Judsonia weekly advance., 1913-10-08

central American region can harm it. The Gatun dam, Gatun lake and the Culebra cut so gigantic are the proportions of each, dwarf the other engineering works of the canal that In themselves have challenged the admiration of the world.
 World Gives Goethas Credit.
 To Col George Goethals, chairman Of the Isthmian canal commission, chief engineer of the commission and governor Of the canal zone, the world will give the credit for the successful completion of the Panama canal. Col onel Goethals could not have accom- pllshed his task without the assist ance of such men as Col. H. F. Hodges, Lieut.. Col David Du B. Gail lard and Lieut.. Col William L. Sibert, army engineers, who have had charge Of various phases of the work, but Colonel Goethals is recognized as the real builder of the canal.
 | Under Colonel Goethals the greater part of the $375, 0,000 which the canal will have cost when it is com pleted has been spent. It has been by far the costliest engineering project 1n the world. Nearly three-fifths of a billion dollars has been spent in dig glng 40-mile ditch" This means that the Panama canal has cost the l United States $10,00O 900 a mile.
 Over $16,000,000 of the total amount spent has been used to make the canal zone habitable and sanitary It has been suggested that this Is an enor- nous amount of money to spend ill cleaning up place in which few peo- pie Wlh reside permanently, but the engineers say that the sanitation of the canal zone was the chief factor in making the canal a reality The fail ure of the French has been attributed to large extent to the fact that the workmen could not survive in the fever and pest ridden country.
 The building of the great locks which raise vessel to a height of S7 feet above sea level at one end of the canal and lower it the same dis tance at the other end, has been in charge of two of Colonel Goethals' assistants, Colonel Hodges and Lieu tCioie 1OIOISI SlD6FI. AOlOHCI I1OQRSS work in installing the immense lock gates that form so important part Of the operating machinery of the canal, and his ability to overcome all obstacles had led Colonel Goethals to call him genius. The building, pois- ing and operation of the lock gates constitute one of the delicate prob 1anG Of 1nnly cfr .1 the proper handling of this problem has been Colonel Hodges contribu- tion to the work of construction of the canal.
 Lieutenant Colonel Sibert has had charge of the building of the great dam and locks at Gatun, in addition to other duties. He saw long, ac- tive service in the Philippines, and he is known in the army as a fight CT as well as an engineer. His fight ing squalities have enabled him to carry through the great work of which he has had charge in the canal zone.
 Realize Dream of Centuries.
 Through the work of these men-all of them members of Uncle Sam's fighting body-the United States has been able to attain what has been in truth the dream of centuries In nine years these men have carried through an undertaking that was first thought of several hundreds of years ago There is evidence that the idea of an isthmian canal was born as early as the sixteenth century, for history re- cords the fact that the InQuisition declared such project to alter the face of the earth to be impious and further discussion of the matter was forbidden by Philip IT. of Spain, whose reign began in 1856. More than a cen tury later Scotchman named Patter. son revived the scheme, established colony on the shores of the isthmus, and made crude survey of the route
 The United States government first took definite action looking toward the construction of an isthmian canal In 1884, when the senate voted for the building of Nicaraguan canal An expedition was sent to Nicaragua to make an investigation, and report ed that the canal could be construct ed for $25, 100000, hardly one-twenti- eth of the amount that the Panama canal will have cost when completed.
 De Lesseps First to Dig.
 The matter rested until after the Civil war, when negotiations for a canal commission were entered into by the United States government Be- fore anything had been accomplished the concession for a Panama canal had been given to Lucien Napoleon Banaparte Wyse, a Frenchman.. He organized company, which sold out later to the financiers associated with Ferdinand de Lesseps. The company organized with de Lesseps at its head was the first one to actually begin op- erations on the isthmus. For eight years de Lesseps struggled manfuIly against the greatest odds that man ever was called upon to face.
 Such was the history of the. isth- milan canal project for some 800 or 400 years, until the day in 1904 when Uncle sam undertook the task.