The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1914-04-16
ADVANTAGES OF
PANAMA CANAL
What its Opening Means to the Worlds
Shipping Interests is Shown in This
Interesting Chautauqua Paper. Frisco
Exposition Fitting Celebration.
THE FORTIFICATIONS'
By "Otto Mobile

On February ~. 1918, The Pan
anna Pacific International Exposition
will open it's gates to the world in
celebration Of the completion of the
Panama Canal. Fifty millions of
dollars will be spent in thus celebra-
ting the great triumph of American
genius at Panama." and it will offer
to all nations spectacle far sur
passing in spendor, in magnitude,
in artistic decorations and in natural
beauty, anything of its kind ever
before perpetrated.
The site selected includes the
western half of Golden Gate Park,
in San Francisco, Lincoln Park, and
Harbor View.
In front of the main building, at
the tower gates, will be an Allegory
of the Panama Canal called Energy;
the Lord of the Isthmian Way. 1t
will be represented by an enormous
horse standing on heavy pedestal,
the horse carrying a man with ex-
tended arms pushing the waters
apart. In the court of the Sun and
Stars, two great sculptural fountains,
typical of the rising and setting of
the sun will carry out the idea of
the world united, and the land di-
vided. The whole of the sculptural
scheme will tell of the uniting of the
nations east and west through the
construction of the canal. There
Will be a working model of the
Panama Canal capable of handling
two thousand people every twenty
minutes. In fact, everything will
be so greatly stupendous and mag
nificent, that the world will be
amazed.
Fitting Celebration
1t is fitting that we should thus
celebrate the completion of the
Canal, for it is not only the greatest
engineering feat ever achieved, but
Is one Of the greatest that ever will
be achieved: coupled with the fact
that it was not built by a company
for financial gain, but is the culml-
nation of the power and energy of
the United States of America, and
the chief engineer being an officer
of the United States Army. should
make each and every one of us hold
up our head and feel proud that we
belong to this nation that does
things.
The Panama Canal connects the
Atlantic and Pacific oceans not
from the east and west as is gener-
ally thought by the layman, but from
the northwest to the southeast,
which is hardly conceivable until
one loopks at the map and notices
the peculiar goose-neck formation of
the Isthmus
The problem of international
commerce first became acute in 1852
when the land routes to the Indies
became closed to western Europe.
At the beginning of the nineteenth
century and the introduction of
steam navigation, the demand for
canal became more insistent. On
the first day of January 1880, the
French began the work and between
then ard 1904, three hundred mill
ion dollars were expended. 1t was
sporting proposition for them but
financed by the poorer and middle
class in France. They brought with
them their wine, women and song,
also their race-horses and gam bling
saloons where much Of their time
was spent. They were unable to
cope with natural conditions, one
reason being that medical science
had not pushed it's way to the fore
as today; another reason being the
incompentancy of engineers in COM
parison with today, but, and this is
our own idea, they lacked the stam-
Ina, the power, the energy, and the
stick-to-it-iveness. of the Americans
United States Takes Hold
In 1904 the United States of
America took hold, and now, with
the expediture of but three hundred
and seventy-fve million dollars, the
project stands completed,
The Canal is fifty miles long.
Fifteen miles of it lies level with
the oceans and the rest is higher.
Ships are lifted up, three gigantic
steps, and sail thirty miles eighty
FIVE feet above the surface of the
oceans. The channel is three hun
dred feet wide at its narrowest
place.
Tho Canal hrinrs Porn and Chile