25 JANUARY 1902, Page 18

The Isthmian Canal Commission has reported to Congress in favour

of the Panama route, and there now seems little doubt that the United States will purchase the Panama Com- pany's concession, work done, and plant for £10,000,000, and will then proceed to finish M. de Lesseps's great undertaking. Possibly it will cost them another £100,000,000; but when finished there will be a waterway without locks between the two seas. It will be necessary to remove a mountain and turn a tropical torrent, but American engineers are the most resourceful in the world, and will think nothing of such feats. We wonder whether they will rely for labour on the 'West Indian negroes, as did the Company, or whether they will attempt to employ Italians.