Canals

Last week President Coolidge talked and thought canals. Senator Walter E. Edge of New Jersey, Chairman of the Interoceanic Canals Committee of the Senate had, among others, recently looked inquisitively into the waters of the Panama Canal; he talked persuasively to the President, of the need for a Nicaragua canal, to cost between $500,000,000 and $1,000,000,000. As an economical alternative, he suggested a new $125,000,000 lock for the Panama Canal.* The President, it was reported, would think about it. Meanwhile, the Navy demonstrated to their own satisfaction, once more, the vulnerability of the present canal to airplane attack. Army engineers begged to differ, with everybody, grouchily suggested that the talk of a Nicaragua canal was plain politics. They pointed out that a canal through Nicaragua would have to penetrate the mountain backbone of that country where it would be exposed to the danger of frequent earthquakes, that it would cost five or more times as much as a new lock in Panama, and that the Panama Canal could carry twice as much traffic. A new canal, they added, would only make one more vulnerable spot to fortify and protect in case of war.

*Senator Edge's statement that another lock in the Panama Canal or a new canal through Nicaragua will soon be necessary, is flatly contradicted by a recent report of the Senate Appropriations Committee which indicates that the Panama Canal is now operating at less than half capacity and that the tonnage passing through it has never approached the peak reached in 1924.