The citizen. (Honesdale, Pa.) 1908-1914, 1913-02-25
BY ARTHUR w. DUNN.


Slides at the Panama canal have given
officials interested in the big ditch more
concern than they have publicly ex-
pressed. In the first place these slides
were not anticipated, as so often as
serted. If they had been anticipated
or even thought possible. the work of
excavation would not have been so con-
Quoted as to allow them to overrun the
tracks of the working outfit.
The engineers went back as far as
they thought necessary in making the
slope of the excavation and farther.
One-third more than the amount of
excavating has been done than was
first estimated as necessary.
Effect of the Water.
If there is such tendency for the
earth to slide when dry, what will
happen when the water is turned in?
is question often asked. for it is pos
sible that when the loose volcanic
earth becomes saturated with water it
will slough off to a greater extent than
at present.
1t is expected by the engineers that
the canal will be kept deep enough by
dredging, and the slides can be taken
care of with the dredge boats as well
as now handled by the steam shovels
md dump cars. Altogether it seems
TO be quite a problem which Uncle
Sam has on hand, and there will be
others after the canal is completed.
Matter of Protection.
Quite the most important matter
after the canal is really in operation
will be an adequate protection. AL
ready Notifications are being construct
ed, and arrangements have been made
for the sending of several regiments
Of infantry, if they can be spared
(even if not needed in Mexico) after
Hawaii has been garrisoned. But even
with infantry and coast artillery on
the canal zone there is yet the ques-
ton of a navy squadron on either side.
The canal will be care after it is
completed.
Not a Solemn Occasion.
When he began presiding over the
joint session of senate and house to
count the electoral vote Senator Bacon
told his hearers that this was a sol
emn occasion and that no manifesto
tions of applause should be shown. or
course he could not keep the eXuberant
Democrats from applauding. They al
ways applaud when there is an oppor-
tunity
But, more than that, the occasion was
not solemn, because the members of
the house chartered, laughed and talk
ed with each other, and the senators
also did good deal of talking back
and forth. 1t was perfunctory oc-
casion, and, though necessary to COM
plete the election of the next president,
1t was not much more solemn than an
ordinary day in the house.
Against Conservation.
Senator Bankhead made a vigorous
attack upon the conservationists, es-
pecially that small band who played
tennis with Roosevelt when he was
president and who are keeping up the
fight for the Roosevelt conservation
policies. The Alabama senator insist
ed that they were retarding the prog
ress of the country and instanced the
veto of the Coosa river dam project
which they obtained.
He said that the water power in Ala
bama was still going to waste and the
company had gone to Canada to es-
tablish its plant. The project was I'M
tended to manufacture cheaply fer
tilizer much needed in the south,
which now comes from Chile, where
an export duty of $12 a ton is charged
Bankhead has been very much against
the methods of many of the conserva-,
tionists.
Practicins at the Bars.
1t is too bad that Congressman
Rucker of Colorado will be lost to the
house after March 4. He always says
something good. When the Kenyon
Webb anti-liquor bill was considered
in the house Rucker supported it.
81 was a practitioner of the bars in
the early days of my life" said Ruclz-
err. 81 had occasion to go out many
times and cuss the court deciding the
case and very many times to so out
from the other bar and cuss the pro-
prietOr for serving such bad whisky.
But | am in favor of this bill because
it makes all of us, severally and indi-
vidually, our own barkeepers, and since
am compelled to go back to one or
both of these bars, | am going to go
along the lines of least resistance and
vote for this bill"
A Man From Maine.
When the tellers announced that the
six votes of Maine had been cast for
Woodrow Wilson for president, very
few who heard the announcement
knew that those returns had been
brought to the capital by man eighty
two years old. He performed the same
mission tifty-two years ago. the last
time before 1912, that Maine cast her
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