PANAMA CANAL

Evening Post, Volume LXXXVII, Issue 148, 24 June 1914, Page 8

PANAMA CANAL

SENSATIONAL FRAUD CHARGES DEFECTIVE STEEL DATE OF OPENING. (FROM OUH OWN COII&ESPONDENT.) SAN FRANCISCO, 26th May. Hitherto there has been no question raised as to the competency of the workmanship in connection with tho building of the Panama Canal, or as to the quality of the materials used, but a sensational disclosure has just been made in Pittsburg, the great steel manufacturing centre of Pennsylvania, regarding (.ho steel furnished for the immense locks. Five officials of the Carbon Steel Company have been indicted by a Fedoral grand jury on a charge of conspiring to defraud ■ the Government. Much exaggeration was contained in the original press accounts of the affair, and it was stated, amongst other things, that it had been discovered the eteel in the locks was of such inferior quality that they were liable to collapse at any time, causing heavy loes of property and with groat risk to life. Major Boggs, who is in charge of the canal offices in Washington, states, however, that the attempts to deliver defective steel had been discovered by the Government inspectors before the material was worked into the locks. These locks, he insists, are as strong as engineering skill can make them, and there is not the slightest danger to life or property in their use. Though the attempt to over-reach the Government failed, it was devised in dastardly indifference for consequences, if the information presented to the Pittsburg grand jury is dependable. It is alleged that through the machinations of the superintendent and metallurgist of the corporation, the ends of the large beams and plates Were tempered highly, and that when the Government inspector would chip off an end to analyse the steel he would get a sample that was of the best quality, but that, nevertheless, the balance of the beams and plates wero inferior. EXEMPTION OF AMERICAN SHIPPING. , Practically every member • of the Senate is making a set, formal speech on the Bill to repeal tho i exemption of American coastwise vessels' from tho payment of canal tolls. About" three addresses a day has been the average, and this- week night sessions are to be inaugurated in the hope of bringing the debate- to an early close. Generally speaking, the opirosition to the measure comes from the Republicans, though with conspicuous exceptions, and there are not wanting indications that the party purposes making campaign capital against President Wilson out of his insistence on the repeal of "the exemption law. Ex-President Roosevelt, who has just returned to the country after fivo months spent in South America, has been quoted as opposed to the Repeal Bill. Arbitration of the dispute was urged in an interesting speech by Senator M'Lean, of Connecticut. "I do not want this great triumph to degenerate into- a trial with Uncle Sam in the dock and his own mother the complainant and chief witness against him," he said. "However unjust and harsh she may have been in the past and still may be, she will have the sympathy of every nation* in the controversy. If wo sit in judgment on our_ own case, the verdict of the world will be : 'I told you so; Uncle Sam plays with loaded dice only.' " •It is firmly believed in 'Washington that early next month President .Wilsonwill have signed the law repealing exemption for American shipping. NOW IN USE. The Panama Canal is open for traffic and is now in use. True, there was iio ceremonial of any kind to mark the event, and tho merchandise going through the waterway is being carried on barges and not in ocean-going steamers. But oven this limited use of tho passage-way from, the Pacific to the Atlantic foreshadows impressively the throwing open of the canal to ships of all sizes. It is also important 'in itself in that it demonstrates unquestionably the success of the canal from an engineering point of v view. The nowspaper despatch from Panama telling of tho first commercial use of tho water-way stated : "Barge servico through the Panama Canal was inaugurated to-day with the passage of a tug with five loaded barges in tow through the Miraflores and Pedro Miguel locks." This event occurred on ISth May, and tbo baTge i&eryice Av'ill probably be maintained until the slides have been dredged out sufficiently to permit of email vcesels passing through. Then, in a matter of A few weeks, the great ships of commerce and vessels of war will bo given passage. Colonel Goethals is ca/utious and reticent ac to announcing a date when tbo canal will bo actually thrown open to ocean-igoing craft, but the general expectation in tho United States is (.bat it probably will be some time in August. j The barge service just inaugurated is designed t<> meet a*t emergency. The trouble "with Mexico eliminated the Tehuantepec Railroad as a._ carrier of American merchandise consigned from coast to coast. A great accumulation of goods that normally Avould have used this route made it urgent that some special means of handling it should bo dovieed to -avoid shipping it round tho Horn. Colonel GocthaJs came to tho rescue with the offer to bargo tho merchandise through the canal. The formal celebration of the opening of tho canal, devised as a. 'preliminary event to tho Panama-Pacific Exposition in San. Francisco next year, its to be held in January. The Government plans that this shall be * RpoctacuUur affair. The nations of the world have been invited to send thoir warehipb, tind foreign representatives will be lavishly entertained. The Exposition officials are somewhat disappointed, because this formal celebration is to take place- 6onvo six weeks in advance of tho opening of the big show vi Sun 'Francisco. In connection with that opening there ie to be an assemblage of war vessels of all nations in the Bay of San Francisco, and it ia questioned whether foreign nations will care co have their battleships in American waters for a sufficient length of time to take pnvt in both functions. Tho naval pageant m Sao. I'Vanci&co Bay will take place on 20th February. An effort is being made to induce the Government to fix the formal celebration of the opening of the canal -within not more than two weeks _ prior to that date, instead of early in January.