Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1911-06-05
TALKS OF The PANAMA CANAL
Colonel Goethals, Builder Of Big
Ditch, Tells Of Progress Made.
SETS TINE FOR FINISHING WORK
water 20 Ne Turned in One Year
from Next April--some of the
DifrCuIties that Arc
Encountered.

WASHINGTON, June 4--tspecial Tele-
gram Everybody who meets Colonel
George w. Cocktails, the Panama builder,
asks him the same question:
"IIow's the canal coming on7"
1t must sound monotonous to the col
onel, but he always answers cheerfully
that the canal Is getting along In fine
shape.
Colonel Goethals has been spending a
few days in Washington and has talked
to the president aDout the work in the
canal zone. He spent some time at the
capitol, where he met q lot OF congress
men, who have at various times paid
visit to the scene of the greatest engineer
Ing work now going on anywhere in the
world
The time to see what has been done at
Panama" said Cocktails. rs before the
water is let into the canal.
That will be a year from next April
People who so down there after the canal
is filled, will never be able to understand
what a big piece of work has been done.
They will wonder why i'm the world the
United States spent all that money and
where IL went to-"
YES" said a congressman who over
heard this remark. and some day YOU
find out why the canal cost so much
money. People who go down there will
see a ditch filled with water and 1t viii
look so easy to them that they wont un-
derstand why all those millions of dollars
were spent"
Confidence of the Colonel.
The confidence with which Colonel
Cocktails speaks of the work of cutting
oh
assure a lot OF doubters, who sim think
the canal may be a failure for any one
of variety OF reasons. The colonel does
not talk about the canal as anything like
an experiment. He speaks of It is If IL
were most ordinary undertaking, simply
requiring a certain amount of time for its
completion
I'VE are a little ahead of the schedule,
he said, and everything is going as well
as any Of US could hope. The human ele
| ment that enters into the construction o.
the canal perhaps Is its most interesting
feature. We have our Joys and our trial,
in this respect, but 1t is certainly one OF
the most remarkable features of the
work"
Colonel GoetharB attention was called
to recent statement by a man who Wis
tied the canal zone and who declared thai
the slides which have from time to tim,
been experienced in the Culebra cut anC
other places always would continue anS
always would threaten the canal
Seeking NyturaI Level.
THAT is not true" said Colonel Goeth
ais I'VE haveinhad twenty-five slides
thus far, and undoubtedly win have more
but these slides mean that the materia
. through which we are cutting the cana
1 - seeking its natural level. Rreat
many different kinds OF materials are en-
| countered. and the angles at which the,
will como to rest vary greatly. For in
stance. a pile of sand will come to a res
| with its slides at an angle OF about forty
\ five degrees.
| I'VE have material at Panama, princi
pally clay, where we can make the sid,
Of cut almost perpendicular. On tn,
other hand. we have material that will
slide until IL comes to q rest at only Slf.
| teen degrees above the horisontRl Tina
Is Its natural point of stopping. Tn,
Paraso slide was one of the largest en-
countered. but IL was entirely natural an,
| to be expected After 1t had come 70 ,
rest, We had to make another ten-foot Gu
and IT slid again. But that also was to b,
expected. To say these slides will never
stop is to make an incorrect statement
because when the materials Of which the,
| are composed, reach their natural leve
| they Will come to q rest and stay there.