The Cairo bulletin. (Cairo, Ill.) 1???-1928, 1910-11-21
OVER a6,5oo,ooo CUBIC YARDS
MOVED DURING YEAR JUST
ENDED
'3557s men EMPLOYED.
Health Conditions mprovc-Death
Rate 1884 Per Ccnt--No Plaq-
ucs t-sring Year--Sick
M 23 Per Cent.

washing ton, Nov. Sumnariz-
ed IN phrase, satisfactory progress
all along tie Panama Canal zone"
is the gist of the annual report of the
lsthmian Canal commission, made 10
the secretary OF war Dickinson. bv
Col. Geo. Nv. Goethals, chairman OF
the commission and chief eng neer
in charge OF the work on the canal,
and made public today by tne for
mer.
With the work OF excavation aud
Of construction progressing favoably
at all points along the line, with
health conditions better than ever he
fore, with a Capitalization and con-
seouent economy in certain parts OF
the work and with maximum of la
Dorers snce the United States be-
gan to dig the canal, Col Goet!iaI's
report was decidedly pleasing to Sec
retary Dickinson.
The chief engineer reports, how
ever that 1t was not all smooth sail
ing during the past year. 81 des,
breaks and floods hindering the work
to a certain extent He mentions
four slides, covering respectively AZ,
7S, 4.6 and IL acres and requiring
during the year the removal of more
than million cubic yards OF ma.
terial ut was expected" ne says,
that slides would occur, and in the
estimates provision was made for
them but 1t now ar cars from rrrks
that show in the Hnper snfane "A a.
cent to the faces OF the cut that $ f.
fe'ent allowance had not been made,
and the estimates were corrected to
meet the new conditions"
Three bad breaks, lie reports, oc-
Cured during the year, one &C the
town Of Culchra covering an area of
more than ten ac es and reqniring
a removal OF more than miion and
half Of cubic y"rds cf dirt and
stone. The second largest becak COW
cred an area Of more than eleven
acres anil required removal of more
than 300.oGJ "utie ,--'.e. while the
third break aggregated about 10000
cubic yards.
The total amount of material re-
moved from slides and hreaFs in the
central division CT The caral during
the year was more than two and al
half million cubic :ards. or about
fifteen per cent Of the amount re-
moved during the year from the Gu
Zebra cut. the principal part of the
central division
More than 3G,500,G00 cubic yards
of material were re",oved from all
parts of the canal during the year, OF
which almost 1j,OO0.000 were from
The CUlebra cut AMI almost 10000, geo
from the Chagres section. About So,
100000 cubic yards remain to be re-
moved from the Culebra cut before,
this section Of the canal is competed
Reports from various points along
the line show that the cost of exca.
vation varied firm tweutyfour cents
per cubic yard at one paToe to as
nigh as S251 at another There is no
srch divergence Of rrce in TIE cost
of per cubic yard of concrete work,
the lowest average being $500 and
the highest $500. More than 100000
cube yards of concrete we laid dur
ing the year. t0HS
There was a steady increase from
the beginning of the past fiscal year
In the number of employees on the
canal zone, until March 80 last, they
reached maximum OF 3S.676, mel
largest force on record. Tnls in
cludes those emplo~ed on the Pana-
ma railroad. The total force at the
end of the year was 35.57S, as COM
pared with 33.493 year earlier
Investigations carried on during tlcl
year indicate, skys Col G'oethals,
that during ordinary years there will
be considerable surplus of water
from Gatun Lake, even in the dry se,-
son, and that the water supply of the
worst-known dry season for the last
nineteen years, namely that of 1908,
would be sufficient to maintain
through the canal an average daily
number of passages three or foUrl
tines as great as the average num-
ber now passing the Suez Canal, this
after making reasonable reductions
for evaporation, leakages. power sup
ply AMI lockages.'
tIealth conditions on the Istnmus
are reported to be an Improvement
over those of the preceding year: ami
no cases CT plague or yellow fever
originated on the isthmus dur ng the
year. The daily average of sick
was 20 out OF every thousand esL-
ployed as against 23.49 during the
preceding year: and the total number
of deaths among employees was 54S,
equivalent to an average Of 1881 per
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