Newspaper Page Text
Mr. Persons Pictures
Wonders of Panama
(CONTINUED FROM PAGE TEN)
They neither found anything impossi
ble about building the dam, or the dis
position of the waters of the river, for
both were absolutely- essential to the
construction of a loek canal, so they
set about building a dam which can be
roughly described as one mile long,
one mile wide at its base, 400 feet thick
at the waler line, 80 feet thick at its
and 115 feet high. This was to
a fresh water lake which was to
be navigable for 25 miles with a mean
depth of 25 feet so that the very larg
est ships could steam, for 25 miles
through a fresh water lake at full
speed, a rather novel experience for
seamen. The question as to what to do
with the overflow of the river after the
reservoir was filled, was the question to
be disposed of, so a spillway with in
tricate gates bad to be constructed so
as to allow the excess of water to flow
•out. This spillway had to be placed
where it would “stay put’’ on account
of the terrific rainfall of the rainy
seasons, so by investigation it was
found that there was a solid rock bed
across which the dam could be built
and to which the spillway could be
safely anchored, and there it is, and
upon its successful operation depends
the successful operation of the locks,
for it is from this giant artificial lake
that the -water is to be supplied for the
working of the locks, while the overflow
at the spillway generates electricity to
operate all the gates. In order to op
erate the gates at the spillway so as
to let olf not too much nor too little
water, the men in charge will be noti
fied by telephone from various points
of the interior along the watershed of
the Chagres river, as to the rainfall,
so that they will know just what to
expect in the rise of the lake. It is
calculated that an excess of 5 feet in
the lake will allow for the three dry
months and atmospheric evaporation
and absorption, so that at all times
there will be ample water with which
to operate tne locks. This wonderful
dam is so huge that it looks as if some
one had gone there and with a giant
scrape smoothed off a small mountain
range. It has no concrete in it save
at the spillway and where the approach
»o the spillway is protected by rip-raps,
ti was constructed by laying two tres
a quarter of a mile apart, and on
these tracks were laid. Trains from
the works brought rock and dumped it
off these tracks until the “toes’’ of
the dam found a permanent fastening.
Then the tracks were increased and
dirt was hauled and thrown outside the
rock, while pumps were placed so as
to fill the middle space between the
lines with an impervious mixture of
clay and sand. The structure rose after
this manner until it has become a part
of the landscape and probably more
permanent than the natural landscape
itself.
Culebra cut is the giant task of ex
cavating a mountain range—literally
breaking the backbone of the conti
nent, for this continuation of mountains
is supposed to be that of the Rockies
down on through Mexico and Central
America until they merge into the snow
capped peaks of the Andes in South
America. The engineers found the
“lowest pass’’ and it is here that Cu
lebra Cut has become famous. To walk
up to the brink of this mighty ditch
and look down upon the myriad of
workmen and machines at its bottom
is a sight not to be forgotten. It is a
mixture of men and machines; human
flesh controlling the migthy steam
shovels, giant locomotives, and pneu
matic drills. There seems to be no
sense or system to the work at first
glance. A spurt of steam shoots from
one of thirty five shovels, and the
great arm of the machines reaches out
towards the mountain side, while the
giant dipper lifting a fourth of a car
load of rock and dirt jabs at the moun
tain side with such intelligence as to
make it almost human. It never loses
in its estimate of its task, and with
/mother spurt of steam it comes up
( ith a rattle until it swings with the
■^■ase of lifting a table fork, over the
side of a flat car and there deposits
the geological formation of the ages.
Four jabs at the mountain side and
the car is loaded. A train stands at
each one, and when the cars are loaded,
a signal is given and they scurry to
the dumps far away, always running
loaded down hill. So perfect is the or
ganization that the steam shovel which _
has just finished its Herculean task as
though it were child’s play, remains
idle only three minutes before another 1
empty line of cars stands ready to be
loaded from its giant dipper. Trains
are scurrying in every direction; drills
making ready for the enormous charges
°f dynamite to be fired at noon and
five in the afternoon, are rapping away
with incessant toil; men are lost sight
of in this clash of iron against iron, and
steel against rock; yet we see that the
governing power of this wonderful sys
tem is man, and that he eleaves at the
vitals of nature with the assurance of
a god.
The locks at all three stations, Gatun,
Pedro Miguel, and Miraflores, are iden
tical in construction, but Gatun is the
larger station. The Miraflores locks
have been placed farther inland than
first expected, in order that they might
be safe from the enemies’ fleets in the
Pacific. After the canal is finished and
the waters of the Chagres river are
allowed to flow over the interior, it will
be then ready for use. Let us take a
ship on the Atlantic side, and go
through the canal, as many of you ex
pect to do when you go to the San
Francisco Exposition, and see just how
the passage is made:
We steam past the breakwater con
structed in the Colon harbor until we
come to the Gatun locks. There the
ship's power is cut off and she is
placed in tow of the wonderfully ingen
ious and efficient electric mules run
ning on cog tracks along the great
concrete structure. These “mules’’
will tow our ship into the first lock a
bout eight miles from the Atlantic, and
after she is safely in, the gates will be
closed and the great valves at the bot
tom and sides will be opened by the
pressure of a lever controlling the
electrical machinery, and the water will
begin to flow in from Gatun Lake and
bubble at the ship’s sides, and when
she has been lifted about 25 feet high
er than the sea level, the next gates
above will be opened, and the opera
tion will be again repeated, until the
last lock is passed on the Atlantic side,
when the little electric “mules’’ will
let gd their ropes, and the boat will
then be ready to again turn on her own
power for a 25 mile fresh water lake
sail. When the boat gets to Pedro
Miguel, she will enter the first lock as
she left the last, and when the gates
are closed the water will be allowed
to escape and she will be let down the
. first flight, and so on until she will
again rest on the bosom of a small
fresh water lake about one and one
half miles in length, until she noses at
the gates of the Miraflores, the last
set of locks on the Pacific side, where
she will again repeat the lowering oper
ation until her keel will feel the cush
ion of the waters of the Pacific and
she is ready to sail away on her long
journey to the Orient or up or down
the coast of North or South America.
The locks are so constructed that they
work in pairs, and while one ship is
going out another can at the same time
come in. These electric “mules’’ are
so wonderfully constructed that while
they tow a ship at the rate of five
miles an hour through the locks, yet
they are able to stop the largest vessel
within a distance of a few inches, so
there is no danger of the boat break
ing away and of its own momentum
smashing the gates, as has been done in
locks heretofore.
When we consider that a vessel is
lifted 85 feet in her passage from one
sea to another, there is every reason
apparent as to why a lock canal is bet
ter or more desirable than a sea-level
canal, which was almost unanimously
recommended by the board of advisory
engineers summoned by President
Roosevelt, both from abroad as well as
at home. Yet after the work has almost
been finished the few American en
gineers who favored the lock canal, are
now generally conceded to have been
right. In the first place, it would have
taken from twenty-five to thirty years
to have excavated a sea-level canal,
whereas the cost would have been more
than a billion dollars. The question
of the difference in the rise of the tide
on the Pacific side, which is fifteen
feet more than that on the Atlantic
side, does not seem to have been con
sidered an obstacle, yet our imagina
tion can have some play when we think
about that fifteen foot wall of Pacific
water pouring into the Atlantic or
Carribean. It is also said that it would
have been practically impossible to
have made the necessary excavation
at Culebra cut for a sea-level canal.
Be that as it may, it is now apparent
to the world that the commerce of the
East will mingle with that of the West
before the first of January, 1915, and
that through the most wonderful canal
ever attempted by man. In fact it is
something to be able to say that you
have seen the dry ditch and the work
going on, for no such sight will ever
again be vouchsafed to man, for there
is no other Isthmus to cut in two.
Great docks are already built at Bal
boa, the Pacific terminus, while there
is no way of exactly estimating what
will be the dock and warehouse devel
opments at Gatun Lake, and Colon.
The fact that deep sea vessels can ride
safely at anchor in a fresh water lake,
will mean the saving of millions of dol
lars, as fresh water clears off the
barnacles and sea parasites without the
necessity of dry docking. We can safe
ly imagine that dredges will have to
keep the depth of the lake clear of
these sea inhabitants, in the course of
time. What this country will do with
the merchant marine is another ques
tion that cannot be answered. It, is
true however that you may go into
port after port and never see the flag
of our country flying at the mast of a
merchantman. The canal however is
not being built so much for the benefit
of the American merchant marine as
it is for the benefit of the world. The
government owns everything in the
Canal Zone, and apparently she is run
ning a perfect Socialist community
with the utmost satisfaction and effi
ciency. The president could not get
private engineers to do the work, and
hence we saw the disgraceful passing
of Wallace and later the sudden accep
tance of the resignation of Stephens.
It was then that President Roosevelt
saw that civilian engineers would not
complete the work; that they would
not brook the red tape of governmental
departments, and that if the canal was
to be built, that it would have to be
done by army men who did not know
how to resign and who did not know
how to disobey orders until the task
which they were set to do had been
performed, So he obtained a proper
change in the law from Congress,
forced the old commission to resign
and appointed a new one and headed it
with George Washington Goethals, an
army major. Colonel Goethals only re
ceives a salary. He has no personal in
centive for gain, that subtle element
which all men consider the dynamo
htat moves undertakings of the vaster
sort; not a man under him gets any
thing but a salary, and yet with all
of this question of personal incentive
eliminated, we find Colonel Goethals a
most efficient autocrat with practically
unlimited powers, in charge of the na
tion’s greatest work, and everything
moving along well. Goethals and Gor
gas are the great figures in this Titanic
undertaking. Goethals is an engineer
and knows how to dig ditches and
dredge harbors and build docks; Gorgas
is a physician and scientist, and knows
how to make men live in comfort and
safety on a spot heretofore uninhabit
able by Americans.
It is rather a novel sight to go to
the Canal Zone and trade with Uncle
Sam for the daily necessities of life,
and yet that is what you do when you
go there. You ride on his train pulled
by a big engine with “U. 8.” on her
side. You buy at his commissary, you
eat at his restaurant and you sleep in
his hotel, and you are pleased with
yourself and your merchant, railroader
and landlord after it is all done. You
had better not go to Panama if you
want to say that Uncle San can’t own
his railroads, or meat shops. All of
your ideas of paternalism in govern
ment will suffer a severe shock, for
you will have to say that they have
been wrong heretofore, at least so far
as the Canal Zone is concerned. There
is only one thing which keeps the Ca
nal Zone from being an ideal Socialistic
community, and that is that everything
is being spent and nothing earned. A
debit and credit side is not kept on the
ledger, hence the situation is- both
unique as well as novel. Whether we
will ever get any of this vast amount
of money back (about $275,000,000) is
a question. The fact that we had a
President who wanted to exempt coast
wise boats from any tollage would in
dicate that we would not, but as Eng
land has stepped in and objected, by
saying that the tollage should be gen
eral in its application, may probably
cause the government to revoke this
part of the canal schedules, and cause
each ship to pay what is reasonable and
right when she goes through the Pana
ma Canal instead of around the
“Horn’’ or through the Straits of
Magellan. When one is familiar with
the Hay-Pauncefote treaty, which was
made after the revocation of the Clay
ton Bulwer treaty between this country
and Great Britain, thers is generally
little doubt left in his mind as to the
justice of England’s objection.
The course of the Canal is more
north and south than otherwise. This
produces the novel effect of placing
Colon on the north of Panama, and
hence the Pacific ocean becomes the
East Sea instead of the Atlantic as is
popularly supposed, and I had the novel
sight of seeing the sun rise out of the
Pacific, which we always consider a
Western ocean.
Panama is full of interest, and has a
Tom G. Scott
An Appreciation
Mr. Editor:
It was my good fortune a few
days ago to be one of a party of
of men to visit Tom Scotts Iwuti
*ul farm and to see some scientific
farming. We had a delightful
ride in Mr. Will Hill’s Overland.
Mr. Hill ran the car and ‘‘Uncle”
Jim Hill made fun for Bealer
Rumble and me “Uncle” Jim is
like my friend John Earley, a kind
of of an enigma, talks backwards,
so to speak—yet there is lots of
gist in what. “Uncle” Jim says
Sometimes.
NowMr.Editor,if you have never
been out t.o Tom Scotts, you have
missed a real treat. Out there you
see practical and scientific farm
ing combined. It is a real treat
to a town man, this time of the
year, to go out there and to com
mune with nature and see the beau
tiful crops growing. Mr. Scott is
not trying to make money. He
seems to have lost sight, of that
and self. His object, seems t.o be
to learn something of agriculture
in all of its different int r >cat“
phases, and to let others profit bv
his experience. He does not pile
up money in the l ank and Imv
vast acres of land. His money
goes into the upbuilding of his
land and up-to-date and imnrcved
machinery I think I saw at least
six thousand dollars in improved
machinery. His land lies well
and he can use machinery to good
advantage. Before anv seed is
put into the ground, there is not
a clod left as large as a hen egg,
in a fifty acre field, of course, this
is expensive, but all good things
come high. If ho never makes a
dollar, he is surely doing some
thing for posterity. Just, on that
line I will say “Amen”, for few
of us mortals are doing anything
but working for self and pos
terity can go to the bow-wows.
As Burns says: “Man’s inhum
anity to man makes countless
thousands thousands mourn.”
It touches me deeply when I go
out to Mr. Scotts and see how he
loves his home. The old ante
bellum house, the grove and the
old school house that stands in
the beautiful grove of oak and
hickory. Many names are written
on the old walls, names of young
men from this and other counties
of the state, who now, no doubt,
have passed over the great divide.
His, mother, father and old grand
father all lived at the old home
stead and all taught school in the
old school house. He watches the
old building with fender care and
never lets it suffer for proper re
pairs. The old home Seems to be
sacred ground to him. There seem
to he tender memories connected
with everything on the place It
must be consoling to his mother
in her decling years, to see how ho
clings to the old homestead and
to all of its dear, departed past.
Would that more of our young
men would cherish that beautiful
thought of keeping in the family
the old homestead.
Now, Mr. Editor, just a word
more. Just a word to our young
men. Tom Scott is not only a
model farmer, but a model young
man—a clean man. Oh, that all
cf our young men would he clean
in all of their habits. The good
people of our good old county are
due Tom Scott something.
Yours for a greater and a better
Monroe County. R B Stephens
cosmopolitan population. It is hard to
toll what it will be when the world’s
fleets begin to pour through the canal. I
Remnants of her old sea wall built
nearly three hundred years ago are still
there, and a part of it is being used for
the Panamanian penitentiary. Men are
put in these ancient dungeons and are
said to stay there for years without
ever being tried or knowing what they
are there for. The natives do not like
Americans, yet they know they are
their masters. It seems to be the eter
nal conflict between the Latin and the
Teuton which dates back from the
times of the Roman Empire when it
was invaded and conquered by the
tribes north of the frozen Danube.
There will be no more revolutions in
Panama, and the natural resources,
which are few, will be gradually devel
oped. The thing that impresses you
most as you mix with this alien popu
lation, and think of far away Phillip- ।
pine Islands, Porto Rico and The Canal
Zone, is: Where will the Monroe Doc
trine end!
Every Business Man Should Have a
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