56 



The National Geographic Magazine 



isms, but there seem to be people in this 

 country to whom they are novelties. We 

 are approaching the end of the prelimi- 

 nary work. We have made the Isthmus a 

 healthful place in which to work. We 

 are getting the line of the canal into a 

 condition which will enable us to operate 

 an excavating plant to the best advan- 

 tage, and we are assembling the plant 

 with which the work is to be done. When 

 you bear in mind that we have been en- 

 gaged in this preparatory task barely six 

 months, that we have been compelled to 

 carry it forward in a tropical country, 

 mainly a wilderness, not accessible by 

 railway, but 2,000 miles at sea and 2,000 

 miles from the base of supply, and that 

 most of the material entering into the 

 work had to be manufactured to order 

 before it could be shipped to the scene of 

 action, I think you will admit that the 

 amount of time consumed has not been 

 unreasonable. 



I shall not burden you with details of 

 the preparatory work. These were set 

 forth by me in a speech before the 

 American Hardware Manufacturers' As- 

 sociation, a few weeks ago,* and are to be 

 found in the recent report of the Com- 

 mission to Congress. Briefly summed 

 up, they have resulted, first, in convert- 

 ing the Isthmus from a hot-bed of disease 

 into as healthful a place for work of the 

 kind in hand as could be found in any 

 tropical country — with reasonable care a 

 man can go there to live now with no 

 more serious menace to his health than 

 he would encounter in frontier work in 

 our own country ; second, the workers of 

 all grades are provided with suitable and 

 sanitary quarters, wholesome food in 

 abundance and at reasonable prices, and 

 pure water; third, an antiquated, inade- 

 quate, and poorly manned railway sys- 

 tem has been improved and reorganized 

 on modern lines, and provided with up- 

 to-date equipment of locomotives and 

 cars ; fourth, new wharves equipped with 



* Published in the National Geographic Maga- 

 zine, December, 1905. 



modern mechanical appliances, commodi- 

 ous terminal yards at both ends of the 

 railway, extensive warehouses, suitable 

 machine shops, and a modern coal-hoist- 

 ing plant are rapidly approaching com- 

 pletion; fifth, more than $9,000,000 has 

 been expended in the purchase of sup- 

 plies and material, largely for an operat- 

 ing plant in the actual work of excava- 

 tion, and the bulk of this investment is 

 already on the Isthmus. 



SUPPLIES WERE BOUGHT IN THE UNITED 

 STATES 



This vast quantity of supplies has been 

 purchased almost exclusively in the 

 United States. In accordance with our 

 policy of buying in the cheapest markets, 

 we have bought chiefly in the United 

 States because its markets, in the main, 

 are the cheapest in the world for the pro- 

 ducts that we need in this work. The 

 American laborer is the highest priced 

 in the world, but we can buy the results 

 of his work more cheaply here than 

 abroad, because of his superior skill and 

 because of the intelligent interest which 

 he as an American citizen takes in his 

 work. In other words, he puts more 

 brains into the product of his hands, be- 

 cause he is a citizen of a free country and 

 his mind has been enlarged and his am- 

 bition stimulated by active participation 

 in the duties of citizenship. 



While buying our supplies in the 

 United States we have seen to it that the 

 entire country should be admitted on 

 equal terms to the competition for fur- 

 nishing them. Our theory is that since 

 the American people are to defray the 

 cost of building the canal, the whole 

 American people should be treated alike 

 in the opportunity to derive legitimate 

 industrial and commercial profit from the 

 outlay for construction. One of the first 

 acts of the present Commission after 

 taking office was the adoption of a policy 

 designed to place all manufacturers and 

 producers in all parts of the country on- 

 equal terms in regard to shipments of 



