| Show consulting engineer recognizes recognises hardness of task however washington oct 24 TW canal commission today made public a letter written by isham a member of tho board of engineers of the panama canal to R carter president of ine sanitary district of chicago whick embodied tho views of mr randolph concerning canal matters he has recently returned from visit to panama with other of the board and his opinions aro and in alev of the publication of this letter by alio committee may be considered saml in hie letter mr randolph says what do know is that it can ba done that americans can do it and that in aa short a time as BO stupendous undertaking can bo put through hence we may reasonably look tor the passage of the great ocean freighters from the caribbean to the before our calendars are headed 1915 how much before this deponent mayeth not this is no easy triumph for the builders who must contend with and overcome difficulties not encountered in our temperate zone first thera aro climatic difficulties which my investigations force me to believe havo been magnified the question of proper housing has been a problem but ita solution Is progressing and it baa had to wait upon lumber which must come from the states the french left behind some 2600 buildings which aro being made habitable when the equipment is on hand and the organization perfected at least men will be required in the various departments part ments of industry the source of supply for labor so far has been jamaica the efficiency of this labor Is as low as 25 per cent taking an aver ago laborer in our latitude as the unit this Is due in part to the fact that the supply is not now equal to the demand and an independency co la thereby in deuced which tends to it a foreman undertakes to make them do a fair days work they quit and move on to the next camp where they know that a job awaits them the introduction of the eight hour system on beema a lamentable mistake and one which adds about 25 per cent to the labor cost of the work aba whole line is cluttered up abandoned french machinery the cost of which is said to reach this machinery Is valueless and out of date 1 I cast no reflections upon abo wark 0 the french ehdy left behind tham evidences of engineering skill and successful battles with difficulties which convince me that inthe honest workers had been sustained and the vast sums which were diverted into robber channels had been applied it might today be the mission of tha united states only to enlarge luo panama canal on my last day in panama after hobia of ramping in the rain and through the mud of the culebra cut and laborious climbing up the hills I 1 arrived with two others of our party at a government hash house we went in unannounced ordered dinner there was no delay in serving and there was a reasonable variety of well cooked wholesome food the hospitals are a source of pride to our people you hyill no doubt have seen statements which purport to have come from our board of consulting engineers foreshadowing shadowing fore our report all such statements you can set down as manufactured our report or our reports should we tall to agree will embody our convictions as to the best type of canal its probable cost and tho reasonable time within which we bc alevo that the waterway can bo constructed ted until we are ready to make our official statements we are not giving out individual statements |
