The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1910-02-21

borers are given the food they are
accustomed to at home. Although
Uncle Sam is taking a good deal of
interest in prohibition at home, in
Panama he serves free wine to his
Spanish workmen. The Spanish are
said to be excellent. workers, but the
spanish government. will not permit
any more of it's subjects to come here.
and never has been since Uncle Sam
took possession in 1904.
The United States controls five mile
strip on either side of the canal, by
the terms of a sort of lease which does
rot seen. very satisfactory to the lead
ing canal specialists. Neither do we
satisfactorily control either entrance to
the canal at Panama, on the Pacific,
or the entrance to the canal at Colon,
| on the Atlantic.
How much will the Panama canal
finally cost? Colonel Goethals is pro-
bably the best living authority. He told
me 1t would cost complete 375 million
dollars. OF this amount he says we
have already expended $50 million dol
lars But this does not take into ac-
count the money spent by the French,
which Colonel Goethals stated as be-
tween two and three hundred million
dollars You will recall that we paid
| the French 30 million dollars for the
| canal, and Colonel Goethals says we
| got a great bargain. When will
| the canal be completed? Colonel Goe-
| thals says in 1915. without any doubt.
| He is sure the canal can be completed
| before that time, but certainly by 1915.
We are spending million and a half
| dollars a month at Panama in wages,
and this must be kept up for certainly
| five years. And this million and half
month does not represent all we are
spending on the Panama canal, by any
| means.
| The French. who failed to complete
the canal, paid no attention to its
Workmen. Uncle Sam makes a special
| ty of taking good care of his workers
on the isthmus. and. it is often said,
has made Panama as healthy as New
York, although there were a few cases
of yellow fever the day I was there,
the first in three years. The streets of
Panama and Colon are paved with Wit
rif1ed brick from America. and sanitary
conditions generally are carefully looked
after. Wherever you go along the ca
hal you find Workmen cutting grass and
oillng the pools of water, to drive out
the mosquitoes and flies. which spread
disease. During my day on the fsthmus.
1 particularly remarked the absence OF
the French were trying to dig a canal |
at Panama. thousands of laborers died |
of disease, as they did at Suez. Be- |
tween Colon and Panama, there is a |
The word means Kill Chinaman.' 1t |
is said that during the French days 40 |
Chinese laborerS Joined hands, and |
walked into the ChagreS river, where |
they were drowned; they committed sui |
eide rather than face yellow fever.
Speaking of the Chagres river re-
minds me that it is one of the great |
problems in connection with the canal |
An Insignificant river at most times,
iS c11hi IN Colon
100 inches of rain last year, as com
pared with 80 at Atchison, and the /
reader can easily understand that the |
floods in the Chagres river are a pro-
elem III building the canal The route
of the canal crosses the ChagreS river |
Il times between Colon and Panama,
and when the canal is completed, the
valley of the Chagres will become vast
lake; and a very important one, since
it will be a part of the Panama canal.
The sChagress river was the enemy
of the French. but Uncle Sam Is try
ing to make it his friend. At Gatun,
when the canal is complete. there will
be a great dam. which will hold the
Chagres river: in time of great rains
the flood water will pour off over
spil1way. The water from the Chagres
river will form lake extending ~
miles, from one great lock to another,
and this lake, 80 feet deep, will not
only form part of the canal. but form an
inland harbor for ships, after they pass
through the Gatun locks. A fresh wa
ter harbor for ships is important and
valuable since fresh water destroys
barnacles that form on sea-going yes
sells. The water from Chagres lake will
fill 1Culebra cut. Beyond Cu1ebra cut
another lock smaller than the great
one at Gatun will let ships down to
the level of the Pacific. There is diff
ference in the tides of the Pacific at
Panama and of the Atlantic at Colon,
q nn0nSCifx
French a. first talked of a sea level
canal, but changed to a lock plan be-
fore they finally gave up the entire
project in disgust am not
at Panama but the above will serve
to give you the idea. Anyway. there
is a huge lock on the Atlantic side
within six miles of Colon. where all
records in mixing concrete nave been
broken And it may be stated that all
other records in big construction work
have been broken at Panama; the
canal is the greatest work ever under
taken by man. I remember seeing, in
passing into the Mediterranean at Port
Said a huge statue of Ferdinand De
Lessep, who built the Suez canal It
is not at all improbable that a similar
statue of Col. Geo. w. GoethalS will be
seen at Colon by future travellers. Four
big men failed where he seems to be
succeeding.
In the United States the fear is
often expressed that an earthquake
NAV wreck the locks Of the Panama
canal Colonel Goethals says accur-
ate records have been kept. and that,
for a period covering a number of
years. there have been more disturb
ances of an earthquake character at
Washington, D. c., than at Colon; that
there is no more danger of the Gatun
locks being destroyed by earthquake
than there is danger of the capital at
Washing ton being destroyed by earth
quake In short, there is no danger
at all of earthquakes affecting the
Panama canal.
1.-THE only earthquakes we have to
fear" said Colonel Goetha1s, ''are the
earthquakes in the American news
papers"