The Calumet news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 1907-1938, 1913-12-31
men WHO BUILT
CANAL, LEAVING
Chief Quartermaster Is Selling Off
Excavation Equipment

boats.
The new dredges now on the way
TO Culcbra are two-thrds as powerful
again as those now at work. Through
out the length OF the canal, wherever
there has been any sitting from the
wash of the newly administered water
against the sides. suction dredgcs are
ut work regarding the bottom. The
canal folks say that there seems to
be no reason ut ali why by March next
any liner Of ordinary draft should not
steam safely from Colon to Panama.
Every lock has been tested and is
in good working order. The cmcr-
gcncy dams are i'm place, the tracks
for the towering electric locomotives,
(which Will carry the biz ships through
the lock chambers, are laid; the long
lines of concrete standards carrying
| the electric lights are erected. AS far
Us Gatun, in fact, the canal is bril-
| liantly lighted at night now ana a
picturesque sight it is.
From end TO end of the canal there
are only the finishing touches to be-
put on before the experiments which
| will usher in actual operation begin.
The chief quartermastcr is already
selling off the excavation equipment.
He disposed of 100000 worth To Il
| Chicago firm recently, and is now
looking abound for bidders for a nice
| little lot of about $3,0UO,00O worth
locomotives, dump cars, rails, switches,
| .hn,-,I,. Ia, n
substantial piece % railway. South
America seems likely to want quite a
lot Of this equipment /. will not be
dead loss to Uncle sam.
And everybody in the ranks who
has borne q part IN this the biggest
Of any of the big jobs ever UNDER
taken by the nation, is looking around
Cor a new field of activity. Some have
gone. and all the rest are scanning
the horizon for new opportunities and
preparing To move out.
Not a few will stay in the country,
but not i'm the neighborhood of the
| canal They like Panama and are
planning to 80 in for ranching-agri-
culture of various knds-anythins
that promises q. livelihood and indie
pendencc in a land they have grown
to like. There is very little doubt
that in few years Panama will have
to be reckoncd with as n factor in the
worlds cattle markets.
Men Leaving Fast.
But they are leaving the canal fast.
Last March the payroll showed slight
Ily fewer than 5000 mcn of all grades
drawing Uncle Sans money. There
are 10000 fewer this month. OF these
that remain there are 400 at work
on the big docks ana marine shops at
Balboa: },iOO more are installing and
costing the lock machinery and cleo
tric plants 1900 are at work on the
rortiiicdtions at both ends of the can
al, 1900 on the dreuges, 1000 on the
railway $500 are building Il water
plant for Panama and doing other
work in the way of improving the
municipal centers of tile zone. $500
are in the quartermaster's department,
which maintains the food supply on
The isthmus. runs the hotels and
boarding houses. polices the zone and
generally provides tho means which
Keeps the human machinery going.
Then there are the troops and also
lsome 1000 men who are clearing up
generally.
| IL is quite q Inherent canal from
that which visitors in the last three
years have seen developing. Most OF
Its wonders are under water now. The
locks are masterpieces of ingenuity
land infinite pains. The cut through
the Culcbra hills is an impressive
monument t. the vast amount OF cX-
cavation that has been done. and the
lGatun dam with it's huge spillway and
hydro electric plant will long be ono
of the engineering sights of the world
But the rest must be largely taken on
raitn. The canal workers chucklc
ovcr this.
How Canal LOOKS Now.
Three years from now" remarked
a lantern jawed foreman to party or
visitors from New York, "there1l prob
lably he one of these here Congress
committees down here and the trst
thing thatn strike EN- will be where
. the money went Wen never be able
TO make EN- realize all that was done
and before you know ii they'll be
nodin an investigation to see what
, became of those millions and whether
, all of 'cm was really spent on the
canal"
The biggest job of engineering con-
gtruction that Uncle sam ever UNDER
took now reveals itself as wide strip
of clear water extending from Limon
I Day. back of the Toro Breakwater'
Through the four miles of fiat country
between Christobal and the Gatun
/, lake. 4 channel 500 feet wide has been
: dredged from deep water through the
: Inv Ia the shore line, but that OF
course. does not show at all. All that
> can lac seen is wide stream, more
+ like the river than canal alongside
f, the railway to Gatun, seven miles
I from the entrance. This is the Atiah-
tic sea level.
Pitcher Jack Coombs has returned 10