uly voluminous literature of Isthmian canal
construction. The report was signed by Senators Hanna, Pritchard,
Millard, and Kittredge. "We consider," said the committee, "that the
Panama route is the best route for an isthmian canal to be owned,
constructed, controlled, and protected by the United States." It was a
bold challenge of the conclusions of the majority members of the
committee, but in entire harmony with and in strict conformity to the
views and final conclusions of the Isthmian Commission. The minority
report was accepted by the Congress and a canal at Panama became an
American enterprise for the benefit of the American people and the world
at large.

Such, in broad outline, is the present status of the Panama Canal. A
grave question presents itself at this time, which demands to be
disposed of by Congress, and to which all others are subservient. Shall
the waterway be a sea-level or a lock canal? It is a question of
tremendous importance--a question of choice equally as important as the
one of the route itself. A choice _must_ be made, and it must be made
soon. All the subsidiary work, all the related enterprises, depend upon
the fundamental difference in type. Opinions differ as widely to-day as
they did at the time when the project was first considered by the
international committee in 1879. Engineers of the highest standing at
home and abroad have expressed themselves for or against one type or the
other, but it is a question upon which no complete agreement is
possible. In theory a sea-level canal has unquestionable advantages,
but, practically, the elements of cost and time necessary for the
construction preclude to-day, as they did in 1894, when the New Canal
Company recommenced active operations, the building of a sea-level
canal. It is _not a question of the ideally most desirable, but of the
practically most expedient_, that confronts the American people and
demands solution.

The New Panama Canal Company had approved the lock plan, which placed
the minimum elevation of the summit level at 97.5 feet above the sea and
the maximum level at 102.5 feet above the same datum. In the words of
Prof. William H. Burr:

It provided for a depth of 29.5 feet of water and a bottom width of
canal prism of about 98 feet, except at special places, where this
width was increased. A dam was to be built near Bohio, which would
thus form an artificial lake, with its surface varying from 52.5 to