THE PANAMA CANAL

Marlborough Express, Volume L, Issue 86, 11 April 1916, Page 6

THE PANAMA CANAL

IS IT A EATCUTOE?

Lloyd's agent at: CJbTon- caWesr—"Oimtinlied',slide —-eighteen' ships iieTd up».'? And] fisain: "TMrty-fonT vessMs waiting; transit. Diiodgj'ng; entput -xceeds ihrusli,. but; whett' fewisit available unknown."' Enter- news from1 -the Panama side1 announces a landslide of 10,009;OOQ5 cuibic yards in the Oiilebra Gut, and iti eonseqriTenee "tiie canal '.vill not be open a^ain for traffic-Kefoiw-January;'*' •• January is-Ker^i and imd&tlVe? prospect more- 'iienacing than- ever, vrlth 2j)iiht?ll! suction dredge* q,uite fjftideo.nite to deal' witii:- the- ''"sliding- hiirs"

of n.hich- ovir Minister in- tlie zono si-oai's in a recent report.. Fot half a ■•mile on either side of the- eMirnso-t'.'botli, Gold' B ill' on; tlievejis-li a^d:;€uTeT>rti; Hill ori; tlie- wfWtrare; ino»-iVig;'iin.to» the great cut. < Tbld Hill'-feuimbfos; down in bulk. Oulbßra Bill' moves-townuds tlie channel iti, te> raired' massesv deupily fissitred

d'owiv to the solid rock

In me place the carraT is- choked to a- ■heiaiit of sixteen feet above the

water- ami it wjlT take until nextTuly to remove the total olbs-trrietioit. MeonwiiiTe' the dry season, which begins in December,, may helpv The banks begin' to> cafe- and the* binding grasses tret a grip on tlie treacherous sides---grasses- specially planted by the erisiineers for- this- pvirpoae. It is hoped to cut a narrow passage deep enough for- ljjjjjit dtaug;M ressels to pass. Bur all' estiirmtes of this baffling

work are- falsified front day to day, or from season to season. America's ablest experts estimated 103,000,000 cubic yards of . "dirt" where

10o,M(X0t?0 had to be removed. Moan

while the "Washington War Department is refunding canal dues to beld-

t:p .stoamcrs, and these are pursuing the Magellan route, which takes at least hirty days longer. To-day America .is mute, but »vitli ■I he problem alwnvs before her. Has an irremediable error been made in the '.''instruction, of the canal ? A Fret; :'r engineer returned an emphatic "Yes" \vlien this question was put to him.

"It is a lock canal," M. BunauVai'illa said, "one dependent on the stability of a soft clay dam, 2300 metres long. Tt was madness to adopt such a plan in a. land of earthquakes imd *urious floods. Why, the canal may disappear in a night, leaving all America cursing; the- confusion of ideas; which has done all the mischief. The coa, level scheme would have united the two,oceans in nine years

or sn, and free arm, two hundred metres broad and fifteen deep afc least, receiving all the rivers of the Isthmus, , including the unruly Chagres. No restriction or limitation, no elaborate .•u-tihcfnl works, dams or locks w}iit.h an earth tremor or an explosion rouid desti-oy. For a milliard of fnuns the United States might have had an inter-oceanic waterway, proof against :>JI attacks of nature or of ii'an.1'

And now aftcM1 all the hopes, all the years of labor, with all resources of scionc.- and machinery—steam shovels, blasters, nnd drills-^-these ill-omened vords ring true. "Why," M. Bunaii-Varilla was i asked, '-'did the [riitod States build a, j lock caiuil when all the international enginoe.rs couissrdied the sea level design ': ''

"1.1; is hard to say," 113 replied. "Tiioy were probably over-anxious to •■> clisp?>iv Uicir own " initiative," —Ex-1