The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER. THURSDAY, AUGUST 21, 1913. THE PANAMA CANAL.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXVI, Issue 91, 21 August 1913, Page 4

The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER. THURSDAY, AUGUST 21, 1913. THE PANAMA CANAL.

i he .special engineering supplement id 1 1 1, 0 London “J’imes” gives some i.nU cesliny information regarding (lie estimates for the construction of the Panama Canal and how preally those; estimates have been exceeded. ln| i!)(H a special hoard of engineers ■ u cut into tlie matter pretty thoroughly S and expressed the opinion thal tlie costj of building tlie Canal would not lie' molt' than C'tSC'OO.Odt). Jn pint; another hoard- ol equally competent eu-j pincers dm hied licit the weak could 1 he accomjilCited for a million less. | Conr years later, tfior some retd ex-, p ■riem-e „f ihe diflienlties to he met,) I tdm Isthmian Canal Commission arriv-t ed at ihe conclusion that to complete. ih * nnderiaking would cost no less than seventy.five million sidling. On ■June dOth of this year a return shows' that the actual sum expended to that, j date was, in round numbers, sixty millions s! erling. and it is now said that [ th>' probable final total cost of con-! 'lntel ion will add another ten mil-1 lions to the already lingo sum spent. {

Tlio same authority states that the, most, important of the elements ilia, hav'c conn ibnied to making the cost 1 a. h greamr that; v, as aniicipat '<! has hai'ii tiie human 1 actor. r.xjiei i-, a covilrai'tor.-v in the 'Unite! Slates] expu ted to pay £25 a moiUh to : .,ii;;vei meii, who ate at lualiy *»->-'•, ,C!d ; from hid to £GU a monili to civili engineers who are paid from £llO to | .CIOO • 3d to hi an hour to common la-’, 1,.a re is (colored), who act aally gov Ironi to They also calculated that i ti,o labor eilicicncy would he almost as

high as in tin- United State., whereas it is not even GO per cent, ol a A!! these differences together made a vast diTerence in the cost of the work, so that really the engineers tv Ihi made the earlier estimates are not | 1,, l,e blamed for • their optimistic fiamres. hi some directions the cost has been much greater owing to the fact that the United States Government took up the work instead of I lotting it to private contractors, and ii■ addition to pay being higher the oust of hospitals, sanitation, and the like lias actually amounted to about 1 five millions of money as against the J original estimate of one million sterling. i ———