Fergus County Democrat. [volume] (Lewistown, Mont.) 1904-1919, 1912-02-13
'SOONC0MPLETE
PANAMA CANAL
DAVID HlLGER WRITES DEMO-
GRAFT INTERESTING LETTER OF
IMMENSE UNDERTAKING.
.SHOWNMANCOURTES|ES
Party Of Which Lewistown Men Were
Members Given Every Possible Op-
portunity to Study Progress of
Operations and General Conditions
on Great CanaI-Home This Week,

Operations and General Conditions
on Great CanaI-Home This Week,
In telegram to A. b. Lehman, his
partner, David Hilger states that he.
Mrs. Hilger and ID. j. Burke will ar
rive home this week, probably tomor-
| row, IRON the south. Mrs. Hilger has
been visiting re'atives in and near
| New Orleans while Messrs, Hilger and
| Burke have been down to see how the
work is going on the Panama canal.
| The editor Of the Democrat yester-
day received the following interest
ing letter from Mr.. Hilger:
On Board S. s. Cartago, caribbean
| Sea, Feb. 3. 1912.
Hon. Tom Stout,
Lewistown, Montana
Dear Senator:
No doubt your readers would he
Interested in communication from
the writer on trip to and over the
Panama canal, and having the time,
for we have q full five days to medi-
tate on the trip or passage from Colon
to New Orleans, and as my room
mate, Mr.. ID. j. Burke, is slumberine
peacefully in his stateroOm couch, en-
tirely Indifferent and uninterested in
his surroundings-such feelings as his
being difficult to describe in the Eng
lish or any other language venture
to write this letter as we glide over
great stretches Of the deep blue wa
ters OF the Caribbean Sea on board
one OF the new staunch ships of the
United Fruit company's boats, the
Cartago.
| And while on this subject. let me
say that on this return trip we are
loaded with straight cargo of
bananas, consisting OF 10000 lunches.
weighing on an average no pounds to
the bunch, SO that we have a little
over 1000 tons of bananas aboard.
Not only this, but to keep this fruit
III proper condition, the ship is fitted
with modern refrigerator plant as
the hold must be kept cool. And Just
think, this company alone, with
fleet OF fine, fast ships, delivers four
boat loads of bananas q week for 52
weeks out OF the year at New Orleans:
in other words, 5000 tons per week.
me banana trade of the United
States is big one, but was scarce.
ly prepared for such figures.
Returning to the subject of the
canal, you must remember that we
are the guests OF the American In
stitute OF Electrical Engineers, and
this party consisted OF 1875 members.
many OF them from the fronk rank of
the profession in the United States.
and we had opportunities and ia.
cilities for seeing the canal that per-
haps no like body ever had on a visit
to the canal zone
For six consecutive days a special
passenger train IN charge of officials.
duly appointed for that purpose, took
us to every part of the works. We
went through the bottom of the
Culebra cut, which is nine miles in
length, and the highest point of ex.
cayation Of which is 517 feet perpeu-
dicular. The narroWest part of the
canal is 800 feet wide on the bottom
Of this cut
We examined the Gatun locks on
the Atlantic side, six and three-fourth
miles from Colon, and the Pedro
Miguel and Mirafiores locks on the
Pacific side Of the canal, eight miles
from the bay.
OF earth with puddle chore, 5000
|
high at it's highest point, which will
create lake Of 164 square miles, i'm.
pounding the waters of the Chagres
river. or this lake, "a miles will be
used for navigation before the Culebra
cut will be reached, and of course this
water will be used to operate the
locks.
We visited the great machine shops
and store houses, and the quarters
constructed for the officers and men.
The executive force consists of $500
men, while common labOrers number
$4,000 at the present time, mostly
Jamaican negroes. We saw the most
powerful dredges at work and hum
dreds OF rs to 1O5 ton steam shoyels
at work, and when you take into con-
sideration that about 200 train loads
of earth and rock, of 20 cars to
train, are taken out daily, you may
form some idea of the work going on.
Sea walls are being built to better
the harbor facilities at both Colon and
Panama City. Large docks are being
built at Balboa, the western exit of
the canal.
We thoroughly saw Panama City.
which, with Ancon, the American
colony, has population of 10000
souls.
We visited the ruins of old Panama
City, distant about seven miles from
the present location and which was
destroyed by Henry Morgan. the
pirate and baccaneer, in 1871.