Daily Kennebec journal., 1910-11-24
Gives Optimistic Report
Work on Canal.
No Extra Session Of Congress
Necessary, He Says.
Work on Congressional Message
to Be Completed Soon.

Taft returned to Washington at S.2O
}o'clock tonight after having stopped
a day at Richmond, Va, on ms way
home from the Isthmus of Panama.
The President announced soon after
| his arrival that he would make no
enea pe,nents during the next tve
days. In that time he hopes to nave
| his message to Congress completed.
| The message will he ready either the
| night of the 18th or early on the 29th
In his regular message the Presi-
| dent will deal with his visit to Pan
ANA, making recommendations on
humber of subjects which lie desires
considered and discussed with view
| 20 early legislation.
cciaciG ent with the Presidents re-
turn it was learned that there is not
1h,, slightest chance for an extra ses-
| sion OF Congress following the COM
ling short session. The President, 1t is
| said, sees no necessity for calling Cen
3res to sit after March 4.
| The President hed an interesting
lay in Richmond. the most important
| f2a lures OF which were an informal
address on the Panama canal at the
Luncheon given in his honor and an
| address before the Virginia Educa-
tioral conference.
The Presidents Panama canal
| speech was listened to with the great
est interest. He tried in brief way
to describe the satisfactory condi-
! tions he found on the isthmus and
aroused much enthusiasm by his pre-
| diction that the canal would be
| thrown open to the world well in ad-
vance of the official date of opening,
Jan. l, 1915. Ee said that if necessity
demanded he believed American bat
tlesllips could be through the water
way by Jan. l. 1913.
| Il have been Fortunate said the
President lin having visited the
| is Sthmus several times. The first time
I went there with yellow fever and
malaria on every hand, with nothing
but the skeletons 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.
THE questions of housing the en-
| ,loyes, of feeding them. and of Keeping
them in health-which We're rife during
| my second, third and fourth visits
| have disappeared. There is no yellow
fever and there has not been any for
three years. The malaria has been re-
duced to a point wehre it is neglible.
| rood is furnished at a price lower thar
| IN this country under the government
ommissary, which delivers the food
| end ice at the doors Of its patrons.
| The Workingmen are comfortable and
| pleasantly housed and fed. They have
Iubs in the form of Y. NJ. c. A. houses
t various points on the isthmus, and
t he life in the tropics is made as pleas
ont as possible to those who are doing
the work Their wage are quite be-
Nond anything received in the United
States and we could not justify to
| those who are interested in the gov
o"nment the amount of those wages
we're it not for the fact that work in
tle tropics under the best conditions
Is attended with a nervous strain, a
loss of nervous strength, and recur-
ring period of dependency I think
the doctors call 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 the atmosphere of the tenn
pfrate zone.
what the American people want, if I
understand it. is the prompt completion
of the canal: and they are willing to pay
1aIrly for it. 1t does not require the
imagination of an engineer to see that
lhe canal is there and is being put
through hat 10
canal"
Inc President went into some detail in
talking of the problem presented by the
Chagres river, and said the lock and lake
plan finally adopted was the only feas-
lble one for controlling that turbulent
stream
We are engaged in taking out of the
Culebra cut said the President, IAN av-
erage per month of 100000 yards. We
are taking out of the other parts of the
canal enough to make that average about
-,SoooW cubic yards. If it were eXcava-
ton only, we would not have so much
difficulty. because it would then be COM
pleted about Jan. /, 1913: but there are
those great locks, structures, for instance
at Gatun. which are nearly a mile long
and $50 feet wide. with a wall on the out
side 40 feet in width and a wall in the
middle of 80 feet in width. We are en-
gagged now in laying that concrete at the
rate of about $500 cubic yards a day on
each side. The men in each division are
full of the spirit of competition, to see
which group can do more yardage in a
day and at lower cost. Between them
they do about 5000 cubic yards in a day.
II you will calculate that you will find it
makes a mass of concrete that it is diff
cult to imagine and machinery will lay in
a day of from to II hours. The sides
of one lock on the Gatun side have>been
practically completed, SO that we were
able to look at it and realize what it was.
Il think generally the people of the
United States favored sea level canal.
They. thought Of lock and it's gates as
difficult and complicated machinery, and
they thought the idea of lifting a vessel
of a5OO0 tons by water and machinery
was so full of difficulty that it would
present obstacles every time steamer
went through. But the advantage of Wis
iting the isthmus is to confirm the judg-
ment of the engineers in the mind of the
laymen that the thing is now easy. 1t is
shaping itself. The dam which seemed
CrIah fvnyr do,