p. 12 | The Panama Canal by H. Louie Mignott

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Apr 11, 1912

The Panama Canal

By H. Louie Mignott

H. LOUIE MIGNOTT

“THE Canal Zone contains about 448 square miles. It begins at a point three marine miles from mean low-water mark in each ocean, and extends for five miles on each side of the center line of the route of the canal. It includes the group of islands in the Bay of Panama, named Perico, Naos, Culebra, and Flamenco. The cities of Panama and Colon are excluded from the Zone, but the United States has the right to enforce sanitary ordinances in those cities, and to maintain public order in them in case the republic of Panama should not be able, in the judgment of the United States, to do so.”

The digging of the Panama Canal is, indeed, one of the greatest and most stupendous undertakings attempted by modern men. When completed, it will stand at the head of twentieth-century accomplishments. It will be a greater feat than any that has been achieved by the ancients. The cutting through of the Suez Canal was a great undertaking; but the building of this great waterway, connecting the waters of the Pacific with those of the Atlantic, will be a greater work. The following gives us an idea of the dimensions of this great waterway and the passage of ships:—

“The entire length of the canal, from deep water in the Atlantic to deep water in the Pacific, is about fifty miles. Its length from shore-line to shore-line is about forty miles. In passing through it from the Atlantic to the Pacific, a vessel will enter the approach channel in Limon Bay, which will have a bottom width of five hundred feet, and extend to Gatun, a distance of about seven miles. At Gatun, it will enter a series of three locks in flight, and be lifted eighty-five feet to the level of Gatun Lake. It may steam at full speed through this lake, in a channel varying from one thousand to five hundred feet in width, for a distance of twenty-four miles, to Bas Obispo, where it will enter the Culebra Cut. It will pass through the cut, a distance of about nine miles, in a channel with a bottom width of three hundred feet, to Pedro Miguel. There it will enter a lock and be lowered thirty and a half feet to a small lake, at an elevation of fifty-four and two-thirds feet above the sea-level, and will pass through this for about one and one-half miles, to Miraflores. There it will enter two locks in series and be lowered to sea-level, passing out into the Pacific through a channel about eight and one-half miles in length, with a bottom width of five hundred feet.”—“Official Handbook,” page 5.

We hope to see the foregoing plans worked out. One can not fully understand the magnitude of the work unless one is able to be an eye-witness. The writer has had the privilege of walking through several miles of the canal, where some of the great wonders are performed in the matter of excavations and the construction of the locks. Nothing but master minds could have devised such things.

He has also visited several of their mechanical shops and gazed in wonder at the inventions there seen.

“Through the labor and quarters branch there have been brought to the Isthmus 43,432 laborers, of whom 17,797 came from Europe, 19,448 from Barbados, the balance from other islands in the West Indies, and from Colombia. No recruiting is required at present, the supply of laborers on the Isthmus being ample.”

The United States plans to have this great waterway opened in a short time. Then her ships of war will not need to go around Cape Horn in passing from one coast to the other, but they will be able to steam through the canal in a few hours' time.

For the completion of this canal, every available steam-shovel and steam-engine, and all the implements are kept at work.

There is a lesson in all this that we may learn. We have the greatest of all works, ancient or modern, to be accomplished in the earth at this time. The

digging of the Suez Canal was a great work; the digging of the Panama Canal is a greater work; but the giving of the great threefold message to all the world is the greatest of all works. Every available equipment should be at work in carrying forward God's message for to-day, and this “to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.”

After the finishing of the canal, those who have been engaged as laborers in its construction will have to seek employment elsewhere. But when this message of God shall have been finished, Jesus will come with his reward for every faithful worker, which means an inheritance in his eternal kingdom. So we need not be discouraged in the prosecution of our Master's work. In the digging of the canal there are many obstacles in the way; there are great mountains to cut through; yet with men and means, America is of good courage. She expects to succeed. She has no power on which to lean save her men and her money. But we have the mighty One of Israel on whom to lean hard; and all the stumbling-blocks and the mountains of difficulty before us shall be as nothing, for God leads the way. ‘Who art thou, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel thou shalt become a plain.’ And how is that to be performed? ‘Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts.’

The greatest mountain that looms up before us at present in this field is the lack of men to gather the harvest of souls. It can indeed be said of our field that ‘the harvest truly is plenteous, but the laborers are few.’

Empire, Canal Zone.