The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-03-22

ltNei cdnHl dc1OSS the 1SthmuS DIb 10 bOO
 feet wide. To accomplish this, however,
 lock canal must be built first, and subsequently widened and deepened until the ideal is reached. There Is no data available for such canal. With noun tains instead of hills to be removed esti-
 mates are, of course, impossible; so the
 most optimistic figures suitable alone to the ideal, are offered as a bait In any event, 1t is claimed also that Bohio should
 have been selected for the site of the dam in lieu of Gatun.- Colonel Goethals points out that at Bohio the gorge in its lower strata is l-lled with water-bear- ing gravel and that fact alone, he says, removes it from consideration. T ven-
 ture the statement, without fear of con tradiction," he says, that the site Of no public or private work of any Kind has received such a thorough and eX- haustiVe examination and investigation s the foundation of the dam and locks at
 Gatun. There is no longer a doubt con corning any of the underlying strata; neither the impermeabllity nor the abil- ity of the foundations to bear the loads
 that will be brought upon them can be questioned, if the data be carefully and impartially examined. The investigations
 fail to disclose any water bearing strata
 or the existence of that underground stream with a discharge equal to the Chagres river itself, which was recently asserted as a fact On the floor of the Senate"
 Problem Solved.
 According to the report the Gatun dam satisfactorily solves the problem of the control of the Chagres, and there should be no doubt in the mind of anyone who impartially examines s.the data, it says, that the solution is not only feasible but absolutely safe.
 Reverting to the subject of a sea level canal, Colonel Goethals says: ITO be sure, the partisans of the sea level type are
 now proposing to eliminate both the Gam
 ba dam and the tidal lock by making the
 channel so wide as to reduce the currents that result from the discharge of the Charges and the difference in tides, but fail to explain how they propose to con- trol or divert the Charges, the bed of which will be 50 feet above the water sur face of the canal at the juncture. As data is not available for preparing ac curate estimates for even such sea level type as was originally offered neither they nor anyone else can offer any figures as to time and cost for the construction of such a canal as they now advocate" In any comparison Colonel Goethals adds: We must confine our attention to the
 lock type as now building, and a sea level
 canal as offered by the board of en- gineers, and not by the idealst." The
 risks to ships in such a narrow water
 way. as proposed for the sea level canal
 at Panama, Colonel Goethals adds, far
 outweigh all hazards in the proposed lock canal, provided the latter is built so as to minimize the chance of accident to
 the locks. This is met" he says, "by providing every possible safety device. by building the locks in duplicate and by the installation of a system by which
 tine vessels will be controlled by power full electric machinery on the lock walls, thus avoiding mistakes on the part of 0i st a
 which once led to an accident at the
 Manchester ship canal.'
 Gates For the Locks.
 It is pointed out that the present lock
 designs provide intermediate gates di- viding the locks into lengths of 500 and
 400 feet About 9S per cent of all the ships, including the largest battleships now building, says Colonel Goethals. can be passed through the 600-foot lengths, | and the total lock strength will accommo- date the largest commercial vessels now building, which are 1000 feet long and SS- ] foot beam "It is true, he adds, that ships may increase in size so as to make the present locks obsolete, but the largest ships now af1oat cannot navigate the Suez canal, nor the proposed sea level canal at Panama It must also be re- membered that the commerce of the world | is carried by the medium- sized vessels, the length of only one of the many ships
 using the Suez canal being greater than 600 feet" He says that the general board of the navy is on record that 110-foot width will be ample for the future needs of the navy, and he says further that
 naval construction of the future will be | limited not alone by the locks of the | Panama canal, but also by the available | dry docks. He declares that ships that | cannot use locks 1000 feet by 110 feet can not use a 150-foot sea level canal "nor can this be so easily and economically increased and maintained as is made to appear by its advocates"
 Cost of the Canal.
 On the subject of the estimated cost of lock and sea level canal, Colonel Goeth- als says:
 "The estimated cost by the present
 commission for completing the adopted project, excluding the items let out by the board of consulting engineers is placed at S297, 76G000. If to this be added the
 estimated cost of sanitation and civil
 government until the completion of the
 work and the $50,O00000 purchase price. the total cost to the United States of
 the lock style of canal will amount to
 $375, POI, 600. In the preparation of these estimates there are no unknown factors.
 ''The estimated cost of the sea lexel canal
 for construction alone sums up to $477,- 601 ,000, and if to this be added the cost or Sanllatlon dHu CIVIL government up 10
 the time of the completion of the canal, which will be at least six years later than the lock canal, and the purchase price, the total cost to the United States will aggregate $563 ,000 O00."
 Answering the criticisms regarding the increased estimates for completing the canal, Colonel Goethals says that these have arisen largely from failure to analyze the two estimates or to appre- ciate fully the actual conditions. For instance, he cites the increase in the wage scale based on an eight-hour day instead of a ten-hour day, as originally. Then he says subsequent surveys and various changes increased the quantity of work by 50 per cent. In addition, municipal Improvements in Panama and Colon, advances to the Panama railroad and moneys received and deposited to the credit of miscellaneous receipts aggre- gate $15, 000,000 which amount he says, will eventually and has in part already
 been returned to the treasury Finally" he says, mo such system of housing and caring for employees was ever contem- plated as has been introduced and in stalled, materially increasing the over head charges and administration
 Effect of Earthquakes.
 Concerning the probable effect of earth quakes on the canal, about which Colonel Goethals says much has been written, the report states that the last earthquake of any importance in Panama occurred in the seventeenth century and that ex- isting ruins in Panama demonstrate clear ly that no shock of any violence could have occurred during the eighteenth or nineteenth centuries.
 Again reverting to the question of a