The Meridian times. (Meridian, Idaho) 1909-1938, 1913-08-29

Colon, =. 1.-THE engineers dream
Of the centuries has been realized. /"
Everyone who writes of the Panama
canal feels bound to use that phrase.
and though it is trite, it is no less
true.
Possibly when Balboa first stood on
the Peak of Darien" and gazed en-
tranced at the waters of what he called
the Southern sea the thought of cut
ting through the isthmus came to him.
Certainly, within three years after his
great discovery or in 1916, he had
transported two ships, in pieces, across
from the Atlantic to the Pacific and
there put them together.
1t could not have been very much
later that the idea of an isthmian
canal was born. for during the reign
OF Philip II. of Spain (1556-1598) the
lnquisition declared that any such pro
ject to alter the face of the earth was
impious, and the Spanish ruler forbade
its further discussion. The ban of the
church was effective for some time,
but in 1893 Scotchman of the name
of Patterson revived the scheme, es-
tablished a colony on the shores ii
the isthmus and even made a crude
survey of the proposed route. Gale
DOMAIN bay, on the north shore of Pan
anna, alone preserves the memory of
that attempt French scientists in
1875 advocated Nicaragua canal, fifty
years later the Spanish government or
dered a survey of the Darien route,
and early in the nineteeth century Won
Humboldt declared a canal was prac-
ticable. In 1925, Immediately after
Latin America had freed itself from
Spain, the Central American and
United States Atlantic and Pacific Ca
nal company was organized, and one
of the directors of the concern with
the high-sounding name was Dewitt
Clinton. Various schemes were start
ed and fell through, and in 1885 the
United States senate voted for the
building of Nicaragua canal. An ex-
petition was sent to that country and
reported that the canal could be con-
structed at cost Of $25,000,000.
After the Cival war there was much
negotiating by our government for
canal concession, but when the Mica
ragua route seemed to be the favorite
the Bogota government became impa-
tient and gave the concession for
Panama canal to Lucien Napoleon
Bonaparte Wyse, French lieutenant.
He made some maps and organized a
company which sold out to the finan-
ciers with whom Ferdinand de Lesseps
had associated himself.
Albert Edwards in his admirable
book on Panama thus describes the
beginning of the tragedy of de Les
seps and his company:
"The digging of the Suez canal was
the accomplishment of his life. All
his vigor and energy had gone into 1t.
He came back to Paris literally carried
on the shoulders of his nation. The
government made him 'comte' and
the people called him lie grand Fran
Gals. But he fell among thieves. The
old man tumbled blindly into the trap
of spectators, who foresaw a rich har-
vest in the drawing together of his
great name and the shady concession
of Lieutenant Wyse. They set the
stage by summoning the scientists of
the world to a great congress to dis
cuss an Atlantic-Pacific Canal Al
though it was called scientific con-
gress, most of it's 1856 members we're
spectators and politicians. Only forty
two were engineers or geographers.
They elected Count de Lesseps, rail
roaded through a resolution that the
Panama route was the only practicable
one, and formed the Universal Inter-
oceanic Canal company by buying the
WISE concession for 100000 francs,
before the bona fide members of the
knew what had happened and
in the face of much protest. There
can be little doubt that the congress
was packed like a ward caucus, but
there is no evidence that de Lesseps
realized that it was.
THE company was launched with
many banQuets, ford speeches by lie
grand Francois, and champagne with |
out end. And all the time those who |
market from both ends, sending the |
stocks tumbling down the steps of the |
bourse on a manufactured report that |
the United States was again waving |
the Monroe Doctrine, shooting them |
up again with misquotation from the
presidents message to the effect that
we were enthusiastic in favor of the
French enterprise. A sorrier exhibit
ton of conscienceless finance has sell
dom been seen"
Old de Lesseps, however, was in
earnest. He sent over engineers who
discovered that Wyse's maps were in
accurate and that yellow fever was
deadly. Then in December, 1879, the
count himself, with his wife and three
children, arrived from France. After
receptions and speech-making in Colon
he crossed to Panama, and there, on
Toruarv 1890 tha fOrmal oDening of