Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-11-24
Many Questions Settled.

THE questions of housing the en-
ployes. Of feeding them and of keeping
them in health. which were rife during
my second, third and fourth visits, have
disappeared. There is no yellow fever
and there hasn't been any for three years.
The malaria has been reduced to point
where it is negligible Food is furnished
At a price lower than in this country un-
der the government commissarT, which
delivers the food and ice at the doors of
its patrons"
THE working men are comfortably and
pleasantly housed and fed. They have
clubs In the form of Y. VI. c. A. houses
at various points the isthn1us, and
the life in the tropics is made as pleasant
possible to those who are doing the
work. Their wages are quite beyond
anything in the United States, and we
could not Justify to those who are in
tereSted in the government the amount OF
these wages were it not for the fact that
work in the tropics under the best condi-
tions is attended with a nervous strain.
a loss of nervous strength and a recur-
ring period of dependency Il think the
doctors call it nostalg1a) that takes the
life out of men and leads them to leave
the work and 60 where they can get
much less wages if only they can breathe
in the atmosphere of the temperate zone.
Prompt Completion Wanted.
What the American people want, il ]
understand it, is the prompt completion
of the canal; and they are willing to pse
fairly for it. 1t does not require the
imagination of an engineer to see that
the canal is there and is being put
through, and that it will be great
canal.
The President went into some detail in
dealing with the problem presented by
the Chagres river and declared the lock
and lake plan finally adopted was the
only feasily one for controlling the tur-
bulent stream.
We are engaged in taking out the
Culebra cut" said the President, IAN
average per month of 10000 yards. We
are taking out of the other parts of the
canal enough to make that average about
ton only, we would not have SO much
difficulty, because it would then be COM
pleted about January l, 1913, but there
are these great lock structures, for in
stance, at Gatun, which are nearly q mile
long and $50 feet wide, with a wall on
the outside forty feet in width, and a
wall in the middle Of fifty feet in width.
We are engaged now in laying that con-
crete at the rate of about 400 cubic
yards on each side. The men in each are
full of the spirit of competition to see
which group can do more yardage in
day and at lower cost. Between them
they do about 5000 cubic yards in a day.
If you will calculate that you will find
difficult to imagine any machinery will
lay in a day Of from eight to twelve
hours. The sides of one lock on the
Gatun side have been practically COM
pleted, SO that We are able to look at it
and realize what it was.
Engineers Good Judgment.
Il thing generally the people Of the
United States favored a sea level canal.
They thought of locks and gates as diff
cult and complicated machinery, and they
thought the idea of lifting a vessel Of
%. 600 tons by water and machinery was
so full of difficulty that it would present
obstacles every time steamer went
through. But the advantage of visiting
the isthmus is to confirm the judgment
Of the engineers in the mind of the lay
man, that that thing is now easy. II is
shaping itself. The dam. which seemed
such a tremendous work. is a long way
toward completion. and when you walk
over it YOU don't realize that it is a dam.
1t is so big. 1t seems as if it were work
Of nature itself. They are preparing on
the outside toe of the dam to have
golf links and there is plenty OF room
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