Arizona republican., 1908-08-12
The Panama Canal
Old French Days.


 lthere a long row of steam cranes, at this place vast park of nondescrippt
 machinery, and at that a big dredge
 left high and dry on the banks of the
 mighty Chagres at its flood stage. All Iof these are redolent with memories of buried hopes and defeated ambitions.
 Exposed to the ravages of twenty tropical summers, decay runs riot, and
 but for the scenes of life and industry
 being enacted amid the tombs of ten
 thousand departed hopes, and the
 burying ground of the savings of
 hundred thousand French peasants. l The attempt of the French to build
 the canal will forever stand out as the
 grandest fiasco in history. Four hun
 dred million dollars was raised to
 build the Panama Canal. From the
 gilded palace and from the peasants
 humble cottage came the stream of
 gold that was to lay low the barrier
 that divided the Atlantic and the Pa-
 cific. At first they estimated that
 they could dig a twenty-nine foot sea level canal for 14,000,000 taking sev-
 en or eight years to do it. At the end
 of the eight years they figured that 1t would cost s351 100000 to make it fifteen foot lock canal, and that it
 would take twenty years to build 1t. But after spending approximately S4OO. O0O. 900 they were farther from realizing their fifteen-foot waterway
 than the Americans are today from realizing forty-foot waterway.
 Never was money so recklessly used. It flowed in faster than 1t could be I.r .ha uraxY When they started they asked for s60.- 100000. Double that amount was of lfered The seeming inexhaustibility of the funds led to extravaganza. ex- travagance led to profligacy, and pro- lfligacy to graft. The s400,000,00O which was subscribed first and last was all expended in less than ten years One third is said to have been spent on the canal, another third was wasted, and the remaining third was stolen.
 Extravaganza ran riot on the Isth- mus. where they got only one third of the money. The director general. at the stockholders expense, built himself a house costing $100,00O. His summer house at LaBoca cost s150,000. He drew $50.000 a year salary, and fifty dollars extra for each day he travelled a mile over the line in his sumptuOus $42, 900 private car. Stables were built which cost more than a half million dollars The hospitals at Ancon and Colon cost s7.OOO, 900 and office build iings cost over $5.00O.000 Where a $50, 900 building was needed a S100.000 building was erected. and the canal stockholders were charged double that amount for it.
 Supplies were bought almost wholly without reference to whether they were needed or not. Ten thousand snow shovels were brought to the Is thmus. Some 15,O0O torch lights were carried there to be used in the great celebration at the completion of the canal Steamboats. dredges. launches, and what not, were bought and hauled, knocked down, into the interior, to await the completion of the canal. There is even today some machinery left on the Isthmus by the French whose use no American has yet been able to figure out. At Tabernalia there is a machine which every engi neer from Wallace to GOethals has eX- amined, but none of them will yet ven ture a prediction as to what use it was intended to be put. It looks something like a big rock crusher. but it Is not one.
 One of the things which brought about the defeat of the French was the mosquito. Yellow fever and ma laria were prevalent. Ample pro vision was made to take care of the sick, but no effort was made to pre- vent sickness. In fact, without the knowledge of the mosquito theory. which has been given to the world since then, it was just about as well that they did not make much effort at sanitation, for their efforts could not have been fruitful. Perhaps never before in the history of the world was there such a high percentage of deaths | among a working force of men. And certainly there was never time when such a large percentage was incapa- citated for work.
 The great project of digging the canal was 'inaugurated" on January 1, 1 1880. On that date party of ladies l and gentlemen, headed by Count de Lesseps, preceded from Panama to the mouth of the Rio Grande. at La | Boca Here his little daughter turned | the first shovelful of earth marking | the beginning of the project whose | end should be the union of the Atlantic | and the Pacific. Ten days later this | same little girl touched the button | which was to explode the first of the | thousands of tons of dynamite with | which Culebra mountains was to be | laid low.
 During the first three years the company devoted most of it's efforts to getting ready. although at the end of | February. 1883, a half million cubic meters of dirt had been removed and ! working force of 5000 men had been established. At the very beginning the laborers struck for higher wages. They had been getting ninety cents silver per day and wanted s1.20. They got it, and later another increase to s1.50 per day.
 On the Isthmus the people still talk n reminiscent way about the good times under the French. They will ell you that the Americans are doing lastly more work, but are not spend ng half the money-where the Isth nian folk can get a share of it. So plentiful was gold and silver in the ,ld days that even the economical peo- ,le became spendthrifts. An when the rash finally came it caught every )OdV Thousands were without a dol |