The Grenada sentinel. [volume] (Grenada, Miss.) 1868-1955, 1912-08-30
The Panama Canal Troublesome

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Not the least of Uncle Samuel's lit
tie trouble-makers is the Panama Ca
nal. 1t might be imagined that the
engineering feat involved in removing
the millions of cubic yards of earth that
lie between the Atlantic and the Pa
cifc, the solution of sanitary problems,
the construction of dams, locks, etc.
would be the part of the project calling
for the greatest wisdom and NEST I'M
renting care; but these difficulties,
great as they would have appeared a
generation ago, are now seen to be
purely incidental. A little coarse work
on the part of some diplomat, who
wouldn't know a canal from an irriga-
ton ditch, might conceivably precipi-
tate that universal war for which Eu-
rope has been arming and wasting most
of its substance for 10, these many
years.
Trouble began when the first effort
was made to settle upon the proper
place for a canal. There were a great
many men of more or less wisdom who
were firmly of the conviction that it
would be as sensible to think of build
ing a bridge from Greenland to Iceland
as to plan q canal across the Isthmus
of Panama. They pointed out that, in
the first place, the great de Lesseps,
who had Joined the Mediterranean and
the Indian Ocean and ought to know
something about bitches, had made a
highly sensational failure of the pro-
ject; that after spending some hun
dreds of millions of francs-and francs
come hard in France-he had nothing
to show for the outlay but a lot of rusty
machinery, several well-flled cemete-
ries, and a reputation that needed to be
quarantined. And they added that
even if a canal should be started along
the hig road between Colon and Pana-
ma, an earthquake would certainly in
sist upon standing it on end, or bending
it double, OF twisting il into some wierd.
fantastic shape which, while highly in
teresting, would render it unfit for any,
thing but a souvenir.
The Panama boomers, however, were
confident that Balboa knew what he
was doing when he crossed the isthmu US
at the point he selected. Congress
agreed to this proposition by a fair ma
jority, and thus ended the first chapter.
About ten years ago, when this Gov
eminent agreed to pay $40, 900, 900 to
the holders of the bonds of the old
French company, the Panama Canal be.
, gan to look like a going concern, ant
about the same time the Republic Of
Panama evolved itself out of a typica
| Central American revolution, was
e promptly recognized by the United
! States, and the work was ready to b,
commenced. Naturally, in a country
like this, neither the purchase of the
8 French concession and machinery TO
forty millions nor the happily time'
revolution in Panama was permitted t.
pass unnoted, and the suggestion wa
offered, in the first instance, that som
American lawyers got more of tina
forty millions than they should hav
had, while it was suggested, further
that timely revolutions do not trans
pire without assistance.
These preliminaries having been dis
Z, posed of, digging soon commenced il
earnest. Yellow fever and other troI
q :ool o;I,oo~<, x.,a~a oJ,,,caI h,y tho ~oc
ical department to keep off the Can;
'e zone, and according to Government re
lie ports disease is as scarce there nov q
d snakes in Ireland, and the death rate
d so low among the white inhabitants 9
y the tract that health resorts in the I'm
ted States long ago gave up trying
compete for first honors.
This entente cordiale continued, wit
lie only a few interruptions, down to tt
H. time of the discussion as to whether tt
canal should be fortified or not. Or
party insisted that it would be a fl
grant affront to other powers to post
cS soldier with a gun at each end of Il
es canal, while the more militant deman
EN- ed that a couple of Gibralters be cree
&c ed at each end and a few little fc
tresses bedeck the elevations along t
&c route of the canal.
Now comes Great Britain and poin
at the Hav-Psuncefote treaty provi
ing that all vessels shall be treat
g. alike in the matter of tolls. This a
as ton is particularly thoughtless at tt
mt time because, after a lot of orator
IN Congress has just decided that it W
permit American vessels to use the c
nal without the payment of toll
Great Britain holds that the trea
of means what it says, while in the OPT
ion of a large number of Americ
Congressman, if not a majority
them, the treaty mean only that W
an sells other than those of this count
shall be treated alike in the matter