ems and difficulties
inherent in the great project of constructing the canal of Languedoc, or
"Canal du Midi," which forms a water communication between the
Mediterranean and the Garonne and between the Garonne and the Atlantic
Ocean, one of the best known canals in France and in the world? Need I
refer to that pathetic story of its chief engineer, Riquet, one of the
greatest of French patriots, who, in his abiding faith in this great
engineering feat, stood practically alone? Need I recall that he met
with scant assistance from the government, with the most strenuous
opposition from his countrymen; that he was treated even as a madman and
that he died of a broken heart before the great work was finished?

That canal stands to-day as an engineering masterwork and as a most
suggestive illustration of man's ingenuity and power to overcome
apparently insuperable natural obstacles. It has been in existence and
successful operation, I think, since 1681. For a sixth part of its
distance it is carried over mountains deeply excavated. It has, I think,
ninety-nine locks and viaducts, and as one of its most wonderful
features it has an octuple lock, or eight locks in flight, like a ladder
from the top of a cliff to the valley below. If in 1681 a French
engineer had the ability and the daring to conceive and construct an
octuple lock, will any one maintain that more than two hundred years
later, with all the enormous advance in engineering, with a better
knowledge of hydraulics and a more perfect method of transportation and
handling of materials--will any one maintain that we are not to-day
competent to construct successfully a lock canal such as is proposed to
be built at Panama upon the judgment of American engineers?

Mr. President, the overshadowing importance of the subject has led me to
extend my remarks far beyond my original intention. I express my strong
convictions in favor of a lock canal and of the necessity for an early
and specific declaration of Congress regarding the final plan or type of
canal which the nation wants to have built at Panama. I am confident
that it lies entirely within our power and means to build either type of
waterway; that our engineering skill can successfully solve the
technical problems involved in either the lock or the sea-level plan;
but there is one all-important factor which controls, and which, in my
opinion, should have more weight than any other, and that is the element
of time. If