THE NATION'S HERCULEAN TASK 



507 



that its perfect accomplishment has 

 called forth the grateful admiration of 

 the nations of the earth. 



Next in impressiveness to the great- 

 ness of the undertaking is the confi- 

 dent, the colossal fashion in which it is 

 being carried out. There are no doubt- 

 ing Thomases on the Isthmus of Pan- 

 ama. Every ofificial there, from the 

 highest to the lowest, talks and acts and 

 works as if he had a proprietary interest 

 in the canal. 



It is pleasing to say to this Southern 

 audience that this great canal which is 

 expected to do so much for the develop- 

 ment of the South is being built largely 

 by Southerners. Colonel Goethals, the 

 chief engineer, is from New York. 

 Commissioner Rousseau, the navy man 

 on the Commission, is from Pennsylva- 

 nia. Former Senator Blackburn, gov- 

 ernor of the Canal Zone, is from Ken- 

 tucky. Colonel Gorgas, the great sani- 

 tary expert, is from Alabama. Major 

 Seibert, who has charge of the building 

 of the Gatun Dam. is from Alabama, 

 though born in Georgia and appointed 

 from Iowa. Major Gaillard, who has 

 charge of the Culebra Cut excavation, 

 is from South Carolina. Jackson Smith, 

 who organized and developed the De- 

 partment of Labor, Quarters, and Sub- 

 sistence, is from South Carolina. Colo- 

 nel Hodges, who succeeded Jackson 

 Smith, is from Massachusetts. 



The Secretary of War, General Luke 

 E. Wright, who, under the President, 

 has authority over the whole enterprise, 

 is a Southerner, a Tennesseean, an ex- 

 Confederate soldier. The President 

 himself is half Southerner — you know 

 his mother is from my home State of 

 Georgia. 



Nearly 100 mammoth steam shov- 

 els are at work there ; there are un- 

 loaders and spreaders and track- 

 throwing machines ; there are several 

 hundred steam engines, and hun- 

 dreds of trainloads of material are 

 handled every day. That little fifty 

 miles of track, known as the Panama 

 Railroad, is about the busiest railroad 

 on earth. Three thousand carpenters 

 were at work for years building houses. 



There are more than 2,200 buildings of 

 every possible size and shape ; twenty- 

 four different types of dwellings alone ; 

 office buildings, storehouses, hotels, 

 magazines, and what-not. There are 

 four distinct water systems to supply 

 not only the cities of Panama and Co- 

 lon, but the entire working force along 

 the line of the canal. There are electric- 

 light plants, railroad shops ice fac- 

 tories, great bakeries, and all the other 

 utilities that are required to supply the 

 necessities of an army of 44,000, in- 

 cluding employees and their families. 

 There is an average working force of 

 about 33,000 men. Of these 7,000 are 

 for the Panama Railroad Company ; on 

 the canal there are at work about 5,000 

 Americans, between 6,000 and 7,000 

 foreign laborers, and the balance negro 

 laborers. 



As to excavation, first, 1,000,000 

 cubic feet of earth and rock a 

 month was thought to be great 

 work ; then excavating 2,000,000 was 

 thought to be wonderful ; next, 3,- 

 000,000 a month was reached, and 

 now the slogan is that 4,000,000 

 a month must be reached. Has any 

 one an idea what 3,000,000 cubic 

 feet means? It is a larger bulk 

 than the greatest of the Egyptian pyra- 

 mids. Three million cubic feet of 

 dirt, if hauled by two-horse wagon 

 teams, would make a string of teams, 

 with a foot of space between them, 

 more than 8,000 miles long. 



The Suez Canal was ten years build- 

 ing, between 1859 and 1869. It is about 

 100 miles long and cost nearly $100, ■ 

 000,000. We are digging a Suez Canal 

 every year, counting by excavation. 

 The sanitary department cuts and burns 

 or removes 15,000,000 square yards of 

 brush a year, drains 1,000,000 square 

 yards of swamp lands, keeps up 3,000,- 

 000 feet of ditches, and fumigates 12,- 

 000,000 square feet of living quarters. 



As to the cost. The United States 

 paid the French Panama Canal Com- 

 pany $40,000,000 and the Panama gov- 

 ernment $10,000,000. It authorized an 

 expenditure of $145,000,000 for the con- 

 struction of the canal. The total am.ount 



