Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1909-03-25
COCKTAILS INSISTS
ON LOCK CANAL
SEA LEVEL TYPE TOO COSTLY.
APPROVED ONLY BY
lDEALIST.
GATUN DAM SAFE, SANE AND
PRACTICAL-CRIT
ANSWERED.

Q61enSe OF the present plan OF build
ing a lock canal at Panama, not only
because it is deemed more desirable
than a canal built On sea level, bu
because of the saving in time and
money, is contained in a special re
port of Lieutenant Colonel George W
Goethals, chairman and chief engin
eer of the Isthmian canal oompis
sion, made public yesterday. The re
port, which is an exhaustive one, deals
with every phase of the canals con
struction, and in it Colonel Goethals
handles without gloves those critics
who he says are predicting nothing
but disaster and failure to the enter
prise.
Colonel Goethals reviews the whole
history of proposed canals construc
ton on the isthmus, and calls atten,
ton to the fact that after the subject
had occupied public attention for up.
ward of four centuries, it was not I'm.
til the nineteenth century that any
definite action was taken looking -
ward it's accomplishment "The
United States" he says, mot unmind-
! full Of the advantages of an isthmian
canal, had from time to time made in
vestigations and surveys of the vari-
Gus routes He adds that with the
view to government ownership and
control congress directed an investi-
cation of the Nicaraguan canal for
which a concession had been granted
to private company. The report of
the commission to look into the sub
ject was adverse to the Nicaraguan
route, he says, and favorable to the
Parma route and the lock type of
canal.
Much attention is given to the sub
ject of the Gatnu dam. This, Colonel
Goethals says, is to consist of two
piles of rock 1900 feet apart and car
ried up to so feet above mean tide
The space between them and up to
the required height is to be filled by
selected material deposited in place by
hydraulic process. He speaks of the
slip which occurred last November
which, he says, amounted to practic-
ally nothing This slip" says he,
probably would have passed I'M
noticed, as did the former ones, but
for the fact that at the time a flood
in the Charges river had attained such
proportions as to cover a portion of
the Panama railroad tracks just south
of Gatun. A newspaper correspond
IN
his opportunity for a sensational story
and attributed the flood to the drop
ping of the Gatun dam into the sub
terranean lake under the dam and
locks, which another faker had pre-
viously discovered, and the news of
the destruction of the dam was cabled
to the states" The slip, he declares,
did not affect the south slope or slide
of the rock pile. cit was entirely To-
CAL" he says, land did not in any way
interfere with the work. AS a re-
suit, however, the public is told that
dire disaster will follow the under
taking unless the present plans
are abandoned and the Straits of
Panama constructed; that is,
sea level canal across the 18TH
mus 500 to 600 feet wide. To ac-
complish this, however, a lock canal
must be built first and subsequently
widened and deepened until the ideal
is reached. There is no data avail
able for such a canal. With noun
tains instead of hills to be removed
estimates are, Of course, impossible;
so the most optimistic figures, suitable
alone 10 the ideal are offered as
bait. In any event it is claimed al
so that Bohio should have been Sc
lected for the site of the dam in lieu
of Gatun.'' Colonel Goethals points out
that at Bohio the gorge in its lower
strata is filled with water-bearing
gravel and that fact alone, he says,
removes it from consideration. 81
venture the statement, without fear of
contradiction" he says that the site
of no public or private work of any
kind has received such a thorough and
exhaustive examination and investiga.
ton as the foundation of the dam and
locks at Gatun. There is no longer
a doubt concerning any Of the under
lying strata; neither the impermea-
bility nor the ability of the founda-
tions to bear the loads that will be
brought upon them, can be ques-
toned if the data be carefully and i'm
partially examined. The Investigations
fail TO disclose any water-bearing
strata or the existence of that under
ground stream with a discharge equal
to the Charges river itself, which was
! recently asserted as a fact on the
| floor of the senate
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
! the data. it says. that the solution is
not only feasible but absolutely safe.
/ Reverting to the subject of a sea
level canal. Colonel GoethaIs says
( To be sure. the partisans of the sea
level type are now proposing TO elm
mate both The Gambia dam and the It'd
/ al lock by making the channel so wide
| as TO reduce the currents that result
from the discharge of the Chagres and
the difference in tides. but fail to ex-
plain how they propose to control or
divert the Chagres. the bed of which
viii be so feet above the water sur.
face, for preparing accurate estimates
! for even such a sea level type as was
originally offered. neither they nor
anyone else can offer any figures as