The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-02-03
HE KNOWS THE CONTENTS
PROGRESS. AT PANAMA
H. Chonges Mr. 7aft VII See.
By Frederic J. Eiaskin.

residing in the national cmpttaE ikneiR The success that has attended the
 working of thas jury system on the Zone since its establishment eleven
 months ago wIli deeply interest tho Judicial side of Mr. Taft n. ls the flrsA time insthe history of the world that a. juEy syetems has been established on the contient of South AmeFtca, 0g in any spanish-apeakinR country. Prior fe its establishment men were cDndemned to death without benefit of jury-triaI.
 This was repugnant to the responsible
 American, officials 4 condemned man appealed to Governor Blackburn for
 mercy. on the ground that he had not been given that great American FtMht-~ the right to be tried by q jury of his peers The former training of the 0ev- ernor could not allow him to sec . man put to death without such trial. yet the man he'd been adjudBed @liia- ty by the trial courts. and the verdict had been upheld hy all the courts lFurtheFmoTo, an examination Of the evidence led Governor Blackburn to
 conclude that no error had been raadas
 SO he .eoula not sspRpst tho plsa for
 laws he had sworn ko upheld end axe-s cute. But the mental struggle thak he passed through resulted in the esA
 tabiishment of the trial by jury 3n the I TorrId. Zone. Tn the year 1t has beem
 in force 1t has worked SO well that 10 is believed other South American eouzl@ tries will. in time. follow suit. and
 that the great English jury system will become a part Of the laws of the Span@
 ish-spealting countries of south Amer
 lea.
 MT. rast. on reaching ths Zone. found
 the Panama Railroad force up to their eara In the worIsiof relocating the road.
 The excavations 66r the canal can pro- eeed during the rainy season now as 1 well as during the four dry months, so 1 thoroughly has the force been organ ized. But on the other hand. iittlo can I be done toward building embankmenes when as much Ra six inches of water l falls in. q single day. It aappens that I Atlantic side of the Isthmua. and there more than ten feet of, rain water falls l during q single wet season. They got l ready while 1t was raining. and are now making the effort of their lives
 to accomplish things during the four
 months os dry weather. The creation l of the Gatun Lake wlll put the pFes- ent tracls of the railroad under eighty i've feet of water so they are skirting I the side Of the future lake with Q nigh | cmbankment, and making regular staIr-steps of dumping tracks to fa-'
 ciiitats the handling of the dirt. The present-day vieit0r to the Isth- | | minlstratlon ofice at Gatnn aud look | down on the seven miles of the sea- l level canal from there out to deep wa | ter in the Atlantic. He can behold busy line of human ants working from one end to the other, and know from 1 their position the line on which ships | will sail in from the Atlantic. A hah 1 dozen dredges of various types. includ- l ing the big sea-going dredge Ancon, l and as many more steam shovels, are | gradually eating their way down to | the required forty-one feet below sea- 1 level. As the canal is to be 500 feet wide in this section. every one-fopt ! section of the work calls for the exca- vation of some 800 cubic yards of dirt. l On the whole, Mr. Taft has many sur- | prises coming to hlm during his visit l to the Isthfnus. MeW will differ as to 1 the circumstances attending the pur- | chase of the canal rights and the Pan- l amanian revolution. but if results are l to be the criterion by which the work 1 of the past year Is to be measured, 1t | constitutes g most brilliant page h the { history of American achievement. l Making the dirt fly" for whole year at rate, which, If maintained from l start to finish, would have dug the en- tire ditch In forty-eight months, Is an
 achievement that was undreamed of
 when the digging was started. an achievement which not even the most optimistic would have predicted a year | ago.
 A former Secretary Of waF, in urg-
 ing that the digging Of the canal be
 entrusted to the array engineers, said that from the time he was at the head I of the War Department he had studied
 these men and their work. and that
 never in the history of the service has
 the Engineer Corps been found want
 ing, He predicted that if te them were
 assigned the task, the canal would be
 dag In the minimum of time at the
 minimum of cost. and with maximum
 of satisfaetion to the American peo-
 pie. Now the engineering profession
 of the entire world stands with hats
 of before this remarkable perform
 anee of American army engineers
 GCppyrfgnt, 1909, by Frederic J. Has, | kin.l
 T ,!TeEnOrrOyv--Esrogre af PaaAnaa.
 1IE The Labor Problem Solved.
 I I- - f