The Hawaiian gazette., 1910-12-09
TAFT PRAISES {.
CANAL WORKERS
Says Warships Could Be Sent to
Pacific by Il in 1919 If
Occasion Arose.

WASHINGTON, November 49,
President Taft's deep interest in the
building of the Panama Canal .waa
shown in his speech at Richmond yester-
day. He said if the necessity arose bat
tleships could be. sent through the canal
in 1918. -
81 have been Fortunate - said the
President, ''in having visited the 18TH
mus five times The first time / went
there, with yellow fever and malaria on
every hand, with nothing but the skele-
tons of French machinery half buried in
the jungles, with cut only partly made
in Culebra and with no certain plan as
to how we were to build the canal, the
prospect was not inspiring
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 Ineligible. Food
IS furnished at a price lower than in
this country under the government
commissary. which delivers the food and
ice at the doors of it's patrons,''
The working men are comfortably
and pleasantly housed and fed, They
have clubs in the form of Y.M.C.A.
houses at various points ON the 18th
mus, and life in the tropics is made
as pleasant as possible to those who
are doing the work. Their wages are
quite beyond anything in the United
States, and we could not Justify to
fhnga rr-hn inf NoJ -, L.
ment the amount of these wages were
it not for the fact that work in the
tropics under the best conditions is, at
tended with q nervous strain, a loss of
nervous strength and recurring period
of dependency II. think the doctors
cab it nostalgia) that takes the life out
of men and leads them to leave the
work and go where they can get much
less wages if only they can breathe I'm
the atmosphere of the temperate zone.
Prompt Completion Wanted. e'-'
"What the American people want, if
/ understand it, il, the prompt compile
ton of the, canal; and they are willing
to paw fairly for it.. 1t does not readire
the imagination of an engineer to see
that the canal is there and is being put
through, and that it viii be a great
canal, - az - ,uoU+a
The President went into some detail
| an. dealing with the problem presented
| by the Chagres river and declared the
lock and lake plan finally adopted was
the only feasible one for controlling the
turbulent stream. u et-tj'iJ
r3FWe are engaged in taking out the
! Culebra cut, F" said the President, Gan
average per month of 100000 yards.
We are'takihg out of the other parts
of. the canal enough.;to mako that aver,
age about 100000 cubic yards. !, IF
| it were excavation only, we would. not
have so mhch difficulty. because tit
would then be completed about January
j l., 1913, bat there are these great lock
/ structuresg for ainstaHce, at Gatuny
] which are nearly mile long aud $50.
feet wide, with wall on the outside
forty feet in width, and wall in the
| middle of fifty feet2in width. We, are.
! engaged now in laying their concrete
at the rate ofRboHt $500 cubic yards
| on each iside.c The men in each arg
1 full of the sPiTitlOf -eOppetition, t9 see
! which group can dodHore yardags in q.
day and at lower cost.5 BetWeepgthem
they do ahonta 5000 cubic. yards in "a
l[day.S If you will calculate, that you,
| viii find it makes IA mass of concrete
kphl II 10 ulhlcull W IlHuBluO any
Aniachinery will lay in a day of ,Srom
eight Ito twelve hours The, sides of
one lock. on the Gatup side have, BEEN
practically completed, so that we, are
able to look at it. and realize what it
was. sa. TX. ~!
Engineers Good Judgment.
1 81 think generally the people of the
United States favored sea level canal,
They thought of locks and gates as
difficult and complicated machinery,
and they thought the idea of lifting
a vessel of $4,000 tons by water and
machinery was so full of difficulty that
it would present obstacles every time,
a steamer went through. But the adj
vantage of visiting the isthmus is to
/ confirm the Judgment of the engineers
tin the mind of the layman, that that
thing is now easy. 1t is shaping itself.
THE dam, which seemed such a tremend-
Gus work, is long way toward com
l pletion, and when you walk over it
you don u realize that it is dam. 1t
is so big. It seems as if it were q
work of nature itself. They are prepar-
ing on the outside toe of the dam to
! have "a GOLF links and there is nlentV