OCR Text |
Show FORTIFYING BIG CANAL AT PANAMA U. S. Government to Spend SI2.000.000 on Isthmus for Protection. ARMAMENT READY AS SOON AS DITCH IS Will Double Value of Navy . and Make Enemies Cautious." BY FREDEBIO J. HA SKIN . CULEBBA, Panama Canal Zona. Tba canaLcommiasuw. ia. naw.arranging to carry out the work of nuking the Panama eanal impregnable against the attack of any hostile nation. It will provide tba emplacements for th armament ar-mament and the fortifications and quarters for the am'all army which will guard tha big waterway from cranks in time of peace and from invaders in time of war. 'Whatever may have been the opinion of men na to whether the canal should be fortified or neutralized, there ia now bo difference of opinion tbat ainee congress haa elected to fortify it the Work must be dona so thoroughly that there never will be a possibility of ita being wrested from us. The troops to be stationed on the iathmua will ronaiat of twelve com paniea of coast artillery, four regiments regi-ments of infantry, one battalion of field rrtillery and one squadron of cnvalry. n time of war tbia force would be augmented aug-mented by aueh additional troops as the exigenciee of the time might demand. de-mand. Such genera provisions for the loeatioa of tnese reinforcements will be made aa will assure them of good aamp sites whea they arrive. Both End Strong. It ia the intention to fortify tha two Bade of the canal with extreme oare. At each end there will be plaeed four 14 inch rifles, giant barkers which will begia the formalitiea of a warm reception recep-tion by the time a hostile fleet is ten miles a war; aix 6-inch guns and twelve 12-inch , mortara. The topography of the Llmon and Panama baya lenda itself it-self admirably to the purpoeea of defense. de-fense. In T,imon bay, on tha Atlantic At-lantic aide, the distance between Tore fioint and the opposite side of the bay s iaconsiderable, and thia will be narrowed nar-rowed down by the big breakwaters which are being throwa arrosa tba bay to protect tha month of tha canal from the. violent northers-which aweea down TiT'ff Tel nit tafbofand the" iutrnhce to th big ditch. Oa the Pacific aide th same conditions condi-tions prevail. A breakwater is being eoBetriiered from tha main laud to Naos island, a distance of about Are miles. Bevond Naoe- island ia Perico and bevond that ia Flamenco. On the latter island the big coast defense guns will be situated, and bridgea will connect con-nect FUmenro and Perico with Naoe. and thence with the main land over the breakwater. rorttflcatlona Cost $12,000,000. In additioo to these defenaee of the entrance to the canal there will be a complete system of minea to be planted in case of war. The original plan was to spend 119,000,000 for the defenaee, but- in the interest of economy, the number of guns, the size of the permanent perma-nent garrisons and other matters were reduced so that the total coat will be something above 12,000,000. It ia fortunate from tha standpoint of economy that eongreee decided to earrv forward tha work of fortification nl the aame time tbat the canal is being constructed. As the work on the canal neara completion one steam ehorel after another finds n room to operate in, and other parte of the equipment must go out of commission with the ateam shovel. Tha aame is true of the force. By utilizing the men and machinery no longer needed for eanal work, under the efficient labor avatem of the present canal regime a great saving ia assured In tba cost of tba fortification. Beady When Canal la riniahed. Th fortification of tha canal will cost about 7,000,000 leea thaa waa originally eetitnated. Whea tha fortification fortifi-cation board went over tbe grounds it decided to make reroramendationa aueh aa would give tbe isthmus fortifications of the highest tvpe, and provide for army poets whlrb would be th laat word in military architecture. But tba aearly t20.000.no0 that this would 1 have cost seemed too large an amount to President Taft, and he asked the board to acale thiaga down aa aharply as safety would allow. So they cut out a gua or two at either end of the canal, at a saving of mora than a mil-. mil-. lion dollars. They saved another mil lioa b omitting tha rerlsmatioB of land t Naos, Portico and Flamenco islands, the total saving on the entire cost of the fortifications proper amounting amount-ing to a little over 2.500,000. The bulk of tbe remainder of the 7.000.1 KM) reduction came about largely through ml net ion in poet coats. Tha work of constructing the fortifications fortifi-cations will begin at once, and it probably prob-ably will ba completed by tha time the canal ia ready for operation. In addi-tioa addi-tioa to the defenses at the enda of the canal there xill be a mobile artillery ready to move opoa aa inataat'a aotice to any threatened point on the zoae. Oaa Mora Fighter Rapidly. ' There will oe a highway and a railroad rail-road acmes the isthmus ready at all timea to furniah th defender with means of rapid communication, aad a small body of mea will be quartered at all times at sack of th vital points of th big waterway. It is the belief oa th iathmua that the Uaited States naval baa ia south-era south-era waters aught by all means be located lo-cated at tka Atlantic aad of tha Panama Pan-ama canal, la pot at of cost ef construction, con-struction, as well aa coat of maintea-sat, maintea-sat, everybody admits that auck a base at t oloa would hare immeasurable advantages ad-vantages over Gusatanamo, or any - other place in the tropical eras. la the first place, ther asset be a commercial dry dock built aad operated Continued oa page 4.) FORTIFYING BIG CANAL (Continued from page 1.) idvwbtv, and the demands of shipping as to the sizo of thi. dock are such that as large a one will be required as ever will he needed bv the navv, so that this sipriise will lw i ut out. Favor Base at Panama. . In the second place, a coaling station for commercial purposes must be main tained. and this can be used without additional ad-ditional expense bv the navv another important item. Large mac nine shops will be required for the purOttes of maintaining the canal and tor the repair re-pair of commcrc ial vessels, that may Ire i used with practically no additional cnt for construction or operation by the navy. In short, a naal base of any given te might be built at Manama for a very small fraction of the cost of building one at iiuaotanamo; while the reduction in cost of maintenance would be in as great proportion. , The Ntrategit advantage of having the southern naval bane at Panama rather than ou the southern coast of ( nla is very decided, according to the' tratetttfl who favor the 1'ananta site.' It places the fleet two days closer to ; any Pacific coast point, and this dis-' tance mitfht decide a hi if naval j?o- J. Cajfoment. . x i Diaputa Orer Armament. f Although it brings the fleets-two days i closer to the Pacific roast .it does not j remova it far enough away from auy i Atlantic roast point material to in terfera with condition there. It still leaves the fleet closer to any Atlantic coast point in the1 United States than the fleet of any other country. io more interesting contention was ever raised with reference to the eanai than that of fortifications versus neutrality. neu-trality. The proponents of fortifications fortifica-tions declared that the- United States entered upon the project as a matter of defence, after the remarkable lesson of the battleship Oregon, which during the war with Spain took sixty-five days to make a trip thatwtight have been negotiated nego-tiated through a canal in nineteen. They asserted that tn have deelared the eanal neutral would have been to forfeit for-feit the great military advantage afforded af-forded by it, aad that not to have fortified for-tified it would nractieallv have necessitated necessi-tated the doubling of the aize of the American navv. Can Hold tba Canal The opponentn of fort ifiraiiun insisted insist-ed that the riging ai-ience of military aproiiautira would maka the bent fortifications for-tifications that rouM be built helpleaf before an attack of airshipa. which eoubl blow up the vitala of the eanal without great difficulty, and that anyway, any-way, the canal ia ea.entially a commercial commer-cial proposition, and that the declaration declara-tion of neutrality would promote world peace. Thev iniMed that if the canal I were fortified, it miht, in the exigencies exigen-cies of war, be taken from us, white if kept neutral, no matter what the fortunes for-tunes of war. it eould never b rioted against the American navv. The proponents ut fortification rejoined re-joined that the flying machine will he Mihjeet to the law of all military prog-, ress, that everv new means of offense ' is countered with a new means of de- 1 fene. Can flea Airship Easily. j Thev insisted that by day the horirnn ' ran be scanned at all times for hostile! Mir craft, and that hv night, with alii tort f f ii-Mt ioii lights out. nothing but the j nenrcblightM of the enemy would enable ( the invading air fleet to locate the work, lu a word, they insHted that I America can hold the canal aifainst all 1 eouters. since the fortification of it would double the strength of the Aater- I ican fleet, Hiving n wife haven for any. ven in ditres, and permit maneiner- ; ing that otheTwise wntild be impossible, i, Whatever the merits or demerits of : these re(ective argiinifiits, neutrality, in st nutr-hall. wmiM have meant that i in -atr of war America would either i tMvr been forced to asit an enemy thrtmgh the canal or elfe deny her own navy t Ue privilege of using it. Tomorrow. ' THE PANAMA CANAL. . XIII. fiea Level WtUrwjr Impoaaibl. |