New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1907-02-06
DIRT FLYING In PANAMA
L4BOR PROBLEM SOLVED,
Economical Completion of Canal in
Seren Years Indicated.
From The Tribune Bureau

5vashing;on. Feb Dust as the Prasidan+
md Secretary Taft are engaged in the difficult
task of determining. the eligibility of the con-
tractors VINO have submitted bids on the Pana-
Ina Canal, there has arrived from the isth1nus
report which is calculated to make them pause
The fact is tEat Chisi Engineer Stevens is dig
ciug the canal, and L. doing it at a rate which
she largest contracts. would find it hard TO
equal: that he has at his command an ample
supply Of entirely satisfactory labor, and that
At a cost at least $70oO.000 less than the lowest
bid would come 10, the great channel is being
constructed at pace which, barring accidents
viii see its completion in seven years. In the
light Of these facts the abandonment Of the
contract scheme is more than likely.
More than half a million yards OF earth and
rock taken from Culebra cut during Janu-
ary the official figures being 666.75o yards.
January stands as the record month with
october next with only 325,S35 yards TO its
credit. Because they were in the height of the
rainy season, November and December showed
q considerable falling off, but that is past now.
and the chief engineer is pushing the work
with Characteristic energy
Already there is engaged on the isthmus a
force Of practically %. 600 men. The January
report shows 1904 employees carried on the
silver ROLL, 1851 carried on the gold rolf and
400 employed on the Panama Railway. so that
canal There is every reason to behave that Mr.
Stevens will be able 10 bring the average
monthly excavation up TO 100000 yards from
the Culebra cut, from which a total of so O0o-
900 yards must be excavated This is the really
gigantic task involved IN the construction of the
canal and all other work may go on stimuli
taneously, so that present Indications that
the work may be accomplished in seven years.
. The President was immensely pleased with
the showing made in the report submitted TO
him to-day, which served to present with excep-
t!onal emphasis the advantage to be derived by
dropping the contract scheme and permitting
the chief engineer to continue the construction
which be has so satisfactorily begun and which
Ia already under almost full head.
The arrival Of large numbers Of Spanish and
Italian laborers has solved the labor problem.
which presented such great difficulties when the
contract scheme was evolved. Now there are
laborers from those countries pouring into the
canal zone at the rate Of one thousand a MONTH
and they make the most satisfactory sort OF
workmen, being more energetic, more contented
lar more sanitary and more healthy than the
Negroes.
Tomorrow evening the ten days accorded W.
) Oliver 70 perfect his bid will expire but IT IS
Dy no means certain that an immediate decision
win be reached by the President. The Oliver
and the MacArthur-Gi Gillespie bids will be care
iIlly considered, but present indications point
strongly to the rejection OF both and the con-
@truction Of the canal by the government, Chief
Engineer Stevens directing the work, course
which would effect a saving to the government
of 100000 over the lowest bid, and not less
than S12.500.000 over the Macarthur Gillespie
proposition.