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About The commoner. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-1923 | View Entire Issue (March 4, 1910)
v.fflwpww.jiitMy'iiiipi hip Jl W-ijpff UWlUf"?-' t ., ,-,. iftKmmfwrw"?" - - -- mWrmvmmmmmilimiriv ww "' The Commoner. 2 VOLUME 10, NUMBER t WWNIBMBHWIHiitl II (WiHiii 1iiw iWIP'lw wmmm whiwwiiih.i iwaiwinn .. !ty r s, l & l f r tho highest point, hut the crest of tho ridge Is narrow nndthclr plntiB contemplated a width of only seven ty-two feot. When tho American commission entered upon tho tank there was a prism containing seventy eight million cubic yards of earth and stone to ho removed, hut such satisfactory progress has boon made that tho sum has already been re duced to thirty-eight millions. This cut Is a hive of Industry; some are dril ling and blasting; some are operating immense steam shovels; somo aro hauling long trains to tho dumps and still others are moving tracks, running levels, etc., etc. The dirt trains contain from eighteen to thirty cars and one hundred nnil fnrtv-sovon trains aro loaded dally In tho cut. Tho unloading is don by moans of a steam plow and but seven minute is required to un load a train. Then a steam spreader comes along and scatters the dirt and a track lifter follows and moves tho track over whenever necessary. Tho most Improved machinery Is used and somo Inventions have resulted from experience hero. Tho cost of excavation will increaso as tho cut deepens and tho paco will slacken, but It does not require a great stretch of the Imagi nation to see ships passing through Culebra. Tho vegetation, however, grows so rapidly and so luxuriantly hero that within a few years tho stranger will mislako tho cut for a natural valley and wonder why tho canal cost so much. Tho slides Inject an element of uncertainty Into tho completion of this section tho only uncertain olement, in fact. A considerable part of tho cut is through solid rock and yet thero Is enough looso earth to causo somo uneasiness at tlmos, especially during tho rainy season. So far, somo two million cubic yards of earth have fallen in, half of which has been removed. Tho slides "In sight" aro put at another million and an additional million is added to cover slides not yot discovered. However, estimates as to fu turo slides aro merely guesses and no ono is in a position to give a guaranty against five or oven ten million cubic yards, but thero is a limit somowhoro and that limit will somo time be reached. T havo learned a new engineering phrase, "the anglo of repose." Tho slides will stop when tho anglo of repose Is reached, but as the angle varies with different materials and In different weather, it furnishes a delightful subject for dis cussion, calculation and speculation. Some of tho slides start unexpectedly and move rapidly, as ono would expect, but others travel slowly, a few feet each day and trees on the slide main tain an upright position. Tho Cucuracha slide, tho largest that has occurred thus far, has been moving down Into tbo cut for more than twenty fivo years and Is now traveling at tho rate of two foot per day. A threo hundred thousand cubic yaTd slide occurred during the recent visit of tho congressional committee and this one, too, Is .still In motion. The descent to tho Pacific is made through throo locks (arranged In pairs like tho Gatun locks), ono at Pedro Miguel and two at Mira flores. Low hills at these points assist in con trolling tho water, and a lake of one and a quarter miles botweon Pedro Miguel and Mira flores effects another saving in excavation Tho Gatan locks belong to tho Atlantic divi sion and aro being constructed under tho direc tion of Colonel Slbert, an army engineer who Is a member of tho canal commission. The locks at Pedro Miguel and Miraflores belong to tho Pacific division and aro a part of tho work as signed to Mr. S. B. Williamson, a civil engineer While tho two sots of locks aro identical in plan and almost identical in size (tho descent is a' little dooper than tho ascent because there is a twenty foot tide on tho Pacific) there is con siderable rivalry between the engineers in charge,, and as thoy aro to some extent using difforent machinery their experience will be , useful to future work. I may add that thero Is also a friendly rivalry between tho lock divi sions on the ono hand and tho central or Culebra cut. divisions on tho other. Colonel Gaillard a commissioner and army engineer, is in charge of tho central division. b It ,is nearly nine miles from tho Miraflores locks to deep water and this channel, five hun dred feot wide, is more than half dredged Tho ,, rpek taken from Culebra cut is not wasted somo of it is used for a breakwater on the Pacific side; some is used in the construction of numer t ous dams and there will bo plenty left for the tSTeSr planned to protect Tho amount expended on the canal up to No- f vombor 1 1909, was one hundred and Seventh nine millions but as this includes the r?v millions paid to tho Panama company and the ton millions paid to tho republic of Panama, the sum actually expended by the commission was only ono hundred and twenty-nine millions. In view of tho fact that this sum i&cludea tho t money spent on sanitation, on buildings, on ma chinery and on other preliminary work, it may seem strange to the reader that the estimate for tho completion of tho canal is about two hundred millions, but the locks an expensive part of tho work are only just begun and the cost of excavation in Culebra cut will increaso with each foot. But unless some unforeseen accident occurs, it Is probablo that the canal will cost tho United States less than throe hundred and Bovonty-fivo millions, and be open for traffic be fore January 1, 191G. It is possible, of course, that something unexpected may happen to re tard tho work or to increase tho expense a1 slide, an extraordinary rainfall or an earth quake, but no important work would be under taken if calculations were based upon possibili ties instead of probabilities. The slides to bo expected aro not likely to bo as large as the ones which havo occurred; tho rainfall is not likely to bo greater than that of last year; and earthquakes are no more likely hero than at other places on the Isthmus. Colonel Goethals, the army engineer, who as president of the commission, is the head of the executive department and superintendent of the entiro work has the confidence of the Americans hero and I have heard only good words concern ing him from the Panamanians. I have, by tho courtesy of officials, had access to all tho departments and information asked has been promptly furnished. I have made in quiries of outsiders as well as employes and am sntisfied that the official machinery is working with as little friction as could be expected, con sidering the fact that the members of the com mission and -other high officials are men of ability and experience and as such, have, and should have, opinions and the courage to ex press them. So much for the canal itself. In the second article I shall speak of the be ginning made by tho French, the work of or ganization, the miracle wrought by sanitation and tho influence which our country is destined to exert on Central and South America through the building and operation of this important waterway. - ' ' W. J. BRYAN. Copyright by New York World. MR. BRYAN'S CONGRESSIONAL PLATFORM (Tho Public, Chicago Louis F. Post's paper) If it were possible to spread broadcast the tariff speeches made last fall in Texas by Wil liam J. Bryan and Senator Joseph W. Bailey, a great national enlightenment might result. Although of much usefulness in many respects, this would, bo a good thing to do if only for the object lesson it affords in the difference between a statesman and a demagogue. To call Bryan a demagogue is one of the commonest recreations of persons who are prejudiced against him and his opinions, and know of no other way of ac counting for his tremendous personal influence. But in fact Bryan is no demagogue. Compare those Texas speeches, Bryan's and Bailey's Bryan's speech at Dallas, to which Bailey's was a reply, was characteristically dignified and man ifestly sincere. And Bryan's argument was sound, whereas Senator Bailey's insofar as he may be credited with having made an argument, was without foundation. Bailey defended his own course in voting in the senate against putting raw ma terials into the free list. He did so by asking his constituents of Texas to believe the false doctrine that the freeing of raw materials would increase the profits of manufacturers, and bv putting forward the absurd proposition that there should bo no abolition of protection on raw materials except as it Is abolished on fin ished products. The truth is that the freeinir of raw materials would not increase the nroflts of manufacturers; it would tend to reduce them by making competition in manufacturing freer" and easier. Mr. Bailey's economic premisfs "11 all awry on this noint. TintwHie,fn.i t., , . of h.aving mastered Adam Smith's "Wealth of Nations." Even if he had been right instead nf wrong, the tactics he proposed fop ridding ths country of protection were puerile if they were not treacherous. Protection 'can not be kYl?ed rLl ?I' becaU8(l a11 its beneficiaries would rally to ts support. It can not bo killed bv horizon al revisions, because this would make a perpetual see-saw between horizontal revisions downward and horizontal revisions upward it can be killed only by putting ono item after another as fast as possible into the free lift Z policy must begin somewhere, and as raw 'm terials of the kind that Bryan classifies offer tho most vulnerable point of attack, it should begin, there. When Senator Bailey demands protec tion all along the line until it is modified all along the line, he is like a military commander who should refuse to attack a fatally weak point in the enemy's defenses at a critical moment because he wanted to attack all the defenses at once some time or other in the future. He is worse than such a commander, for not only does he refuse to attack the enemy's weak spot but he calls for volunteers to help repair it. In opposition to Bailey's, fatally Fabian policy, Bryan's speech at Dallas, reinforced by his speech at El Paso, offered a sound and vigorous policy to the democratic party. To those among us who object to Bryan because he does not go deep enough or far enough into the tariff ques tion, these speeches should be a complete an swer. True, ho does not demand absolute free trade and direct taxation. But if he did, he would be unfit for leadership in active politics at a time when the constitution stands in the way and there, is no general sentiment in favor of a constitutional amendment in that particular. But he does go the full length of tariff for rev enue only which is the extreme possibility of free trade in United States at the present stage of public sentiment and he does advance ele mental arguments in support of this demand. Such sentiments as these appear again and again in one form or another in Bryan's Dallas speech. The security of the masses is to be found not in trying to get a tariff that will benefit them, but in reducing the tariff to the lowest possible point. The masses of the people must not expect to get their hands into other people's pockets; their efforts must be to keep other people's hands out of their pockets. I began the study of public questions with tho tariff question, and years ago reached the con clusion that the protective principle is indefen sible from every standpoint. The man who contends for incidental protec tion soon becomes as unreasonable as the man who asks for direct protection. Incidental pro tection is protection that was not intended a protection that came without planning; the moment you begin to plan for protection it ceases to be incidental and becomes direct and intended protection, and to defend it one must resort to the same arguments that are used to defend tho protective system in general. It was in that spirit that Mr. Bryan at Dallas addressed the democrats of Texas, who in their desire to protect local wool raising, had demand ed the maintenance of protection on raw ma terials so long as finished products are protected. In the same spirit, Mr. Bryan proposed a democratic policy of national scope for the com ing congressional, elections, and here is what ho proposed: 1. A platform is a contract between the can didate elected upon it and the people who elected him, the violation of which is an "embezzlement of power." 2. Congressional rules to "Insure the rule of the majority on every question." 3. Free wool and abolition of the compensa tory duties on woolens, together with a sub stantial reduction in the ad valorem rate on woolens. . M 4. Free lumber, free wood pulp, and free" paper. ' shoes Free hidGS' leather' harQess, boots and 6. Free oil and products of oil. nn7;nFree irore' fre coal, and low duties on all manufactures of iron and steel baginT6 binding twine' cotton tIes and cotton 9. Material deduction in the cotton schedules and in the tariff on all other necessaries of life especially upon articles sold abroad more cheanlv than at home. TOyiy 10 Articles competing with trust-made goods to go into the free list. fcooas 11. No tariff to be above BO per cent ad H VSlorei5'c excopt liqiuor and tobacco, and all rates above 25 per cent, excepting those upon lE and tobacco, to be reduced one-twentieth lloh year until a 25 per cent rate is reached the pur pose being to reduce the tariff gradually to a UltZl 5$! " theFeafter t0 "U Wwfo? That platform is no broader than it oujrht to be,, and no narrower than is absolutely neclssar? for effective purposes under exiting noHtical p&?hantCietSdoPhe radiC,al fre9 tradehocomi Plains that it does no go far enough, is nrohkhlv taking counsel of his impatience insteaf his judgment; for, short of an improbable rovoli tion this country must get to a revenue tarS basis before it can establish' free tS The ---" " .tM,, W-..MIW.,.