Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1916-01-31
THE SUEZ CANAL
By Frederic J. Haskin
Continued from Editorial Page.1

forgot the project in the excitement
of his wars.
Despite the fact that the ancients
We're known to have built canals across
the isthmus,a and that it was quite pass
aple In other ways, the English long
routed all their ships to India around
the Cape. Lieutenant Waghorn of the
British Army, to whom a monument
has subsequently been erected, was
the first Englishman to perceive the
somewhat obvious fact that much dis
tance could be saved by cutting the
isthmus Yet it took him years to con-
vince the British government of this
fact. At last they allowed him to
demonstrate that he could take letters
to India many weeks quicker by car
rying them across the isthmus, and
after that the isthmian route was used
for the mails.
AS for a canal, the British regarded
it as wild and radical dream. There
was f'renchman named Ferdinand
de Lesseps who was constantly coming
forward with a project to dig a ditch
across the isthmus, but he got abso-
lutely no sympathy in England. Some
OF the Brltishers thought he was in
sane and others believed it was only
plan for French interference in the
Orient. Nevertheless, de Lesseps final
ly got concession to dig his canal
and went to work in 1858, although
British diplomacy prevented the con-
firmation of the concession until 1866.
The shifting sands of the Isthmus
of Suez have probably covered more
dead men than any other ground in
the world that is not a battle field
The slim, brown fellahs. the Egyptian
serfs that built the pyramids, dug
canals across the isthmus for the Per-
slams and the Moors, and doubtless
many of them laid down their bones
on the desert. These same men, un-
changed by the centuries, \dug the
canal for the French company organ
lied by de Lesseps. They were con-
tract laborers supplied by Mohammed
said, Vtceroy of Egypt. Under his di-
rectlon they were dragged to the pro-
Ject in chains and ropes and worked
under the lash until they died. The
Sultan finally put an end to the
slaughter. Then modern machinery
was brought in, and the work really
went forward for the first time. The
abolition of contract labor probably
saved the canal as we'll as the fellahs.
The canal was owned largely in
France, as very few people in other
countries would buy the stock of the
company. The only other large block
was that owned by the khedive of
Egypt. In 1877 Benjamin Disraeli,
England's great Hebrew statesman,
bought the khedive's shares for $780,
100000. thereby giving England
controlling interest in the canal an
immense profit from it's operation and
short cut to India. Despite all these
obvious advantages, British conserva-
tism raised howl of protest which
gradually died away as the Importance
of the acquisition began to be real
lied.
The Suez Canal is about a hundred
miles long. 1t is cut through the des-
ert so straight that in many places it
reaches to the horizon in either drec-
tion without bend or turn. Com
pared to our Panama Canal, with its
giant locks and cuts, this one seems a
simple thing, but it presents difficult
ties of its own. The shining yellow
sands of the desert lie in unbroken
miles on either side and restless winds
are constantly pouring sand into the
canal. Gangs of laborers-Egyptian
and Arabs under Scotch engineers
are always at work dredging and re-
pairing. Through the great part of its
length the ships move at quarter speed
so as not to wash away the banks
Daily vigilance and toll are the price
OF channel across the isthmus.
Eighth ward, but these properties
have been acquired by the State for
the Capitol Park zone extension \