The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-01-25
cANAL CoNDrrroNs,.

| ~~~-~er'~sA~- ~~ ehy sNNAh o1N0NSV heA
 been made 1t Is not apparent to the
 ordinary observer We know that ! President Roosevelt iourneyed to Pan-
 anna, spent two or three days there, | rode on the steam shovels, ate with
 the cooks and performed various other
 Rooseveltian stunts for the benefit of 1 the gallery. We are also authorita- lively informed that was 'jollied"
 beautifully by those in charge of things
 down there.
 i But he came back jubilant. enthusi-
 astic and running over with talk of what had been done and what would
 be done, most of which was undiluted buncombe. But he at once got busy
 and fired a message at Congress and 1 that document Is about as disappoint- 1 ing as anything else connected with the matter. As The New Haven Register speaks of the matter. ''the stupen-
 dous cost Of this ent rprise Is to be paid out of the pockets of the Ameri- /can people, while the ultimate benefits
 are largely to go to the great com ]
 business enterprise the wise leader en- deavors to satisfy his stockholders in frankly answering these important questions, viz: Is Is feasible? How much will it ultimately cost? How much of the work has already been accomplished? Is the cost likely to exceed the estimates? How soon will 1t be finished, so that outgo may stop and income begin? On all these ques- tions the message is woefully silent. There is no suggestion of a balance sheet about it. It is a racy newspaper reporters story about Junketing ex- petition to the Isthmus. where he spent three days and had a fine time. Even where he does quote figures to chronicle great achievements, he gees wide of the mark"
 These are all important considera- tions but we get no light on them from the President The truth of the matter is that there has been little else than bIundering all the way through. AS is we'll known a commission of expert American and fore gn engineers was appointed to make a thorough ex- animation of all matters relating l to this vast undertaking. They did their work thoroughly and donscientiously. and the report of the committee as a w.-ole was emphatically in favor of a a-level ca- nal. They fortified their decision by facts, figures and expert opinions of the most convincing nature and their report should have been adopted and acted on without question.
 But what was done? Roosevelt, Taft and shonts and Congress ignored and set aside the report and decided for lock canal. Not one of the three named can be called a practical engineer, and none of them had experience or knowledge of such work to guide them. yet they decided for the lock system and the experts and the Senate had to side-step to make room for the administration engine. We were told in terms of unhesitating positivity and assurance that canal building was going to get hump on itself if we may use the vernacular. The whole country and the balance of the world was invited to stand up and see the dirt fly. and if we had believed all that was given out we might have thought that ships would be crossing the Isthmus before Roosevelt's term expires.
 Again-what has been done in the way of actual accomplishment? We know that a great deal of work Of various kinds has been done, and we also know that many months of time and many millions of dollars have been srent, but of actual advancement there has been little. The amount already spent is estimated at forty million dol lars, and there's little to show fer it. The way things were going on no hu- man mind could form anything like a fair estimate of the time or money that would have been consumed. MT. Linton Bates. one of the most eminent engineers, who had practical experience in connection with the enlargement of the Suez canal, has given out some interesting statements and compari sons. He says that the French spent two hundred and sixty million dollars on their comparatively small canal and completed two-fifths of the work, and with an outlay of forty millions We have done e-eighth of ours, at the best view we can take of it. At that rate the work would have bankrupted the government.
 Now, however, the administration. reluctantly, no doubt, admits that 1t blundered badly. The decision to let out the work by contract is plain admission on the part of the adminis- tration that in attempting to do the work itself 1t had failed decidedly. and now we are to see what can be done under the contract plan. We have the satisfaction of knowing that matters cannot be made much worse than they have been, and If the administration can be prevailed on to keep its hands off when they are not needed there is at least hope for fetter results. The resignation of MT. Shonts is additional acknowledgement of the failure of the administration plan.