An estimated two-fifths of the excavation necessary…

An estimated two-fifths of the excavation necessary for Panama's eventual canal has been completed despite the French company's disastrous financial experience.

Many headquarters and hospital buildings have been finished.

Some of the machinery left on the site will be usable later, and the railroad has been maintained.

Another legacy of the French company's bankruptcy is a large labor force, now unemployed, mostly Antillean blacks.

More than half are repatriated, but thousands remain, many of whom will eventually work on the United States canal.