The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-11-24
WORK ON CANAL
 DESCRIBED BY TAFT Forthcoming Message Will Deal With Canal Affairs WORK i, IS PROGRESSING Conditions of Labor Are Said To Re of the Best on the Isthmus and
 the Work Is Being Done
 Rapidly
WORK IS PROGRESSING

Washington, November 2s.-President Taft returned to Washington at SEQ o'clock tonight after having stopped day at Richmond, Va., on his way home from the isthmus of Panama.
 The President announced soon after his arrival that he would make no engage ments during the next five days. In that time he hopes to have his message to Congress completed. Only cabinet of- ficers and others with whom the Presi- dent desires to consult regarding his message will be formally received at the White House.
 In his regular message the President will deal with his visit to Panama mak- ing recommendations on a number of subjects he desires considered and dis cussed with a view to early legislation.
 Concident with the Presidents return 1t was learned that there is not the slightest chance for an extra session Of Congress following the coming short ses- sion. The President sees no necessity for calling Congress to sit after March f.
 President Taft had an interesting day in Richmond, the most important feat ures of which were an informal address on the Panama canal at the luncheon given in his honor and an address be- fore the Virginia educational conference,
 Conditions Described
 The President attempted in a brief way to describe the satisfactory conditions he found on the isthmus and aroused intense enthusiasm by his prediction that the canal would be thrown open to the world we'll In advance of the official date of opening, January l. 1915.
 He declared that If necessity demanded he believed American battleships could be sent through the waterway by January, 1913.
 q have been fortunate" said the Pres ident, "in having visited the isthmus five times. The first time I went there with yellow fever and malaria on all hands with nothing but the skeletons of French machinery half buried in the jungles, with cut only barely made in Culebra and with no plans as to how we were to build the canal, the prospect was not inspiring.
 "The questions of housing the em- ployes, of feeding them and keeping them in health-which were rife dur ing my second, third and fourth vis- its, have disappeared. There is no yell low fever and there has not been any for three years. The malaria has been reduced to a point where it is negli- gible. Food Is furnished at a price lower than in this country under the government commissary, which de- llvers the, food and ice at the doors of its patrons. The workingmen are comfortably and pleasantly housed and | fed. They have clubs in the form of Y. M. c. A houses at various points on the isthmus and the life in the tropics is made as pleasant as pos- sible to those who are doing the work. Wages Are High
 Their wages are quite beyond any thing received in the United States and we could not Justify to those who are interested in the government the amount of those wages were 1t not for the fact that work in the tropics un- der the best conditions is attended with a nervous strain, loss of nerve strength and a recurring period of despondency. q think the dotcors call 1t nostalgia that takes the life of the men and leads them to leave the work and go where they can get much less wages if only they can breathe the at- mosphere fthe temperate zone.
 What the American people want, if I understand, is the prompt comple- tion of the canal and they are willing to pay for it. It does not require the imagination of the engineer to see that the canal Is being put through and that 1t will be great canal"
 The President went into detail in dealing with the problem presented by the Chagres river and declared that the lock and lake plan, finally adopted, was the only feasible one for controll- ing the turbulent stream.
 We are engaged In taking out of the Cuebra cut" said he Tan average per month of 1,900,0o0 yards. We are taking out of the other parts of the canal enough to make 1t about 100000 cubic yards If It were excavation only we would not have so much difficulty, because it would then be completed about January 1, 1913.
 Laying Concrete
 "We are engaged now in laying con crete at the rate of about 4500 cubic yards a day on each side; the men in each di- vision are full of the spirit of competition to see which group can do more yardage in a day and at lower cost. Between them they do about 5000 cubic yards in a day. If you will calculate that you will find it makes mass of concrete that 1t is difficult to imagine any machinery will lay in a day of to 12 hours. The sides of one lock on the Gatun side have been practically completed, so that we were able to look at 1t and realize what 1t was.
 q think generally the people of the United States favored sea level canal They thought of a lock and Its gates as difficult and complicated machinery, and they thought the idea of lifting a vessel of 25,0000 tons by water and machinery was so full of difficult ythat it would pre- sent obstacles to every steamer that went through. But the advantage of visiting the isthplus is to confirm the judgment of the engineers in the minds of laymen that the thing is now easy. It is shaping itself The dam which seemed such a tremendous work Is a long way toward completion and when you walk over you don't realize that it is a dam. It is so long it seems as if it were a work of na-