The ledger. [volume] (Gaffney City, S.C.) 1896-1907, December 08, 1905, Image 5
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CANAL
How Uncle Sam Is Tack
ling the World’s Most
Gigantic Engineer 3
* ing Feat.
Ten Thousand Men Digging
Through a Mountain Range
^ . on the Isthmus to Connect
Two Mighty Oceans. ,
Largest Force at
Work on the
Culebra Cut.
From the Atlantic to the Pacific the
Canal Will Be Fifty Miles Long and at
Least Forty Feet Deep—Many
Dams to Be Built and a
River’s Course May
Be Changed.
Sanitary Conditions Being Successfully Mas*
tered—Towns and Cities Properly Sewered.
Pure Water Brought From the Mouo*
tains—Employees Well Housed
and Fed—Suitable Hospitala
and Medical Attend*
ance Provided.
I
By J. A. EDGERTON
T HE United States government is
doing many big things these
days—maintaining the integrity
of China, keeping the “open
door” In the orient, protecting the
■mailer republics of the whole west
ern hemisphere and acting as a media
tor in securing peace in the far east.
But withal she is doing nothing larger
than the attempt to connect the At
lantic and Pacific oceans by a water
way through the isthmus of Panama.
This is admitted to be the most gigan
tic engineering feat ever undertaken
by man. Longer canals h.-iv'e been
made. The Suez ditch, i\»r example.
But none of them has presented the
difficulties that are encountered at
Panama. Digging through a mountain
range is a new proposition. De Les
seps was successful in making the Suez
waterway. Yet he fell down on Pana
ma. It remains for Uncle Sam to do
what France failed to do. Will he suc
ceed? Who, knowing his history and
spirit, can doubt it'( If faith, grit
and determination can overcome the
passive resistance of nature lie will
overcome. He has conquered a conti
nent, won in five wars and for the first
time in history lias made representa
tive government a shining success.
What is the mere constructing of a ca
ual fifty miles long to compare witli
these larger accomplishments? Of
course he will win. The American pea
pie are a unit on this undertaking, and
when the American people unite oppo
sition might as well get out of the 1
way. This is not boasting; it Is simply
the will and the consciousness of abili
ty to perform. The Panama canal will
be built. The nation is pledged to
reach that goal. It has set its hand to
the task, and every American should
have too much pride in his country to
see it fail.
World's Great Highway.
Almost since the discovery of the
new world men have dreamed of unit
ing the two oceans. The scheme was
definitely broached in the early part of
the sixteenth century. Now, in the be
ginning of the twentieth, the thing is
to he done. A problem large enough to
engross the attention of men for 400
years is large enough for a great nation
to undertake. A result that will bene
ficially affect the commerce of the en
tire earth Is sufficiently important that
no possible effort should be neglected
for its r accomplishment. Prophetic
minds have foreseen that some day.
and no very distant day at that, the
greatest civilization the world has
known is to fringe the shores of the
Pacific. That ocean, rather than the
Atlantic, is to be the w ; rld’s great
highway. The Panama canal will be
the gate to the Pacific, and with Its
completion it will open the door to a
new >ra.
These are the larger aspects of the
case, and a thing is never really seen
until it Is s(wn at its best. It is from
this higher viewpoint that the Ameri
can people should behold the under
taking. The vexatious details of sani
tation, engineering, shaping of rivers
and digging the waterway, must of
course be encountered. But these
should never obscure from our sight
the final goal. This is really a great
thing we have set out to do. It will
benefit all mankind. It will be a mile
post , in history. It will make for the
future. What are a few comparative
ly small obstacles that they should
stand in the way of tills larger good?
PacHIc Civilization.
It is not without interest that much
of American history for the last decade
has had to do with this future Pacific
scV V.'r.lt Whit-man, with his eoi*
mie vi. ion. w much of this ihiqg thui
is now shaping I’cihaps> .'mini Hay.
with I'l*' farsighted statesmanship, had
the same object in-view. At any rate,
it is plainly coming, and In bringing it
i bout no one step will be more impor
tant than the con traction of the Pana
ma canal.
Passing from the general to the par
ticular, the present status of the work
on the canal can he simply told. Tin re
are about 10,000 men now employed,
most of whom are engaged in the »<•
lual digging of the big ditch. The hu
gest force of the.-e is at work on what
is known as the Culebra cut. which
was started by the French under De
Lesseps. This cut is across the moun
tains, where the largest amount of ex
cavating must be done. The cana!
crosses the range at its lowest point,
hut even at this the hills are iu the
neighborhood of 300 feet above the
lead of the sea. The French cut down
about half of the way. and the Ameri
cans have taken up the work where
they left off. Now all this may look
easy on paper, but that first 150 feet
exhausted the French nation—or that
and the climate and the grafting alto
gether did it—and that was the least
difficult end of the work./ Digging out
the bottom of a mountain range is a
harder proposition than digging out
the top of it, and it is the bottom half
of the contract that we have on our
hands.
No Time Being Lost.
The sinking of that other 150 feet is
i: >t all that will have to be done, how
ever. for the ditch itself must be at
h t forty feet in depth. This is sup-
po> g of course that the canal is to
be :: ea level affair, a point that is by
no means settled. Most of the engi
neer- favor that plan, but congress
must m e the decision. It is estimat
ed that ii would take $80,000,000 more
to build a ea level canal than one with
locks at i • sixty foot level, and it is
practically < ertain that it will not go
above the s'. Iy foot level. It will also
require at lea^two years’ additional
time. The \ irk that Is now being
done is such tiiat would have to be
done whatever the level. Thus no time
tropical native to do, and that is to pro
vide for proper sewers in the towns
and cities; second, they have got pure,
fresh water from the mountains; third,
they have provided proper rales and
regulations for protecting the physical
wellbeing of employees; fourth, they
have provided suitable hospitals and
medical attendance. The result is that
the death rate is only an Infinitesimal
part of what it was under the French
regime.
Immense Progress Made.
Another great work done by the
1 An ' i lean commissions has been in
.imv after the proper housing and
f. ling of the men. This has been a
gigantic task in itself, but is now well
under way. Then there is a railroad
i to run, which belongs to Uncle Sam,
as well as a steamship line from Colon
to New York. The railway proper is
ouly about forty-five mile's long, but it
has numerous spurs and sidetracks
amounting to about 200 miles In all.
Then there has been all the French
; machinery, much of which had been al
lowed to rust and go to ruin, to reno
vate or throw into the scrap heap, as
the case seemed to warrant. In add!
tion to all of tills, there has been an
immense amount of surveying to do.
All these different departments of the
; work are organized, and immense prog-
I ross lias been made under each head.
Taken all in all, there is nothing dis
couraging in the situation up to date.
The ohly things that can defeat the
work or very materially retard it are
| red tape and grafting, and the presi
dent has ; shown a very vigorous tend-
! ency to discourage both. He seems to
think that the ouly way to dig a canal
is to dig it, and as he is the boss of
the whole job it may reasonably be ex
pected that the dirt will fly.
About Fifty Miles Long.
The canal winds somewhat and is
forty-five miles In length. With the
dredging in the sea it wilk be about
fifty miles all told. So far as the
1 plans have been perfected, it will prob
ably be 150 feet wide at the bottom
and at least forty feet deep. If built
| at the sixty foot level several locks
will be necessary. If at sea level one
; lock only will be required. This one
lock, which will be near the Pacific
entrance, will be for the purpose of
; shutting out the high tides on the Pa
eifle side, the variation there being
twenty feet as against only about four
feet on the Atlantic side. The two
untrnnces to the big ditch will be near
rbil:
-.a ••
m
" r\
l.te
ra- -
l—HOTEL FOR CANAL WORKMEN T-SJTE OF ATLANTIC ENTRANCE TO
THE CANAL. 3-BLASTINO IN THE CULEBRA CUT. 4—CULEBRA HILL
NORTHERN END OF THE CUT.
The Hand That Wards Off Coughs, Colds, Grip
And Restores Nervous, Dyspeptic Catarrh Wrecks.
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"During the recent Grip epidemic,
claiming a million victims or more, the
efficiency of Peruna in quickly relieving
this malady and its after-effects has been
the talk of the continent!'—N. Y. Journal.
N * ^
VUi
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m
ii,!
L IKE . A DEMON grip has crossed
oar conctry, leaving behind scores
of physical wrecks.
Victims of catarrh of the head, catarrh
of the throat, catarrh of the lungs,
catarrh of the stomach, catarrh of the
kidneys, catarrh of the pelvic organs,
are to be counted by hundreds of thou
sands.
Grip is epidemic catarrh, and sows the
seed of chronic catarrh within the
system.
This is so true that few grip sufferers
are able to make a complete recovery
until they have used Peruna.
Never in the history of medicine has
a remedy received such unqualified and
universal eulogies as Peruna.
If you do not derive prompt and satis
factory results from the use of Peruna,
write at once to Dr. Hartman, giving a
full statement of your case, and he will
be pleased to give you his valuable ad
vice gratis.
Cured of Obstinate La Grippe.
Henry Distin, the inventor and maker
of band instruments for the Henry
Distin Mfg. Co., at Williamsport, Pa., is
probably the most active old man in
Philadelphia to-day. He writes from
1441 S. 9th street, Philadelphia, Pa.:
“I write to inform you that I had a
bad attack of la grippe last December
which lasted more than three months,
and which left me with catarrh, and
several of my friends advised me to try
your wonderful medicine, Peruna.
“I began w 1th a bottle the first week
in March and it certainly did me a great
deal of good.
“I was so well satisfied that I
purchased another bottle, and followed
your directions which you furnish with
every bottle, and I am glad to say that
it has cured me. I shall certainly rec
ommend the Peruna to all my friends.”—
Henry Distin.
Congressman Powers of Vermont
Uses Pe-ru-na In His Family.
Hon. ii. Henry Powers, writes from
Morrisville, V t.:
“Peruna I have used in my family
with success. I can recommend it as an
excellent family remedy, and very good
for coughs, colds and catarrhal af
fections.”—H. Henry Powers.
Pe-ru-na For Catarrhal Nervousness
and Stomach Troubles.
Hon. W. J. Purman, ex-member of
Congress from Florida, writes from 1421
Q street, N. W., Washington, D. G.:
“Prom representations to me,
from my own experience, I feel justified
in recommending your Pernna to any
and all persons suffering with catarrhal
nervousness or stomach troubles.”—
W. J. Purman.
Address Dr. S. B. Hartman, President
of the Hartman Sanitarium, Columbus,
Ohio.
Don’t Forget
a
When buying anything in my line for
Is being lost, and Uncle Ram can heat
the evidence and argumentsrbf the en
gineers, after which he can render his
verdict.
Many Dams to Be Built.
The cut through the mountains is ou
ly a small part of the work. In addi
tion, many dams have to be made, and
one river that occasionally goes on a
ranipage will either have to be domes
tlcated or persuaded to go in some oth
er direction. One proposition Is to
dig a tunnel through the mountains
and make tills river rim into the other
ocean. But, then, turning an adult riv
er from one wean to another is only n
trifling proposition for your Uncle Sam
uel to tackle. As. for the dams, the
contemplated one at Bohlo Is to be
abandoned for the simple reason that
bedrock Is a couple of hundred feet
farther down than was Imagined, and
a dam that is not founded on the eter
nal rock is like the house built on the
sand. It would fall, and great would
be tlie fall of it.
One of the chief difficulties with
Which the French had to contend was
the elimate. Panama is hot, malarial,
damp, discouraging and generally a
tough proposition for civilized white
men to run up against As for the na
tives, they arc used to It. and they are
so generally no account that It does
not much matter as to them. They are
too lazy to dig a ditch even for sow-
»ge, much less a ship canal. So It Is
absolutely necessary for Anglo-Saxons
to do the work or at least to oversee It.
As before stated. It was the climate
and grafting that queered the French.
But what Is climate to a Yankee? If It
does not suit him he makes It over.
This Is what lie has been engaged In
doing at Panama. True, the sun Is as
hot as ever, but It Is not the sun that
kills. It Is the bad water, the unsani
tary conditions, the failure to take pre
cautions In safeguarding health. These
things the Americans are In a fair way
of overcoming. First, they have done
what It never seems to occur to a
the cities of Panama and Colon, the
termini of the present Panama railway..
As to the time required to complete
the undertaking, who can tell? The
engineers say eight years for the sixty
foot level and ten years for the sea
level canal. To do the thing actually
may take longer. The American peo
ple must make up their minds to see
the thing through whatever time Is
needed. The same holds true as to ex
pense. The engineers have figured on
$230,000,000 for a sea level ditch and
considerably less for a lock canal. It
may be more than that. It Is one thing
to build on paper and another to build
on earth. But the American people
have made up their minds to stay by
the task regard less of expense—provid
ed always that the money does not go
into the capacious pocket of the grafter.
At present we can reiit in the assur
ance that the canal will be construct
ed. Come what may, Yankee pluck
and grit will see the thing through.
Faith will remoye mountains, and Un
clo Sam has 'faith. Besides, ho has
dynamite, steam shovels and vim. No
dinky little mountain range 300 feet
htgli can stand before a combination
like that. \
The Order of Goata.
The Independent Order of Goats, a
New Jersey fraternal organization
which was incorporated recently at the
statehouse in Trenton, has Its office
at Montclair, says a special dispatch
to the New York Times. The order Is
formed for the relief of Its members,
to pay death benefits and to promote
fraternal Interests of Its members.
New Way to Flaht Moaqnltoea.
A Memphis (Mo.) man has discovered
a new way lo get rid of mosquitoes,
says the Kansas City Star. He says
to rub alum on your face and hands.
When the mosquito takes a btte it
puckers its buzzer so It can’t sting
It sits down In n damp place, tries to
dig the Juncker loose, catches Its death
of cold and dies of pneumonia.
Neckties, Suspenders, Mufflers, Silk Handkerchiefs, Fancy Vests, Stick Pins, Hats,
Shoes and Clothing.
The earlier you buy the better you will be pleased. Better buy now before tlie rush.
Get what you want and buy sensible gifts like I sell—Good Clothing, Shoes, Hats,
or anything in my Furnishing Department make Christmas Remembrance worth
while. Long after the llowers have faded and' the knick-knacks have been de
stroyed, the present you buy here for your loved ones will remain as a lasting me
mento of a Happy Christmas.
Fifty-eight Drummers’ Samples of Men’s Suits in all shades; no two suits alike in
whole lot; both double and single breasted styles. We Are selling them at
COST.
Also Big Lot of Ladies’ Cloaks and Jackets at the lowest prices that any were ever
sold.for in Gaffney. Be sure to seo them.
BIG LOT OF MEN’S OVERCOATS to go for less than Wholesale Cost. $4.98
and up. If you see them you will get one.
You have the money, I have the goods.
You need the goods, I need the money.
LET’S SWAP.
Nelson, The Star Clothier.
Opposite The Postoffice,
Gaffney, S. C.