Page:The National Geographic Magazine Vol 16 1905.djvu/514

agement of the great enterprise which should cut the western continent in two he laid great stress on the fact that problems that seemed insolvable at the time would become simplified by the growth of engineering knowledge developed in the course of the construction work. No engineering scheme has ever been so exhaustively studied as that for building the canal. Immense sums of money have been spent to study the don'ts of the problem and still larger amounts have gone to eliminate the misfits of the personnel who should control its destiny. No value can be set on this accumulation of knowledge which the Commission can use as a powerful weapon in weaving together the new plans which are to bring our work to a successful issue.

But aside from these "consequential damages," as they might be called, and which would have cut a large figure in the beginning of operations in any new field, the visible assets turned over to the United States are well worth the price paid for them. The popular mind is rather apt to estimate the property delivered to us by the French company as consisting of but little more than the partially dug canal and the Panama Railroad, but a study of the schedule of equipment will show scores of machine shops, some 2,500 houses built of wood, stone, and metal, for all conceivable purposes, and which will accommodate from 15,000 to 20,000 people; hospitals, extensive in numbers and in size, which represent an investment of a vast sum of money. These buildings not only account for a good slice of the purchase price, but as they would all have to be built before work can be systematically carried on, the government is saved the expense of these preliminaries. The labor question, always a serious one, here becomes vital. The loss by sickness alone, before the people who are required to work on the canal could be comfortably housed, would greatly augment the total cost of construction. This expense account would be a large factor in any original operations, say at Nicaragua.

One of the greatest benefits that has accrued to us and on which no money value can be placed is our power to absolutely control the 10-mile strip bounding the limits of the canal zone. No one who has not had to deal with the delicate questions which constantly arise on the Isthmus with reference to our government's guarantee to keep open the transit and to safeguard the sovereignty of the country through which it passes can realize the difficulties and expense which this sacred obligation has entailed.

The first definite engineering plans for the construction of the Panama Canal have just been submitted to the Isthmian Canal Commission under date of February 14 last by the engineering committee of that body, consisting of Commissioners Burr, Parsons, and Davis. The principal recommendations are summed up in this resolution:

"Resolved, That this committee approve and recommend, for adoption by the Commission, a plan for a sea-level canal, with a bottom width of 150 feet and a minimum depth of water of 35 feet, and with twin tidal locks at Miraflores, whose usable dimensions shall be 1,000 feet long and too feet wide, at a total estimated cost of $230,500,000. Such estimate includes an allowance for administration, engineering, sanitation, and contingencies amounting to $38,450,000, but without allowance for interest during construction, expense of zone government and collateral costs, and water supply, sewers, or paving of Panama or Colon, which last items are to be repaid by the inhabitants of those cities."

The committee estimates that a sea-level canal can be completed within from ten to twelve years from the present time.

The committee decided that under no