is, I hold, involves a
serious financial error, unless a corresponding allowance is made for
the ultimate cost of the sea-level project. There is, however, no
serious disagreement upon the point that a sea-level canal in any event
would cost a very much larger sum as an original outlay, certainly not
less than $120,000,000 more, and, in all probability, in the opinion of
qualified engineers, including Mr. Stevens, the chief engineer, twice
that sum.

Reference is made in the report to the probable value of the land which
will be inundated under the lock-canal project with a dam at Gatun, the
value of which has been placed at approximately $300,000. The majority
of the Senate committee estimate that this amount might reach
$10,000,000, or as much as was paid for the entire Canal Zone. The
estimate is based upon the price of certain lands required by the
government near the city of Panama, but one might as well estimate the
worth of land in the Adirondacks by the prices paid for real estate in
lower New York. The item, no doubt, requires to be properly taken into
account, but two independent estimates fix the probable sum at $300,000
for lands which are otherwise practically valueless and which would only
acquire value the moment the United States should need them. In my
opinion, the value of these lands will not form a serious item in the
total cost of the canal, and I have every reason to believe that
independent estimates of the minority engineers of the Consulting Board,
and of Mr. Stevens, may be relied upon as conservative.

The majority of the Senate committee further say that--

It is not necessary to dwell upon the fact that all naval
commanders and commercial masters of the great national and private
vessels of the world are almost to a man opposed unalterably to the
introduction of any lock to lift vessels over the low summit that
nature has left for us to remove.

I am not aware that any material evidence of this character has come
before the Senate Committee on Isthmian Affairs, investigating
conditions at Panama. I do know this, however, that until very recently
it has been the American project to construct a lock canal. All the
former advocates of an American canal by way of Panama or Nicaragua, or
by any other route, contemplated a lock canal of a much more complex
character than the present Panama project. All the advocates of a canal
across the Isthmus, including many disting