Progress of the Panama Canal 



47 1 



Spain, have been eminently satisfactory, 

 and convinced me that thereby the 

 dredge could acquire new qualities, 

 reducing the expenses and the risk of 

 accidents by unforeseen obstacles met 

 under water. ' ' 



ASTONISHING DECREASE OF THE 

 PRICE OF EXCAVATION AND OF 

 TRANS PORT ATION 



* ■ Such a distribution of power under 

 electrical form will practically leave on 

 board the dredge but an insignificant 

 number of men, and one may readily 

 understand the extraordinary economy 

 of such a system of excavation, produc- 

 ing 6,500 cubic yards in twenty-four 

 hours with three shifts of 15 men, say 

 with 45 men a day, even admitting the 

 average abnormal price of $3 per man. 

 The price of excavation proper will be 

 reduced to $135 for 6,500 cubic yards, 

 or about two cents a cubic yard, for the 

 labor. This will be associated with a 

 very reduced amount of expense for the 

 repair of machinery, owing to the em- 

 ployment of electricity, and with no ex- 

 pense to speak of for the generation of 

 power, which will be given by the fall 

 of Gamboa Lake. 



11 The transportation would also be 

 realized at a cost of perhaps one cent a 

 cubic yard. 



' ' The scows would have electric- 

 driven screws and would take their 

 power from a trolley line along the 

 summit level and on the lake. One 

 line would be for scows going to the 

 dump and the other for scows return- 

 ing. Assistance of tugs would only be 

 required near the dredges, near the 

 locks, and near the dumping places. 



"I firmly believe that such a plant 

 would reduce the price of excavation to 

 a level difficult to believe. 



' ' From every point of view, one must 

 consider that the substitution of wet for 

 dry excavation, if so understood, will 

 Create a veritable revolution in the prices 

 and in the output of the work, owing 



to the great economy, efficiency, sim- 

 plicity, and limitation of labor thus 

 realized. ' ' 



Mr Bunau-Varilla proposes that the 

 sea-level canal when completed shall be 

 600 feet wide at the surface and 500 feet 

 wide at the bottom and have a minimum 

 depth of 45 feet at low tide. This 

 would mean a canal three times wider 

 and 10 feet deeper than the sea-level 

 canal described on pages 462-464. He 

 makes the further astounding claim that 

 this immense sea-level canal by the pro- 

 cess of dredging can be built in the same 

 time required for the small sea-level 

 canal (twenty-five years) if the latter is 

 excavated by the dry process, and that 

 the former will cost $300,000,000 as 

 against $230,000,000 for the latter. 



THE LABOR PROBLEM 



The Isthmian Commission have now 

 from 1 1 ,000 to 12,000 men at work, and 

 of these 1,500 are Americans; 2,000 

 of the men are employed by the sani- 

 tary department, while the others are 

 engaged in constructing sewerage and 

 water systems, in building and repair- 

 ing houses, in constructing tracks fo 

 cars, and in getting everything ready 

 for active digging of the canal. From 

 500 to 1,000 men are landing at the 

 Isthmus each month seeking employ- 

 ment. They come from the West Indies 

 principally, and a good number from 

 Colombia. 



Of the labor problem, Secretary of 

 War Taft says in a recent report : 



' ' The French Panama Company did 

 much of its work with Jamaica negroes, 

 and a large part of the 3,000 employes 

 now engaged by the Commission is com- 

 posed of Jamaicans ; but it will not be 

 easy to secure all the Jamaican laborers 

 that will be needed. The governor of 

 Jamaica, Sir Alexander Swettenham, 

 whom I visited at Kingston, was un- 

 willing to consent to our taking 10,000 

 laborers from the island unless we de- 

 posited five pounds sterling ($25) per 



