THE PANAMA CANAL

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 250, 28 February 1911, Page 5

THE PANAMA CANAL

TO BE FORTIFIED. By Cable—Press Association—Copyright. New York, February 26. The House of Representatives voted by an overwhelming majority in favor of fortifying the Panama Canal, and passed the preliminary appropriations of three million dollars for fortifications. An amendment proposed to ask the President to secure the neutrality of the canal by treaty with the world's leading maritime Powers, but was defeated. The Republican and Democratic parties were sharply divided, and there was much cross-voting. Speakers asserted that it was the imperative duty of the United States to fortify the canal.

The Senate is certain to adopt the proposal. It was pointed out recently that the early completion of the Panama Canal will be noteworthy in a two-fold sense. It will be finished two years in advance of the time originally fixed, and the cost will be £10,000,000 less than the estimate. The cost of the canal was estimated at £20,000,000. De Lesseps calculated that the great waterway would involve an outlay of £24,000,000. That was over a quarter of century ago. Eight years later the company was in liquidation, with debts amounting to £70,000,000. The stock included 120 locomotives, a fleet of tug-boats, steam pumps, dredges, cranes, waggons, and other material worth, in all, £0,000,000. All those were left to rust and decay, the engines in their sheds, the boats at the canal mouth, and the other stock scattered along the line. About a fifth of the work had been done at a cost of one dollar for every cubic yard of excavated earth. Altogether it was about the most superb muddle of modern times until the American Government took it up.