al business point of view, casting no reflection upon
either the ability or the fairness of judgment of the members of the
International Board, that the mere element of time should weigh
decidedly in favor of the verdict of the technical commission of 1898,
which was unanimous for a lock canal.

Of the technical commission of 1896-1898, Mr. Hunter, chief engineer of
the Manchester Ship Canal, was a member, and he at that time, without a
word of dissent, joined the other members in giving the unanimous and
emphatic expression of the committee in favor of a lock canal.

_Mr. Teller._--Mr. President----

_The Vice President._--Does the Senator from New Jersey yield to the
Senator from Colorado?

_Mr. Dryden._--Certainly.

_Mr. Teller._--Will the Senator kindly repeat the date of that?

_Mr. Dryden._--Of the technical commission of 1896-1898, Mr. Hunter, the
chief engineer of the Manchester Canal, was a member. The technical
commission was of the new French company.

_Mr. Teller._--You refer to the commission of the new French company?

_Mr. Dryden._--Yes, sir; the commission of the new French company.

Why he should now change his views and convictions and why he should now
be so emphatic and pronounced in favor of a sea-level project is not set
forth in anything that has been printed or been communicated to the
Senate Committee on Interoceanic Canals. This hurried action, this
scanty consideration, as I have stated, is the foundation upon which the
advocates of the sea-level plan rest their appeal for support. This is
the report and the evidence upon which Congress is requested to
pronounce in favor of a sea-level project and give its indorsement to a
plan which will involve the country in at least $100,000,000 of
additional expenditure and which will delay the opening of the canal for
practical purposes of navigation possibly for ten years or more after
the lock canal can be finished and opened for use.

The Isthmian Commission restates certain points in a clear and precise
way, which leaves no escape from the conclusion that both as to time and
cost the majority members of the Board materially underestimated
important factors, and that they have every reason to believe that the
total estimate of cost of a sea-level canal should be raised to
$272,000,000, and that the estimate of time for construction should be
increased to at least fifteen and a half years. But under certain
readily conceivable conditions it