REPORT OF BOARD OF CONSULTING ENGINEERS, PANAMA CANAL.


 Mr. DAUCHY. Yes; they are on file in the Commission's office.
 Mr. RANDOLPH. How long have they been there?
 Mr. DAUcHY. At the time Major Harrod and General Hains were down there they brought them back with them.
 The CHAIRMAN. For the purpose of estimate, what would you regard as a safe figure to take as the cost of the earth, soft rock, and hard rock, including contingencies and allexpenses such as a contractor would encounter if he were doing the whole thing?
 Mr.'BURR. That is for the Culebra cut?
 The CHAIRMAN. Yes; the Culebra cut.
 Mr. DAUCHY. Do you mean dividing it into classification, or an average price?
 The CHAIRMAN. Either way; if you can divide it, so much the better.
 Mr. DAUCHY. You do not mean to include in that any expense for sanitation or administration?
 The CHAIRMAN. No; not general administration such as at Washington and the city of Panama. Suppose a contractor had agreed to remove the Culebra cut and deposit it at proper places and incurred all the expense, charging in the plant as a part of the cost.
 Mr. DAUCHY. I think from that point of view that Mr. Wallace's figure of 50 cents per yard would be a fair basis. While it has cost us at times a great deal more than that, it has been because we have not had the preparatory work necessary to handle the material in an economical manner and have worked mostly with an antiquated plant. We have reduced it to that figure, and considerably below under favorable conditions, even with the adverse plant we were working with, and I think that with a modern plant and a proper amount of preparatory work 50 cents per yard would be a fair figure.
 The CHAIRMAN. That includes the cost of plant?
 Mr. DAUCHY. Yes; and preparatory work. Of course, the first cost would be large, but distributing the cost of installation through the entire yardage, that would be a safe figure.
 Mr' RANDOLPH. With the eight-hour law?
 Mr. DAUCHY. That is a feature that I had not considered.
 The CHAIRMAN. If a contractor were doing the work the eight-hour law would not bother him. The contractor who is erecting the bridge over Rock Creek in this city works his men ten hours or more.
 Mr. DAUCHY. I should say those figures were all made on a ten-hour basis, and I think the figures should be increased by the cost essential to an eight-hour law, or probably 25 per cent.
 Mr. HUNTER. Ten hours as compared with eight hours is 20 per cent, is it not?
 The CHAIRMAN. W ould that increase the reasonable margin of contractor's profit?
 Mr. DAUCHY. No; we figured that as the actual cost.
 Mr. WELCKER. Does 25 per cent include pumping expenses?
 The CHAIRMAN. Does that include drainage?
 Mr. DAUCHY. Yes; all costs of removing the material.
 Mr. STEARNS. For a sea-level canal?
 Mr. DAUCRY. Yes.
 Mr. BURR. Mr. Chairman, I would like to recur once more to the subject of the Gamboa damn, because it affects the estimate of cost. I would like to inquire of Mr. Dauchy whether if the maximum elevation of the dam was limited to 180 feet above sea level, and if the amount did not exceed, we will say, 10,000,000 cubic yards or even 5,000,000 cubic yards, whether that amount of elevation would entail any cost in excess of that which would be involved in wasting the material at a desirable dump?
 Mr. DAUCHY. Yes; I think it would. I do not know as I understood exactly, but if it was decided to build the Gamboa dam and it came to be a question whether the material should be taken from the Culebra cut or elsewhere, it would probably be cheaper to take it from the Culebra cut; but considering the question of the removal of material from the Culebra cut by itself, I think it could be deposited cheaper somewhere else than at the Gamboa dam site.


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