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Show iAfVfllES FOR I SEA LEVEL CANAL I Three Americans Art With For- I . eign Engineers to At- jfc tain Result. 0. ' CONGRESS WILL BE THE 1 1 COURT OF LAST RESORT I I (ireat Cost of Plan Proposed K Maj Induce Complete I Reversal. WASHINGTON, Nov. lS.-By a vote of I eight to five today the board of con- '-- suiting engineers of the Isthmian canal I commission, a body which. If President H Roosevelt realized his hopes, embodied I the greatest and most representative en- H glneerlng talent In the world, placed it- 1 1 ' self on record as favoring the construction construc-tion of the Panama canal on the s,u I level. Drew on Oilier Nations. I This decision represents the outcome of I nearly thsee months hard work Earlv I In September engineers gathered from ail parts of th- world, fur the President desirous to avail of the best talent as Wi II I as to avoid adverse forelcn criticism In I the future, had called on the (Jovern- ments of five Kreat nations, distinguished for the successful construction of greal hydraulic works, to send each one of Ms best engineers to assist rhe American !' organizers in the momentous question of I .instructing the Panama canal at si I level or at a greater altitude Involving a system of locks. Came Without Bias. I The foreigners cam.- to Washington absolutely wlth,,ut Instructions from their own Governments und wltl.oui bias. i. termlned to be guided to their decision solely by tho facts to be presented t.. them In the shape of a great mats .f phvslcal data and supplemented bv sov -tral projects, notably that up.in whii I the French Panama company worked BO patiently for more than a decade; that of the first American Panama company, that of M Buenoa Varilla. the Fren- h engineer, who was In charge of the canal 1 works in the last days of the French administration, ad-ministration, and that of Llndon Bates, the hicago civil engineer who was connect, ,j with the great enterprises on I tho Nile and elsewhere Americans Join in Study. I The Americans foi their part were 1 acjualnted with the main features of j these projects before the board of e..- glneers met In Its first session Nc-ver- th.-)esS th. Joined in the study of physical phy-sical data with their foreign colleagues, went over countless blue prints and map" Went Xo the bthnius and s.nnieil everv Inch of the route of the proposed canal and had made up their mm. Is. when the hoard reconve lod In vTashlngton gbont tho beginning of this month, as to tho type of canal they favored. Decisive Voto Tuesday. If was not until Inst Tuesday however, thai anything In the nature Of a decisive v . to was taken, and that after all was an Indirect test. Just what that proposition propo-sition was cannot b- stated with absolute I certainty, but it is conjectured that th,. Issue was whether or not a lock canal of a certain type should be constructed At any rat. the vote disclosed lhe fart that R majority Of the eight American mem- b rs. under the- leadership of (Jen Abbott, Ab-bott, was strongly In favor of a lock ca-nal. ca-nal. The foreigners were against the H particular type mentioned in the proposition, proposi-tion, but It was not clear that at that JjjjH moment thev were opposed to the whole ! proposition of a lock canal. iH Foreigners Stand Together. The real test came today, and the time H between Tuesday and the meeting this jJ morning was consumed in some verv strong presentations on the part of the jH majority of the American delegates to In- 'll flueoce their foreign , olli agues to accept JjH cne of tho other lock proooslilons. The Americans, however, were not unanimous, Jf for there Is reason to believe that thr.- - 'IH of their number, probably Gen. Davi5. Mr. Parsons and Mr. Burr, Joined tl foreign delegates in thla last vote, which fH recorded the board as favoring the sea jH canal jH Few More Details. The decision was reached about noon, JjH and thereby the board practlcallv con- jH eluded Its labors There will be a few Isbbbbb! more meetings next woe-k simply to deal with small details and to put Into pel - iH manent form the results of the 1 board's protracted meetings The foreign delegates desire tu leave for their (Jl own homes by the 27th inst. To accommo- Jl date them in this the full board hs agreed that they may conclude som- purely formal work connected with this .iJ project such ns the approval of certain minutes snd signature Of papers st , special meeting to bo held In Paris In Dn ember or January. May Be Reversed. It Is expe, ted that one of the American members Of 'he board will go to Purls to wind up this business, nil of which '1 must be done before the final report of 'aBBBBsl the board .an he regarded as cnmp)et '!bsbbbb1 and ready for submission to the isthmian jJ canal commission. The commission In JH turn must record Its own Judgment on J the conclusions reacb.-d by the board of tH engineers and there Is even now a belief SJJH current that that Judgment will be a.i- jH verso to the board's plan 'H Congress Has Final Say. However, there are two more Impor'- Jjf ant steps, at either of which there may H be great changes proposed, for the com- H mission must pass the plans and Its own jH recommendations to the President, who JH In turn must stamp them with his own -ISBBBBB appro1 il disapproval and forward H I hem to Congress, which after all w ill JJf be the eourl P.I ast resort aa between the 'sbbbbbI s. ,i level nnd lock anai projects: simpi : H through the fact that additional legts fH latlon will be necessary if a sea canal vvl'l 'sbbbbbI c.-st from JtT.ViMi.oon to $iXi.r) (ion more :BSBBB than the cheapest practical lock 'IJJbLbbi and will consume from live to seven yeai I fBSBBBl more in the construction i'sbbbbI |
