Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1909-05-14
j. 5. 1O BENEFIT MOST
PANAMA CANAL AND ITS GENER-
AL VALUE ovEREsrIMATED
BY MANY.
EUROPE WILL NOT USE ROUTE
FOR TRADE WITH ORIENT
Canal Will Be of Vast Benefit to United
States in Securing Lower Transcon-
tinentaI Freight Rates and in Afford
ing Passage Of War VesseIs-con-
gresham Norris Visits Zones.

Especial Correspondence

Especial Correspondence.)
Washington, May 14.-Representa-
tive George w. Norris, of Nebraska,
who has just returned from week on
the Panama canal zone, confident that
the canal will be completed on time and
will be an entire success, said today:
"From careful inspection of the
progress on the canal 1 am satisfied
with the Roadway that is being made
and feel confident that the work is not
only being well done, but that it is be-
| ing pushed with as much rapidity as
is possible. There is no doubt now but
that the canal is going to be dug and
very short time, be realized. 1t will
cost more money than we expected
when we began and will take more
time, but if the present rate Of pro-
gress can be kept up there is no reason
to doubt but that ships will be passing
| thru the canal by the first of January,
1915
ut would also be we'll for us to con-
slider some misconceptions as to the
uses to which the canal will be put
when it is finished. AS a matter of
fact the distance from London and all
other European ports will be over 5000
miles nearer to the Orient by way of
the Suez canal than by way of the Pan
anna canal. 1t is also doubtful whether
all the commerce from our own At
lantic seaports to the Philippine Islands
and Asiatic points will go by the way
of the Isthmus of Panama. The dis
tance between New York and Manila
is practically the same by way of Pan
anna as 1T is by way of Suez, and mas
much as the Panama canal will cost
much more than the Suez canal, and
the charge for its use will be regulated
somewhat by its original cost and the
cost of its maintenance, it will likely
follow that the freight rate by way of
the Suez canal from Atlantic seaports
to Asiatic points will be some less than
by way of the Panama canal
eve can not therefore expect that
the canal will be used to any great
extent by the commerce passing from
the Orient. The canal will be of great
benefit to us, of course, in the handling
and maneuvering of our fleet and in
passing our ships Of war from one
ocean to the other. The great benefit
to commence, as far at least as our
own country is concerned, will, in my
judgment, be in the lowering of the
trans-continental freight rates across
our country. The shipping of freight
from one coast to another by way of
the Panama canal will greatly reduce
the rate and will have a definite and
immediate effect upon the rates of our
inland railroads. 1t will not be only
the reducing of the freight that is ac.--
ually carried by ship from the Atlantic
to the Pacific seaboard, but the fact
that the canal is completed and the way
opened will of itself reduce and keep
down the freight rate charged by all
our trans-continental railroads, so that
one Of the greatest benefits derived will
be this indirect one of the effect had
upon railroad freight rates.
The fears that have been engendered
in the minds of some of our people on
account of what is claimed to be the
instability of the great Gatun dam is
without any foundation whatever. In
the first place, there is no danger what
ever of earthquake on the isthmus.
There is no record of one ever having
occurred there. In the next place, this
great dam would not be injured by an
earthquake unless it We're of such q
violent nature as to tear up all the
country and of sufficient force to de-
stroy any kind of a canal. Instead of
being a dam as We generally UNDER
stand the term, it is in reality the
building of a mountain across valley.
"At the beginning of the canal agi-
tation, several years ago, l was a firm
believer in sea level canal. A study
OF the question, which has extended
over several years, and personal ex-
animation of the canal itself have COM
Epletely converted me to the lock type.
The reasons for this are quite obvi-
ous.
I'm the first place, no engineer has
been able to give even an intelligent
estimate as to what the cost of sea
level canal would be. 1t is admitted
that it's cost would be greatly in excess
of the lock type canal. 1t is also adj
mitted that it would take a great many
more years to construct 1t. In my
judgment the cost alone would be abb
solutely prohibitive of a sea level ca
nal. 1 am confident also that it would
take many additional years to con-
struct such canal.
"a ship could not go thru sea level
canal so quickly as it could go thru a
lock canal. If the canal were on the sea
level a ship passing thru it would have
to go at very slow speed. One ship
could not pass another in going thru
the canal, and the result would be
that ship coming up to the canal
would have to wait If there were an
other ship coming thru in the opposite
direction until the transit of the canal
had been completed.
with the lock canal, it would be
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