Daily Arizona silver belt., 1909-03-03
PANAMA CANAL COST AND TYPE

When the United States government embarked on the construction of the Panama Canal it was little dreamed that the least cost of the project would be approximately S400,000,o00. We may expect to pay very nearly that much for lock canal, the total cost of which, including the price paid for the French concessions, is estimated by Colonel Goethals at $S75, POI ,o00. Had the sea level scheme been adopted, its cost would have been close to $500, 0,00O, 900, since Colonel Goethals figures that such a canal could not be built for less than S477, ,601 ,o00, which he thinks an under estimate. To this vast sum must be added the price of the French conces- sion and the cost of sanitation and civil government, bringing the total up to S563, 100000. Accepting these figures as reasonably correct, it will be seen that the estimates made by the eminent engineers composing the consulting board of 1905 were absurdly low. Why this is so, Colonel Goethals explained to the house committee on appropria- tions. In the first place the estimates were made on the basis of imperfect sur veys and of unit prices fixed in 1901. Since then the cost of material and the rate of wages have increased and an eight-hour day has been established, in stead of the ten-hour day anticipated by the original estimators. It has been found that the quantity of work to be done is 50 per cent greater than esti- mated and the unit prices for it 20 per cent higher. The largest part of the increase, Colonel Goethals says, is in the actual amount of work to be done. The widening of the Culebra cut or dered last october by the president will alone cost S13,OoO,00o. The enlargement of the locks will cost other millions
 and so it has been all along the line
 AG it would take SIX years longer to construct sea-level canal than to build the present lock project, 1t must be admitted that the original decision in favor of the lock type on the ground that it would be cheaper and take less time to complete was we'll founded. Colonel Goethals estimates a difference of Sl95,00O,o00 in favor of the lock canal. This estimate disposes of the argument, based on the assumption that the original computation of the cost of sea-level canal woald hold good to- day, that the sea-level project would be less expensive than the lock type. The advocates of sea-level canal are under the necessity, therefore, of prov ing that such canal would be worth the $200,00O,0C0 additional necessary to construct it, as well as of showing that it would be more practicable and workable project. Colonel Goeshals and the engineers who have lately visited the isthnus believe that the lock canal is the superior type, promising safer and more expeditions navigation, and more effectively surmounting the engi- neering problems involved It is popu- larly assumed that the construction of a sea-level canal is a mere matter of digging, but the fact is the engineering difficulties in the way of ses~level con struction are even greater than those attending the building of the lock type. They have not been thoroughly exam ined, and the whole sea-level project is, as the Engineering New asserts, al mere paper plan with the unknown ele- ments still unsolved. It, too, contem- plated an immense dam, nor, than half as long as the Gatun dam, ;nd subject to twice the water pressure, set of tidal locks and numerous minor dams and diversion channels to take care of streams adjacent to the canal bed. Ger tain objections urged against the lock