The San Francisco call., 1910-11-21
Speed IS KEYNOTE
Of CANAL REPORT
Slides Retard Work, but Goe-
thals Says Big Ditch Is
Progressing Rapidly
Force of 1866 Men Working
at One Time and Health
Conditions Are Good

! lied in a phrase, satisfactory progress
all along the Panama canal zone" is
! the gist of the annual report of the
Isthman canal commission, made to
| Secretary of War Dickinson by Colonel
! George Goethals, chairman of the com
mission and chief engineer in charge
of the work on the canal, and made
public today by the former.
! With the work of excavation and of
construction progressing favorably at
| all points along the line. with health
conditions better than ever before with
! a Capitalization and consequent energy
| in certain parts of the work and with
q, minimum of laborers since the United
States began to dig the canal, Colonel
Goethal's report was decidedly pleasing
| to Secretary Dickinson.
SLIDES RETARDED WORK
| The chief engineer reports, however,
! that it was not all smooth sailing dur
| ing the past year, slides, breaks and
floods hindering the work to a certain
extent. He mentions four slides, COW
ering respectively II, 7.3, 4.6, and 1t
acres and requiring during the year the
removal of more than a million cubic
| yards of material. 1T was expected"
he says, that slides would occur, and
| in the estimates provision was made
| for them, but 1T now appears from
! cracks that show in the upper sur
| face adjacent to the faces of the cut,
| that sufficient allowance had not been
made, and the estimatesENere corrected
to meet the new conditions"
ONE BREAK COVERED 10 ACRES
Three bad breaks. he reports oc-
Cured during the year, one at the town
| of Culebra covering an area of more
! than 10 acres and requiring removal
| of more than a million and half of
cubic yards of dirt and stone. The
second largest break covered an area of
more than II acres and required a re-
moval of more than 100000 cubic yards
while the third break aggregated about
10000 cubic yards.
The foods seriously interefered with
the progress of the work., says Colonel
Goethels, referring In particular to
that of the central division and the
CuIebra cut, "and the one of December
20 overfowed the dixie separating the
cut from the Cha gres river, cutting
channel through 1T about 200 feet long
and 81 feet deep"
The total amount of material re-
moved from slides and breaks in the
central division of the canal during
the year was more than 100000 cubic
yards. or about Is per cent of the
amount removed during the year from
the Culebra cut, the principal part Of
the central division.
CULEBRA STILL BLOCKED
More than 36,50O,000 cubic yards of
material were removed from all parts
of the canal during the year, of which
almost 100000 were from the Guile
bra cut and almost 10000, 900 from the
Cha gres section About 35,0O0,000 cubic
yards remain to be removed from the
-Culebra cut before this section of the
canal is completed.
Reports from various points along
the line show that the cost of excava-
tion varied from "a cents per cubic
yard at one place to as high as S2.51
at another. There is no such diver
gence of price in the cost per cubic
yard of concrete work, the lowest av-
erage being $500 and the highest $3.50.
More than 100000 cubic yards of con-
crete were laid during the year.
ECONOMY RULE OBTAINS
Economy has been sought by the
commission in various directions. ITO
reduce to a minimum delays on ac-
count of breakdown of machinery,
plant and equipment, which reflect
largely in the cost of work" says
Colonel Goethals, "and to provide prop
er facilities for overhauling plant and
equipment, as well as manufacturing
necessary repair parts, large shops
have been provided at certain points on
the isthmus in which are employed
total of 1891 men.
'In general" he adds, "the repair
shops and equipment on the istmus are
adequate to meet all requirements dur
ing the construction period. Nothing
as vet has been done toward perma-
nent shop facilities which will be
needed after completion of the canal.
WORK CENTRALIZED
During the year special attention
was paid to reducing the cost of main
tenance and operation of equipment in
the shops including the standardized
tton of salaries and wages and of
material and supplies necessary in con-
struction repair work" In this same
connection he reports a Capitalization
of repair work to rolling equipment
other than steam shovels at the Cor
CANA shops.
"In the division of book keeping"
the report says, improvements have
been made in the classification of ex-
nenditures and the compilation of sta
tistics. distribution of the accumu
lated plant charges, formerly carried
as one item, was made, so that the
pIant IS now shown in the expenditure
accounts by divisions and by units of
the work.
3s.e7e MEN EMPLOYED
There was a steady increase from
the beginning of the past fiscal year
in the number of employees on the canal
zone. until on March 80 last they
reached a maximum of SS,676, the larg-
est force on record. This includes those |
emploved on the Panama railroad. The |
total force at the end of the year was
35.57s. as compared with 33.493 a year
earlier.
Investigations carried on during the |
wear indicate, says Colonel Goethals |
that during ordinary years there will |
he a considerable surplus of water from |
Gatun lake, even in the dry season, |
and that the water supply of the worst |
known dry season for the last 10 years, |
namely that of 1908, would be sufficient |
To maintain through the canal an aver |
age daily number Of passages three or
four times as great as the average |
now passing the Suez canal, |
this after making reasonable deductions |
for evaporation, leakage, power supply |
and lockages.
Health conditions on the isthmus are |
reported to be an Improvement over |