The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1914-08-20
THE PANAMA CANAL.

The Panama Canal was officially opened
last Saturday, the 18th, when large ves-
sci of the War Department, the Ancon,
went through from ocean to ocean. AL
though the canal is now open, and vessels
can operate through it, the Government
will continue to ''improve, to deepen it for
larger vessels, and make it wider, especial
ly at the Culebra cut, which has been the
most difficult portion Of the canal from the
very beginning"
Standing "silentu upon peak in Darien,"
as he first gazed upon the Pacific, Balboa
must have thought about cutting the mar
row strip that divided the mightiest oceans.
Certainly within a few years after the dis
covery of the Isthmus, the Spanish ex-
plorers considered the digging of canal,
and in 1921 the King ordered survey
made, but the undertaking was too difficult
for Spain. For four hundred years it has
been the dream of the centuries. The
French. flushed with the success of Suez,
blazed the way, but De Lesseps failed mis-
erably. 1t remained for Americans to make
the dream reality, and last Saturday,
which marked the real completion of the
canal was an historic day.
1t was not until May, 1904, that the United
States Government took possession of the
canal. Diplomacy had cleared the way by
the substitution of the Hay -Pauncefote
treaty for the Clayton Bulwer pact, and
when Colombia refused the concession,
revolution created the Republic of Panama,
which for SIC, 900, 900 sold the United States
strip ten miles wide across the Isthmus,
which was added to our own territory as
the Canal Zone. The Isthmus was 'sdeath
hole" 1t was a saying that the laying Of
the Panama Railroad "cost life for every
ross-tie." Graves by the thousand mark
ed the failure of the French, whose work.
men succumbed almost as fast as they were
imported. Yellow fever. "Chagres fever"
malaria and other tropical diseases pre-
vailed. The first task waste make the
Isthmus habitable, and this was intrusted
to Col. William G. Gorgas. The jungle was
cleared, fever bearing mosquitoes and in
sects banished and in few years this
pest-hole was transformed into the health
lest region in the tropics, and Panama was
prepared for construction to begin.
The long dispute over whether sea-
level or lock canal should be built was
not settled until the United States Senate
on June 81, 1905, adopted the lock plan.
At the very start. Chief Engineer John F.
Wallace met with difficulties he found it
impossible for him to surmount The canal
was in charge of a cumbrous commission,
which failed to work smoothly. Wallace
resigned, and another noted engineer, John
F. Stevens took up the task Commission
ers and Government officials disagreed as
to whether the work should be done by the
Government direct or by private contrac-
tors. After bids had been received, the
private contract scheme was abandoned,
and active construction begun by the COM
mission and engineers. But there was lost
motion, there were disputes and compiled
tons. The difficulty was settled at last by
placing the entire work in charge of U nited
States Army engineers, putting the au
thority in the hands of one man. When
hewas selected for this great responsibility
Col. George W. Goethals was almost I'M
known outside of the army. But he proved
the one man in a thousand for the place
Order and energy were quickly brough,
out of chaotic conditions, and since he or
ganized his force the work has never halted
for day. With skill and experience he
combined executive ability of high order
inspiring in the 10000 men ION the job
the esprit de corps of a conquering army
They were engaged in a mighty conquest
they knew that in cutting into the hills OF
Culebra and digging in the Colon flats they
were engaged in the mightiest engineering
feat ever undertaken, that they were carv.
: ing path for the commerce of the world
writing big page in history
For long periods the force moved every
two months enough earth to make pyra
- n CO.