The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1908-08-24
CAUSE FOR PRIDE.
President Roosevelt Writes of Progress
on Isthmian Canal.

Oyster Bay, Aug. 24.-President
Roosevelt has made public a report
submitted to him on August by a
special commission consisting of James
Bronson Reynolds, Samuel B. Donnelly
and Henry Beach Needham regarding
conditions in Panama The commits
sion was appointed April % last.
That the president is pleased with
the report is shown in a letter which
he sent to each member of the COM
mission. He expresses pleasure over
the fact that the commission upholds
the administration of Colonel Geo. w.
Cocktails, chairman of the Isthmian
canal commission, and the president
has had copy of the report mailed to
Colonel Goethals requesting that the
recommendation made by the commits
sion be put into effect immediatel, so
far as possible.
The president will submit the report
to congress with appropriate recon-
mendation. The commission reports
that it inspected the entire line OF the
canal excavation from La Boca, the
southern or Pacific terminus, to Girls
tobal the northern, or Caribbean
terminus, and Travelled through the ex-
cavation several times, interviewing
the men at work"
In indicating the scope of inspection
the commission reports that it visited
the government workshops, construc-
IlOn plants, Warehouses;, snip ydido'
dredges, cOmmissary stores, living
quarters chat is hotels. messes. kitch-
ems, camps), schools, club houses,
courts, police stations and the conva-
descent home at Taboga."
The Presidents Letter.
President Roosevelt's letter to the in
vestigatorS, says:
II doubt if there is any piece of work
undertaken on behalf of the American
M recent of which the
American people have more reason to
be proud than of the work hitherto
done on the Panama canal.
THE success has literally been as
founding. Five years ago, when we
undertook the task, no sane man would
have dared to hope for the results
which have already been achieved. Tho
work itself has been advanced more
expeditiously than we had ventured to
think and the rapidity of the rate of
progress has Steadily increased.
Meanwhile the treatment of
hygienic conditions on the isthmus has
been such as to make it literally the
model for all work of the kind in
tropical countries. Five years ago the
Isthmus of Panama was a byword for
unhealthiness of the most deadly kind.
At present, the canal zone is one of
the healthiest places on the globe, and
the work which is being prosecuted
with such tremendous energy is being
prosecuted under conditions so favor
able to the health and we'll being of the
workers that the mortality among
them is abnormally small.
Finally, in addition to the extreme
efficiency of the work under Colonel
Goethals and his assistants and the ex-
traordinary hygienic success achieved
under DR.. Gorgas, there is the further
and exceedingly gratifying fact that on
the isthmus the United States govern
ment has been able to show itself a
model employer. There are matters to
correct, of course. as your trip shows.
but on the other hand. it is true TIL,
United States is looking after the well
fare. health and comfort of those work
ing for 1t as no other government has
ever done in work of like character"
Progress of Work.
OF the progress of the work the re-
port says:
This year over two and one-third
million cubic yards were excavated in
each of the winter months-the dry
season in Panama. million yards
being equal to a square mile one foot
deep. To prepare this immense mass
for removal 405 tons of dynamite were
used per month, and to make the dirt
fly to this extent, 32 ninety-five-ton