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that its perfect accomplishment has 

 railed forth tin- grateful .-ulniiration of 

 the nations of tin- earth. 



Next in impressiveness to tin- great- 

 ness of tlu- undertaking is the confi- 

 dent, the colossal fashion in which it i> 

 being carried out. There are in doubt- 

 ing 'riioina>es on the Isthmus of Pan- 

 ama. Fvery official there, from the 

 highest to the lowest, talks and acts and 

 works as if he had a proprietary intere-t 

 in the canal. 



It is pleasing to >ay 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 ( ioethals, the 

 chief engineer, is from Xew York. 

 Commissioner Rousseau, the navy man 

 on the Commission, is from Pennsylva- 

 nia. Former Senator Pdackburn, g'v- 

 crnor 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 I lodges, who succeeded Jackson 

 Smith, is from Massachusetts. 



The Secretary of \Yar. General Luke 

 1C. Wright, who. under the President, 

 has authority over the whole enterprise. 

 is a Southerner, a TennesM-ean. an ex- 

 Con federate soldier. The President 

 himself is half Southerner you know 

 his mother is from my home State of 

 I ieorgia. 



Nearly loo 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 alx.ut the busiest railroad 

 on earth. Three thousand carpenters 

 were at work for years building houses. 



There are more than 2.2OO buildings of 

 everv possible sj/e and shape; twent\- 

 foiir different types ,,f dwellings alone, 

 office buildings, storehouses, hotels. 

 magazines, and what-not. There are 

 four distinct water svstenis 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 plant>. railroad shops ice fac- 

 tories, great bakeries, and all the other 

 utilities that are required to supplv the 

 necessities of an army of 44.000. in- 

 cluding employees and their families. 

 There is an average working force of 

 about 33,0(x> men. ( >f these j.noo 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 wa- 

 thought to be wonderful; next, 3,- 

 OOO.OOO 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 Kgyptian 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 Sue/ Canal was ten years build- 

 ing, between 1X51) and lS(><). It is about 

 IOO miles long and cost uearlv SlOO.- 

 OOO.OOO. We are digging a Suez Canal 

 every vcar. counting by excavation. 

 The sanitary department cuts and burns 

 or removes i5.ix:>o,OOO square yards of 

 brush a year, drains i.ooo.OOO square 

 yards of swamp lands, keeps up 3.000.- 

 feet of ditches, and fumigates 12.- 

 '.<MX> s(|uare feet of living quarters. 

 \s to the COSt. The Cnited States 

 paid the French Panama Canal Com- 

 pany $40,000.000 and the Panama gov- 

 ernment Sio.ooo.OOO. It au'horized an 

 expenditure of Si 45.' OO,O 10 f- >r the c< in- 

 struction of the canal. The total amount 



