Arizona republican., 1914-02-08
BILL
 ID BEAT WILSON
Will Steal March In Canal Celebrations by Opening Enlarged Waterway Be tween Baltic and North Sea.
ASSOCIATED PRESS DISPATCH

on President Wilson in canal cele- brations by opening the enlarged waterway connecting the Baltic and Til. The work of improvement, which has cost more than the build ing of the original canal in 1887, will enable the passage of the big gest battleships. The emperor will probably accomplish for the first time by personally commanding the main German battle fleet through the inland waterway.
 Such world wide attention has been directed to the American en- terprise in connecting the two oceans that it is scarcely realized that the German engineers have been build ing locks even bigger than those at Panama. The emperor, who is fond of making comparisons between his canal and the American enterprise is never weary of pointing out that American battleships now under construction can barely squeeze through the Gatun locks and that the 45,OOO superdreadnaugh which is already in sight will have to fol- low the path of the Oregon around Cape Horn to get from the Atlantic to the Pacific coast. The German canal will have locks S2 feet longer. 3712 feet broader and of four feet greater draught than those of Pan anna and will accommodate a 6O.OO0 ten battleship, should naval design CTS go as high as that in the future. There is room and 200 feet to spare in them for the newest and biggest ocean liners of the Imperator and Aquitania class. so that ample pro- vision has been made for possible developments of commercial naviga- tiCn as well.
 The existing canal was opened in 1895, the cruiser Brooklyn. command ed by Captain Bob Evans. repre- senting the United States in the in ternational naval pageant on that occasion. It runs from Kiel on the Baltic to Brunsbuttel on the Elbe estuary, a short distance from the sea, and cuts off the long and haz- ardous passage through the Cattegat and around the northern end of Denmark. It jumped into importance and was used by about 10000 vessels during it's first year. The traffic steadily grew, the canal being tray ersed in 1912 by 51366 ships of 9,924,237 total net tons, a traffic larger than that of the Suez canal To the German navy it was of in estimable advantage. enabling a commander to throw the entire fleet from one sea to the other in a few hours and to menace. for example an opposing British fleet from points several hundred miles apart With the advent of dreadnaughts, how ever, this advantage was lost, as the old locks, 800 feet long, S3 feet wide and 30 feet deep, were too small to accommodate the naval monsters and it was determined to provide larger locks and double the width of the canal.
 The new locks, which lack the imposing height of those at Panama. but are bigger in every other respect. are 1,0S2 feet long Panama 1000 feeD, 147R feet wide Panama 110 feeD. and have a mean depth of 45 feet of water (41 feet) over the sills The new canal is 400 feet wide at the surface, 15O feet wide at the bot tom of the excavation and has been provided with eleven "sidings' at which vessels may pass. New har- bors have been built at each end, several sharp curves have been elim- mated, two new railroad bridges 150 feet above the canal have been pro- vided and other details have brought the cost of the improvement up to
 $55, ,600,000, whereas the original canal cost was only $39,21S,OO0. The
 enlargement involved the excavation of 140.0O0,000 cubic yards of earth the original canal, 112,0OO, 900 cubic yards. The work, which has occu-
 ried five years, has been carried on without interrupting traffic in the canal, the new locks, one at each
 end of the canal, having been built beside the old ones.
 To protect the locks of the Pan-
 anna canal from bombardment and destruction by a hostile fleet they were placed several miles inland from the ends of the canals. In the Kaiser Wilhelm canal the same re- suit has been obtained by having | the canal terminate at one end in Kiel F'iord, a long, narrow arm of the Baltic, and at the other in the Elbe river, some fifteen miles from | it's mouth Both river and ford are | heavily fortified
 About 5000 workmen of various nationalities have been employed on | the work. They have been housed in government barracks and have been fed and lodged at a cost tc
 them of from 20 to 9 cents per day 1 Remarkable for such a police-ruler1 | state as Germany is the fact that l the maintenance of order has been | left entirely in the hands of the Workmen, who have their own bar
 racks and room "chieftains' and
 keep disorderly comrades under | sharp control. Over jealous gen.
 darmes, who felt that a laborini l community without a policeman ir
 immediate control was an immpos-
 sibility and started rounds of in
 spection in the barracks, were
 warned off by the president of the | canal commission.
 The new canal is about 60 miles
 long Passenger steamers are al-
 lowed to proceed at 121a miles ar
 hour through the canal, freights art | held to slower pace, so that tn, l La aSSa pe of thn nnnn1 4nI-o. f,o.... e;...