Democratic Sentinel, Volume 16, Number 52, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 January 1893 — PANAMA CANAL WRECK [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

PANAMA CANAL WRECK

ENGULFS MANY GREAT MEN CF FRANCE. Brazen Thefts Amounting: to Over Sixty Millions—Machinery Valued i*JU*®o,ooo,000 Rotting:—Vegetation Covering the Intended Route—Thousands Starving. The Crisis in France. The exposure of the corruption, mismanagement and stealing in Panama canal affairs has aroused the in-

dignation of Frenchmen to a pitch that threatened to overthrow the government and replace republicanism with monarchy. The Dministry was hurled »from power unceremoniously, and those displaced deem them-

president cAßNOTgeives fortunate in escaping with this chastisement. The scheme to build the isthmus canal called for so much capital that Frenchmen of all classes were appealed to for subscriptions. The

small farmers and shopkeepers were enlisfed and the response became national in character. The assurance from government officials that the enterprise would pay and that De Lesseps, who built the Suez canal, would repeat on a larger scale his success in uniting the waters of the Atlantic and Pacific in the center of this continent, was * a bait that took exceedingly well. As a consequence francs by the hundred millions poured into the canal treasury until $2G0,000,000, as Americans reckon money, was in-

vested. To insure this result the . Parisian and provincial press were s paid $4,000,000 to advocate the proposition. To make sure of the passage of the hill through the Chamber of Deputies $10,000,000 was given to the •membera who influenced legislation.to that end. In addition some $19,000,- , 000 was used in advertising the scheme. In various ways some S6O, - i 000,000 was squandered after this ■ fashion. The balance, $200,000,000, i was spent on the construction of the . canal, at least half being wasted by mismanagement. The abandonment of the project was decided only when

there was no more money to expend, and this stoppage compelled De Lesseps and those associated with him to acknowledge the canal a failure, with of realizing a farthing for the tens of thousands who had invested, the savings of a lifetime in the project The report shocked France, while 1 4bdazed the multitude who had been “Iceptr i Q rignorance of the progress of tiji’eiftfelprise, precipitated a panic { f( oq.t|j.e Bourse and all Paris went wild oypr the confession. In the Cham- ' her of Deputies the Government was scored unmercifully and the Ministry dismissed from power. Baron de Reioach, the leading banker after Rothschild in Paris, who lent his name to the scheme, was so overcome with remorse that he committed suicide. He was worth $60,000,000, but this did not exempt him from the torture that drove him to self-de-struction. So desperate had popular feeling become that it would have required but little to convert the republic into a monarchy. Hie only argument that counted against it was that Frenchmen were swindled under the empire about as much as they had been under the republic, and that the meditated change would not have secured the desired end. Consequently the most aggravated part of the crisis has been passed without recourse to such a doubtful measure. Yet Parisians admit that were there a Napoleon to appeal to the empire would be re-established. De Lesseps, who was once the idol of his nation, i» now held in loathing, with none so poor as to do him reverence. The colossal failure of the canal is laid at his door and he is the most despised man to France to-day. Tbe great engineer has been transformed into the greatest of swindlers * ■ **•* ‘

and the most heartless of foes to the thousands who trusted him only to he ruined thereby. Irretrievable Rain. Now that the Panama Canal scheme has been proved to have been a gigantic swindle, the parallel of which may not be found in history, an inventory, as it were, of the work done on the canal has been made, and the result is alike astounding, scandalous and profoundly sad. Apart from the financial loss, which is enor-

mous, and the corruption, alike shameful and monumental, there has been frightful loss of life, and even now thousands of misguided laborers are living *on the isthmus, a prey to fever and sometimes starvation, hoping that the work will be resumed and that they may earn enough money for support or to take them back to their homes. France expended 1,300,000,000

francs on the Panama Canal, and almost nothing remains to show for this vast expenditure. In the first flush of the canal scheme Panama was to become a new El Dorado, a place where money could be made as it was during the gold excitement in California and Australia. The tonnage of the world would pass through the canal. New towns with the French names and French inhabitants would grow along its route. Colon would blossom into vigorous life, and the ancient city of Panama would throw off its lethargy and become one of the foremost seaports of the world. Those were flush times on the isthmus, and the officials of the canal found leisure to lay out parks and gardens and plan great estates for themselves. Even the sleepy natives awoke. They began to dream of wealth and bustled around as if they did not live in the land of to-morrow. The merchants did a great business. The money-changers were never idle, and cash flowed from the canal treasury into a thousand channels. Everybody, if he only talked canal and believed canal, could get rich. But now the inevitable crash has come. The new towns have faded away. The parks and the gardens are abandoned and there is nothing but desolation. The property of the canal company is rusting and rotting in neglect. The machinery, dredges, cranes and other appliances are strewn in confusion from Colon to Panama. Many pieces have sunk deep in the swamps, and others lie where they were tossed from the boats or the tram-cars years ago, never having seen a minute's use. Several of .these dredging machines cost more than SIOO,OOO apiece. An expert who recently visited Panama says-that machinery, the cost of which was $90.-

000,000, lies rotting on the isthmus. It will never he moved. A large portion is already irretrievably damaged. It has suffered so severely from exposure that much of it could not he used even* if work were resumed on the Panama Canal, which is no longer classed among the proDabilities. Difficulties of Construction. What is left of the canal? The answer to this question can be altered every year, for the condition of the work is deteriorating very rapidly. The cut was to have been from Colon, on the Atlantic coast, to Panama on

the Pacific coast, a distance of fiftyfour miles. Suez is eighty miles long, but the obstacles presented at Panama were immeasurably greater. In the Culebra cut and the hills of Mindi the elevation of the isthmus is 300 feet above the level of the sea, and the excavation ifi those places had to be made through the solid rock, too. And then came the obstacle of the Chagres River, which was practically . insurmountable. The canal crosses and recrosses it.

Were it an ordinary, well-behaved river it might be easily managed. But it is a wild, wayward, untamed river, like the people of the country through which it flows. A heavy tropical rain comes, and it rises forty feet in twelve hours. What to do with so much water, for it flows into the canal as well, then becomes a problem that has vexed the best engineers in the world. The difficulty has been obviated partly by an intricate system of dams and locks, but no one can say whether it would have lasted or would have subdued the Chagres in its wildest moments. The canal, as originally intended, would have been 30 feet deep, from 200 to 250 feet broad at the top, and about 100 feet broad at the bottom. On the Atlantic side are 18 or 20 miles of canal, dredged to a depth of 16 feet by the American Construction and Dredging Company, and there are partial excavations and lines traced by the French all the way to Panama. At Colon, lying in the water, is a huge pile of grandolithic blocks, 70,000 in number. They were brought from the West Indies at a total cost of about 8 cents a block. They were intended for banking up the canal, but were dumped off the ships into the water years ago, and have been lying there ever since, a monument to the recklessness and corruption of the Panama scheme. The eighteen or twenty miles of partially cempleted canal will soon become nothing but a muddy ditch. The banks are caving in, and every time it rains huge masses of earth are washed into the canal. In a few years the canal, except where cut through the solid rock, will be filled up entirely by these heavy washings, and the vegetation will begin to grow again where the dredging machines tore it away.

Beyond Resurrection. Remaining on the Isthmus are many Europeans who still believe that the work will be resumed. But this is extremely improbable. Many calculations have been made as to the amount of money it would require to complete it. None fall under $200,000,000. Some run as high as $750,000,000, and a few go so far as to say that the canal cannot be built at all so that it will return a fair interest on the investment. But there is another difficulty. The concession from Colombia, under which the canal was to be built, expires next February, and, even if the concession should bo renewed, whence will come the capital needed for the prosecution of the work? The French people will give no more, and the capitalists of other countries are rather shy of Panama. Thus far only the financial loss has been considered. But there is another question that appeals to humanity. Negro laborers are now on the isthmus a prey to disease. At one time there were 60,000 negroes at Colon. They led a careless, merry life, and saved not one cent from their earnings When work ceased they were unable to return to their homes, and they are still on the isthmus, less the thousands who have perished. Some have become outlaws, and infest the localities on either side of the canal route.. In a short time the route of the canal will be covered with tropical vegetation, in which- wild animals will make their lairs.

THE QUTAY AT COLON.

A PANAMA RAILROAD.

DE LESSEPS' RESIDENCE AT COLON.

NEAR THE CITY DE LESSEPS.

FERDINAND DE LESSEPS.