The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1909-06-11

ditch, are fourth The United States of
America has not been represented in the
canal in a decade by any commercial
/ sh1p-Only vessels of the navy and yachts
/ Of the Yankee milliOnaires show the stars
I and stripes to the BedOuins of the des-
ert who bring their caravans from Mount
| Sina1 to the canal.
! The tonnage Of the Suez is not one
| third as great as that OF the Sanlt Ste.
/ Marie canal in the great lakes. but its
! Importance to the commerce of the world
( is greater than that Of any other pass
/ ageway of the seas. Wherever there IS a
/ strait or narrow passage through which
commerce may go there is sure to be d
British flag Tying. British band play
/ ing and a relocated Tommy Atkins
/ strutting about with a swagger stick.
Suez is not an exception.
| Fourteen centuries before Christ, near
| ly $500 years ago, the Pharaoh Set l. ia
/ Their OF Rameses the Great. cut a canal
/ fifty-seven miles long from a branch of
| the Nile delta to the Bitter lakes, which
are now a part of the SueZ canal and
which were then the northern extremity
/ of the Gulf Of Suez. That connected the
Mediterranean with the Red sea. and
1 Egypt waxed great But the nation de-
cayed and the sands of the desert filled
up the ditch. Eight hundred years later
the Pharaoh Necho undertook to dig the
canal. More than 10000 lives were sacri-
feed to the project, but IL was abandoned
when a priest predicted that its Com
pletiOn would cause Egypt to fall into
]
dred years after NeChO, the Persian Da-
RUS took up the work on the abandoned
, canal, but his engineers told him that
its completion would cause q deluge and
he desired. About 800 years befOre-C Christ
was born Ptoemy Philadelphus construct
ed a lock and dam canal, through which
ships made the journey from one of the
mouths of the Nile to the site Of modern
Suez. Continued wars interrupted COM
merce, and the locks and dams fell into
decay, so that CleOpatra's navy was IN
able to escape to the Red sea by canal.
The Roman engineers later patched up
the canal so that their galleys made their
way from sea to sea, but when the Arabs
came in A. D. 200 they found it choked
up. Amrou, the Arab, cleared it out.
but IL was soon permitted to fill up
again. and not until the great Napoleon
reached Egypt was the canal project
again considered. Napoleon abandoned
the idea only because his engineers as
sured him that the level Of the Mediter
ranean was thirty feet below that of the
Red sea. He then considered a lock and
dam canal, but he evacuated Egypt be-
fore anything came Of il. OF course. all
those ancient canals were very narrow
and shallow. and 10 boat now dlgnified
with the business of carrying cargo for
Profit could have entered any one of
them.
Mehemet Ali. the great pasha who
founded the present Egyptian khedivate,
was urged TO attempt the canal project
but he was wary. At last he pushed it
Robert Stephenson, the father of the
railroad. Under Stephenson's supervision
he built a railroad from Cairo to Suez
connecting with the line from Cairo to
Alexandria. This formed the great over
land route" to India and brought great
trade and many rich tolls to the Egyp-
tians.
The time came when Said Pasha ruled
in Cairo. To him came Ferdinand de
Lesseps. Years before, while a clerk in
the French consulate general in Cairo,
De Lesseps dreamed the dream of the
great canal. He was not an engineer,
but he was a master diplomatist. He I'M
folded his plans to Said. who loved France
and all Frenchmen. and met with en-
courage ment. It was a magnificent
scheme. The canal was not to cost Egypt
its receipts TO the Egyptian government,
and at the expiration Of ninety-nine years
was to become the absolute property of
Egypt. On such terms the concession was
given to De Lesseps in 1856.
Then De Lesseps went forth to get the
money. France had just come out of
the Crimean war and could not advance
money for ventures. England WAS Op-
posed to the canal that would let any
body have a chance at India. and the
English government did everything pos
sible to keep the FrenChman from Sc
curing funds He failed in Europe, for
he could not get enough even for sur
vey OF the canal Nothing daunted, he
went back to Egypt and borrowed money
enough from SAID TO survey the canal
and to exploit il through Europe. Then
came much planning and more cOnces-
siOns, and much stock jObbing. but by
IS60 the French company was again with |
out money. Again the appeal was made
to Said and not without avail. for he /
subscribed for more than one-third of
the total capital stock and promised to /
advance money Tor the construction work I
and all for a project that was not to /
cost Egypt anything. That was the be I
= f, he
lenders Of Europe, for Said had to Dor |
row the money he gave to the canal
In 1865 the magnificenIly eXtravagsnt /
Ismail Pasha came to the throne of Me- /
hemet Ali He burned with ambition TO /
make himself the greatest ruler in the I
world. and the canal was d darling of his /
heart He was the ready and willing vic 1
tim Of the loan sharks of Europe, and /
ne would sign anything in the way of an 4
obligation il there was a little yellow 4
gold I'm sight
Meanwhile the canal was progressing /
slowly. Ismail ordered the Egyptian peas /
ants to do the work. under the ancient /
COrvee system. Every three months %.
e0 drafted fellaheen went to the big /
ditch TO dig. Every three months q mis- 1
cradle remnant of the preceding $500 /
left the dead bodies of their comrades |
beneath the dump heaps
The Suez canal was dug, for the most 1
part, by those poor creatures. who sCOoped 4
I'D the sand and dirt with their bare !
10 the dumps in palmleaf baskets of their
own making. Taskmasters with cruel
whips Of hippopotamus hide punished the /
sick and the fainting. as well as the /
azy- There were no sanitary precsu-
ions and the men died by the thou
.ands.
This horrible condition Of affairs aroused
he Indignation of John Bull. who pro-
ested to the sultan. The sultan ordered
he employment of fellaheen labor to be
stopped. Then De IeSseps and the canal 1
ing descended upon Ismail and held him /
eSpOnSibe Tor damages Inc case was
eft to the arbitrat ton of Napoleon III. |
Who decided for the canal ring and Is
nail was forced 60 pay a fine of nearly
u. $4,000 because his titular sovereign
ord had ordered that Ismails subjects
hould not be murdered in the canal ditch.
Zach month a new obligation was fas-
aned upon suffering Egypt Finally,
-1,rr, canal vrae ra1nnfpfc1 Icruaf1 I