Evening star., 1943-03-21
Wallace Told Road
To Canal Will Be
Ready by Spring
Vice President ToIks to
Costu Ricon Workers
In Spanish
By the Associated Press.

BY the Associated Press.
SAN JOSE. Costa Rica. March 90
-Pan-American highway engineers
told Vice President Wallace of the
United States during his inspection
today of the link under construction
in Costa Rica that passageway
from the Mexican border to the Pan
ANA Canal would be completed by
next spring.
When the sector in Southern Mex
leo is rushed to finish next year,
the much -dreamed-of route from
the United States to the canal will
have come into existence. 1t will be
surfaced mostly with crushed rock,
but paving will follow.
Mr.. Wallace flew to a banana plan
tation on the Pacific coast this
morning, where he saw demon
stration of spraying, irrigating and
cutting bananas.
After his flight back to San Jose,
he went Immediately by automobile
on a tour of the completed section
OF the highway and lunched at a
Workmens camp. Later in the after
noon he visited a coffee plantation
end dairy farm on the slopes on the
1razu volcano, returning to San Jose
IN the evening as a guest of honor
at reception in the American Lega-
ton.
Talks to Workers in Spanish.
Taking NJ L. Karshberger, the
United States Public Roads Admin
two C Sol ol1 ,of
in his car, Mr.. Wallace piled him
with questions ceaselessly and rode
to the southernmost point of the
completed highway, 81 miles from
San Jose. He talked to Costa Rican
workers in Spanish.
The American contracting firm,
under PRA supervision, now is
tackling the toughest section of the
whole projected route, which Mr..
Harshberger described as probably
the heaviest highway work ever at
tempted in the world
This is 22-mile stretch between
the point Mr.. Wallace visited today
and the Valley OF San Isidro de
General. There much of the road
way must be blasted out of solid
rock and one point will reach an
altitude of 10,930 feet, where both
the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans
can be seen.
An idea of the work still to be
undertaken is the fact that it takes
eight days at present to traverse on
horseback the $50 miles from the
present end of the highway to the
Panamanian border. This territory
now is spanned only by the toughest
trails.
Army Engineers in Charge.
Army engineers are in charge of
the highway construction in North
ern Panama. They had to build a
5O-mile access" road from the
Pacific to get materials in to the
highway route.
Links of the highway through
Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras
and Nicaragua will be mostly COM
pleted this year, some places TAX
ing advantage of already paved
highways and others surfaced with
crushed rock. ne-tenths of the
workers employed on the whole
route are natives
Mr.. Wallace, swamped by auto
graph seekers after his luncheon
at the workers camp today, smil-
ingly wrote his name dozens of
times.
During his stay in Costa Rica the
Vice President has managed to
squeeze in a daily tennis game and
once was seen strolling on San Jose
streets, much to the delight of the
natives.
In all his speeches he has stressed
the need of faith in the future of
the world and all of them so far
have been delivered in Spanish
He dined with American Minister
Robert Scotten and members of the
Legation staff tonight Tomorrow
morning will be left open to receive
any Costa Rican or American call
ers who wish to see him.
He will leave by plane at noon to-
morrow for David, Panama, where
he will stop overnight on the way to
Panama City.