The commercial. (Union City, Tenn.) 190?-193?, 1909-02-19

! enfeebled, gHz heF'iage /
could not redo lsaok nj
stored up agai '1'|| enough
assume his burdeH u saited upo
the ship-wrecked mariners Of Juan Fel
nandez; that the ghost Of the bucca
neers, and the wrath Of the wrecker
grinned horribly every time mistak
was made, which was too frequent TO
computation.
| On Tuesday the spirit of Senator Nor
gan stalked beneath the dome of th,
Capitol. Men whose mouths had taker
up the burden of praise for the great anc
good man in the White House, whose
word is law and whose nod OF more than
Jovian significance, freed as by gift
of tongues gave voice to their mis-
giyings. How and forIwhat reason SO
sudden revulsion should occur; why
on Tuesday, the 9th, rather than on the
many other dates preceding, the dis
migrating element of doubt should of
a sudden appall and affrighten; why
the day should be given over to those
who would like to know and who are al
most afraid to learn, may never be
known But so it was. Even as the
cruiser with its precious Taftian freight
was making the headlands that protect
the mouth of the Mississippi, before the
whitewashers who accompanied the ex-
cursion were ready for the blanching,
ere the beautiful chorus of consent was
fairly under way, there comes an I'M
wave of reason to the Senate.
Aghast at a proposition which does not
even pretend to be final proposition,
to issue five hundred million dollars
worth of bonds for Isthmian Canal pur-
poses, the Senate awakes to a sense of
he real meaning and the possible scope
If canal expenditures, and forthwith
gets into that inquisitiye and inquisito-
-ial mood which may well become so
Mr.. Roosevelt, with a magnificent
confidence in his own judgment, has
that lock canal and none
other shall represent the United States
achievement, and the military officers
n charge of the work have given him
but loyal support. The peo-
Die of the United States know nothing
It all bou engineering prob
ems. But they do know something
bout reckless expenditures. They do
lot understand, and they never will I'M
erstand, why the lock canal should
ost close upon four times the estimate
# those who passed their word for the
ccuracy of the figures. They have
leard that the Gatun dam is failure,
hat the artificial lake some two hun
red square miles in area will drain it.
elf through range of hills, impossi-
lie but porous; that the sub strata are
the locks unreliable and that
mysterious seepage undermines and
hreatens the whole undertaking. If it
'as left to them they would take their
hances of tides on the Pacific side and
sea-level canal.
A writer in the Contemporary Review
arms us that of the European trade
nd American Atlantic trade with Asia
cry little will go through the canal.
y the way of Suez, Yokohama is l 300
lilies nearer; Shanghai is 5000 miles,
Telbourne 1000, and Sydney 1000.
lone of all the British colonies, New
ealand is more accessible by way of
anama, and even there the advantage
no very great one. But apart from
lis, the absence of commercial ports,
coal, and the lack of coaling stations
ives to the Suez Canal route all the adj
antages over Panama. The writer says
he trade with the western coast OF
outh America, aggregating 800, 000,-
90 year, will continue to round Cape
Torn; that the Pacific trade, now al
lost altogether confined to sailing yes
lis, will be diverted to steam craft and
i'll use the canal, and he calculates
lat on a basis of 1926, 900, 900, bear
lg interest at no more than 2pef cent,
lere is a remote possibility that some
ay the Panama canal may make both
lds meet.
Similar dismal forebodings attended
lie opening of the Suez Caual, and the
vent has proved their falsity If one
sverts to them it is because the Pan
ma project so persistently remains in
lie experimental stage; because the
roblem has ever been a burying ground
regulations; because if an engineer
e mistake has been made it can be
,ctified now, and later not at all: be-