Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1908-07-14
Washington Bureau Of
The Ottumwa Courier.

Washington, D. G., July IL.
Secretary Taft has gone out OF
office leaving one part of the work
whereof he has had supervision as
head of the war department in a con-
dition that may well give him cause
for pride. This work Is the Panama
canal. The reports of progress on the
canal work are almost unbelievable
and the most gigantic engineering
task of this century, or any other for
that matter, is being fastened to COM
pletion with a %smoothness and lack
of friction that Is astonishing.
Indeed, it is asserted here by an
official who has been in the closest
touch with the canal project from the
very moment the United States nego-
tiated for taking over control of the
canal zone, that the canal officials
have a surprise in store for the Amer
lean public and that In five years
from now If there is no uLtoward in
%terruption vessels will be going
through the canal. This official was
on the canal zone recently, at the
same time Secretary Taft was there
to compose the troubles of the Pana-
manians, and had occasion to inquire
infinitely into the progress of the
work and to make a personal inspec-
ton of the entire line of the proposed
waterway.
Navigation on Canal in Five Years.
"A vast machine swimming in oil"
is the way this official describes the
canal organization in the process of
digging the great ditch. He said his
belief that ships would be going
through the canal in five years was
based not on sentiment but on a o n
siderable familiarity with the carry
ing out of engineering works and with
his knowledge of the excellence of the
present organization.
1t is pointed out that it will be pos
sible to use the canal as a waterway
before it is entirely completed. For
one thing, 1t will be necessary to have
double locks at each end of the canal
before the canal is disable. A single
lock at each end will answer temper
arily. The Catan dam, which will hold
back the waters of the Chagres river
and will be about a mile long and a
half mile wide, has been rated as one
of the chief difficulties in the way of
canal construction. No doubt 1t is but
It's construction will proceed in an ex-
tremely simple fashion. 1t means the
formation Of a vast mass Of earth on
the Catun dam site and in order to
do this, the immense quantities OF
earth and rock removed from the
canal prism will be carried by dirt
trains to the site in question and
dumped. The work is already In pro-
gress and an endless chain of dirt
trains is carrying and unloading the
excavated earth. The problem Of
where to dump the rock and earth
taken from the prism of the canal IL
solved In the solution of the problem
of how to build up the Catun dam.
This being SO and in view of the rapid
ity with which excavation proceeds, II
may reasonably be exI ected the COM
pletion Of the Catun dam will be
brought about much more quickly
than has been generally supposed pos
sible. Once this dam at Catun is fin
ished and the actual work Of remov.
ing the earth from the canal bed is
done, there will be little left to make
1t possible for the water way to be
used.
1t is the intention of the canal man
agement to allow this rainy season to
pass and then another and after that
to begin the impounding Of the waters
of the Chagres river for the formation
of the artificial lake in the central
section of the canal. This lake will
be about twelve miles in length and
through it vessels car proceed at full
speed.
Men Who Have Bettered Conditions.
Practically no complaints are now
being made by the employees on the
canal zone as to their food and treat
ment. This will be borne out when
the report of the special committee
of three headed by James r. Reynolds,
sent to the canal zone by President
Roosevelt recently, is made. The off,