The Mathews journal. (Mathews C.H. [Court House]) 1903-1937, 1910-12-01
MAY FINISH CANAL
IN FOUR YEARS


presidential luncheon at the Jefferson
Wednesday afternoon expected Mr.
Taft to drift into comments on politics
in the United States, they must have
been sadly disappointed, for never
once did he allude to anything of the
sort either directly or indirectly. On
the contrary, he confined his remarks
entirely to the Panama Canal and what
he had seen there.
His discourse was marked neither
by flights of oratory nor figures OF
speech. 1t was just a plain, every
day talk about conditions in the Canal
Zone and the amount of work already
done there. The address, however.
was both interesting and instructive.
and showed that the President Ia ii
carefully studied his subject.
Il am always glad that l have come
to Richmond" said Mr.. Taft smiling
~. There is a cordially about your
welcome that OVercomes any mod
esty and conVinCes the visitor of the
sincerity with which you take him in.
something has been said by Mr.
Montague about my visit to Panama
and its object. You men OF the South
are much interested in the completion
OF that canal. You have coal 10 be
sold TO the whole world, and IL am
TO believe the statements Of your rail
way presidents, there is goodly sup
ply of that coal accessible TO Norfolk
and Newport News, on a harbor as
tine any i'm the world, and having
but one defect-that IL is not properly
fortified.
1t has been my fortune to make
five trips 10 the Isthmus OF Panama.
The first time l went there the pros
pect was not encouraging. There was
yellow fever and malaria on every
hand. There was nothing but the
skeleton OF French machinery. half
a NJ
then no certain plan as 10 how the
canal should be built. The prospect
on that visit was not inspiring.
Well Housed and Cared For.
Then followed the period OF organ
lzation. The people OF the United
states had the means and the deter
mination 10 press the project, but il
was necessary TO build up an effec~
tive organization in order to construct
"A waterway fifty miles long through a
continent. Under Engineer John r.
stevens this organization was begun.
The army engineers Completed it after
he withdrew. The Government has
faced and solved the questions OF
housing employees, and feeding them,
and keeping them in health. Sickness
has disappeared. There has not been
case OF yellow fever on the isthmus
in three years. Malaria has been re-
duced to negligible amount. The
food is furnished at Government com
missaries at less than cost in this
country. The laboring men are com
fortably housed and fed. Life in the
tropics has been made as pleasant as
possible. The Government is paying
wages on the canal work in advance
OF those paid in this country. The
excess in wages is justified by the
fact that the work is in the tropics.
and that. like the service in the Phil
ippines, il is attended by a certain
nervous strain and recurrent periods
of dependency which the physicians
call nostalgia, and which appears to
be plain inconsistencies, which takes
the life out of the men, The Govern
ment has aided the Young Mems
Christian Association and other insti-
tutions in work to create the atmos-
phere of home. The liberal policy
has been carried on by the Govern
ment throughout, subject only to such
limitations as Congress has seen fit to
impose. 1t has been our effort 10
make everything attractive on the
lsthmuS. The American people want
the canal and they want il as soon as
possible, and are willing to pay for il.
The absence of labor difficulties
ana the continuous progress of the
work vindicates our policy. The work
ing force is happy and comfortab BILE:
there has been no delay and no labor
troubles, and after all what the Ameri-
can people want is the prompt com
rs II near completion? If YOU had
been with my party on this last trip
you wouldn't need assurances from
me. The work has now advanced so
far that il doesn't require an engineer
to show a layman that a canal is there,
and that IL will he a great canal. You
can see ii for yourself.
There were great problems to
solve. The distance from shore to
shore is forty miles, with the canal
stretching five miles to sea at each
end. Culebra cut is the lowest point,
except Lake Nicaragua, between the
Arctic and Antarctic Oceans. The
Chagres River flows through a valley
about thirty miles from the Atlantic.
and the variations in its discharge
overnight besides the difference in
tides between the Atlantic and Pacific
and the additional excavation, made
a sea-level canal difficult and more
expensive. Such a canal would have
required masonry dam -fourths
of a mile in length. Instead of that
we adopted a lock canal. Nature has
made a basin opening at Gatun sew
enty-seven feet wide, and by simply
closing that opening it has proved pos
sible to make a lake stretching twenty