The Nevada County picayune., 1907-10-10

say one word of warning: The danger
 of entering on any such scheme lies
 in the adoption of impossible and un
 desirable plans, plans the adoption of
 which means an outlay of money ex
 travagant beyond all proportion to the | return. or which, though feasible, are | not, relatively to other plans, of an importance which warrant their adop- 1 ton.
 | It will not be easy to secure the | assent of a fundamentally cautious people like our own to the adoption of 1 such a policy as that hope to see adopted; and even if we begin to fol low out such policy it certainly will not be preserved in if it Is found to entail reckless extravaganza or to be tainted with jObbery. The inter ests of the nation as a whole must be always the first consideration.
 Movement One of National Concern.
 This is properly a national move ment, because all interstate and for eign commerce and the improvements and methods of carrying il on, are sub jects for national action. Moreover, while of course the matter of the inn provement of the Mississippi river and it's tributaries is one which especially concerns the great middle portion of our country, the region between the Alleghanies and the Rockies, yet 1t Is of concern to the rest of the country also, for il can not too often be said that whatever is really beneficial to one part of our country is ultimately of benefit to the whole.
 Exactly as t is good thing for the interior of our country that the sea ports on the Atlantic and the Pacific and the Gulf should be safe and com modious. so it is to the interest Of the dwellers on the coast that the iE- terior should possess ample facilities for the transportation of is products Our interests are all closely inter woven, and in the long run Il will be found that We go up or go down to- gether.
 Take, for instance, the Panama Canal. If the Mississippi is restored to it's former place of importance as a highway of commerce, then the building of the Panama Canal will be felt as an immediate advantage to the business of every city and country dis trict in the Mississippi valley. think that the building of that canal will be of especial advantage to the states that lie along the Pacific and the states that lie along the gulf; and yet, after all, feel that the advantages will be shared in an only less degree by the states of the interior and of the At lantic coast In other words. it is q thoroughly national work. undertak Il for and redounding to the advantage of all of us-to the advantage of the nation as a whole.
 Therefore l am glad to be able to re port to you how well We are doing with the canal. There is bound to be a certain amount of experiment., a 3er- tain amount of feeling our way, in d task so giGantic-a task greater than any of it's kind that has ever hitherto been undertaken in the whole history of mankind, but the success so far has been astonishing, and We have not met with single one of the accidents or drawbacks which l freely confess l expected we should from time to lime encounter. We in the first place, laid the foundation for the work by secur- ing the most favorable possible condi- tiOus as regard the health, comfort and safety of the men who We're to do il; and now the canal zone is in point ol health better of than the average dis trict of the same size at home.
 Then We went at the problem of actual digging and dam building For over year past We have been engaged in making the dirt fly in good earnest, and the output of the giant steam shoyels has steadily increased It is now the rainy season, when work is most difficult on the isthmus, Vel in the month of August last we eXca yated over million and two hundred thousand cubic yards of earth an rock, greater amount than in any previous month If We are able to 1 keep up substantially the rate o progress that now obtains we shal finish the actual digging within five or six years; though when We come tC l the great Gatun dam and locks, while there is no question as to the worh being feasible, there are several ele
 ments entering into the time problem which make 1t unwise at present tc hazard prophecy in reference there l to.