Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1911-07-18
To Make the Canal Pay.


of July 9Th, wherein Colonel Goethels,
who is building the Panama canal,
gives his views as to how the Ameri-
can government can make the canal
pay reasonable dividends upon the
1876, 100000 investment. We urged
our readers to get the article and
study it, and for the benefit of such
as could not do this, we promised to
give an outline this week of Col.
Goethel's sugges lions.
1t will be seen that what here COM
mends, is to 90 what any great Amer
lean corporation, such as the steel
trust, or oil trust, would do if it
owned that canal and was therefore
confronted with the problem Of max
ing it pay. The canal is simply q
large property, like a railroad, good
for nothing unless the owner can
tempt or induce other people to use
it, or can so manage it as to make it
more profitable for them to use it
than to use some other commercial
route. The canal will be in competi
ton with other routes from Europe
to the Pacific, via the Suez canal,
the Cape of Good Hope, Magellan
straits, and Atlantic steamships rum
ming in connection with the Ameri-
can trans-continental railways. There
fore, to get any business at all for its
big canal, the American government
must take away business from other
concerns who are doing all this bust
ness now, and divert shipping from
other routes which are now fully sup
plying the demand. Captain Evans
declares that the advantage of shorter
distance by the Panama route will be
offset by cheaper coal on the Suez and
CapetoWn routes, and that Uncle Sam
will therefore get no business from
Europe for his canal. While Colonel
Goethels makes no reference whatever
to Captain Evans argument, his
article suggests ways in which we
may tempt much Of the European
shipping to use the canal, by combin-
ing with the canal, other auxiliary
business undertakings which will
have to be taken care Of by somebody
and which will without any doubt be
looked after and made remunerative
by private concerns unless the govern
ment takes hold of them.
eve must" says Col. Goethels, ''be
able to take charge of ship from the
moment she enters the canal, and, by
the time she has reached open water
on the other side, have made her a
new ship if she needs that much fix
ing. If we keep in operation our
machine shops, if we build and run
coaling stations at both ends of the
canal, if we have huge laundrieS with
q day and night force, if we have on
hand materials of every kind ship
can need, from fOodStuffS to engine
partS-if in q word, the United
States will do what it never has yet
done, exactly what individuals and
corporations will do if we don't, eS-
tablish business management of the
canal zone, then we can get that
$375,OOO, 900 back.
eff such plant is equipped, we can
offer irresistible advantages to the
shippers of the world. Sure of con-
slant, one-price coal supply, ship
owners could cut their bunker capac-
ity in two, with consequent in
crease in cargO-carrying capacity.
Oil burning ships could similarly in
crease their cargo-carrying capacity.
The space devoted to the ships laun-
dry could be cleared for freight. Only
one-half the present food supply need
be carried. Shippers would know
that repairs, however difficult, could
be made in many instances while the
ship was in transit through the canal.
All this have urged dOne-not by a
private corporation with the usual
preferential rate system-but by the
United States. Supposing it is new
role for Uncle Sam. 1t is feasible, it
is beyond doubt profitable, and it is
in keeping with the spirit in which
the canal is being dug"
1t certainly is in keeping with that
spirit, because the canal is dug in Or
der that our government may rent its
use to the shippers of the world, and
that is nothing but business. 1t is
not in any sense government business.
1t is Of the class known as public ser
vice business, like railrOading, tele-
graphy, public lighting, etc. 1t is a
business undertaken to supply bust
ness need, just as much so as any of
the auxiliary enterprises which Col.
Goethel suggests, and the government
can as properly take hold of one as
the other.
THE death of Timothy o. Ryan
lanNnS tho dnnnncratS Of wisconsin