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ptished. He later wrote: " I had ful–
filled my mission, the mission 1 had
taken on myself;
1
had safeguarded
the work of the F rench genius; 1 had
avenged its honour; I bad served
France. "
2
Thus, once again, F rance figured
prominently in a key acquisition of
U. S. territory. Almost exactly 100
years earlier, Napoleon had sold tbe
vast Louisiana Territory to the
United States. It was America's
largest acquisition ever - and the
least expensive for its size. And now,
a century la ter, carne the Canal
Zone - smallest and most expensive
of America's strategic acquisitions.
President Roosevelt considered
the acquisition ofthe Cana l Zone by
grant from Panama as the most im–
portant event of his adminis tration.
He himself ranked it with the Loui–
siana Purchase.
Was it just "good fortune" that
the United States, against its will for
the most part, carne to possess one
of the mos t strategic and coveted
areas of world geography? Or is
there a God who has been working
out a plan here on earth?
Of this God
it
is written: "He cre–
ated every race of roan of one
stock. . . . He tixed the epochs of
thei r history and tbe limits of their
territory" (Acts 17:26,
The New
English Bible).
One More Miracle
The exploits of the thousands of
laborers sweating under the Pan–
amanian sun from 1904
to
1914, the
medica! a nd sanitary breakthroughs
in this fever-infested part of the
world - this part of Canal history is
well documented in the history
books.
But not nearly as well known to
the public is the fact that the success
of the entire project hinged on a
fateful decision taken in 1906.
The French, in their unsuccessful
etfort , had tried two methods of ca-
2Panama.
Bunau-Varilla. p. 428. For anothcr thor·
oughly documentcd work on thc history of thc Pan·
ama Canal. sce
Cadiz to Cathay.
by Captain Miles
P.
DuVa l. Jr.
PLAIN TRUTH
Moy 19 73
nal construction. They started with
a sea-level project and realistically
advanced to a high-level , lake-aod–
lock system before thei r enterprise
failed.
But American engineers reopened
the "battle of the levels." The con–
troversy was not resolved until Pres–
ident Roosevelt's Secretary of War
William Taft sided with the minor–
ity report of six engineers (out of a
distinguished panel of 15 inter–
national engineers). They warned
that the lock-lake system was the
only safe and practica! way to con–
struct the interoceanic canal and to
control the rampaging flood waters
of the Chagres River. The nine ma–
jority engineers had favored a sea–
leve! project.
The tremeodous rock and mud
s lides encounte red in cuttíng
through the continental divide later
proved to all concerned that the
lock-lake route, with its 85-foot,
above-sea-level elevation, was diffi–
cult enough to construct. It is very
likely that an attempt to construct a
sea-leve! canal with the techníques
and equipment avai lable at that
time would bave proved to be an
impossíble task.
"When tbe American people
cometo celebrate the openíng of the
present canal" wrote an on-the-spot
observer in 1914, " tbey owe a hymn
of thanksgiving to that happy fate
that Jed them - yes,
led them against
their
will
-
to build a lock canal at
Panama. To have pursued the course
the majority ... wa nted the United
States to pursue
would have involved
us in one of the most ca/amitous un–
dertakings in al/ history." (Battling
With the Panama Slides,
William
Joseph Showalter,
National Geo–
graphic Magazine,
February, 1914.)
One is struck, too, by the fact
that, compared
to
thc French effort,
nearly everything went right - all
through tbe project for ten difficult
years!
It
should be plain that it
wasn't only American ingenuity that
accomplished the task.
The American people should
have sung a hymn of thanksgiving,
not to "happy fate," but to their
God in heaven for their fantastic
national success. But few seemed to
realize what was really happening –
that the Almighty was conferring
upon them another major portian of
their birthright inherítance!
Coincidence - Or Design?
The entire Panama experience
was no mere coincidence. There is a
reason why both the United States
and Great Brítaín rose to such
prominent positions of power in the
late nineteenth and early twentieth
century. There is a reason why both
English-speaking powers - often
against their own political plans and
desígns - acquired strategic pieces
of real estate around the world -
Gibral tar, Suez, Aden, Singapore,
Panama. As has often been said, the
British acquired an empire in a " fit
of absence of rnínd."
The newspaper
London Spectator
recognized the peculiar "Manifest
Destiny" occurring to both the Brit–
ish and American peoples, when in
its issue of December 10, 1898, it
urged the United States to seize the
opportunity atforded it in Panama:
"When one-half of the Anglo–
Saxon race holds the waterway be–
tween the Mediterranean and tbe
Indian Ocean, what could be more
appropriate than that the other ha lf
should hold that be tween the Atlan–
tic and the Pacífic? .. . It is not for
us to delay but to basten that aus–
picíous hour."
Most important for us today,
however, is to understand why
many of these "sea gates" and other
pieces of strategíc real estate have
slipped - and are slipping - from
the grasp of Britain and tbe United
States. There is a reason for this,
too!
Write for our free book,
The
United States and British Common–
weauh in Prophecy.
l t gives the
broad historie and prophetic sweep
you need to understand the major
news events of today's fast-paced
world.
O
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