Investigation of Panama Canal Matters

I believe that the lock canal has the greater capacity for traffic. When one imagines the traffic approaching 60,000,000 to 80,000,000 tons per year it will be realized that it would not be practicable to get them through if one ship had to be tied up for every other one that passed, there would be so many in the canal at one time. There would be a demand for widening the sea-level canal before any demand would come for the enlargement of the lock canal, except as individual ships might get to be so large as to require another set of locks, which would not be very costly.

Taking all those things into account, I believe that for the same time and money the lock canal is the better canal. I would give more for it.

Senator KNOX. There are locks on the sea-level canal as well, are there not?

Mr. STEARNS. One-or one pair.

Senator KNOX. One pair of locks?
Mr. STEARNS. Yes.

Senator KNOX. Where are they located?

Mr. STEARNS. Close to the Panama shore.

Senator KNOX. And do you know what the usable lengths of those locks are?

Mr. STEARNS. They are 1,000 feet long and 100 feet wide.
Senator TALIAFERRO. What is the lift?

Mr. STEARNS. The lift varies from nothing to about 10 feet.

Senator KNOX. Well, there is just the same chance of accident to gates and to ships in one of those locks as there would be in any other lock-in one of the sea-level locks?

Mr. STEARNS. There is the same accident danger to ships, but that is very small in any lock. There is the same danger of smashing a gate, but the result of smashing a gate would not be as serious as it would be in a summit-level lock.

Senator KNOX. Yes; I understand. That is all.

Mr. STEARNS. I might say in connection with that matter of the size of locks that if ships continue to increase in size, following the history of the past, that probably the difference in size between the locks that are 900 feet in usable length and those that are 1,000 feet in usable length would be reached in the difference in the time of construction of the canals.

That is, that if the lock-canal locks were outgrown in twenty years after the completion of the lock canal the sea-level canal locks would be outgrown in twenty years after the completion of the sea-level canal. That is, a difference of six years would account for a difference of 5 feet in width and a hundred feet in length.

The CHAIRMAN. Mr. Stearns, have you anything further to suggest to the committee?

Mr. STEARNS. No, sir; I think not.

The CHAIRMAN. I think, then, we will excuse you now; and we certainly appreciate your coming, and thank you very much for being here.

(The committee thereupon adjourned until Tuesday, March 20, 1906, at 10.30 o'clock a. m.)