing for the
preservation of health. Modern me-
thods of preventing disease were I'M
known in their time. Yellow fever
was believed to be due to a poison.
ever present, to which a certain pro-
portion OF newcomers. especially Euro
peans and Americans, were expected
to succumb, as they had always done.
The disease vas believed to be con-
tagious and to be transmitted by per-
sonal contact. Malaria was believed
to be aused by a miasma exhaled
from the soil of the d~ecaying vegeta-
ton, and to be spread by newly up
turned earth. Nothing was done in
the direction of supplying pure water
or providing sewerage. The men were
poorly housed and poorly fed. and the
mortality among them was SO appal-
ling hat it spread throughout the
world the belief that the Isthmus of
Panama was the pest hole Of the earth
a veritable hell OF disease and death.
When the United States purchased
from the French Company its rights,
privileges. n property. it aid the
sum of $40. 00O. 900 for them. This was
not a poor bargain, as is sometimes
popularity supposed IT was reason
able estimate Of the value OF the pro-
perry of the Panama Canal Company.
The ofer to sell at that price came
from h French Company itself. and
WAS not suggested by any oficial OF
the United States. For two years the
Isthmian Canal. Commission had tried
to get from the French Company MI
specific statement OF the amount it
was willing to accept for its proper
ty, but could not Finally when 1t
became evident that the United States
was going to have q canal OF it's own
elmer ar. Panama mr. nrm ar /