The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1913-11-24
GUERRA CUT IS ONLY MENACE OF
 CANAL OPENING
Col. GOethaIs Cannot Fix Defi-
 nite Date For Its Use.

date for the official opening of the Panama, Canal is set in the annual re- port of Colonel George Goetha1s, chairman and chief engineer of the canal commission, which has just been submitted to Secretary Garrison. Neither is there any prediction of when ships may first pass from ocean to ocean. The first day of the canals actual operation still depends upon the treacherous slides of CuIebra Cut and how fast the dredges can keep the channels open.
 '1t has been the general belief that the effect of the water in the cut perience below the Gatun locks fully justihes this belief said Colonel GoethaIs. "On the other hand the geologist is of the opinion that the water may to some extent develop new slides. Again much ado was made in 1909 over the searny character of rock on the IsthmUs, through which water flows quite rapidly, in consequence of which the question was raised that the lake might leak out through seams and crevfces.
 eff these things are liable to occur, the sooner the better, if the official opening of the canal is to occur Janu- ary 1, 1915; for if water were not ad- mitted this fall but were deferred un- til May 1, 1914. the full height could not be reached until October, 1914. leaving little time for the determina- ton of these questions. These con alterations led to the conclusion that the water should be- turned into the Cut at the earliest date practicable for getting the dredges to work on the slides
 's'The present plans. therefore, are based upon the blowing up of Gam boa Dfke on October 10, it's removal by dredges immediately thereafter, the trans fer of two suction dredges and a ladder dredge to the Cucaracha slide, the smaller dipper dredges to work on the other slides until the full width of the channel Is attained, and the passage of vessels through the canal as soon as channels of full depth. and of sufficient width have been secured9
 Before boats can be passed it will dike by dredges and to remove the slides as already outlined. The pass age of commercial vessels is depend ent, therefore, upon the time when proper channels can be dredged through the slides; should additional ones occur, they will necessarily ad- vance the date when this will be ac- comp1ished."
 The Canal proper, exclusive of the approaches, the machine shops and warehouses and great ocean docks at either end, would have been com pleted during the last fiscal year, but for the extensive slides in the .Culebra Cut. And to deal with the great prob lems involved in the removal of the slides no effective way was found ex- cept the bodily displacement of vast hills. The slides and breaks increased as the cut was deepened.
 'sNo treatment has proven effective . cept that of excavating and hauling away material from the moving mass until the slide comes to rest or until the angle of repose for the particular material in motion is reached said Colonel Goethals.
 Last year 1t was predicted by geo logists that the slides had been con quered and that little more activity could be expected because all the loose surface soil and stone had al- most slid off, exposing great ridges of solid basalt rock which would act as barriers to further earth movements. Yet, when all was most promising and the canal excavation had gotten with in 50 feet of the bottom of the cut on the east side, the rocks broke under the tremendous pressure and 2,O00,- 900 cubic yards of material slid into and closed up the cut. Since then, the canal workers have been digging away that material and though there have been several slides, steady pro- gress was made, for not only did giant dredges work on the face of the slides but powerful hydraulic monitors. such as were extensively used in hydraulic mining on the Pacific Coast, were brought into play to wash away the treacherous hills from the rear, car rying the material into unused valleys distant from the canal.
 HI volved in the solution of the question of continuing the excavation of the canal by steam shovels or by hydrau- lie dredges and Colonel Goetha1E for the first time makes an official state nent of the reasons which impelIed him to choose the wet method. In brief these were based en the appre- hension that Gamboa dike would not be strong or high enough to keep the water out of the Cut as the Gatun Lake rose in the wet season. Also, team shovel operations would be re- tardeds by the seasonal rains which would not affect the operation of the dredges and finally the measure was one of economy. It would have been possible, with the shove1s, to have re- moved all of the slides by January 1, 1914, next, except the Cucaracha slide which could not have been entirely carried off before April, 1914.
 The nnanclaA OP0Td%1OLS OI the ca nal are told in big figures: The dis bursting officer has paid out $2O,524,- 7O5 on pay rolls alone. Congress so far has appropriated $S49,5o5,223 for canal construction, of which $1O,676,- $50 went for Notifications.
 In great detail Colonel GoethaIs tells the story of the engineers work dur ing the last year and with particular satisfaction it is reported that the mechanism. of the vast locks and dams was tested with perfect success. The gates at Gatun were swung in one minute and fifty seconds for each leaf The heavy iron chains which are de- pended upon to prevent an unruly ves- seI from crashing into the locks were raised and lowered in ample time to meet any emergency, and deTnonstrat- ed their ability to check or stop any vessel unless of very great size and