Los Angeles herald., 1909-11-21
REAL BACKING IS
NEED FOR SQUARE
DEAL ON PIC FIC
McLACHLAN TELLS OF TRANS
PORTATlON FIGHT
VALUE OF CANAL MUST BE ADDED
TO BY SHIPS, He SAYS
Hand of Railroad Seen for Years in
Work That Has Retarded the
Prosperity of This
Coast

gressman James McIachlan delivered
one of the most interesting addresses to
which the city club has listened when
that organization met yesterday at
noon at L. ]. Christopher's SOL South
Broadway, for its regular weekly lunch
con.
Mr.. McLachlan spoke of the Panama
canal and the proposed line of govern
ment owned steamers on the Pacific
coast and their relation to each other.
Congressman AIcLachlan is member
of the rivers and harbors committee,
and is number four on this committee,
only three members standing between
him and the chairmanship. He is the
author of the bill now pending in the
national assembly to establish a line of
ten steamers on the Pacific coast, ply
ing between the ports from Puget sound
to the Panama canal.
"For more than 100 years. said Mr..
McLachlan, 1.-The statesmen of this
country have been trying to find some
means Of connecting the two great
oceans. When I first went to congress
fifteen years ago a bill was introduced
to cut a canal through the isthmus of
Panama, and at each succeeding con-
gress similar bills were introduced.
While these bills passed the lower
house, they invariably were defeated IN
the senate, and it was not until Roose-
welt became president that We secured
the legislation we so much desired.
Railroads Were Enemies
"It Is an Open secret that il the In
Ruence of the transeontnental railroads that
defeated the measure in the senate. 1t was
only natural that the railroads should op-
pose the canal. for men engaged in the
transportation business must look to the in
terests of their stockholders, and 1t appealed
to them that cutting off 5000 miles of water !
way between the Atlantic and Pacific ports
would greatly reduce their profits.
- "a !
engineering work the world has ever |
seen. 1t was my privilege to visit the |
canal last April. There, on the Pacific /
side, I saw a great cross, and l was |
told that it was there Balboa stood /
when he first discovered the Pacific |
ocean. over the same route these early |
pioneers took Is where the connecting .
link between the two great oceans is
being made. 1t was over this same
route that the first gold discovered in
California was transported.
Tides Caused Trouble
"When the American people took over
the canal zone and began the project
of making the great cut, one of the
most difficult porblems that had to be
solved was the great difference in the |
tide. On the Atlantic side 1t is only I
eighteen inches, and on the Pacific side |
it is about eighteen feet Another /
river, which in time of flood has been |
known to rise thirty and forty feet
Before beginning the construction of
the canal Roosevelt appointed an eX-
amining board of the best engineers to
be found in this country and in Europe.
and after a thorough investigation this
commission decided on a sea-level ca
nal. But after their decision was
reached other engineers were called in,
and the plan finally was changed to a !
lock canal and IS lock canal it is |
being constructed"
The speaker gave a graphic descrip- |
tion Of the construction of the canal, |
picturing the monster machinery that |
lifts solid rocks weighing from five TO
eight tons as though they were pebbles, !
and loading trains of eighteen cars |
while the cars are slowly moving, and |
then following these cars to the dump
ing ground, where they are unloaded
while moving.
Sight Is an Inspiration
"An American watching this machin-
cry is inspired with the genius Of the
Americans that can invent such ma
Chinery, for it is only American-made
machines that are used on the canal"
said Mr. McLachlan.
Before going to the canal read that
every workman on the job worked as
though the digging Of the canal de-
could not believe it, for I knew that a
large number of the laborers were Ja-
maica negroes and as I have seen the
Jamaica negroes I could not conceive
of one of his class working as though
anything depended on his labor But
when I visited the canal I understood.
The machinery moves so fast that ev- /
cry workman has to hurry to keep from
being covered up"
although the Panama canal may
cost us $500, 600. and [ believe it viii
before il is finished still the discovery
of handling yellow fever is worth all it
will cost If nothing else was accom-
plished. The canal zone is as free from
yellow fever today as is Los Angeles
Every pool OF water is covered with
crude oil and there are no more mos
quitos
One Source of Shame
"But isn't it source of shame to us
that when the canal is built we have
scarcely steamer to po through it?
We spend S1S000000 to $40 0l0 600 every
year in the Improvement OF our rivers
and harbors, and yet we have practi-
cally no ships Of our own to use them
when they are completed
1--WE have only eleven American
owned ships, five on the Atlantic and
six on the Pacific, engaged in our for
eign trade while Enelaud has Il 600
The United States has a greater foreign
commerce by millions than any other
country in the world. yer 20 per cent
of our foreign commerce is carried i'm
foreign bottoms We are paying $3.50
600 every day to foreign ships to carry
our foreign trade. If we We're to as
semble all our ships together we could
not float 10000 men, while there is n
little country just across the Pacific
here which could float 25o.090 men in
its own ships
THE United States government now
operates six steamers from New York
to the Panama canal. ] took pass pa
i'm one of these steamers last April. II
carried about $50 passengers and 5000
tons of freight. As soon as I got on
board 7 asked what the cargo con-
sisted of and was told that by far the
biggest part of it was products Of the
Pacific coast states. These goods We're
shipped across the country ON the
transcontinental railroads and then
loaded into gOyernment-OWned vessels
to be transported to Panama. With
line of government steamers on this
coast they would have been transported
direct.
"I came back on the same steamer.
but in place of the 30UO tons Of freight
that we carried down we had only 300
tons, or one-tenth the amount we had