Jasper County Democrat, Volume 8, Number 24, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 September 1905 — WASHINGTON LETTER. [ARTICLE]

WASHINGTON LETTER.

Political and General Gossip of the National Capital. Special Correspondence to The Demoorat: The much heralded board of consulting engineers for the Panama Canal met in Washington Saturday and commenced tbe deliberations tbftt will determine the recommendation to Congress whether the canal shall be bnilt at sea level or made a lock canal which some engineers claim is more practicable and will suffice for all the needs of commerce for the next century. Tbe board contains a great many distinguished names, the chief engineer, officers of the Army, prominent engineers from civil life and foreign engineers nominated by England, France, Germany and the Netherlands at tbe request of this government. What will come or tbeir deliberations it is of course too early to state. But it is said that they will have some sort of a report ready for Congress by the time it meets in December and that this will be forwarded by the President accompanied by a vigorous message that will settle the question of a lock or sea-level waterway so long left open. It is a question, however, how much time the board will take in deliberation for some of them have suggested the necessity for another trip to Panama at goverment expense, though the most of them have been over the ground before with various commissions and they will have at their disposal in Washington all the maps and plans of the many commissions and surveys that have visited the Isthmus without definite result heretofore. There is already whispered talk in Washington that the canal never will be bnilt, but in all probability this is mere ill natured gossip. It is said that the project is impracticable from an engineering standpoint for lack of canal foundations. It is also said that definite information to til's effect is already on file in the War Department. However, everyone knows that nothing is going to be done till the question of whether the one or the other sort of canal shall be built and that is what the consulting engineers are here to determine.

They are having a lot of trouble with the canal project anyhow, and the determination of the government to go into the general storekeeping business to furnish the laborers in the zone with enough to eat, has aroused vigorous protests from “leading merchants” of Panama. These protests brought out a vigorous letter from Governor Magoon, made public today in which he makes some sensational statements in justification of the government’s proposed step. He says that the laborers in the canal zone have been living principally on sugar cane. This was the only thing they had money enough to buy at prevailing prices, and in spite of all the efforts of the government to furnish them with decent food, the local store keepers had kept up prices so that tbe laborers could not buy. Tbe men were so weak from improper nourishment that their labor was very scanty and consequently expensive. Therefore the only thing was to give them food at reasonable prices, and this the government promises to do If the men are properly fed and housed and the sanitary features of the situation are attended to, which Chairman Shonts says is now a problem overshadowing the actual digging of the canal, there is some hope that the canal may be done in the course of years. t t t There has been much third term talk in Washington in the past few days as a result of the shower of congratulations received by the President for his part in the Peace agreement. It would be churlish to want to take from the President any of the honor due him for his great work in the cause of peace. But the third term talk is very inopportune at this time and probably strongly against the President’s wishes. It will be remembered that when the announcement of the result of the last presidential election was made to him one of the first things he did was to make a statement in the plainest and most unmistakable English, such as he can use at need, saying that the unwritten law against a third term was a wise one and that he proposed to observe the spirit and substance of that law, not the letter of it. That he would under no cirouinstances be a candidate for another nomination. It would be impossible for the President to reverse himself on that statement without absolutely disregarding his own word, and that is a thing that neither his friends nor his enemies would

ever expect—of him. Thereto e the third term talk at the pre*en< juncture may be taken as entire y uninspired and impertinent. t t t There is a plan on foot ‘to give President Roosevelt a rousing welcome on bis return to Washington. There will not be much formality about it but the President wilt simply be met at the depot by a party of oitizens, prominent ami otherwise, and escorted to the White House without any formal speecbmaking or parading of auy sort. That is a demonstration in which most Washingtonians will want to take part and the President is likely to have about the most strenuous time of his life on his next return to the capital. Cqme to think, he may have evert a more strenuous time when he gets Congress on his hands a little later. t t t It is stated that the champion penman of the State Department has started for Portsmouth taking with him the material for engrossing the coming treaty? This is principally interesting as an indication that the treaty will be signed there and not in Washington. So it may be known as the Treaty of Portsmouth after all.