The Springfield herald., 1907-01-31
.|STAMUS CANAL
INTERESTING FACTS IvEN BY
CHAIRMAN sHoNTs.
LARGER THAN FRENCH PLANS
Work Done by French Company Well
Worth the Price Paid for it-Won-
derfuI Sanitary Work Accom-
plished by Our Government,


plished by Our Government.
Chicago.-Theodore P. Shonts, chair
man of the 1sthmian Canal Commits
sion was the guest of honor Saturday
at the banquet of the Commercial Club
of Chicago. The members of the club
intend, next month, to make an excur-
sion to the Isthmus, Cuba and Jamaica,
and the discussion of the canal ques-
tion was prelimary to the expedi-
tion.
Mr.. Shonts said of the work done by
the French on the Isthmus:
THE French were altogether about
twelve years on the Isthmus, about ten
years of which were devoted to the
active work of construction. During
that period they spent over $3.50, ,000,-
100 and accomplished total eXcava.
tion of about .8S 900 900 cubic yards. 1t
is generally believed that large por'
tion of this money was misappropri-
ated, and a great deal of 1t was squan
dered undoubtedly in the purchase o
useless machinery. AS the greater par,
of the excavation was for a sea-leve
canal, much of it will be OF no valut
in the construction of lock canal
Roughly speaking, however, 1t may be
said that one-half the excavation was
in the backbone of the divide and was
useful work.
"a substantial part OF the excayated
material was SO deposited along the
proposed line of canal that it 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 canal
72 feet wide and 29.5 feet deep; their
subsequent lock plan was for a canal
80 feet wide and 29.5 feet deep.
THE canal we are constructing Will
have through the great cut bottom
width of 200 feet and depth of 45
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, 1t would now be so made
quate to the demands of existing ship
ping that 1t would be closed to navi'
cation and be in process of re-construc,
tion into a canal of double width and
depth. AS the French left the great
cut, the distance across from the high
est point on each side was about 75O
this distance will be about 1000 feet
from the slopes on 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 rehandled.
THE French had on the isthmus
when they gave possession to the
Americans about 1000 buildings
mostly houses for the employees, some
excellent hospitals and some store
houses and machine shops. Many OF
these buildings were capable of repair
and have been put into service. They
left vast quantity of machinery, all
of it twenty to twenty-five years out
of date and virtually worthless. TheiI
locomotives and rolling stock for the
railway, as well as the rails of the
road, were also out of date, too light
for modern use, and utilized only be-
cause no Others were available. They
had constructed only such docks and
wharves as were absolutely necessary
for the discharge of material and ma
chinery shipped from abroad and they
had no terminal or switching yards on
the railway worthy of the name.
aside from erecting fine hospitals
they had done nothing for the preserv.
alton of health.
when the United States purchased
from the French company its rights,
privileges and property, it paid s40,'
100000 for them. This was not poor
bargain, as is sometimes popularity
supposed. 1t was reasonable esti'
mate of the value of the property OF
the Panama Canal Company. The offer
to sell at that price came from the
French company itself, and was not
suggested by any official of the United
States.
Never in the history of the world
has any government or any corpora.
ton made such comprehensive and ex-
haustiye arrangements for the health
and comfort of its common laborers
as has the government of the United
States on the isthmus, and nowhere
else on earth have the sanitary rules
been so rigidly enforced, with such sue
rpSSful rpS1ltS