The Evening statesman. [volume] (Walla Walla, Wash.) 1903-1910, 1909-04-09
+ Uncle Sam Nothing 1926, 100000 +
Z j. + + + = !. i i 4. y ! Z = !. + =
(Note-Figures to Jan. I, 1909


WASHINGTON, April 9.-Started
within the same week by acts of con-
gress. and working side by side since
that time, the reclamation service and
the Panama canal offers interesting
facts and figures for comparison.
I Although the difficulties that beset
the engineers and workers in the ca
nal zone have been numerous and
varied, and their achievements worthy
of all praise, few appreciate the Won
derful "conquerers of the arid west" In
the reclamation service. And they have
worked against almost as great odds,
been beset by as hot sun in summer
and with SHOWS in winter-which lat
ter the canal folks doubtless would be
glad to hav<: Moreover, while the men
at Panama lave been at work II
months in the year, the men in the
west have been able to put in but
eight months
Most of the dams that constitute the
| first step in the various reclamation
| projects, started since the act of 1902
are located among mountain Businesses
and are nor open to the ordinary
means of communication Whereas the
Panama railroad already existed with
| It's rails and wires right alongside the
route of the canal, it has been neces-
sary in the reclamation service, to
build roads to haul the cement and
other material from the railroad to
mountain sites At Tuna, II miles of
railroad hal to be constructed, and the
| engineers are now at work on "A miles
more in New Mexico.
| & 70 railroad is
known as the Truckee- Carson, which
is nearly mile away, while the great
Pathfinder dam on the North Platte is
"a miles from the nearest railroad
more than twice the distance across
the Isthmus. And these "a miles lie
across &c zing desert and up the
sides of rocky mountains.
While worl,' at Panama has been ne
cessarily confined largely to digging
the men of the reclamation service
have been .uilding. They constructed
IA dams and will soon have sixteen
more completed, and these are i'm
mense structures bound by cement to
rocks high up near the source of the
ife-giving waters.
There have already been finished by
the service 2,4583 miles of canals
more than enough to stretch from New
York to San Francisco. The water
I that feeds them comes in some
cases, by way of tunnels, blasted
through solid rock. Fifty eight tun-
nels in all have been constructed, 6
work considerably greater than the
Building of the New York subway
The total number of men employed
by the reclamation service, including
clerks, is less than 1000. The mum
Der Of employees on the canal zone. in
Guiding clerks, is more than 10000.
The reclamation service has started
thirty projects, and it will be a mum
Der of years before these can be full
ly developed. If an Inspector should
start out to travel from one project lC
, another until he had visited ALL he
would have to cover more than 900t
/, miles travelling by the shortest known
routes. This means diversification o.
of men. An inspector would have tt
, travel less than Al miles to inspect the
entire Panama canal
The work of the reclamation servic,
is beginning to bear fruit. Alread,
675,514 acres of land have been re
claimed from the virgin desert, ah'
$4,000 homes have been made 70
families in a country formerly worth
r less but which now blooms under tn
!, : ~ ri~ ~ .-r.rat'on rhi~ 'a-1 i
.