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 INTRODUCTION

T is eminently fitting that this book should appear at the present time. No more suitable occasion for a popular treatise on the Panama Canal can be imagined than the eve of the opening of the greatest trade route known in the history of the world.

A study of this noteworthy undertaking is of especial value to us because this is an American achievement, projected by the people of the United States through their representatives at Washington; paid for from the revenues of this nation; accomplished by the grit, sagacity, and perseverance of some of the greatest Americans of this generation. We are not intelligent if we are uninformed on such a subject; we are unwise if we fail to appreciate its significance; we are unpatriotic if we do not applaud the doings of such citizens.

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