The review. [volume] (High Point, N.C.) 1908-19??, 1913-08-21

Colon, G. 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 H. of Spain (1556-1598) the
Inquisition declared that any such pro-
ject to alter the face of the earth was
impious, and the Spanish ruler forbade
it's further discussion. The ban of the
church was effective for some time,
but in 1899 a Scotchman of the name
of Patterson revived the scheme, es-
tabdished colony on the shores of
the isthmus and even made crude
survey of the proposed route. Gale
taonian bay, ON the north shore of Pan
anna, alone preserves the memory OF
that attempt. French scientists in
1875 advocated Nicaragua canal, fifty
wears later the Spanish government or
dered a survey of the Darien route,
and early in the nineteeth century Won
Humboldt declared canal was pTac-
ticable. In 1926, 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 Understanding 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 a 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 favorlte
the Bogota government became 1mpa'
tient and gave the concession for
Panama canal to Lucien Napoleon
Bonaparte Wyse, a French lieutenant.
He made some maps and organized
company which sold out to the imam
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 It
He came back to Paris literally carried
on the shoulders of his nation. The
government made him 'comte' ano
the people called him lie grand Fran
cais.' But he fell among thieves. Inc
old man tumbled blindly into the trap
of spectators, who foresaw rich mar
vest in the drawing together of his
great name and the shady concession
of Lieutenant Wyse. They set the
stage by summoning the scleptlsts OF
. the world to a great congress to DIS
cuss an Atlantic-Pacific canal. Al
though it was called scientific con
eress. most of it's 1876 members were
speeulators and politicians. Only forty
two were engineers or geographers
They elected Count de Lesseps, rail
roaded through 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
congress 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, bll1
there is no evidence that de Lesseps
realized that it was.
"The company was launched witt
many banquets, ford speeches Dy II
grand Francois, and champagne with
out end. And all the time those who
we're on the inside were playing the
market from both ends, sending the
stocks tumbling down the steps of the
bourse on a manufactured report ina
the United States was again waving
the Monroe Doctrine, shooting then
I'D again with misquotation from thu
| presidents message to the effect tina
| we were enthusiastic in favor OF tn
French enterprise. A sorrier exhib1
| ton of conscienceless finance has sci
| dom been seem"
Old de Lesseps. however, was il
| earnest. He sent over engineers Wh'
| discovered that Wyse's maps were in
| accurate and that yellow fever wal
| deadly. Then in December, 1879, tn
| count himself, with his wife and three
children, arrived from France. Ate
receptions and speech-making in Colo1
he crossed to Panama, and there, OF
January 1, 1880, the formal opening o