The Owosso times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1897-1926, 1908-05-29
FOUR YEARS AT PANAMA.

The return of Secretary Taft from
Panama is a reminder Of the fact that
it was just four years ago this month
| that the United States took actual
possession of the canal zone and I'M
dertook the work of completing the
canal. It was on May 4, 1904, that Mr..
Renaudin, in behalf af the French
company, transferred the effects of
that corporation to Lieutenant Brooke,
the representative of the United
States government. Five days later
the President issued orders concern
ing the government of the canal zone,
and authority over the zone was for
mally transferred from the Panaman
to the American government on June
1st On the latter date also Mr.. Wal.
lace became chief engineer of the
canal, and fortnight or so later he
arrived on the isthumus and began
operations.
At that time the French had been at
work, with some intermissions, since
February l, 1881, more than 90 years
and two months. They had begun
with the expectation of constructing a
sea level canal 28 feet deep in seven
or eight years at cost of$114 000, 900.
In the % years they had got rid of
three times that amount of money,
one-third of it being spent on the
canal, one third wasted and one third
stolen. The amount spent had, how
ever, been on the whole we'll spent.
They had done much good work. They
had found the highest ground on the
line Of the canal, at Culebra, 312 feet
above the tide level, and had reduced
its elevation more than one-half, leav-
ing for us a cut 161 feet deep, with
it's bottom only 151 feet above the
sea; and at Bas Obispo they had re.
duced the elevation from 233 to only
80 feet. In all, including diversion
channels, they had excavated about
81,54S,000 cubic yards Of material.
The Americans took hold in the
spring Of 1904. At first their work
was merely exploratory and expert
mental. Then it suffered various de.
lays, practically all the men being
called off for some time in 1905 for
sanitary engineering work. Neverthe-
less, In scarcely four years-three
years and eleven months, down to
May /, 1908, they have excavated a
total Of 35,176,608 cubic yards, or 43
percent Of what 1t took the French
more than twenty-three years to exca-
vate. Moreover, and this is the most
significant feature of the case, of that
amount 12,396,462 cubic yards were
lifted in these first four months of
1908. That is to say, in four months
our men have done Is percent of what
the French did in 278 months-15 per
cent as much work in only IA per
cent as much time.
That is ample indication of the
of the American over the
French system, though, of course,
much of that superiority is due to the
general advance of scientific and tech
nical knowledge. 1t indicates, too,
that so far as the simple work of ex
cavating is concerned the canal could
easily be completed in very few
years. But excavation is no longer
the gauge of progress. At first Mr.. |
with the sea level idea in view, |
reckoned that the time required to |
complete the canal was the time re-
quired to cut the Culebra gap down /
to tide water. But all that is changed. |
The time now required for completing |
the canal is the time which will be |
required for building that stupendous |
dam at Gatun and those stairways Of |
locks. The former pro-
blem, OF excavation, had been tried |
and solved. This new problem is un-
tried and uncertain, and what 1t |
means in time no man can tell.-New
York Tribune.