New-York tribune., 1910-08-12
CANAL MONEY WELL SPENT
Improved Sanitation Alone Worth
Cost, Says Railway President.
CONTRASTS IN ENGINEERING
South American West Coast
viii Develop Rapidly, Archer
Harmon Predicts.

Archer Harmon, the man who has been
for years driving railways into the west
coast Of South America. AMI Who through
his extensive holdings in that South Aneri-
can republic. Is sometimes known As the
dictator Of Ecuador came UP from the
tropics about week ago and is now at the
Plaza with his daughter, Miss Kate Lee
Harmon Mr.. Harmon is enthusiastic over
the work being done on the Panama Canal.
The first time I went TO South America
was in 1895. he said in his rooms at the
Plaza yesterday. and the woe-begone spec
tacle I saw then at Panama was indescrib-
able. It has been written about and photo
graphs of il have been printed but no one
could get an idea of what ii was without
seeing il Converse ton with the French
engineers brought no ray of hope. and the
whole aspect of the situation was aoout as
dismal as the deep jungle and fast-groVing
trees covering the millions of dollars worth
of expensive machinery which stood rotting
and rusting monument to the memory
of Ferdinand de Lesseps. To-day the sight
is an inspiring one. The plan of action and
the mechanical campaign carried on at the
canal are twenty years ahead of anything
else in the engineering line in the world
Why man. you can't conceive of the work
they're doing.
The Triumph of Hygiene.
Its going to mean much to this country.
too. for the spread of this country is on
these two continents. If the government
had done nothing more than demonstrate
by the money already spent that the tropics
can be raised TO a condition of sanitation
where Americans mean of this country
can live. that money would have been
more than well spent. South America is
where the development of the next ten,
twenty and thirty years VIII take place.
Two or three degrees below the equator
on the west coast is where one finds the
most equable and finest climate of the two
continents.
''On shipbcard. that's the place In your
trip where you put on flannel shirts and
overcoats. The Antarctic currents produce
lust the opposite effect TO the Gulf Stream
on the other coast. And there will be
plenty of room for Americans down there.
The country IS, of course, rather thinly
settled and the people have not the energy,
ambition and strength Of purpose of our
people but it's the coming country of the
world At present American interests pre-
dominate in Ecuador, Colombia and,
believe In Venezuela. q different condition
from that which obtains in Argentina,
Brazil and Peru. where English and Ger
man interests have everything, or almost
everything. in their grasp"
Mr Harmon is the president OF the
GuayaquiI & Quito Railway. which goes
three hundred miles into the heart Of
Ecuador At the time ii was built the
which he formed bought the ma
tional debt of Ecuador, some s5, 5000 then
held in England.
Development Only Begun.
I'VE bring out only copper. gold and sill
YER he said We could not afford TO get
ANYTHING else out There are almost fabu-
Ious deposits CT iron and zinc, but we can
not afford to transport the rough ore. In
time. If we can develop these products at
the mines. we can reach the markets, but
not now Everything must have begin
ming
The railway is of modern construction.
with 75-pound rails and gradients which
would startle American engineers Of the
present day, although some older grades in
the Rockies and the southern Appalachians
are comparable. reminders OF former rail-
road construction when the drive-rtght-
straight-through methods instead OF the
round and-round and loop-the-loop levels
were used. The GuayaQuil & Quito Rail-
way srnashes straight into the heart of the
mountains and in some places rises on
grade of 5l7 per cent. It crosses the shoul-
der Of Cotopaxi, the highest active volcano
in the world at 25H0 feet above sea level.
Mr Harmon ard his associates also oper-
ate the government railway. running sixty
five miles out Of Machalas, and a new line
is under construction from Machalas TO
Puerto Ballenitd.