PANAMA CANAL

Evening Post, Volume LXXI, Issue 143, 18 June 1906, Page 5

PANAMA CANAL

LOCK SYSTEM ADOPTED. [I'HESS ASSOCtAHON.J (Received June 18, 8.44 a. m,) •NEW YORK, 17th June. Reuter's Washington correspondent reports that the United States House of Representatives by 110 votes to 36 adopted the lock type for the canal across the Isthmus of Panama. Tho question whether the canal should bo constructed on tho lock system or whether it should be a sea-level canal has given rise to divergent opinions. The international board of consulting engineers, which was working in connection with the Panama Canal Commission appointed by the Government of tho United States, reported some time ago by a majority in favour of the construction of a sea-level canal, but the canaJ commission itself recommended the lock system, on the grounds of cheapness and rapidity of construction. A committee of the United States Sonate endoi'sed the opinion of tho board of consulting engineers, and recommended that a sea-level canal should be constructed. Authoritative facts and figures with regard to the rival types of canal have been made public by President Roosevelt in a letter to Congress, accompanying a report from thel)oard of consulting engineers, states a San Francisco writer. The President favours , the construction of a lock canal in preference to a sea-level canal. The estimated cost of each typo is : — Sea-level canal, £49.404,000 ; SS^foot level canal, with locks, £27,941,000, a difference iD favdur of tho lock canal of nearly £22,000,-000. Furthermore, the sea-level would occupy in the building a time variously estimated from twelvo to twenty years, while a lock" canal could be completed in eight and a-half years, according to competent engineeringauthority. "Each typo has certain advantages and certain disadvantages," says President Roosevelt, "but, in my. judgment, the disadvantages are fewer" and the advantages very much greater in tho caso of a lock canal. I call special attention to ihe fact that the chief engineer, who will bo mainly responsible for the success of this mighty engineering feat, and who has therefore a peculiar personal interest in judging aright, i 3 emphatically and earnestly in favour of the lock canal project; and against the fiea-levol project." Tho only advantages of a sea-level canal arc said to be that it would bo slightly less exposed to damage in the ovent of war, that running expenses would bo less, and that for small ships the time for transit would probably bo less. On tho, other hand, it is claimed for the 85-fcot level lock canal, in addition to quickness and comparative cheapness of construction, that there would bo much less risk connected with building it, quicker transit for largo ohips, lower cost of maintenance/ when interest upon tho amount saved in building is taken into account, that it would bo easier to enlarge after construction than a soa»lovel canal, and that it wottld ba safer and moro feasible.