based on data less complete than are available at
present. The unit costs in the report of 1906 are identical with those
in the report of 1901, and since 1906 there has been an increase in the
wage scale and in the cost of material. On the Isthmus wages exceed
those in the United States from 40 to 80 per cent. for the same class
of labor. The original estimates were based on a ten-hour day, but
Congress imposed the eight-hour day. Subsequent surveys and the various
changes already noted have increased the quantity of work by 50 per
cent., whereas the unit costs have increased only 20 per cent.--not
such a bad showing. In addition, municipal improvements in Panama and
Colon, advances to the Panama Railroad, and moneys received and
deposited to the credit of miscellaneous receipts aggregate
$15,000,000, which amount will eventually and has in part already been
returned to the Treasury. Finally, no such system of housing and caring
for employees was ever contemplated as has been introduced and
installed, materially increasing the overhead charges and
administration.

The idea of the sea-level canal appeals to the popular mind, which
pictures an open ditch offering free and unobstructed navigation from
sea to sea, but no such substitute is offered for the present lock
canal. As between the sea-level and the lock canal, the latter can be
constructed in less time, at less cost, will give easier and safer
navigation, and in addition secure such a control of the Chagres River
as to make a friend and aid of what remains an enemy and menace in the
sea-level type.

In this connection attention is invited to the statement made by Mr.
Taft, when Secretary of War, in his letter transmitting the reports of
the Board of Consulting Engineers:

"We may well concede that if we could have a sea-level canal with a
prism of 300 to 400 feet wide, with the curves that must now exist
reduced, it would be preferable to the plan of the minority, but the
time and cost of constructing such a canal are in effect prohibitive."

We are justly proud of the organization for the prosecution of the
work. The force originally organized by Mr. John F. Stevens for the
attack upon the continental divide has been modified and enlarged as
the necessities of the situation required, until at the present time it
approaches the perfection of a huge machine, and all are working
together to a common end. The manner in which the work is being done
and the spirit