The leader-enterprise. [volume] (Fitzgerald, Ga.) 1912-1915, 1913-10-03
WILLIAM R. SCOTT
CHAPTER |.

ii should have been said in 1901
that in nine years we would have
removed more than 100000, 600 !
cubic yards of earth and rock. |
100000 cubic yards of concrete.
dams and fills of more than 80 |
DO cubic yards, relocated the Pan
railroad, spent no more than
S314 100000 and put the first ship
khrqrSA from the Atlantic to the Pacif-
ae would have smiled at our
~ emerity!! Yet in 1913 we will
ia Ne precisely that.
MMIlring the first two years and
the canal, was in, its first phase.
VAS the period of pioneering, prep
"a ion and adjustment. Two chief
ineers We're tried from the ranks
civil life. accomplishing the main
M iminaries to canal construction be-
their departure.
he second phase of the canal was
m the beginning of 1907 to the
ing of 1912. During these six
rs the heart of the task was accom-
she'd. President Roosevelt had
nd the man who was to take the
kanizatiOn built up by the men from
ranks of private industry and hurl
against the natural obstacles that. Il
od in the way of success. Colonel
pthalS was to take the blueprints
q :; head full of theories and work
Ell out into the locks, dams and
Is in concrete mold today.
Tie third and last phase began in
T.. when the chief engineer set Oc-
bor 1913. as the date for the sub
Initial completion of the canal. 1t is
Stingu;shed by the gradual disper-
N of the army of workers, by the
verse process of the first two years
ld by the creation of permanent
beratiHg force With the detail finish
g work that attends every large prof.
t
The east has furnished the canal
18th it's chief engineers-Wallace from
Massachusetts,. Stevens from Maine.
oethals from New York. But every
tate in the Union has furnished the
ink and file, as we'll as every nation
the world.
Standing out distinctly from the
obstruction phase of the enterprise
the figure of Colonel GOrgas, the
thief sanitary officer, now, as in the
Iitical days of 1905, quiet. alert. con-
&dent The last days of the canal find
perfect mechanism of his creation
recording his ideas with dispatch and
y precision, receiving the plaudits OF
This and secure in the admiration or
succeeding generations.
The locks may grow too small, the
6atun dam may break. caving in of
he foundations of the colossal struc-
lures may occur and other commissions
bf nature may disable the canal, but
hothing can rob the Americans OF a
Wonderful achievement, nor will the
work have been without glory and JUS
#ication no matter what the future
holds We still could rejoice in the
sheer courage. persistence and lndom-
'itable ability that have wrought the
work in Panama.
Just as the civil war developed Grant
and the Spanish-American war Dewey
and Schley. so has the Panama canal
'developed Goethals. He justly is Gel
|ebra the periodical and daily
|pre lin books as a splendid en-
bodN of Americanism-the ideal
combination of ability and integrity.
A perspective view of the whole en-
terprise shows that Theodore Roose-
welt by his individual actions on at
least three occasions vitality affected
the canal and its successful consum-
nation. When he cut the Gordan knot
Of diplomacy and took the canal zone
he made the first long stride toward
interoceanic communication When he
threw his weight into the scale for a
lock type canal he decided the most
critical question that ever arose in the
career of the enterprise. The third
time his judgment prevented great
mistake was when the project Dell
nitely was taken from the possibility
of private construction and placed III
The hands exclusively Of government
supervision. There were lesser decl-
Sions of great moment. notably the
order for widening the locks and the
CuIebra cut, and his whole connection
with the project was such as to rank
as the most brilliant phase of his ad-
illustrations.
To July l, 1918. the canal had cost
eight months before its completion,
S298.0OOO00. This was divided as fol-
lows: Canal zone. $10,000,0O0: French
purchase, $40,000,0O0: engineering and
construction. $184.OO0.000; general ex-
penditures, $87, 100000: sanitation. $751;
100000; civil administration. $6.5OO,-
100; Notifications $3.OO0.0O0.
At the San Francisco exposition some
compensation will he found for fall
hre to see the canal by an exhibit OF
every kind Of machinery used by the
French and the Americans in the thir-
sy'hve years Of construction, or from