-p ., ._, ,_ , WASHINGTON. D.C 
 / I, J / ^,' U . S . A. 
 
Digitized by the Internet Arciiive 
 
 in 2010 with funding from 
 
 Boston Library Consortium IVIember Libraries 
 
 http://www.archive.org/detaiis/panamacanalwhatiOObarr 
 
PAN A M A 
 CANAL 
 
 WHAT IT IS 
 WHAT IT MEANS 
 
Copyright by Joseph Pennell 
 
 END OF DAY, GATUN LOCK 
 
 This sketch was made by Joseph Pennell while workmen were quitting work for the day 
 
 By permission of Joseph Pennell and J. B. Lippincott Co., Philadelphia, Pa. 
 
PANAMA 
 CANAL 
 
 WHAT IT IS 
 WHAT IT MEANS 
 
 E^L OF THE PAN AMERICA 
 
 CAN UNION 
 
 U. S. Minister to Siam (1894-98); Special Commissioner in Asia 
 (1898-99); U. S. Delegate to Second Pan American Conference 
 (1901-02); Commissioner General to Asia and Australia of the St. 
 Louis World's Fair (1902-3); U. S. Minister to Argentina (1903-4); 
 U.S. Minister to Panama ( 1904-;'; U.S. Minister to Colombia (1905-6:; 
 Elected by the Twenty-one American Republics, in 1906, as the 
 Executive Officer of the "Bureau of American Republics" (changed 
 by international agreement to "Pan American Union" in 1910), 
 which position he has since held. 
 
 PAN AMERICAN UNION 
 
 WASHINGTON, D. C. 
 
 U. S. A. 
 1913 
 
DEDICATED TO 
 
 COLONEL GEORGE WASHINGTON GOETHALS 
 
 AND HIS FELLOW WORKERS, THE MAN AND MEN 
 WHO ARE DOING IT 
 
 THE Pan American Union is an 
 international organization and office 
 maintained by the twenty-one American 
 republics (the United States and its twenty 
 sister nations : Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, 
 Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, 
 Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Guatemala, 
 Haiti, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, 
 Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Salvador, Uru- 
 guay, and Venezuela), controlled by a 
 Governing Board composed of the Secre- 
 tary of State of the United States and the 
 Diplomatic Representatives in Washington 
 of the other American nations, administered 
 by a Director General and Assistant 
 Director chosen by this Board and assisted 
 by a staff of statisticians, compilers, trade 
 experts, translators, editors, librarians and 
 clerks, and devoted to the development of 
 commerce, friendly intercourse, good 
 understanding, and peace among all the 
 American republics. 
 
 ^i 157954 
 
 Copyright, i»13, by John Barrett, Washington, D. c 
 
FOREWORD 
 
 THIS little handbook has been prepared to meet a special 
 demand. The widespread and growing popular interest 
 in the Panama Canal and the great number of persons 
 visiting the Isthmus have caused a heavy call to be made upon 
 the Pan American Union for the information which it contains. 
 
 As the Pan American Union is the international organization 
 and bureau of information maintained at Washington by all the 
 twenty-one American republics, including the United States and 
 the twenty Latin American countries, for the purpose of develop- 
 ing greater commerce, better acquaintance, more intercourse, 
 and permanent peace among them, and as the Panama Canal 
 will be a potent influence in accomplishing these ends, it is fitting 
 that such a handbook should be published under its auspices. 
 It should be understood, however, that the Pan American Union 
 is not officially responsible for any errors which may have inad- 
 vertently crept into the text or for any opinions expressed or 
 policies advocated in its pages. 
 
 It simply endeavors to answer in compact, succinct form the 
 majority of questions which are asked, not only by those who, 
 unable to go to Panama, desire to know more about the canal 
 and what it means, but by those who, in going there, wish to 
 learn ahead what they will see or confirm afterwards what they 
 have seen. It is also intended to be useful to schools, colleges, 
 libraries, and clubs where classes are being formed to study the 
 canal, its meaning and efi^ect. It should be likewise valuable for 
 general reference. 
 
 It has been compiled under the supervision of the Director 
 General of the Pan American Union, who was United States 
 Minister to Panama at the beginning of the work on the canal 
 in 1 904- 1 905, assisting in the diplomatic negotiations establishing 
 the first relations of the government of Panama and that of the 
 Canal Zone. Since then, at other posts and in his present posi- 
 tion, he has not only endeavored to follow closely the construc- 
 tion of the canal but to study constantly its possible effect upon 
 the progress and prosperity of the American republics. As he 
 
has also been Minister to two other Latin American countries, 
 Argentina and Colombia, as well as delegate to the Second Pan 
 American Conference in Mexico, and, prior to that service, Min- 
 ister to Siam in southern Asia, and Commissioner General of the 
 St. Louis World's Fair to Asia and Australia, he has actual 
 acquaintance with the countries and commerce affected by the 
 Panama Canal. 
 
 It is impossible within the space limitations of a book of this 
 kind to do full justice to the Panama Canal, what it is and what 
 it means, but as much information as possible of a practical and 
 interesting character has been included. 
 
 Without trespassing in any way upon the field of the Isthmian 
 Canal Commission, the Pan American Union has endeavored to 
 meet a popular want of the hour coming under its official atten- 
 tion. It expresses appreciation of the assistance which it has 
 received from the office of the Canal Commission in Washington 
 and of the data obtained not only from the general reports and 
 publications of the Commission and the addresses and articles of 
 Col. Goethals, but from the handbook of the Commission and 
 the Canal Record edited by Joseph Bucklin Bishop, Secretary 
 of the Commission. It is also indebted to William P. Northrup 
 of Buffalo for valuable cooperation in the make-up of the book, 
 and to Joseph Pennell for the use of the frontispiece. 
 
 MEDAL GIVEN TO ALL EMPLOYES ON THE CANAL "GOLD ROLL" FOR TWO 
 YEARS OF CONTINUOUS SERVICE 
 
 Left: Head of Ex-President Roosevelt; right: Culebra Cut 
 
^^' |PANAMA| • 
 
 iCy\l\fy\Li ^ 
 
 l\X/HAT IT ISl 
 WHAT IT MEANS 
 
 JUST where are Panama, the Canal Zone, and the Canal 
 itself? 
 These seem like simple questions and yet few persons 
 can answer them correctly offhand. 
 
 As we nearly all feel the fascination of geography and enjoy 
 studying maps in order to locate the countries and places which 
 we either visit or read about, let us at the start have before us a 
 few plain but interesting facts and figures. 
 
 To find the Isthmus of Panama on the map which we carry in the 
 mind's eye, it is well to consider its location in reference to some 
 representative cities or points in different sections of the world. 
 
 In its relation to the United States we can best locate it by 
 using a little imagination. New York City is cut by the north 
 and south Meridian of longitude which is 74 degrees west of 
 Greenwich. Washington, the capital, is at 77 degrees. Toronto, 
 Canada; Buffalo, New York; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania ; Charles- 
 ton, South Carolina; and Palm Beach, Florida, are almost on 
 the line of 80 degrees, which cuts directly through Panama and 
 is coincident with the western boundary of the Canal Zone where 
 it begins on the Atlantic side. In other words, if a plumb line 
 could be dropped 2,000 miles directly south from the top of Pitts- 
 burgh's loftiest skyscraper it might, if it swayed a trifle, bump 
 against Col. Goethal's house on Culebra Hill. 
 
 Located by steamer routes, Colon, the Atlantic entrance to the 
 canal, is approximately 2,000 miles slightly west of south of New 
 York, 1,400 miles quite a little east of south of New Orleans, a 
 little less than 1,000 miles almost due south from Kpy West, and 
 3,250 miles due southeast from San Francisco. 
 
 The two illustrations above are of Isidore Konti's statues," Spirit of the Atlantic" and " Spirit of the Pacific." 
 
A T L A N T t C 
 
 OCEAN 
 
 IMAGINARY AEROPLANE VIEW OF CANAL FIFTY MILES LONG FROM 
 OCEAN TO OCEAN 
 
 10 
 
The above map shows at a glance what the canal means to the transportation routes of the Western Hemisphere and the 
 world. Especially should it be noted that the entire Pacific coast of South America is directly south from the canal and the 
 entire Atlantic coast of the United States. It also shows how the canal actually cuts, at the strategic and commercial 
 geographical center, the Atlantic and Pacific coasts of North and South America. 
 
Traveling direct from England or Northern Europe, Colon is 
 approximately 4,600 miles due southwest. From Yokohama, a 
 vessel to reach Panama on the Pacific side would steam 7,800 
 miles slightly south of east; from Sydney, Australia, 8,000 miles 
 northwest; from Valparaiso, Chile, on the west coast ot South 
 America, 2,600 miles almost due north. 
 
 We are so much in the habit of considering "Panama" and 
 the "Canal" practically as synonyms that we do not slop to 
 remember that the Republic of Panama is a country of conse- 
 quence and has a considerable reach of map lines. Panama as 
 a nation boasts of 32,000 square miles, or an area close to that 
 of either Indiana or Maine. Its extreme length is 430 miles or 
 nearly equal to the distance from Boston to Baltimore. Its 
 average width is 70 miles or equal to that of the State of Mas- 
 sachusetts. It begins at ']^\ degrees west on the boundary of 
 Colombia in South America and extends to 83 degrees west to 
 Costa Rica in Central America. It lies between 7^ degrees and 
 9I degrees north latitude, or about 500 miles north of the equator. 
 
 To understand the peculiar layout of the Canal Zone, a strip 
 of land 10 miles wide from the Atlantic to Pacific through which 
 the canal runs and which is under the absolute control of the 
 United States, we must realize that the Isthmus is not a North 
 and South but an East and West neck of land connecting North 
 and South America, with a northerly or upward turn where 
 the canal crosses. This makes Colon, the Atlantic terminus of the 
 canal, nearly 20 miles west of Panama, the Pacific terminus, and 
 causes the canal to run from the northwest to southeast in con- 
 necting an eastern sea with a western ocean! It also gives the 
 traveler or stranger the surprising experience of looking from his 
 Tivoli hotel window at Panama City in the early morning and 
 seeing the sun rise directly before him out of the Pacific Ocean! 
 
 The Isthmus is only about 40 miles wide, as the condor flies, 
 from the Caribbean to the Pacific, but the turns of the canal 
 make its channel 50 miles from deep water to deep water. There 
 is one other place between the Bay of San Bias to the east of 
 Colon and the Bay of Panama where the Isthmus narrows to 
 about 30 miles, but the continental divide is higher and the lay 
 of the land not suitable for a canal. The lowest point of the 
 Cordillera, which reach in a majestic barrier for 10,000 miles from 
 
 15 
 
'f m p if y*|i^r^.5^ 
 
 >>tK r,- 
 
 ARCHITECT'S SKETCH OF NEW WASHINGTON HOTEL, FACING CARRIBEAN SEA 
 
 the Yukon River in Alaska to the Straits of Magellan in southern 
 Chile, will be at the bottom of the Culebra cut, which, when the 
 canal is completed, will be exactly 40 feet above sea level. And 
 yet not far away in Panama are mountains rising nearly 10,000 
 feet into the clouds as if to protest against man's humbling of 
 their might with an artificial waterway. 
 
 Not far from Culebra is the famous Balboa hill, over 1,000 feet 
 high, from the summit of which it is alleged the great discoverer 
 after whom it is named first saw the Pacific Ocean, September 
 25, 1513. I would not advise the tourist to undertake to climb 
 this hill even though from the near-by distance it does not look dif- 
 ficult, for the remembrance of my efforts, when I was United 
 States Minister to Panama, to scale its jungle-grown sides made 
 me doubt whether Mr. Balboa ever undertook to climb it except 
 in the mind of the imaginative historians! The way the red bugs 
 for a month afterwards destroyed the peace of my soul as well as 
 irritated my body from their burrowed homes in the flesh of my 
 legs and feet made me also wonder if the experiences of Balboa 
 and his followers in crossing the Isthmus in those days were not 
 conducive to his using swear words when he took possession of 
 the Pacific Ocean in the name of Spain. 
 
 Akin to geography are physical characteristics, products, 
 peoples, and climate. To better understand the canal, we must 
 take a passing glance at more details than those already given of 
 
 16 
 
Panama as a country. To do it justice, it is deserving of credit 
 for many other features than that oi being the home of the world's 
 greatest engineering undertaking. With a population approach- 
 ing 400,000, with an an- 
 nual foreign trade valued 
 at nearly ^11,000,000, 
 with considerable areas of 
 excellent agricultural 
 land, with extensive for- 
 ests of valuable timber, 
 with no arid sections, 
 with numerous water- 
 power possibilities, with 
 an interior which needs 
 only railways and high- 
 ways to permit of a de- 
 '"^'r velopment equal to that 
 "%, of Florida or Louisiana, 
 and with a climate which, 
 • -A owing to the narrowness 
 of the Isthmus, is more 
 salubrious than that of 
 many countries farther away from the equator, and with a pro- 
 portion of inhabitants not one-fifth of what it can eventually 
 support, Panama is, indeed, a land of actual attraction and no 
 small potentialities. 
 
 It is producing and selling to the United States and Europe, 
 in increasing quantities, bananas, cocoanuts, cacao, or chocolate 
 beans, sarsaparilla, coffee, sugar, pineapples, alligator pears. 
 
 POINT TORO BREAKWATER 
 
 Atlantic Entrance to Canal 
 
 DOCKS AND WHARVES AT COLON 
 17 
 
medlar juice, ipecac, indigo, ivory nuts (out of which most of our 
 buttons are made), rubber, mahogany, cocobolo wood, hides and 
 skins, pearls and mother of pearl, tortoise shell, etc. Its real 
 mineral wealth has not yet been sufficiently studied and exploited 
 to permit of a positive conclusion, but there are many evidences 
 of the presence of the precious metals in sufficient quantities to 
 pay for their development when transportation conditions are 
 improved. Manganese iron ore and coal deposits have been 
 located, while recent reports indicate that petroleum can also be 
 found. Capital and continued geological investigation alone can 
 actually determine what Panama has in store in these great 
 resources, but frequently, during my stay as American Minister 
 at Panama, samples of minerals, metals, and oil were brought to 
 me from various interior points which caused me to recommend 
 that a thorough geological and metallurgical study should be 
 made of the Isthmus. If oil and coal of good quality can be found 
 there in large quantities, they will add greatly to the popularity 
 and economy of the Panama Canal route. 
 
 Panama's chief opportunity which would appeal to foreigners 
 seems now to lie in cattle raising and fruit growing. Along a 
 
 large portion of the Pacific side 
 of the Isthmus and in some parts 
 of the Atlantic side as well as in 
 the plateau districts between the 
 two are broad savannas or open 
 areas where cattle easily graze and 
 readily fatten. There is no good 
 reason why Panama should not 
 eventually supply all the meat 
 required by vessels using the 
 canal, as well as by its own in- 
 creasing population and that of 
 the Canal Zone. Fruit growing, 
 especially bananas and other 
 fruits for which there is such an 
 overwhelming demand in the 
 United States, is proceeding 
 apace and rapidly converting 
 large sections, principally upon 
 
 coiAMBi's .\i()Nlmp:n't at 
 
 CRISTOBAL 
 
FRONT STREET, COLON, AND PANAMA RAILROAD TERMINUS 
 
 the Atlantic side, which were once malarial and mosquito-ridden, 
 into real gardens and homes of healthy people. With the lessons 
 in sanitation before Panama, which have been taught by the 
 builders of the canal, who have proved conclusively that the 
 tropics can be made healthy, I believe from long official experi- 
 ence in the tropics of both Asia and America that Panama has 
 a prosperous and interesting future ahead of her aside from being 
 the site and environment of the canal. 
 
 CLIMATE AND HEALTH CONDITIONS 
 If the present new hotel conditions at Panama and Colon are 
 continued and enlarged as travel may demand, I see many rea- 
 sons why the Isthmus should become and always remain a popular 
 winter resort. From the first of December until the end of March 
 the heat is not oppressive if one keeps out of the sun or protects 
 himself with an umbrella or large hat in the middle hours of the 
 day from eleven to three, while the nights are always comfortable 
 at that season. During other months, Panama might not be 
 selected as a resort, but if the traveler or visitor uses a little mental 
 philosophy together with common sense in dressing, eating, and 
 drinking, in reference to the heat, he will be astonished to find 
 how agreeably he gets along, how little he minds it, and how well 
 he keeps. In fact, many persons who hate the heat of the tropics 
 
 19 
 
and revile them during their first experience learn to like them 
 and return to them, attracted forever by their mysterious charm. 
 
 If the skeptical individual w^ho reads this will stop long enough 
 on the Isthmus to visit in their homes and come into actual personal 
 contact with the representative men and women serving Uncle 
 Sam in the Canal Zone, he will be surprised at the remarkable 
 health, energy, and cheerfulness displayed by them, provided they 
 have resided there long enough to know the tropics and how to 
 live. Exceptions will, of course, be found, but they are rare. 
 I do not contend for a moment that Panama should or would be 
 selected as a permanent residence in preference to one in the 
 temperate climate, or that in the long run, all things being equal, 
 a man can expect to enjoy life or keep as well and vigorous there 
 as in cooler climates, but I simply want the tropics and Panama 
 to get a square deal! Having spent seven years in the tropics of 
 Southern Asia and America, including many trips of adventure 
 and exploration into pathless jungles, and having never been ill 
 a day from any tropical influence, I may be excused for writing 
 earnestly, but not accused of lack of experience. 
 
 There is one mental formula which I advise every visitor to 
 the tropics to remember. It will be an excellent and practical 
 antidote for the heat. It is : 
 
 God made it hot in the tropics countless ages ago; it has been 
 hot ever since; it always luill be hot; but let us be thankful that 
 it isn't any hotter. All the fussing, fuming, stewing, and zvorry- 
 ing about the heat wont make God change it a single degree, but 
 %uill make us hotter still. Let us, therefore, keep cool at least 
 mentally and we will be surprised to find how quickly in conse- 
 quence we grow cooler and more comfortable physically. 
 
 When our soldiers were making themselves sick in the Philip- 
 pines worrying about and cussing the heat just after our occupa- 
 tion of the Islands in 1898, I persuaded Gen. E. S. Otis, then 
 Commander-in-Chief at Manila, to issue an informal order con- 
 taining this formula. The effect was instant and almost magical. 
 The sick and hospital list grew rapidly less and some regiments 
 even so enthused over it that they fined every man a peso who 
 made any reference to the heat, and then used the proceeds to 
 buy electric fans! 
 
 Gen. George W. Davis, the fine old soldier and first Gov- 
 
 20 
 
%o' K-oV» Long;. ,.,!, Wart r™,„ Greenwich \ flf, //.V-/ «• 
 
 
 
 Afjj 
 
 C Stiiiiaio 
 
 yrm^~-^\ 
 
 Z^ry'P.^e.^fK'J 
 
 >^ I Cliame 
 
 ^ ^^ Q '", \ Bay 
 
 I Cliame ' ,\> / 
 Penonjime ' I \\ 
 
 -^^"f 
 
 J^le 
 'S^Laa P\lmas„ ^ 
 
 o \ Santiago 
 
 _^Iont)!lo o 
 
 Q^AI del 
 
 ;. , iV ^ \ -W''J"pta 
 Archipelago oa richine 
 
 -f^iif rf\ 
 
 /''/I* a n a in « 
 
 a^\K^7uexo V o^^ //,,>f an a m a 
 
 
 KILOMETERS. 
 
 Pta Mai 
 
 
 REPUBLIC OF PANAMA 
 
 ernor of the Canal Zone; Col. W. C. Gorgas, the courageous 
 premier health provider and yellow-fever destroyer of the Isthmus; 
 and John W. Wallace, the eminent and hard-v^orking first Chief 
 Engineer; and myself as the first United States Minister after the 
 work began at Panama, united in preaching and practicing this 
 doctrine or philosophy when we went to Panama in the early part 
 of 1904, and ever since it has characterized the attitude of all the 
 canal staff", from the great Goethals down to his lowest white 
 subordinate. 
 
 A few other suggestions based- on practical experience may 
 help the newcomer or first visitor to Panama and the tropics to 
 get along more comfortably than he had expected. With the 
 philosophy outlined above always in mind, let him eat lightly, 
 especially of meats, eliminate drinks with alcohol in them, dress in 
 clothing of airy texture, have at hand brown or blue-glass specta- 
 cles or eyeglasses to soften the glare in the middle of the day, 
 wear a wide-brimmed hat, and carry an umbrella — black will 
 do, but white or yellow, lined with green or blue, readily obtain- 
 able at Panama, is preferable. Many persons going to the tropics 
 for the first time are troubled with prickly heat. This is largely 
 superinduced by cold baths. Those inclined to this trouble 
 should always take warm or hot baths or rub themselves well 
 with diluted alcohol. They may not be so comfortable at the 
 moment but they will open the pores of the skin and permit free 
 
 21 
 
perspiration. Prickly heat is nothing more than congestion of 
 the pores which starts irritation and itching. Cold baths chill 
 and close the pores and so increase the irritation. Constipation 
 is always to be avoided in the tropics, and a bottle of fruit salts 
 should be in everybody's handbag to be used on the slightest 
 indication of irregularity. 
 
 All danger of yellow fever at Panama is absolutely eliminated 
 and the chances of getting m.alaria are at a minimum, but, if 
 the traveler has a tendency to the latter, regular doses of quinine 
 will usually prove an adequate preventative. If anybody should 
 become suddenly ill during his visit to Panama he need not 
 worry about care and attendance. There are no better hos- 
 pitals and nurses in New York or London than in Panama and 
 Colon, and the medical attendance is most capable and thoroughly 
 experienced. I have written quite a little about possible sick- 
 ness because travelers are always discussing it, but the intend- 
 ing visitor to Panama need have even less thought of this than 
 when he travels in the United States or on the continent of 
 Europe. 
 
 What about the rainy season ? is a common question. Again, 
 here, we find much misconception. The so-called rainy season 
 extends from April to November, but that does not mean that it 
 rains all the time or every day. There are periods when it does 
 rain every day and rains hard, but very rarely, indeed, all day. 
 Even in the heart of the rainy season the sun shines more than it 
 hides and the greater part of the day is rainless. The showers 
 or downpour generally come at almost regular hours and can 
 usually be depended upon to end about when expected. The 
 porous character of the soil and the warmth of the sun have a 
 quick drying effect, which enables people to soon get about and 
 work to go on. These rains are also most welcome in the hottest 
 months of April, May, and June, and often bring a desired 
 coolness, sometimes, however, called mugginess. This reminds 
 me to caution a newcomer in the tropics in regard to mildew. 
 In the rainy season and often in the dry season, on account of 
 the humidity in the air, much trouble is experienced with clothes, 
 and especially shoes and other leather articles, becoming mil- 
 dewed at night. This can be avoided by thoroughly drying such 
 articles in the sun, or by putting them in a closet or partially 
 
 22 
 
closed trunk or box in which a small oil lamp or some lighted 
 candles, or burning electric light bulbs, are also placed. 
 
 A word about the actual temperature at Panama just to satisfy 
 the curious. The mean thermometer for the year is about 80 
 degrees with extreme fluctuations rarely reaching 15 degrees 
 above or below that mark. It never gets as hot as it often does 
 in New York, Washington, Paris, and Yokohama. At night 
 there is always a drop in temperature which is noticeable and 
 conducive to sleep, but, of course, there are some rooms, corners, 
 and places, where there is no movement of air or a breeze, and 
 it seems close and disagreeable. If one, however, can sleep 
 where there is plenty of air, he will not suffer from the heat. 
 From January to April a fresh breeze blows most of the time 
 and delightfully tempers the air. Riding about at night in a 
 motor or carriage, a wrap is often necessary. 
 
 Yes, there are mosquitoes, but thanks to the valiant and never- 
 ending fight of Col. Gorgas and his assistants they are almost a 
 negligible consideration in one's comfort. The adequate wire 
 netting, moreover, that protects hotels and houses keeps away 
 the few stray stegomias and anepholes which may be seeking a 
 feast on your fresh blood. 
 
 Speaking of the stegomia, the little insect devil which is respon- 
 sible for spreading yellow fever, it may interest my feminine 
 readers to know that it is Mrs. or Miss Stegomia and not Mr. 
 Stegomia who does all the harm, and that she wears, as it were, 
 yellow striped stockings ! Deprived, however, of a chance to 
 feed herself upon a person afflicted with yellow fever, she is as 
 harmless as her husband or brother. This is not an argument 
 for or against equal rights or for new styles in hosiery, but a 
 simple scientific fact. If you don't believe it, ask Dr. Gorgas 
 or any of his assistants. The malarial-bearing bird is the 
 anephole, who must, in turn, be inoculated first in order to 
 infect healthy victims. In their case, I believe Mr. and Mrs. 
 Anephole are equally dangerous to society. Don't worry about 
 them, anyway, for neither kind will interfere seriously with the 
 pleasure of your visit to the great canal. If a few stray ones 
 do bother you, a little citronella oil rubbed on the ankles, back 
 of the hands, forehead, and ears will aid in keeping them from 
 biting. 
 
 23 
 
SIKAMSHIP SKR\It'E TO PANAMA 
 
 "Victoria Luise," Hamburg-American Line 
 
 ■'Pastores," United Fruit Co. "Laurentic," International Mercantile Marine Co. 
 
 R. M. S. "Oruba," Royal Mail Steam Packet Co. 
 
 24 
 
Steamship "Colon" of the Panama Railroad S. S. Line 
 Steamship " Grosser Kurfuerst " North German Lloyd 
 
 STEAMSHIP SERVICE TO THE ISTHMUS 
 
 There are abundant facilities for reaching the Panama Canal 
 from the United States. The best regular service and lines are 
 from New York, New Orleans, and San Francisco. During the 
 excursion season of January to April there are also numerous 
 good boats from these ports and Key West. 
 
 The average cost of the trip depends on whether the journey is 
 direct down and back or by an excursion route, and also upon 
 the quality and size of the cabin engaged. The minimum round- 
 trip rate is approximately $100-^135; the maximum, ^250-^400. 
 
 It is advisable that the intending visitor to the canal should 
 get in touch with the offices of one of the following lines in order 
 to arrange satisfactory passage : 
 
 The Panama Railroad Steamship hne regularly runs each 
 week comfortable passenger steamers direct to Colon and return, 
 taking about six days for the passage each way. The two largest 
 boats are the "Colon" and "Panama." Its offices are at 24 
 State Street, New York City. 
 
 25 
 
The Hamburg-American Line, with offices at 41-45 Broadway, 
 New York City, runs regularly vessels of the "Prinz" class from 
 New York to Colon all the year round, touching at Fortune Island, 
 Santiago, Kingston, Bocas del Toro, and Port Limon. Aside 
 from these, in January, February, March, and April, they put on 
 larger vessels of the type of the "Moltke" and "Victoria Luise" 
 for excursions to the Isthmus, which include stops at Cuba, Haiti, 
 Porto Rico, Trinidad, Venezuela, Jamaica, and other points on 
 the Caribbean. The regular boats take about four weeks for the 
 round trip and the excursion steamers from sixteen to twenty-nine 
 days. This year they will run one excursion vessel from New 
 Orleans in January and February. 
 
 The United Fruit Co., with offices at 17 Battery Place, New 
 York City and in New Orleans, have an extensive and excellent 
 service not only from New York and New Orleans but from 
 several other ports. Their best passenger vessels, however, run 
 regularly from New York City and New Orleans. The passage 
 from New Orleans is about two days quicker than that from New 
 York. Their new vessels of the "Pastores" type are 550 feet in 
 length with a gross tonnage of 9,000 tons and special arrange- 
 ments and facilities for the tropics. They have many different 
 routes and touch at other interesting places aside from Colon. 
 
 The Royal Mail Steam Packet Co. have also an extensive 
 service of good boats from New York, including a large variety of 
 tours. Their boats leave regularly, Thursdays or Saturdays^ 
 from Pier 13, East River, and their offices are at 32 State Street, 
 New York City. The different itineraries of the vessels that go 
 to Panama include Fortune Island, Cuba, and Jamaica, while 
 some of them touch at the Bermudas, Porto Rico, Barbados, 
 Trinidad, other islands of the Caribbean, Venezuela, and 
 Colombia. 
 
 The White Star Line, of 9 Broadway, New York City, runs 
 during the excursion season the "Laurentic" and the "Megantic," 
 large vessels, to the West Indies and Colon, these cruises occupying 
 about three to four weeks. 
 
 The North German Lloyd, with offices at 5 Broadway, New 
 York City, runs the "Grosser Kurfuerst" on three excursions in 
 January, February, and March, not only to the Panama Canal 
 but to the West Indies. 
 
 26 
 
TYPICAL EXCURSION SIGHT-SEEING TRAIN OF THE PANAMA RAILROAD 
 
 For those desiring to go via or from Palm Beach, Tampa, and 
 other Southern points, the Peninsular and Occidental Steamship 
 Co. will run a large, fast passenger vessel, the " Evangeline," 
 every two weeks, January to April, from Key West to Colon, 
 stopping at Jamaica and Cuba on the return voyage. The 
 Florida East Coast Railway, Henry M. Flagler's great achieve- 
 ment, with office at 243 Fifth Avenue, New York, and the Atlantic 
 Coast Line, 12 18 Broadway, will make direct connections with 
 this boat via Key West and Tampa respectively. 
 
 The Southern Railway, 264 Fifth Avenue, and the Seaboard 
 Air Line, 11 84 Broadway, also make connections via Florida, 
 while the former from the East and the Illinois Central and 
 Louisville & Nashville from the Central West connect with 
 the United Fruit Co. steamers at New Orleans. 
 
 From San Francisco, the Pacific Mail Steamship Co. regularly 
 runs every week vessels with good passenger accommodations to 
 the Isthmus, taking about three weeks for the trip one way. Their 
 New York offices are located at 17 Battery Place. 
 
 Full descriptive data in the form of pamphlets, time tables, 
 and maps can be obtained from the offices of each one of these lines 
 or from the Pan-American Union, Washington, D. C. 
 
 27 
 
COLON TO PANAMA 
 
 On approaching Colon from the north, the first land seen is a 
 range of high hills or low mountains to the south and left, or on 
 the port bow. Coming nearer, the conformation is less irregular 
 and seems to flatten out. Presently, the low-lying buildings and 
 wharves of Colon can be seen to the left with the lighthouse at 
 the water's edge of the town. On the right is Point Toro and 
 its lighthouse with the long breakwater to protect the entrance 
 of the canal, reaching out for several miles and in course of con- 
 struction. Near the Colon lighthouse looms up the handsome 
 and capacious new Washington Hotel just nearing completion 
 at this writing. In front of it is a great artificial sea-bathing 
 basin or pool, which will prove a strong attraction for tourists. 
 As the steamer turns into its wharf there can be seen at the right 
 the town of Cristobal, which is the port of Colon in the Canal 
 Zone and the home ot most of the canal staff located on the Atlantic 
 side. At its western point stands a notable statue of Columbus, 
 which was unveiled by the famous de Lesseps in the days of 
 French control. Just back of it stands the original official resi- 
 dence of the great Frenchman during his brief stay on the 
 Isthmus. 
 
 Steamships generally arrive at Colon early in the morning and 
 passengers disembarking find near the wharf the regular or an 
 excursion railroad train which is to take them across the Isthmus 
 to Panama, or to whatever point they may be intending to go. 
 The majority of visitors to Panama come and go on vessels that 
 spend only one night and part of two days at Colon. This time, 
 it should be understood by everybody aboard such steamers, 
 is altogether too short for a complete view and study of the 
 canal, but still it is well worth the journey from afar and 
 enables the traveler to gain a good general idea of this mighty 
 waterway. 
 
 The best way to visit Panama, by far, is to come on one steamer, 
 spend a week there, and then return or pass on. A three weeks' 
 absence from the United States on this plan gives an excellent 
 opportunity to become thoroughly familiar with the canal. The 
 time there can then be divided, with two or three days at Colon, 
 including visits to Cristobal, Gatun, and Culebra, and four days 
 at Panama with visits to Culebra, Pedro Miguel, Miraflores, 
 
 28 
 
Balboa terminal and points in 
 and about Panama and Ancon. 
 By stopping at the large comfort- 
 able hotels in Colon and Panama, 
 and taking the daily special ex- 
 cursion and regular trains of the 
 well-run Panama railway, the 
 visitor can spend one of the most 
 interesting weeks of his life on 
 the Isthmus, and it will be well 
 worth the trip also in years to 
 come after the canal is completed 
 and in working order. 
 
 The traveler who arrives one 
 day and leaves the next generally 
 is taken in a special excursion 
 train across the Isthmus to Pana- 
 ma City, leaving Colon in the 
 morning and returning at night. 
 This train makes stops at the 
 Gatun Locks and Dam and at 
 Culebra, and sometimes at 
 Pedro Miguel and Miraflores 
 Locks with a detour to Bal- 
 boa, but from Culebra it gen- 
 erally proceeds to Panama City 
 direct. In this case many per- 
 sons elect to stay over night 
 at the Tivoli hotel or else- 
 where in Panama, in order to 
 see that city and its surround- 
 ings, and then return to Colon 
 the next day in time to catch 
 their steamer. This possibly 
 is the best way to see the 
 most. Every day, however, 
 extra sight-seeing excursion 
 trains are run either from 
 Panama or Colon which enable 
 
 29 
 
TIVOLI HOTEL, ANCON, NEAR PANAMA CITY 
 Office Rotunda Screened Veranda 
 
 Front View of Hotel 
 Dining Room President's Suite 
 
 30 
 
visitors by a little study of plans to see most that is worth 
 seeing. 
 
 In this connection let me say a word about letters of introduc- 
 tion. Don't ask for them and don't present them unless you 
 have some special mission to undertake or errand to execute! 
 Col. Goethals and his subordinates will do all they can for 
 you whether you come with or without letters of introduction, 
 but they will bless you if you don't present any. They are all 
 literally overwhelmed with such letters, and you are simply doing 
 the common ordinary thing when you deliver them. There is 
 every facility for seeing the canal without the aid of letters of 
 this kind and, by presenting them or taking up time to find the 
 officials to whom they are addressed, you may miss seeing much 
 that you want to see and can see just as well without letters. 
 You escape also embarrassing the officials in Washington and 
 others who are continually being requested to provide letters of 
 introduction, but who feel like apologizing to the overworked men 
 on the Isthmus for sending more people to them to worry them 
 and take up the time which Uncle Sam needs for the work. 
 
 On these excursion trains go trained lecturers who tell you just 
 what you want to know, and of whom you can ask endless ques- 
 tions; whereas, if you go about with an official he may or may 
 not explain to you what you do not understand and you hesitate 
 to bother and bore him with a lot of inquiries. 
 
 If one has time before crossing the Isthmus or after he returns 
 from Panama to go about Colon and Cristobal, he should visit 
 the great plant of the Quartermaster and Subsistence Depart- 
 ments under charge of Col. C. A. Devol, Chief Quartermaster, 
 and Lieut.-Col. Eugene T. Wilson, Subsistence Officer, from 
 which each day go out the food and supplies for 45,000 em- 
 ployes and the stores and materials to keep the vast work 
 proceeding without a break. The homes of the staff located at 
 Cristobal, the Columbus Monument, the Avenue of Palms, 
 laundry plants, the storehouses, the commissary, the busy docks 
 and wharves, are well worthy of inspection. In Colon, the native 
 bazaars and shops are interesting, and in them one can buy cheaply 
 clothes, hats, and anything and everything he needs during his 
 visit to Panama, and some curious things of souvenir character. 
 A ride to the hospital on the east side of Colon is enjoyable and 
 
 31 
 
32 
 
shows how well equipped is the Canal Commission to care for 
 the sick. The new hotel Washington and its bathing pool will 
 be the Mecca of nearly every traveler. If interested in railways, 
 he may care to inspect the offices and terminals of the Panama 
 Railway Company, oi which j. A. Smith is the energetic and 
 capable General Superintendent. 
 
 Those who take photographs or wish to purchase them will 
 find several places on the main street running parallel to the 
 railroad where they can get films developed or purchase pictures 
 of the canal and environment. Horse conveyances are in 
 abundance near the wharves and railway station to carry pas- 
 sengers in every direction. 
 
 The money in common use is silver, the Panama dollar or peso 
 being exactly equal to fifty cents in United States money, but 
 the latter is readily taken in payment for all kinds of services or 
 purchases. The newcomer should always understand clearly, 
 however, in what money he is dealing, or else he may pay double 
 what is expected and not be told or reminded that he has made 
 a mistake! 
 
 If a few days can be spared for a stay in Colon, there are several 
 interesting side trips which can be made. At Mount Hope, 
 formerly known as Monkey Hill, is the famous, or, possibly in 
 view of its history, ill-famed cemetery where are buried large 
 numbers of the Frenchmen and other foreigners who perished by 
 the hundreds during the unsanitary times of the pioneer regime. 
 A view of this is a grim reminder of death's awful charge upon 
 the first effort to build the canal. 
 
 If the visitor enjoys seeing old ruins which are really remarkable 
 in their architecture and carry him back almost into the medieval 
 times, he should make a boat trip down the Chagres River from 
 Gatun and inspect the old ruins of Fort Lorenzo at the mouth 
 of the river, which was built by the Spaniards to guard this en- 
 trance and command the sea. Vast sums of money were expended 
 in this wonderful construction and it is one of the most interesting 
 ruins of the Western Hemisphere. A whole day can be spent in 
 making this trip with full reward for the effort. The boat ride, 
 moreover, down the river, surrounded on both sides by the tropical 
 jungle and overhanging trees, is an interesting experience. 
 
 If it can be so arranged, a trip on one of the Government boats 
 
 33 
 
to Porto Bello, the point on the coast west of Colon where most 
 of the rock is being obtained for the Point Toro breakwater, is 
 worth while, because there can be seen some of the finest old 
 fortifications of the days of the Spanish Conquest. Even the old 
 guns and cannon balls in use in those times still remain upon the 
 bastions. Were these ruins and those of Fort Lorenzo at the 
 mouth of the Chagres River readily accessible, every visitor to 
 the Isthmus would feel that they were alone deserving of a trip 
 all the way from New York to see. 
 
 ANCON HILL AND HOSPITAL VIEW FROM REAR OF HOTEL TLVOLI 
 
 Baseball ground in foreground 
 
 In driving and walking about the clean, well-paved streets of 
 Colon, it is difficult to imagine what the place looked (and 
 smelled) like eight years ago when the United States began the 
 cleaning up of Colon and Panama. The whole town was a 
 pest hole, except a small section at the northeast end under the 
 practical control of the railroad. Slimy, stagnant water backed 
 up under most of the buildings and the streets were mud holes 
 in the rainy season. It was, indeed, a most discouraging place 
 and scene for the eyes of us pioneers to look upon when we arrived 
 on the Isthmus in those days of early 1904 which literally tried 
 
 34 
 
STREET SCENE, PANAiMA CITY 
 
 men's souls. Yellow fever, Chagres fever, and malaria domi- 
 nated the situation. Now all is changed through the instrumen- 
 tality of sewers, waterworks, paving, and general sanitation — 
 and skilled administration. 
 
 Colon is a cosmopolitan place and in its 15,000 population 
 can be found representatives of nearly a score of peoples and 
 languages. It reminds one much of Port Said without the 
 offensive criminal, immoral, and gambling characteristics of the 
 entrance to the Suez Canal. Cristobal, its zone neighbor, could 
 be regarded as a model town in any state or country, and is 
 excellent evidence of wise American direction and administration. 
 
 The only towns or settlements deserving of a special visit apart 
 from the canal between Colon and Panama are those at Gatun, 
 Gorgona, Camp Elliot, and Camp Otis, Empire, Culebra, Paraiso, 
 Corozal, and Balboa, and these can be omitted if the time is 
 limited. The chief things to see in them are the neat, well- 
 arranged, well-kept houses, offices, barracks, school buildings, 
 hospitals, and shops. Everything is orderly, clean, suggestive 
 of system, work, and health. Frills are entirely lacking except in 
 the form of pretty flower gardens and other exterior or interior 
 ornamentation done by the deft hand of some wife, mother, or 
 daughter. The whole atmosphere and effect are those of business 
 
 35 
 
WATER POWER AWAITING DEVELOPMENT AT CHORRERA, PANAMA 
 
 but not of discomfort. The Young Men's Christian Association 
 houses provide reading rooms and clubs for a considerable ele- 
 ment of the staff. These have facilities for billiards, pool, bowl- 
 ing, checkers, and dominoes, and light drinks. There are several 
 women's clubs and other social and literary organizations of both 
 sexes which are often meeting. Dances are held frequently and 
 well attended. So far Col. Goethals has issued no order against 
 the "turkey trot" or the "tango," and it is whispered that sorhe- 
 times he lets up in his seriousness and trips a few steps as 
 nimbly as his son! 
 
 Baseball is as popular in the Canal Zone as it is in New York 
 or San Francisco, and there are clubs galore from Cristobal to 
 Balboa. During the cooler months the championship of the 
 zone is fought out with as much seriousness as the recent con- 
 flict for the World's Championship between the Giants of New 
 York and the Red Sox of Boston. Basket ball and tennis are 
 also popular and have a considerable following. Band concerts 
 by the Isthmian Canal Band are given at different points on 
 different days, moving picture shows are constantly exhibiting, 
 and occasionally there are good dramatic or vaudeville enter- 
 tainments. 
 
 36 
 
There is also real "society" on the Isthmus. Teas, dinners, 
 and receptions are given which, in the quality of the personnel, 
 the good looks and cleverness of the women, the "doing-things" 
 quality of the men, compare favorably with similar gatherings 
 in Washington and New York. The male element does not have 
 much time for "playing" in society and it is too tired when 
 night comes for late-hour festivities, but on appropriate occasions 
 and at necessary intervals it does its part handsomely. The 
 large army of prominent visitors constantly arriving increases 
 greatly the number of social functions. Certainly, no person 
 who has friends or acquaintances on the Isthmus ever lacks 
 attention, and everybody from the members of the Commission 
 down the line is liberal and kindly in his or her hospitality. 
 
 Of the places connected with the canal and figuring prominently 
 in any story relating to it, Panama City is the most important 
 and interesting. 
 
 With a cosmopolitan population of 40,000, with a romantic 
 history going back four centuries, with ancient walls and bastions 
 still standing in its limits, with old half-ruined churches of rare 
 architecture yet in evidence, with quaint houses and narrow streets 
 mixed with modern construction and well-paved avenues, with 
 hotels, office buildings, and lottery offices dating back to the 
 French days contrasting with new private and public structures 
 and palaces erected in the recent days of the Americans, with all 
 varieties of stores, shops, curio haunts, run or patronized by all 
 classes and types of men and women, and withal a picturesque 
 location on a peninsula extending into the Pacific and backed up 
 by a splendid guardian hill called "Ancon," Panama never fails 
 to interest the traveler and student. 
 
 Comfortably housed at the Tivoli hotel, the visitor can easily 
 spend several days at Panama seeing the sights and resting 
 between his trips to various points along the canal. 
 
 What is there to see at Panama City is frequently asked by 
 those who cross the Isthmus and spend a day in the capital of 
 the little Republic. 
 
 There is really much to see if one is really interested and has 
 the time. Back of the hotel Tivoli is noble Ancon Hill, on whose 
 slopes are the beautiful grounds and capacious buildings of Ancon 
 Hospital, while nearer at hand are the airy and well-built offices 
 
 31 
 
and homes of the civil administration, judiciary, law, and sani- 
 tation staff. Looking in an opposite direction towards the Pacific 
 and the Bay of Panama one can discern in the distance the 
 graceful ruined tower of "Old Panama," which should be the 
 objective point of a motor trip. Recently, the Government of 
 Panama has cleared away all the jungle and undergrowth which 
 obscured the remains of the buildings, plazas, and streets of this 
 rich and wicked capital of the old days which was destroyed by 
 the Buccaneer Morgan in 1671. 
 
 En route to "Old Panama" one passes along and through the 
 "Savannas," which is an open, rolling country close to the sea and 
 the site of the country homes of the richer Panamanians. A good 
 automobile road reaches the entire distance of several miles. It 
 requires two hours to make the trip comfortably and satisfac- 
 torily. If en route you are fortunate enough to be entertained 
 at luncheon or tea by some hospitable Panamanian, you will 
 come away with a high opinion of the quality and refinement of 
 your host and his family. The average visitor to Panama sees 
 little or nothing of the high-class native life and can not appre- 
 ciate what a considerable well-educated, much-traveled, and 
 socially-refined element of people it possesses. During my stay 
 of one year at Panama before the American colony had reached 
 its present large proportions, I saw much of the home life of the 
 native families and gained a most favorable impression of their 
 social activities. I remember a social picnic and dancing club, 
 which had a membership of over one hundred young ladies, called 
 the "Club Iris," and I am frank to say that I know of no similar 
 club in any American city that could get together more real 
 pretty girls in the same membership. 
 
 On the other hand, I have keen and pleasant recollections of 
 many men in and out of the government of Panama, in both pri- 
 vate and public life, whose friendship and fellowship I cherished. 
 I was particularly impressed with the number of clear-headed, 
 logical-minded, and common-sense acting men I constantly met 
 in my official life, and who were honestly desirous of helping 
 Panama become a government worth while and develop a name 
 for stability, order, and progress. 
 
 Panama suffers from the class of visitors who make only flying 
 visits to the Isthmus and, coming into contact with only one 
 
 38 
 
OLD C\rnKI)K\L, PLAZA IXDEPENDEXCIA, PANAMA CITY 
 
 class — the cab drivers, policemen, and small shop-keepers, and 
 ordinary workmen — return to the United States or Europe and 
 write stories about the "Spigotties," as the average lower class 
 is commonly described by the American canal employes, as if 
 they were the only people at Panama. 
 
 A drive around Panama, or a walk if one has time, should 
 include visits to the Cathedral on the main square. Plaza Inde- 
 pendencia, the Lottery Office, the old French office or adminis- 
 tration headquarters, the Hotel Central, and the new municipal 
 
 39 
 
building, all facing the same plaza. Not far away, on a side 
 street, is the American Legation, which was the home of the Chief 
 of the Canal in the French era, and where at the present writing 
 (December, 1912) presides the Hon. H. Percival Dodge, an able 
 and hospitable minister. On another near-by street, overlooking 
 the bay, is "La Presidencia," the residence of the distinguished 
 President of the Republic, Dr. Belisario Porras, with an attractive 
 little Spanish patio. Beyond and near the sea is the magnificent 
 new National Theater or Opera House, and the new government 
 
 NEW PANAMA CITY MUNICIPAL BUILDING, PLAZA INDEPENDENCIA 
 
 building or National Palace, both structures which would orna- 
 ment any large city of the United States or Europe. The Ameri- 
 can Consulate General, now in charge of Consul General Alban 
 G. Snyder, is on the main street leading from the railroad 
 station to the main plaza. 
 
 The far and long-famed "Flat Arch," in the ruins of the old 
 San Domingo Church, should be seen by every traveler and 
 student. This is said to be the longest flat arch in the world, and 
 having been built two centuries ago it is a monument to the 
 
 40 
 
architects and masons of those days. There is a legend that the 
 architect, after having designed several arches which fell, planned 
 and built this one and then, sitting under it called upon it to fall 
 and destroy him or last forever! Perhaps its greatest usefulness 
 is to answer by its simple presence and long existence all argu- 
 ments, dire predictions, and false prophecies of those who con- 
 tend that the locks and heavy work of the canal are in danger of 
 momentary destruction by earthquakes. 
 
 Other churches of interest are San Felipe de Neri, the oldest 
 in Panama ; San Francisco, in Plaza Bolivar, and having also a flat 
 arch and big doors with old-fashioned nail heads; Santa Ana in 
 Santa Ana Plaza; San Jose, with old Spanish altars on Avenue A; 
 and de la Merced, Avenue Central. 
 
 The old sea-wall and fortress at Chiriqui Plaza, called "Las 
 Bovedas," is one of the really picturesque sights of Panama and 
 commands a comprehensive view of the Bay of Panama and the 
 whole water front. Near by are up-to-date clubs of Panamanians 
 and Americans, which make a marked contrast to these old 
 buildings of the times when social clubs were not in vogue. 
 
 to to 
 
 The market place on the water front, the Chinese shops, the 
 Panama hat stores, the bird and monkey shops, the offices of the 
 pearl merchants, and the curio shops provide abundant oppor- 
 tunities for the traveler to part with his money, with the result 
 that when he returns to the hotel he engages in a long argument 
 with his cab driver, in order to save enough to pay his hotel bill 
 when he leaves that night or the next morning. And he will 
 dislike to leave the Tivoli, for it is a comfortable and hospitable 
 place — with allowances, of course, for limitations in space and 
 attendance when great crowds from an incoming excursion steamer 
 temporarily swamp its corridors and facilities. 
 
 A motor or carriage ride to Balboa, the Pacific terminus of the 
 canal, only a few miles away, is worth while. The road is a good 
 one and an opportunity is provided, if not already enjoyed by 
 the excursion train, to inspect the docks, buildings, and the work 
 which is going on at that end of the canal. One branch of the 
 road goes by the native and Chinese cemeteries, which are unique 
 to the average foreigner and worth seeing. If in going from the 
 Tivoli hotel the road is taken along the shoulder of Ancon Hill, 
 a fine view is obtained of Panama City, the bay, the breakwater 
 
 41 
 
FAMOUS FLAT ARCH, RUINS OF SAN DOMINGO CHURCH, PANAMA CITY 
 
 in course of construction which will connect Balboa with Naos 
 Island, and the channel of the canal leading out to sea. 
 
 In going to or returning from Balboa, or in a separate excur- 
 sion, a ride should be taken around the northern slope of Ancon 
 Hill, where a fine panoramic view can be had of the route of the 
 canal in the direction of Miraflores, Pedro Miguel, and Culebra 
 Cut. This view also gives an excellent impression of the general 
 land conformation of the Isthmus and makes one clearly realize 
 the engineering difficulties which have been surmounted. 
 
 If a stop of several days is made at Panama, a trip should be 
 made by water across Panama Bay to Taboga Island, famous 
 for its wonderful pineapples and for its attractive sanitarium or 
 rest house for convalescing invalid employes. A round-trip 
 day's steaming also, almost to the south, which could be under- 
 taken in a large steam launch or a specially chartered tug, permits 
 a visit to the well-known Pearl Islands, where profitable pearl 
 fisheries have been conducted for a great many years, enriching 
 the native fishermen and the merchants in Panama. 
 
 A launch ride from Panama out through the bay around the 
 islands and up the Pacific channel of the canal to Balboa gives 
 
 42 
 
an excellent idea of the Pacific approach to the canal and the 
 location of the fortifications which are to protect this entrance to 
 the great waterway. 
 
 If several days are spent at Panama, at least one of them 
 should be reserved to be used for a special visit to Culebra, an 
 inspection of the construction and engineering administration 
 building with its relief map of the canal and its model of the 
 locks, which are explained by an experienced lecturer, a look at 
 the hotels and homes of the employes, the Y. M. C. A. building, 
 as showing the welfare work, and an intimate view of the famous 
 Cut itself. The Pedro Miguel and Miraflores locks might be 
 included in this excursion but are better saved for another day. 
 Balboa, with the construction of terminal wharves, a dry dock, 
 repair shops, coal deposits, warehouses, and supply depots, will 
 be an interesting point during the next two years, while on the 
 canal side of Ancon Hill near Balboa will presently be built the 
 permanent main administration building of the canal and the 
 zone. 
 
 At Ancon, a day can be instructively spent in visiting the civil 
 administration building and its various offices to see how the 
 work is carried on, the schools to note how the young American 
 transplanted to the tropics is taught "to shoot," the hospitals 
 
 NEW NATIONAL PALACE OR PANAMA GOVERNMENT BUILDING, PANAMA CITY 
 
 43 
 
FRENCH ADMINISTRATION BUILDING, PANAMA CITY 
 
 Photograph taken fifteen years ago 
 
 to learn how carefully the sick or injured are doctored and nursed, 
 the police and fire department to be convinced that life and 
 property are both well guarded, and the courts to hear real jus- 
 tice dispensed and the law respected. 
 
 If the traveler is fortunate enough to be invited to the homes 
 of any of the officials at Ancon, Culebra, or elsewhere, he will 
 not only enjoy the call, lunch, or dinner, but have an oppor- 
 tunity of observing first-handed the interior of remarkably com- 
 fortable and sanitary houses usually made delightfully attractive 
 and hospitable by the deft touch and finesse of the women mem- 
 bers of the family. If he is at the Tivoli on the night of a ball, 
 he will see men, women, and young ladies of such bearing, charac- 
 ter, looks, and dress that he would be proud to class them as 
 coming from his own home. Very few anemic faces or tropical 
 complexions will catch the eye. 
 
 If he will take time to watch both men and women playing 
 lawn tennis, riding horseback, walking, or Otherwise playing in 
 their hours of recreation, he will discover few signs of tropical 
 enervation. If, moreover, he should be invited to join in a 
 friendly game of bridge, he will soon find out that the tropical 
 climate does not lessen the skill of the canal staff or ot the femi- 
 nine contingent who like the game there as much as they do in 
 New York or Washington. 
 
 44 
 
CONDENSED FACTS AND FIGURES 
 
 A few live facts and figures, not too dry and statistical, but 
 interesting and instructive, should be given at the beginning of 
 the chapter describing the actual canal. 
 
 They answer a multitude of questions without the necessity of 
 hunting through numerous pages to find them. They have the 
 effect, at the same time, of whetting the mental appetite for more 
 facts. 
 
 What follows before taking up the more extended details is 
 based on the admirable official handbook of the Isthman Canal 
 Commission, which is compiled by the experienced writer and 
 efficient Secretary of the Canal Commission, Joseph Bucklin 
 Bishop. 
 
 When a steamship leaves the deep water of the Caribbean Sea 
 and enters the channel of the canal at Colon it will travel just 
 50 miles before it reaches deep water of the Pacific. The actual 
 air line, however, from shore-line to shore-line is only 40 miles. 
 This vessel, if it proceeds directly through without delays, will 
 require only from 10 to 12 hours for the passage. Of this time, 
 3 hours will be occupied in being lifted and lowered through 6 
 locks, 3 at Gatun, i at Pedro Miguel, and 2 at Miraflores. 
 
 These locks are arranged in parallel pairs. There are, there- 
 fore, 12 locks in all. Each lock chamber is 1,000 feet long 
 and no feet wide. Their concrete walls vary from about 50 
 to 90 feet in height, according to locartion, and the gates or leaves 
 of the locks have corresponding dimensions. 
 
 The minimum channel width at bottom is 300 feet through 
 Culebra Cut; the maximum is in Gatun Lake, 1,000 feet. The 
 average depth is 45 feet, though in part of Gatun Lake it will 
 be 85 feet. This lake has a surface of 164 square miles and the 
 greatest limit of its reach is 32 miles. The Gatun dam forming 
 the lake is i| miles long, |-mile wide at its base, and 115 feet high 
 at its crest. 
 
 The day Col. Goethals, the great chief of administration 
 and construction, says the work is done, over 212,000,000 cubic 
 yards of earth and rock will have been excavated by the Americans 
 since May 4, 1904. The French excavated approximately 
 80,000,000 yards, but only 30,000,000 were utilized by the Ameri- 
 cans. The actual total excavation for the present canal will, 
 
 45 
 
This diagram is a striking illustration of the vast volume of excavation at Panama 
 
 therefore, be nearly 242,000,000 yards. This would be equal to a 
 tunnel or subway 13 to 14 feet in diameter through the 8,000 
 miles of the earth, or build a pyramid like that pictured 
 above ! 
 
 The concrete used in the locks, spillways, dams, etc., will ap- 
 proximate 5,000,000 cubic yards. This would build a wall 12 
 feet high, 8 feet thick, for 266 miles, the distance from New York 
 to Washington. 
 
 The Panama Railroad is 47 miles long from Colon to Panama. 
 Its relocation caused by the lake and excavations cost ^9,000,000. 
 
 The total cost of the canal, including payment to the French 
 Company of ^40,000,000 and to the Panama Government of 
 ^10,000,000, is estimated at $375,000,000. The value of the 
 work done by the French is placed at about $25,000,000 and the 
 value of all French property at nearly $43,000,000. 
 
 About 35,000 to 40,000 have been the average number of men 
 
 46 
 
at work on the canal. Of these about 5,000 are Americans. 
 The latter form what is called the "Gold roll," as they are paid 
 in United States money. The remainder, largely Jamaica 
 negroes, form the "Silver roll," and are paid in Panama silver 
 currency. 
 
 The Canal Zone is a strip of land 10 miles wide, 5 miles on 
 either side of the center line of the canal channel, reaching from 
 deep water of the Atlantic or Caribbean to deep water of the 
 Pacific. It covers an area of 448 square miles and by treaty 
 with Panama is under the sovereignty and complete control of 
 the United States Government. 
 
 The administration of this zone and the direction of the canal 
 work rests in the hands of an Isthmian Canal Commission, 
 authorized by Congress and appointed by the President, of 
 which Col. George W. Goethals, U. S. A., is Chairman and 
 Chief Engineer. His instructions give him almost autocratic 
 power which, however, he uses most wisely and eflfectively. He 
 is assisted by the following other members of the Commission, 
 
 When the canal is completed, 242,000,000 cubic yards, including 
 used French excavation of 30,000,000 yards, of earth and rock will 
 have been excavated. The same amount of excavation would make 
 a tunnel fourteen feet in diameter, 8,000 miles long, through the very 
 heart of the earth, sufficiently large to permit the passing of a New 
 York subway train. 
 
 47 
 
all of whom are men of exceptional ability and experience : 
 Col. H. F. Hodges, U. S. A. ; Lieut.-Col. D. D. GaiUord, U. S. A. ; 
 Lieut.-Col. Wm. L. Sibert, U. S. A.; Civil Engineer, H. H. 
 Rousseau, U. S. N. ; Col. W. C. Gorgas, 
 U. S. A.; and Maurice H. Thatcher. The 
 Secretary of the Commission, already men- 
 tioned, is Joseph Bucklin Bishop, who is also 
 editor of the weekly, eight-page Canal 
 Record, which publishes the official orders, 
 gives reports of progress of the work, and 
 other useful information. 
 
 For the future administration and gov- 
 ernment of the canal, provision has been 
 made in the Panama Canal Act of August 
 24, 1912, which reads: 
 
 "That when, in the judgment of the 
 President, the construction of the Panama 
 Canal shall be sufficiently advanced toward 
 completion to render the further services of 
 the Isthmian Canal Commission unneces- 
 sary, the President is authorized by execu- 
 tive order to discontinue the Isthmian Canal 
 Commission, which, together with the pres- 
 ent organization, shall then cease to exist; 
 and the President is authorized thereafter 
 to complete, govern, and operate the Panama 
 Canal, and govern the Canal Zone, or cause 
 them to be completed, governed, and oper- 
 ated through a Governor of the Panama 
 Canal, and such other persons as he may 
 deem competent to discharge the various duties connected with 
 the completion, care, maintenance, sanitation, operation, govern- 
 ment, and protection of the canal and Canal Zone." 
 The Governor is to receive a salary of ^10,000 a year. 
 The date which may be possibly set for the first vessel to pass 
 through is September 25, 19 13, the 400th anniversary of the 
 discovery of the Pacific Ocean by Balboa, although it is possible 
 that Col. Goethals with characteristic modesty and caution may 
 make an unannounced test "with any old boat" before that date. 
 
 Five million cubic yards of 
 concrete are being used in the 
 construction of the Panama 
 Canal. This is equal to a 
 wall eight feet thick, twelve 
 feet high, and 266 miles long. 
 Such a wall would reach 
 around the State of Dela- 
 ware, as shown by the above 
 diagram. 
 
Vessels carrying cargo and passengers, other than those engaged 
 in the coast-to-coast trade of the United States, passing through 
 the canal after it is opened to traffic, will, in accordance with the 
 President's proclamation of November 13, 1912, pay a toll of one 
 dollar and twenty cents ($1.20) on each net vessel ton — each 
 one hundred cubic feet of cargo or earning capacity. For instance, 
 a vessel of 5,000 net tons will pay ^6,000 for each passage. Ves- 
 sels in ballast will pay 40% less; naval vessels, that is, actual 
 men-of-war, will pay fifty cents (^.50) per displacement ton; 
 army and navy transports, colliers, hospital supply ships, one 
 dollar and twenty cents (^1.20) per net ton, like cargo and pas- 
 senger vessels. 
 
 Professor Emory R. Johnson, the noted statistician and Special 
 Commissioner on Panama traffic and tolls, in his report, on which 
 the President based his proclamation, estimates that the total 
 tonnage of ships using the canal during 1915 and 1916 will be 
 10,500,000. At an average of 4,000 net tons each, this would 
 mean that 2,625 vessels would pass through the canal the first 
 year, or a daily average of seven. The total net tonnage of the 
 Suez Canal in 191 1 was 18,000,000. 
 
 STEAM SHOVEL AT WORK 
 49 
 
5° 
 
WHAT THE CANAL ACTUALLY IS 
 
 Now let us consider just what the canal is. What are its sub- 
 divisions ? What are its principal features ? What is to be 
 chiefly noted by the visitor to the Isthmus or the stay-at-home 
 who really wants to get a good idea in his eye and mind of the 
 canal ? In reading this chapter the illustrations and map on pages 
 10, 29, and 122 should be consulted. 
 
 Beginning at the Caribbean deep-sea-bottom contour of 41 
 feet near the end of the Point Toro breakwater, the canal is 
 dredged directly south through Limon or Colon Bay 5 miles 
 to the regular shore line and thence about 2 miles through low- 
 lying land, almost in a straight line, to the entrance of the Gatun 
 locks. Throughout this sea-level distance of seven miles the 
 channel will have a minimum depth of 41 feet and a width of 
 500 feet, but this will be widened ofi^ Colon and Cristobal for 
 anchorage and dock purposes. 
 
 The Point Toro rock breakwater at the entrance of the canal 
 will be 11,700 feet, or over two miles in length, 15 feet wide at the 
 top and 10 feet above sea level, and cost ^5,500,000. It is an 
 absolute necessity to protect the canal and shipping against the 
 fierce northers which sometimes blow with typhoon energy. 
 
 At Gatun there will be two parallel sets of locks of three flights 
 each, which will lift vessels from sea level to the 85-foot level of 
 Gatun Lake and Culebra Cut, with an average raise of 28^ feet 
 at each flight. These will be the largest, most wonderful, and 
 most interesting locks in the world, and will make a thrilling 
 picture when they are first in action, as it were, and enable the 
 "Oregon" to accomplish in eight hours in 19 13 the journey which 
 required a month in 1898. 
 
 These locks, built entirely of concrete, are too big to fully grasp 
 at a glance, but their dimensions enable us to partially measure 
 them. Each will be 1,000 feet long and 1 10 feet wide in the clear. 
 The total length of the Gatun flight with approach walls will be 
 over 3,500 feet or nearly two-thirds of a mile and the entire width 
 about 300 feet at the top. The massive side walls will be 81 
 feet high, 45 to 50 feet wide at the floor level and then gradually 
 taper to 8 feet at the top. The huge middle or separating wall 
 will be 60 feet wide, carrying near its base a great central culvert, 
 through which the water, rushing, in turn, into smaller or lateral 
 
 51 
 
52 
 
branch culverts under and up through the floors of the locks, 
 will flood each chamber and float the passing vessels. This 
 main central culvert, extending the entire distance of the lock, 
 wrill be 1 8 to 22 feet in diameter and could hold a Mogul locomo- 
 tive while the laterals would make an easy driveway for a two- 
 horse truck wagon. There are also culverts in the two side walls 
 of corresponding size, so that an entire lock can be filled or 
 emptied, using one culvert, in 15 minutes and 42 seconds, and, 
 using two culverts, in 7 minutes and 51 seconds. This will be 
 extraordinarily quick work considering the enormous size of the 
 locks, but will provide quick passage for ships. These culverts are 
 also so arranged and controlled by valves that the water from one 
 lock can be used to fill the one below it or the one alongside of it. 
 
 CROSS SECTION OF LOCK CHAMBER AND WALLS OF LOCKS 
 
 A Passageway for operators. B Gallery for electric wires. C Drainage gallery. D Culvert in center wall. 
 
 E These culverts run under the lock floors and alternate with those from sidewalls. F Wells opening from lateral 
 
 culverts into lock chamber. G Culvert in sidewalls. H Lateral Culvert. 
 
 The locks are built in parallel pairs for reasons both of safety 
 and expedition. If one set is out of commission, the other can 
 be used. If vessels are coming up in one set, others can be 
 descending in the parallel set. 
 
 The lock gates or leaves almost overwhelm one with their 
 magnitude and majesty. The layman wonders how they can be 
 safely and successfully manipulated. The individual leaves of 
 the gates vary in height from 45 feet 7 inches at the end of the 
 upper flight or third level to 79 feet at the beginning of the first 
 flight or level. They are 7 feet thick and 65 feet long. Two sets 
 of gates separate the high level from the lower level as protection 
 in case one set is damaged by a collision with a vessel or other- 
 wise put out of use. A huge chain is also dropped in front of 
 the gates, made of such size and strength that it could check a 
 ship of 10,000 tons moving at five miles an hour. 
 
 53 
 
SECTION OF WALLS AND CULVERTS 
 OF LOCKS 
 
 Compared to a six-story building, a railroad 
 locomotive, and a two-horse conveyance 
 
 For absolute safety still another remarkable precaution is pro- 
 vided. At the head of each flight of locks are emergency dams, 
 consisting of swing bridges, which in case of an accident can be 
 
 drawn across the locks. 
 From these swing bridges 
 wicker girders are let down. 
 They, in turn, are supported 
 by a sill at the bottom and 
 the horizontal truss-work of 
 the bridge at the top. These 
 wicker girders act as run- 
 ways for gates which are 
 lowered and gradually stop 
 the flow. 
 
 In each lock are interme- 
 diate gates forming lesser 
 lock chambers of 600 and 
 400 feet length, respectively, 
 to take care of the great 
 majority of vessels and to save the necessity of filling the whole 
 1,000 feet of the regular locks. 
 
 Ships will not be allowed in either ot the locks under their own 
 steam, but will be towed from one end to the other by specially 
 designed powerful electric motor locomotives running on tracks 
 laid along the central and side walls of the locks. There will be 
 two of these motors in front on either side and two behind, so that 
 they will have absolute control of the vessel. The electricity 
 which will not only operate these motors but all the gates and 
 valves of the canal will be generated by water turbines located 
 at the spillway of the Gatun Dam. 
 
 To pass a vessel through the three locks at Gatun will require 
 about one and one-half hours or 30 minutes to each lock. Esti- 
 mating on this basis, the average ship will -require 3 hours to 
 pass through all the locks of the canal, while the time required 
 for the vessel to go from tide-water of the Atlantic to the Pacific 
 is estimated to be from 10 to 12 hours, according to the size of 
 the ship and the rate of speed at which it can travel. This is a 
 remarkably short period of time considering the ponderous mech- 
 anism employed and the distance that is saved. It is an inter- 
 
 54 
 
esting contrast that a vessel in going from Colon to Panama in 
 12 hours accomplishes a journey which made around South 
 America would take from 30 to 45 days. 
 
 Before we leave the Gatun Locks, one fact should be remem- 
 bered as giving another idea of their magnitude. Over 2,000,000 
 cubic yards of concrete have been required to construct them. 
 This would make a wall 8 feet wide and 12 feet high 133 miles 
 long, or half way around the State of Delaware, while all the con- 
 crete used in the construction of the canal, between 4,000,000 
 and 5,000,000 cubic yards, would completely enclose that State 
 with a wall of these dimensions and be able to impound the 
 largest fresh-water reservoir in the world. 
 
 All suggestion or speculation that these and the other locks 
 might be some day destroyed by earthquake is unwarranted. 
 They are as solid and eternal as the hills of Panama. Concrete 
 construction of this kind, as proved at San Francisco, is earth- 
 quake proof. 
 
 Possibly the most interesting feature of the canal at Gatun is 
 not the great triple flight of locks but the wide-world discussed 
 
 LOOKING SOUTH, SHOWING THREE FLIGHTS OF LOCKS, GATUN 
 
 55 
 
56 
 
Gatun Dam which extends across the valley from the locks to the 
 hills on the west and forms the Gatun Lake, in which the water 
 will be backed up 32 miles to the Pedro Miguel lock on the Pacific 
 side of the canal. No feature of the canal has been more argued 
 about, pro and con, than this dam, and yet when the visitor to 
 the Isthmus sees it for the first time he is overwhelmingly dis- 
 appointed. He looks in vain for what he has always pictured 
 in his mind to be a dam and he sees nothing but apparently a 
 low-lying hill with gradual slopes having in its center a small 
 concrete cut and dam called the spillway and intended to take 
 care of the overflow of water from the lake. 
 
 In order to fully understand this description of the Gatun Dam, 
 the outline diagrams on page 52 should be carefully studied. 
 This dam or rock and earth embankment, to describe it correctly, 
 is nearly 8,000 feet or i^ miles long measured on its crest, about 
 2,100 feet or | mile wide at its base, approximately 400 feet wide 
 at the water level, 100 feet wide at the top, which will be at an 
 elevation of 115 feet above sea level, or 30 feet above the mean 
 level of the lake. 
 
 To construct this dam "toes," or, in the layman's language, 
 the lower edges of the slopes, were first built of broken rock 
 brought from Culebra Cut, making two walls along the whole 
 length of the dam about 1,200 feet apart. The spaces between 
 were built up with a hydraulic fill of impervious clay material 
 pumped in by pipe-line dredges, which gradually dried and 
 hardened into a solid mass as the water drained off, and left a 
 barrier almost equal to concrete in its capacity to resist water and 
 stand the strain of the lake pressure. 
 
 That the building of this dam was no small undertaking is 
 appreciated when it is realized that it contains 22,100,000 cubic 
 yards of rock and earth, or a quantity of material equal to about 
 one-tenth of the total excavation for the entire canal. While it 
 was necessary for the engineers to remove a mountain at Culebra 
 they have had to build another in order to dam the Chagres 
 River and provide the water for the Gatun Lake. 
 
 The spillway in the center 6f the dam is a very important 
 feature of this work. Fortunately, nature had left a small hill 
 of solid rock in the center of the valley. Through this hill the 
 spillway has been constructed so that there is no danger of its 
 
 57 
 
58 
 
ever being washed away. Its floor and side walls of concrete 
 are securely anchored into this rock hill. The spillway of the 
 dam will have its solid crest at an elevation of 69 feet, but piers 
 8^ feet wide were built on top of the crest and grooved for gates 
 which will close the openings and complete the upper portion of 
 the dam. 
 
 When the spillway gates are raised to the full height, they will 
 permit a passage of 140,000 cubic feet of water per second. This 
 water will pass through a diversion channel into the old bed of 
 the Chagres and flow out to sea. About 250,000 cubic feet of 
 concrete have been used in the construction of the spillway. 
 Below it will be placed the great power plant containing the 
 turbines which, run by the water coming from the overflow of 
 the dam, will provide all the electricity and power required for 
 the entire canal. 
 
 Gatun Lake itself with its surface 85 feet above sea level will 
 be a beautiful inland basin of fresh water covering an area of 164 
 square miles and containing 206,000,000,000 cubic feet of water! 
 Draining a watershed comprising 1,320 square miles, it will be 
 dotted with numerous islands and surrounded by rolling hills, 
 which will provide a picturesque passage for steamers passing 
 from ocean to ocean. Being of fresh water, it will serve to clean 
 the bottoms of vessels befouled by long journeys through salt 
 water. 
 
 The chief source of supply for the water of Gatun Lake is the 
 famous Chagres River, whose old bed crossed the canal 31 
 miles from the Atlantic entrance and 23 miles from the Gatun 
 Dam, flowing from the northeast to the canal, which it struck 
 nearly at right angles and then took its course almost due 
 northwest to the point where it empties into the Atlantic Ocean. 
 During 8 or 9 months of the year the lake will be kept constantly 
 filled to its capacity and, consequently, a surplus will need to be 
 stored for only 3 or 4 months of the dry season. During the rainy 
 season, the water surface will be maintained at 87 feet above sea 
 level, making the minimum channel depth of the canal 47 feet. 
 As navigation can be carried on at about 41 feet of water, there 
 will be stored for the dry season nearly 6 feet of water. Making 
 due allowances for evaporation, seepage, leakage at the gates, 
 and power consumption, this would be ample for 40 passages 
 
 59 
 
daily through the locks using them at full length, or about 58 
 lockages a day when partial length is used as would usually be 
 the case. This would permit a larger number of passages of ships 
 than will probably ever be required. 
 
 The one all-convincing reason why a sea-level canal was not 
 attempted was the difficulty of controlling the resistless and 
 relentless floods of the Chagres River. This moody and incon- 
 siderate stream has a record of raising 25^ feet in 24 hours, and 
 it can be easily imagined what would be the effect on a sea-level 
 canal of a torrent like this pouring into it. By constructing a 
 high-level canal and impounding a great lake, the Chagres can 
 do its worst and practically have no bad effects except to deposit 
 some silt, which can be easily removed by the large dredges always 
 ready for operation in the lake. If the Chagres poured its 
 greatest flood continually for 5 hours and 20 minutes into the 
 lake it could raise it only one foot in that time, and this, in turn, 
 could be immediately counterbalanced if necessary by lowering 
 the gates at the spillway of the Gatun Dam. 
 
 From the Gatun Locks through the lake to Tabernilla, a dis- 
 tance of about 16 miles, the channel of the canal will have a 
 width of 1,000 feet, and vessels can proceed at almost full speed. 
 From Tabernilla to Mamei the channel will be 800 feet wide; 
 
 LOOKING NORTH THROUGH UPPER LOCKS, GATUN 
 
 60 
 
INSPECTING GIANT GATES AT GATUN LOCKS 
 
 Major Von Herwarth (in white, second from right end), 
 German Militar7 Attache, and John Barrett (second from 
 left), Director General of the Pan American Union. 
 
 Copyright by Brown & Dawson, Stamford, Conn. 
 
 from Mamei half way to 
 Gorgon a, 700 feet; from 
 there to a point near 
 where the Chagres River 
 strikes the canal, 500 feet; 
 and then for nearly 9 
 miles through Culebra 
 Cut to Pedro Miguel, 
 300 feet; from Pedro 
 Miguel Lock to Mira- 
 flores Locks and thence 
 to deep water and Pana- 
 ma Bay, 500- feet wide. 
 These widths prove 
 beyond question that the 
 canal will be amply wide 
 for the largest vessels 
 which will ever use it to 
 pass. The maximum 
 width will be 1,000 feet, 
 the minimum 300 feet, 
 and the minimum depth, 
 41 feet. 
 
 After passing through 
 the lake the most spec- 
 tacular section of the 
 canal is reached — the 
 Culebra Cut. Although 
 this nominally extends 
 over 9 miles from Gam- 
 boa to Pedro Miguel 
 Lock, the really fascinat- 
 ing and overwhelmingly 
 interesting portion is the 
 two or three miles through 
 the summit of the con- 
 tinental divide, lying be- 
 tween Gold Hill on the 
 east and Culebra Hill on 
 
 61 
 
62 
 
the west. Here the canal is almost a scenic canyon, a mighty, 
 august, and impressive artificial gorge dug by the hand of man 
 operating regiments of steam shovels, batteries of drills, armies 
 of railway dump cars, and exploding millions of pounds of dyna- 
 mite. When the stranger first glances at this yawning fissure, 
 looks down into its noisy depths, and then has pointed out to him ' 
 the imaginary line where the crest of the hill was originally con- 
 nected, he marvels at what has been done in the last eight years. 
 Incidentally, when he has pointed out to him how much the 
 French excavated, he cannot help also admiring their achieve- 
 ments and their persistency in the face of overwhelming odds. 
 In fact, despite all the unfortunate memories connected with the 
 French effort to build the canal, the impartial student of the 
 history of this waterway cannot refrain from doing honor to a 
 large body of French engineers and workmen who did their best 
 to dig the canal and bring real honor to the name of France. 
 They are not to be blamed but rather to be pittied because certain 
 men and influences connected with the financing of the under- 
 taking pursued methods which handicapped and finally ended 
 without success their labors and sacrifice. Altogether they 
 excavated along the line of the canal nearly 80,000,000 cubic 
 yards, of which nearly 30,000,000 have been utilized in the present 
 adopted plan of the canal. 
 
 SPILLWAY OF GATUiS; DAM L\ CONSIRLCTION 
 
 63 
 
64 
 
When the canal is finally completed the total excavation will 
 represent 242,000,000 cubic yards of rock and earth, of which 
 212,000,000 will have been done under American control since 
 early in 1904. In the Culebra section, approximately 106,000,000 
 cubic yards will have been excavated, or practically half of the 
 entire American work. This total has been much increased by 
 the numerous slides which have taken place along the precip- 
 itous slopes of the Culebra section. These, however, are not a 
 serious or lasting menace to the canal and will be removed 
 without delaying the date of the opening of this waterway. After 
 the canal is completed, even though they continue to some extent, 
 the dredges will be able to keep the channel clear while the water 
 itself will act as a resistance to further slides. To fully realize 
 the magnitude and difficulty of the work through the Culebra 
 section, the visitor to the canal should try either to ride or walk 
 through it and see the shovels, spoil trains, drills, and laborers at 
 work. The impression made upon him will never be forgotten. 
 
 The Culebra section is terminated by the Pedro Miguel locks, 
 which, with a small earth dam about 1,104 ^^^^ lo^g> having a 
 concrete core wall connecting the lock and the high ground to 
 the westward, and having its crest at an elevation of 105 feet above 
 mean sea level, forms a small lake and bay. The locks at Pedro 
 Miguel have only one flight, with a lift or descent of 30^ feet. 
 
 Two miles south of the Pedro Miguel locks are the Miraflores 
 
 byj the French 
 
 iieievt uatedby tlie Uiiltocl States 
 
 L_ : :^--.:.:- :J 
 
 ,40 
 
 CULEBRA CUT 
 Cross Section 
 
 at 
 Station 1797. 
 
 Looking toward Panama 
 
 400' 300' 320' 280' 240' 200' ICO' 120' 8O' 40' O' 40' 8O' 120' I6O' 200 ' 240' 280' 320' 360' 400' 440' 480' 520' d60' 
 
 WORKS, BUFFALO, 
 
 65 
 
LOOKING NORTH AT CUNETTE, SHOWING APPROACH TO CULEBRA CUT 
 
 locks, consisting of two flights with a combined hft or descent at 
 mean tide of 54I feet. Connecting the Miraflores locks with a 
 high ground on the other side are two dams impounding a small 
 lake about two square miles in area, with a surface elevation of 
 55 feet above mean sea level. The dam to the westward will be of 
 earth about 700 feet long with its crest 15 feet above the water. 
 The east dam will be of concrete about 500 feet long and having 
 a spillway with crest gates similar to those at Gatun Dam. 
 
 Both the single flight of locks at Pedro Miguel and the two 
 flights at Miraflores are constructed and operated in the same 
 manner as the locks at Gatun, differing from them slightly in 
 some lesser dimensions of gates, sills, etc. 
 
 From the entrance to the lower flight of Miraflores locks, the 
 canal proceeds at sea level with a channel 500 feet wide, 8 miles 
 long, to the deep water contour of the Pacific Ocean. This 
 latter point is almost directly opposite the four little islands in 
 Panama Bay, Culebra, Perico, Flemenco, and Naos, on which 
 are being constructed the powerful fortifications to defend the 
 Pacific entrance. 
 
 Where the canal meets the shore line of the sea is Balboa, the 
 Pacific terminus of the great waterway, about two miles west of 
 
 66 
 
Panama City, and the site of the extensive wharves, warehouses, 
 coal deposits, and large dry dock included in the canal plan. 
 From Sosa Hill, just back of Balboa, out to the island of Naos, 
 extending over 17,000 feet, a little more than 3 miles, is a 
 breakwater constructed of the spoil brought from Culebra Cut. 
 It will be parallel to the axis of the canal and protect it from being 
 silted up by the waters of Panama Bay. 
 
 All along the line of the canal wherever there is a change in the 
 direction of the channel are range lights in gracefully built light- 
 houses that look strange, indeed, towering up through the jungle 
 and on the land of the Isthmus away from the sea with the thought 
 of which lighthouses are always associated. 
 
 The Panama Railway parallels the canal from Colon and 
 Cristobal as far as Gatun. From there it formerly ran all the 
 way close to the line of the canal, but on account of the lake 
 overflow and the slides in Culebra Cut it has been relocated for 
 a distance of nearly 32 miles from Gatun to Pedro Miguel. At 
 present an old section from Bas Obispo to Pedro Miguel on the 
 west side of the canal is operated because of the necessity of 
 reaching the towns and stations like Culebra, Empire, and 
 Gorgona; but when the canal is completed these tracks will be 
 
 GIGANTIC SLIDE ON WEST BANK NEAR CULEBRA 
 
 67 
 
68 
 
removed and these towns deserted and allowed to grow up into 
 jungle, with the main line of the road running back of the hills 
 on the east side of the canal. This relocation obviates any 
 necessity of bridges or crossings which might handicap the passing 
 of vessels. The whole roadway is an example of the highest-class 
 construction, and the main road, though limited in mileage, is 
 operated with the skill of a great system. When it is considered 
 that it is interlocked everywhere with all the side and switch 
 tracks used by the canal dump trains, it is remarkable how 
 smoothly it is run without mixups, collisions, or accidents. Its 
 one peculiarity, compared to the roads of the United States, is 
 its exceptionally broad or 5-foot gauge. Its rolling stock com- 
 pares favorably with the best roads of the United States. 
 
 As to the time of completion and use of the canal I quote 
 from a circular issued recently by the Commission: "While 
 the official date of opening has been set for January i, 1915, it 
 is the intention to allow vessels to utilize the canal just as soon 
 as practicable. Present indications seem to bear out the opinion 
 * * * that this can be accomplished during the latter half of 
 19 13, although it is too far in advance at this time to fix any 
 definite date. Shipping interests will, however, be advised as 
 soon as the Commission feels assured that vessels can be passed 
 without unnecessary delay." 
 
 MIRAFLORES LOCKS IN CONSTRUCTION AND APPROACH FROM PACIFIC SIDE 
 
 69 
 
THE CANAL COMMISSION 
 Joseph C Bishop, Secretary Lieut.-Col. Wm. L. Sibert Maurice H. Thatcher 
 
 Col. Geo. W. Goethals, Chairman Coi.. Wm. C. Gorgas 
 
 Lieut.-Col. H. F. Hodges Lieut.-Col. D. D. Gaillard H. H. Rousseau 
 
 By permission of Harris & EwiniLj-, and Clinedinst, Washington, D. C, and Pach, New York 
 
 7° 
 
ORGANIZATION AND ADMINISTRATION 
 
 The wonderful organization and administration of the canal 
 and the Canal Zone, which Colonel Goethals and his efficient 
 staff have developed, is one of the most interesting features of a 
 study of the Isthmus. This administration includes departments 
 of construction and engineering, subsistence, quartermaster, civil 
 administration, judiciary, law, sanitation, disbursements, exami- 
 nation of accounts, purchasing department, and Panama Rail- 
 road Company. 
 
 Under the head of construction and engineering there are the 
 headquarters at Culebra, where are located Col. George W. 
 Goethals, Chairman and Chief Engineer; Col. H. F. Hodges, 
 Assistant Chief Engineer; and Civil Engineer H. H. Rousseau, 
 Assistant Chief Engineer; the Central Division, with headquarters 
 at Empire, presided over by Lieut. -Col. D. D. Gaillard, Division 
 Engineer; the Atlantic Division, with headquarters at Gatun, 
 presided over by Lieut.-Col. William L. Sibert, Division Engineer; 
 Pacific Division, with headquarters at Corozal, presided over by 
 S. B. Williamson, Division Engineer; and Mechanical Division, 
 with headquarters at Gorgona, A. L. Robinson, Superintendent. 
 The Subsistence Department, which has its headquarters at 
 Cristobal, adjoining Colon, is under charge of Lieut.-Col. George 
 T. Wilson. The Quartermaster's Department has its head- 
 quarters at Culebra, as does the Department of Construction 
 and Engineering. It is under the direction of Col. C. A. Devol, 
 Chief Quartermaster. 
 
 The Department of Civil Administration, which looks after 
 the government of the Canal Zone, has its headquarters at Ancon, 
 with Maurice H. Thatcher head of the department. The De- 
 partment of Canal Zone Judiciary has headquarters at Ancon, 
 and there sits the Supreme Court, of which H. A. Gudger is 
 Chief Justice, and Thomas E. Brown, Jr., and William H. Jack- 
 son, Associate Justices. Also at Ancon is the Department of 
 Law, of which Frank Feuille is Counsel and Chief Attorney, and 
 William K. Jackson is Prosecuting Attorney. 
 
 The Department of Sanitation, which is of great interest to 
 every one, has its headquarters at Ancon. At the head of this 
 is Col. W. C. Gorgas, as Chief Sanitary Officer, and Col. John L. 
 Phillips, Assistant Chief Sanitary Officer. The Departments of 
 
 71 
 
Disbursements, with Edward J. Williams as Disbursing Officer, 
 and of Accounts, with H. A. A. Smith as Examiner of Accounts, 
 have their headquarters at Empire, not far from Culebra. The 
 Purchasing Department has its headquarters in Washington, 
 D. C. At the head of this, as Chief Purchasing Officer, is Major 
 F. C. Boggs, with A. L. Flint as his assistant. The Department 
 of the Panama Railroad Company not only has headquarters at 
 Colon, under J. A. Smith as General Superintendent, but general 
 offices at 24 State Street, New York City, in charge of E. A. Drake. 
 
 The recruiting and housing of the canal forces are looked after 
 by the Quartermasters Department. These forces are divided 
 into the so-called "gold" and "silver" rolls. The former con- 
 sists of the officials, clerical force, construction men, and skilled 
 artisans of the Canal Commission and the Panama Railroad, 
 nearly all of whom are Americans. The latter include the un- 
 skilled laborers, of whom the greater part are West Indians, 
 and the lesser number Europeans largely from Spain and Italy. 
 The standard rate of wage for the West Indian laborer is 10 
 cents an hour, though those who are especially skilled get from 
 16 to 20 cents. The major portion of the Spaniards earn 20 
 cents an hour and the smaller part 16 cents. The value of the 
 constant stock of supplies carried in the general storehouses of 
 the Commission and the Panama Railroad is approximately 
 ^4,500,000, while $12,000,000 worth of supphes are purchased 
 annually, requiring the discharge on an average of one steamer 
 a day. 
 
 The Subsistence Department, supplying the food, clothing, 
 and other necessaries, does a business of about $7,500,000 annu- 
 ally. It has 22 general stores in the villages and camps of the 
 Canal Zone and Panama Railroad, and it is estimated that, 
 including both employes and their dependents, 65,000 people are 
 daily supplied with food, clothing, and other necessaries. Aside 
 from these stores there are operated at Cristobal cold storage, 
 ice-making, bakery, coffee roasting, ice-cream, and laundry 
 plants. Every day there leaves Cristobal, on the Atlantic side 
 of the canal, at 4 o'clock in the morning, a supply train of 21 
 cars carrying ice, meats, other perishable food articles, and 
 various supplies which, in turn, are distributed to the houses 
 of the employes. 
 
 72 
 
Pay Day 
 
 THE WORKERS 
 A Typical Labor Train 
 
 Station Scene at Cristobal 
 
 n 
 
 Dinner Time 
 
ADMINISTRATION BUILDING (LEFT), HOUSES, AND EMPLOYES' QUART KK.S AT 
 CULEBRA CUT ON THE RIGHT 
 
 Aside from the large hotel Tivoli, at Ancon, there are i8 
 hotels along the line of the canal for white, "gold," employes, 
 at which good meals are served for only 30 cents each. Two 
 hundred thousand meals are served on an average each month. 
 The European laborers have some 16 messes, in which they 
 pay 40 cents per ration of three meals. These messes average 
 270,000 meals a month. For the West Indian laborers 14 kitchens 
 are operated, at which they receive a ration of three meals at 25 
 cents per ration. At these, 100,000 meals on an average are 
 served monthly. If the visitor to the Canal Zone has time to 
 study the subsistence and quartermaster departments, he can- 
 not fail to find them interesting. 
 
 The enormous equipment of the canal for construction pur- 
 poses includes approximately 100 steam shovels, 315 locomotives 
 (aside from 70 of the Panama Railroad), 560 drills, 4,400 flat 
 and dump cars (aside from 1,500 cars of the Panama Railroad), 
 20 dredges, 30 unloaders, 25 spreaders, 10 track shifters, 19 
 pile drivers, 57 cranes, 12 tugs, 70 barges, lighters, and scows, 
 14 launches, rock breakers, tow boats, drill boats, etc. Some 
 of the old French machinery has been utilized, but the greater 
 part of the equipment is American. 
 
 The average cost of dry excavation in the Central Division, 
 including Culebra Cut, during 1911, was 63.37-100 cents per 
 
 74 
 
cubic yard; for dredging in the sea-level sections, approximately 
 26 cents per cubic yard. 
 
 The fortifications, which will be at both entrances to the canal, 
 will include 16-inch, 14-inch, and 6-inch rifle cannon, and 12- 
 inch mortars of the most powerful and effective types made, 
 aside from submarine mines. The garrison will consist of the 
 necessary coast artillery; three regiments of infantry, with a 
 war strength of nearly 2,000 men for each regiment; a squadron 
 of cavalry, and a battalion of field artillery. On the Isthmus, 
 at the present time, is a small marine and infantry garrison, 
 whose presence is chiefly a moral influence for the maintenance 
 of order on the Isthmus. For the construction of fortifications, 
 $3,000,000 have been appropriated. 
 
 Each cubic yard of average rock weighs about two tons, or 
 3,900 pounds; of earth, about two and a half tons or 3,000 
 pounds; of the mixed material of the Culebra Cut, about 3,600 
 pounds, or approximately a two-horse cart-load. The steam 
 shovels or dippers, each according to size, excavate from one and 
 three-fourths cubic yards to five cubic yards. A five-cubic yard 
 dipper when full lifts about seven tons of earth, or nine tons of rock. 
 
 This material is carried away on trains of dump and flat cars, 
 averaging from twenty to thirty-five cars each. The average 
 time consumed in unloading a train of flat cars is from seven to 
 fifteen minutes; of large dump cars, fifteen to forty minutes. 
 The record day's work for one steam shovel was 4,823 cubic 
 yards, or 8,395 tons. In one day 333 trains have been loaded 
 and unloaded. 
 
 The most interesting machine used in connection with unloading 
 the flat cars is an iron spreader, which is pulled by a cable the 
 whole length of the train, and in a few minutes throws all the 
 material over the side of the tracks upon the slopes of the dump 
 piles. 
 
 The civil administration of the Canal Zone, under Maurice H. 
 Thatcher, is an interesting feature for the visitor who has time 
 to investigate its workings. Tom M. Cooke, the well-known 
 Chief of Division of Posts, Customs, and Revenues, has devel- 
 oped an administration under these heads which he holds is the 
 best in the world, and if one investigates them under his direction 
 he is convinced of the truth of his claim. 
 
 75 
 
WEST CHAMBER, PEDRO MIGUEL LOCK, SHOWING CONSTRUCTION OF GATES 
 
 The school system, in charge of F. A. Gause, Superintendent, 
 will compare favorably with the best public-school system of any 
 State of the United States. 
 
 The police system, under Capt. C. W. Barber; the fire depart- 
 ment, under Chief C. E. Weidman; and the public works, under 
 Supt. M. E. Gilmore, are conducted with the highest degree of 
 efficiency. 
 
 The justice administered in the Canal Zone is about as near 
 perfect as it can be. Although at the present time there is no 
 jury trial, every inhabitant of the Canal Zone feels that he is 
 living under a just and effective system of law and order. Chief 
 justice H. A. Gudger has had a long experience on the Isthmus, 
 having been United States Consul to Panama before he was 
 appointed to the judiciary. 
 
 While in a book of this kind it has been possible only to touch 
 most briefly upon many features of the work on the canal and the 
 administration of the Canal Zone, it can be readily seen from the 
 facts briefly outlined here that the Canal Zone, the engineering 
 construction, its civil government, its sanitation, etc., present a 
 
 76 
 
unique example and one of the most remarkable illustrations of 
 high efficiency to be found in the wide world. Long live Col. 
 Goethals and his assistants! 
 
 THE WORK OF SANITATION 
 The perfect sanitation of the Canal Zone is one of its wonderful 
 features. Yellow fever has been absolutely exterminated, and 
 malaria and other tropical fevers reduced to a minimum. Per- 
 fect sewerage and water systems have been established in Panama 
 and Colon and at other points. Swampy districts have been 
 drained as far as possible, and other places treated with petroleum 
 to prevent the growth and spread of mosquitoes. The hospitals 
 are up-to-date in every respect. All hotels and houses of em- 
 ployes and hospital buildings are enclosed with wire netting to 
 keep out stray mosquitoes. The one disease which causes the 
 greatest number of deaths, but is largely confined to the Negro 
 population, is, strange as it may seem, pneumonia; but the cases 
 of this are being constantly reduced. A force of 1,400 men is 
 employed in the sanitary staff, of whom about 750 are in the two 
 terminal hospitals at Ancon and Colon. 
 
 The present health conditions on the Isthmus compare favor- 
 ably with those of the most healthful cities and districts of the 
 United States, and the death rate is lower than in the average 
 American city. What has 
 been accomplished can 
 best be appreciated by con- 
 ditions and incidents which 
 the author remembers as 
 existing and taking place 
 when he first went to the 
 Isthmus, in 1904, as United 
 States Minister. Then the 
 whole line of the Canal 
 Zone was overgrown with 
 heavy jungle, up through 
 which towered the old 
 French machinery like 
 
 , , , r 1 INSPECTION MOTOR CAR 
 
 black specters of the past. ^^^^^ ^^ ,ight~Col. Hodges, congressman FairchOd, 
 
 In neither Colon nor Mrs. Fairchild, and Jolm Barrett 
 
 n 
 
STREET IN ANCON HOSPITAL GROUNDS 
 
 Panama were there any waterworks or sewerage systems. The 
 mosquitoes were everywhere a pest. Nearly everybody was 
 afflicted with malaria, while yellow fever was beginning to 
 kill off the flower of the young men who went down to the 
 Isthmus in those pioneer days. In short, it may be said that 
 discouragement and death were the dominant features of 
 the situation. To make this more realistic, I can relate an 
 experience of my own. One Saturday night I had ten young 
 men who held responsible positions on the canal as my guests at 
 dinner in the Legation. On the following Saturday we buried 
 under the wet clay four of these splendid fellows — dead by the 
 yellow fever. 
 
 For nearly two years, beginning early in 1904, Col. Gorgas 
 and his staff valiantly battled against overwhelming odds to kill 
 off the yellow fever mosquito and stop the dreaded disease which 
 was decimating the ranks of the Americans and discouraging 
 those who escaped its clutches. By instituting a strict quaran- 
 tine against all vessels coming from yellow-fever infected ports, 
 by doing away with all stagnant water, by fumigating houses 
 wherever an occupant had been afflicted with yellow fever, and by 
 
 78 
 
following other comprehensive sanitary measures, he finally won 
 out, and now the mention of yellow fever suggests only unhappy 
 memories of the past. 
 
 A word should be said here about the trained nurses and other 
 women who have left good positions or good homes in the United 
 States to make up the hospital staff or perform other duties in 
 the Canal Zone. Most all of the praise for remarkable work done 
 from the early days of pioneer sanitation and construction to the 
 present has been given to the men with too little thought of the 
 nurses in the hospitals, the female teachers in the schools, and the 
 wives, daughters, and sisters who have accompanied and encour- 
 aged the husbands, fathers, and brothers. From early 1904, when 
 Miss Hibbard, as their chief, came down with the first forces 
 of nurses and inaugurated their work with notable unselfishness 
 and administrative skill, until the present, the women of the 
 canal staff have done their part with a courage, devotion, skill, 
 and patriotism deserving of the highest praise. In the trying 
 days of yellow fever not a single nurse showed the white feather 
 and asked to be allowed to return to the United States, and 
 many a splendid young engineer, surveyor, clerk, or other em- 
 ploye owed his life to the skillful nursing and careful attention 
 received from these untiring women. No wonder that happy 
 marriages have often resulted from these experiences. 
 
 HOSPITAL AND SANITARIUM AT TABOGA ISLAND, PACIFIC SIDE 
 
 79 
 
LOOKING SOUTH, EAST CHAMBER, UPPER LOCK AT MIRAFLORES 
 
 In this connection, however, there should not be overlooked the 
 force of quarantine officers, hospital doctors, and male attendants. 
 Well and faithfully have they done and are doing their exacting 
 duties. When the roll of honor is finally made up for valiant 
 and faithful service from 1904 to 19 15 a large number of the 
 names must include men and women who began, built up, con- 
 tinued, and raised to a high standard, under the example and 
 leadership of Col. W. C. Gorgas, the health hospital, and quaran- 
 tine service and conditions of the Canal Zone. 
 
 Prominent among the present and veteran hard-working 
 sanitary staff", aside from Col. Gorgas and Col. Phillips, are Major 
 Robert E. Noble, General Inspector; Lieut-Col. Charles F. Mason, 
 Superintendent Ancon Hospital; Dr. Wm. H. Bell, Superintend- 
 ent Colon Hospital; Dr. J. C. Perry, Chief Quarantine Officer; Dr. 
 Claude C.Pierce,Quarantine Officer, Colon; Dr. Fleetwood Gruver, 
 Quarantine Officer, Panama; Joseph A. LePrince, Chief Sanitary 
 Inspector, Ancon; and Dr. M. E. Connor, Health Ofl&cer, Colon. 
 
WHAT THE CANAL MEANS 
 
 What does the Panama Canal mean ? What does it mean to 
 the United States, to Latin America, to Europe, to Asia, to 
 AustraHa, and to all of the world ? 
 
 These are questions which every man interested in the progress 
 of the world cannot fail to turn over constantly in his mind. 
 
 No other great engineering undertaking in the history of the 
 human race, not even the construction of the Suez Canal, the 
 building of the transcontinental railways of North America, the 
 construction of the great wall of China, has had any such effect on 
 the power, prestige, commerce, and opportunity of one or of a 
 group of nations as will have the Panama Canal. 
 
 For the United States and its twenty sister American Republics 
 the formal opening of the canal will be the solemn inauguration 
 of a great new Pan American era of commerce, friendship, and 
 peace. In separating North from South America with a water 
 channel it will draw them closer together in ties of better 
 acquaintance and larger trade. 
 
 While it will bring a quickening influence to every State and 
 part of the United States, its most immediate benefits will be 
 first felt upon the Atlantic, Gulf, and Pacific seaboards. Gradu- 
 ally the interior, especially the commercial, industrial, manu- 
 facturing, and exporting sections, and later the agricultural dis- 
 tricts, will gain both direct and indirect advantages, until the 
 whole land realizes that a new world commercial route is in opera- 
 tion. Too great changes or effects, however, must not be expected 
 to come all at once. The real and lasting benefits to the trade 
 and commerce of the United States will come only through the 
 process of years and the adaptation of the business interests, not 
 only of the United States but of foreign countries, to the new con- 
 ditions of the canal. There is probability that much disappoint- 
 ment will be experienced in many seaports of the United States 
 that their docks and wharves are not immediately crowded with 
 shipping after the canal is opened. It must be remembered 
 that water routes, though freer and less restricted than rail routes, 
 require fleets of mercantile vessels, much capital, and large 
 actual exchange of commodities to develop them on a big scale. 
 
 Just as a new railroad built through a sparsely settled country 
 between two cities does not begin to do the business at first which 
 
San Francisco >j g ,j 
 
 
 NOR 
 
 !TH AMftlUC^ Li,„po..fr^'EUROPE 
 
 ^ .■/_J o L, 
 
 UK' I I l.n .>, >ew York /•"^Z I "^ j; . "'^'^ 
 
 ' ( AFRICA. 
 \ / 
 7 \ /■ 
 panani'* v / ,^ b I T H ' 
 
 ^ 
 
 lo^^'-y 
 
 y 
 
 Callao - 
 
 , A iM I R/PJt2 A° 
 
 I // 
 
 Valparaiso .d ^ / 
 
 .'/ 
 
 ' ^-^^ Strait of Magellan 
 
 THE PANAMA CUT OFF 
 
 COMPAHATIVE DISTANCES 
 
 via Magellan 
 via Panama 
 Difference 
 
 From Liverpool 
 
 via Magellan 
 via Panama 
 Difference 
 
 San Francisco 
 
 13,135 
 
 6,262 
 
 7,873 
 
 13,502 
 7,836 
 
 5,C66 
 
 The Orient 
 
 13,666 
 
 9,79S 
 
 3,768 
 
 13,933 
 12,372 
 1,661 
 
 12,852 
 
 10,392 
 
 2,460 
 
 13,425 
 12,966 
 459 
 
 9,613 
 
 3,3G3 
 
 6,250 
 
 9,980 
 
 6,937 
 
 4,043 
 
 8,380 
 
 4,633 
 
 3,747 
 
 8,747 
 
 7,207 
 
 1,540 
 
 RKS, BUFFALO, 
 
 comes to it later on through the construction of feeders, the 
 fining up of the country, and the growth of its terminal points, 
 so the Panama Canal, through the extension of old steamship 
 lines, the putting on of new lines and tramp vessels, and the 
 building up of the countries reached by them, will increase its 
 commerce and its shipping with eventual individual benefits to 
 each port within the limit of its influence. 
 
 Probably the greatest good to the United States from the 
 canal will result from the cheap, short, and quick route of water 
 communication between its Atlantic, Gulf, and Pacific seaboards. 
 The exchange through the canal of trade and commodities be- 
 tween the Atlantic and Gulf States and ports on the one hand, 
 and the Pacific States and ports on the other, should grow rapidly 
 in quantity, volume, and value. This development should not 
 and probably will not injure permanently the business of the 
 transcontinental railways. On the contrary, it will so increase 
 the prosperity, population, and business of the coast and adjacent 
 interior States that it will develop the local trade of the railways 
 
 82 
 
and that class of through business which will not be handled by 
 slow-going vessels. 
 
 Some simple contrasts in distances between the Panama Canal 
 and the Straits of Magellan will show at a glance what the Panama 
 Canal means in the relations of the Atlantic, Gulf, and Pacific 
 seaboards of the United States. By Magellan, the distance from 
 New York to San Francisco is 13,135 miles; by Panama, 5,262 
 miles, a saving of 7,873 miles, or more than twice the distance 
 across the Atlantic Ocean. From New Orleans to San Francisco, 
 by way of Magellan, is 13,551 miles; by way of Panama, 4,683 
 miles, a saving of 8,868 miles, or practically a month's steaming 
 of vessels averaging 12 knots an hour. Such figures need no 
 further argument than themselves to illustrate the real significance 
 and meaning of the canal. 
 
 While the shortening of the distance between the domestic 
 ports of the United States is, perhaps, the most remarkable and 
 important fact, the saving effected between the ports of the 
 United States and others beyond its shores upon the Pacific 
 is almost equally significant and impressive. A steamship 
 bound from New York to Honolulu, using the Panama Canal 
 in preference to the Magellan 
 route, will save 6,610 miles; 
 from New York to Wellington, 
 New Zealand, 2,493 miles; to 
 Melbourne, Australia, 2,770 
 miles ; and to Yokahama, Japan, 
 3,768 miles. All these distances 
 give also a large advantage to 
 the Panama Canal over the 
 Suez Canal route, but there is 
 practically no choice in actual 
 distance between the Panama 
 and Suez routes in the steaming 
 distance from New York to 
 Hong Kong, China, and Manila, 
 the capital of the Philippines. 
 The South American oppor- 
 tunity is discussed m the follow- j^^^and lighthouse on line 
 ing chapter. of canal 
 
 83 
 
COMPARATIVE DISTANCES (IN NAUTICAL MILES) IN THE 
 WORLD'S SEA TRAFFIC AND DIFFERENCE IN DISTANCES 
 VIA PANAMA CANAL AND OTHER PRINCIPAL ROUTES 
 
 From 
 
 To 
 
 via 
 
 New 
 York 
 
 New 
 Orleans 
 
 Liver- 
 pool 
 
 Ham- 
 burg 
 
 Suez 
 
 Panama 
 
 Seattle 
 Distance 
 
 Magellan 
 Panama 
 saved 
 
 13,953 
 6,080 
 7,873 
 
 14,369 
 5,501 
 8,868 
 
 14,320 
 8,654 
 5,666 
 
 14,701 
 9,173 
 5,528 
 
 15,397 
 10,447 
 4,950 
 
 4,063 
 
 San Francisco 
 Distance 
 
 Magellan 
 Panama 
 saved 
 
 13,135 
 5,262 
 7,873 
 
 13,551 
 4,683 
 8,868 
 
 13,502 
 7,836 
 5,666 
 
 13,883 
 8,355 
 5,528 
 
 14,579 
 9,629 
 4,950 
 
 3,245 
 
 Honolulu 
 Distance 
 
 Magellan 
 Panama 
 saved 
 
 13,312 
 6,702 
 6,610 
 
 13,728 
 6,123 
 7,605 
 
 13,679 
 9,276 
 4,403 
 
 14,060 
 9,795 
 4,265 
 
 14,756 
 11,069 
 3,687 
 
 4,685 
 
 Guayaquil 
 Distance 
 
 Magellan 
 Panama 
 saved 
 
 10,215 
 2,810 
 7,405 
 
 10,631 
 2,231 
 8,400 
 
 10,582 
 5,384 
 5,198 
 
 10,963 
 5,903 
 5,060 
 
 11,659 
 9,192 
 2,467 
 
 793 
 
 Callao 
 Distance 
 
 Magellan 
 Panama 
 saved 
 
 9,613 
 3,363 
 6,250 
 
 10,029 
 2,784 
 7,245 
 
 9,980 
 5,937 
 4,043 
 
 10,361 
 6,456 
 3,905 
 
 11,057 
 7,730 
 3,327 
 
 1,346 
 
 Valparaiso 
 Distance 
 
 Magellan 
 Panama 
 saved 
 
 8,380 
 4,633 
 3,747 
 
 8,796 
 4,054 
 4,742 
 
 8,747 
 7,207 
 1,540 
 
 9,128 
 7,726 
 1,402 
 
 9,824 
 
 9,000 
 
 824 
 
 2,616 
 
 Wellington 
 Distance 
 
 Magellan 
 
 Suez 
 Panama 
 saved 
 
 11,344 
 
 8,857 
 2,493 
 
 11,760 
 
 8,272 
 3,488 
 
 12,989 
 11,425 
 1,564 
 
 13,353 
 
 11,944 
 1,409 
 
 9,694 
 
 9,205 
 489 
 
 6,834 
 
 Melbourne 
 Distance 
 
 Cape Good Hope 
 Suez 
 Panama 
 saved 
 
 13,162 
 
 10,392 
 2,770 
 
 14,095 
 
 9,813 
 4,282 
 
 11,654 
 12,966 
 1,312 
 
 11,845 
 
 13,452 
 1,607 
 
 8,186 
 
 10,713 
 2,527 
 
 8,342 
 
 Manila 
 Distance 
 
 Suez 
 Panama 
 saved 
 
 11,589 
 
 11,548 
 
 41 
 
 12,943 
 10,969 
 1,974 
 
 9,701 
 14,122 
 4,421 
 
 9,892 
 14,608 
 4,716 
 
 6,233 
 11,869 
 5,636 
 
 9,370 
 
 Hongkong 
 Distance 
 
 Suez; 
 Panama 
 saved 
 
 11,673 
 
 11,691 
 
 18 
 
 13,031 
 
 11,112 
 
 1,919 
 
 9,785 
 13,957 
 4,172 
 
 9,976 
 14,443 
 4,467 
 
 6,317 
 11,704 
 5,387 
 
 9,173 
 
 Yokohama 
 Distance 
 
 Suez 
 
 Panama 
 saved 
 
 13,566 
 9,798 
 3,768 
 
 14,924 
 9,219 
 5,705 
 
 11,678 
 
 12,372 
 
 694 
 
 11,869 
 
 13,858 
 
 1,989 
 
 8,210 
 11,119 
 2,909 
 
 7,660 
 
 Panama 
 
 
 2,017 
 
 1,438 
 
 4,591 
 
 5,110 
 
 6,387 
 
 
 85 
 
THE GREAT LATIN AMERICAN PACIFIC COAST 
 In foreign trade and general opportunity of intercourse, ac- 
 quaintance, and business, the Panama Canal means much good 
 to the United States if it will take advantage of this new 
 route to vast southern fields of commerce, capital, and industry yet 
 in the infancy of their development. I refer particularly to that 
 resourceful, remarkable, and even fascinating Pacific coast line 
 of Latin America which reaches by the wanderings of its seaboard 
 for nearly 8,000 miles from the California-Mexican line south- 
 west to Panama and then directly south to Cape Horn. These 
 are 8,000 miles of a wonderland of potentialities. Such a descrip- 
 tion is no exaggeration if based on actual facts and the knowl- 
 edge of persons who look beyond mere present conditions, and 
 who, remembering the history of the development of other parts 
 of the world, picture ahead perfectly reasonable possibilities. 
 
 I indulge in no foolish or ill-advised prophecy when I predict 
 that the twelve Latin American countries or their western shores 
 bordering on the Pacific Ocean will experience in the decade 
 following the opening of the canal a development of commerce, 
 agriculture, industry, timber, and mineral wealth, railway con- 
 struction, harnessing of water-powers, population, cities, and 
 towns which will astonish the world and rival the development 
 of the Pacific coast and mountain States of the United States 
 following the completion of the transcontinental railways. It is 
 quite logical that the Panama Canal means as much in the long run 
 to the Pacific coast of Mexico, Guatemala, Salvador, Honduras, 
 Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Panama in North America, and to 
 Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, and Chile in South America 
 as it does to the United States, either in part or in whole. In 
 other words, these countries will feel the quickening influence of 
 the canal even before and to a greater extent than will the United 
 States because they will secure at once direct access by a short 
 cut to the great buying and selling markets, of the United States 
 and Europe. 
 
 The saving of the Panama over the Magellan route for vessels 
 running not only from New York, New Orleans, and neighbor- 
 ing ports but from England and northern Europe to the principal 
 ports of the west coast of South America is one of the best 
 illustrations of the value and meaning of the canal. The first 
 
 86 
 
northern important port of the Pacific coast of South America 
 is Guayaquil in Ecuador. A steamship bound from New York 
 to Guayaquil going through the canal will be obliged to steam 
 only 2,810 miles, instead of 10,215 miles via Magellan, a saving 
 of 7,405 miles, or between twenty and thirty days, according to the 
 power of the vessel. The steamship from New Orleans making 
 this journey would save 8,400 miles; from Liverpool, 5,198 
 miles; and from Hamburg, 5,060 miles. Callao, the principal 
 port of Peru and the next important port south of Guayaquil, via 
 the canal, is only 3,363 miles from New York, or equal to about 
 the average distance across the Atlantic Ocean from New York 
 to England. By the Magellan route it is distant, 9,613 miles, 
 so that the steamer going from New York to Callao via the canal 
 saves 6,250 miles. From New Orleans the distance saved is 
 7,245 miles; from Liverpool, 4,443 miles; and from Hamburg, 
 3,905 miles. 
 
 Valparaiso, the chief port of Chile, is generally considered the 
 principal terminal point for steamships which will go via the 
 canal to the west coast of South America. Through its harbor, 
 not only is the large trade of Chile reached but to some extent 
 that of the great Argentine Republic, whose capital, Buenos 
 Aires, is connected with Valparaiso by rail. By the canal, Val- 
 paraiso, which according to our old ideas seemed far away from 
 New York, is only distant 4,633 miles via the Panama Canal. 
 Although it is the nearest port of the west coast to the Straits of 
 Magellan, it is 3,747 miles nearer New York via Panama than 
 via Magellan. A vessel from New Orleans to Valparaiso saves 
 via the canal 4,742 miles; from Liverpool, 1,540 miles; and 
 from Hamburg, 1,402 miles. 
 
 There are two facts not generally appreciated in the matter of 
 distances. On account of the curvature of the earth's surface a 
 vessel en route from Liverpool to the Panama Canal taking the 
 great circle route can by only one extra day's steaming, or a 
 detour of between three and four hundred miles, include New 
 York City as a port of call, enabling it to coal there or get addi- 
 tional cargo. Correspondingly, a vessel en route via Panama to 
 Yokahama, or vice versa, by only a slight detour of less than 
 two days' steaming can include San Diego, Los Angeles, or San 
 Francisco as ports of call for both cargo and coal. 
 
 87 
 
The critic who is skeptical about the future of western Latin 
 America and the effect upon it of the Panama Canal should 
 consider, for example, what these countries are doing without the 
 canal and what is their foreign commerce in their present iso- 
 lated relation to the great commercial routes of the world. 
 
 Commerce is often described as the life-blood of nations. If 
 this is true, these twelve too little known and appreciated Latin 
 American countries bordering on the Pacific Ocean are certainly 
 full blooded and lusty. Last year without the canal they con- 
 ducted a foreign trade valued at the magnificent total of ^740,- 
 000,000. This, in turn, represents an increase of over 100% 
 during the last fifteen years. If the foreign trade of these coun- 
 tries can reach this volume without the canal, it should grow 
 quickly and easily to $1,500,000,000 within ten years after the 
 canal is opened. In this present commerce, with many ad- 
 vantages to Europe in the shipping which comes through the 
 Straits of Magellan, the share of the United States is $277,- 
 000,000 or 37 %. After the canal is completed and there are 
 new short distances between the principal ports of these coun- 
 tries and those of the United States, I look to see the share of 
 the United States grow quickly to 50 % and even to 60 % of 
 their total commerce. 
 
 This situation, however, must not be viewed selfishly. The 
 United States should want to see all of its Latin American sister 
 republics prosper and grow just as fast as it prospers and grows. 
 It should strive to provide a market for their exports as much 
 as it expects them to develop a market for its exports. The 
 Panama Canal, therefore, should mean vast mutual benefit to 
 all the American nations using it. 
 
 In view of the direct bearing on the meaning of the Panama 
 Canal of the twelve Latin American countries bordering on the 
 Pacific Ocean, let us note some further interesting facts about 
 them. They occupy a combined area of 2,500,000 square miles, 
 which is only a little short of the total connected area of the 
 United States. They have a present population of 37,000,000. 
 Their Pacific seacoast extends approximately 8,000 miles. 
 
 In this review are omitted the eight other important Latin 
 American countries — Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, Brazil, 
 Venezuela, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, and Haiti. They 
 
 91 
 
PRESENT DOCKS AT BALBOA, THE PACIFIC ENTRANCE TO THE CANAL 
 
 have no Pacific seaboard but still each, directly or indirectly, 
 will feel to a greater or lesser extent the quickening influence of 
 the Panama Canal. Including these, all of the twenty Latin 
 American countries occupy a total area of 9,200,000 square miles, 
 or three times that of the United States proper, and they have a 
 population approximately of 70,000,000. The foreign com- 
 merce last year of these twenty countries reached the magnifi- 
 cent total of approximately $2,500,000,000, of which the share 
 of the United States was about 30%. This United States trade 
 with all Latin America, following the opening of the Panama 
 Canal, should rapidly grow to 50 % of the total, provided we 
 always bear in mind the purchase of their products as well as 
 the selling of our own. 
 
 The opening of the Panama Canal will mean that the Pacific 
 coast of Latin America will want in increasing quantities our 
 iron and steel manufactures; our steam and electric railway 
 materials; our structural iron and steel; our sewing machines, 
 typewriters, and cash registers; our cotton cloth; our wood 
 and lumber; our flour, butter, cheese, and lard; our agricultural 
 implements; boots and shoes; jewelry; furniture and hardware; 
 drugs and medicines; automobiles; coal; illuminating and crude 
 oils; news print paper; binder twine; clothing; books and 
 maps; and numerous other articles demanded by a developing 
 country and population. 
 
 The Panama Canal means that we will have a new route to 
 
 92 
 
bring back from them in increasing quantities sugar, coffee, 
 rubber, bananas, cocoanuts, cacao or chocolate, nitrate of soda, 
 hides and skins, chinchilla, henequen, sisal, wool, Panama hats, 
 ivory nuts used for buttons, tin, copper, quinine, tobacco leaf, 
 honey, and jerked beef. 
 
 To fully understand the meaning of the Panama Canal in the 
 relations of the United States to the countries of the west coast 
 of South America, let us make some few comparisons as to area. 
 The great State of Bolivia, which expects splendid results from 
 the Panama Canal, could hold Germany, France, Italy, and 
 Spain combined, or the States of California, Nevada, Utah, 
 Idaho, Arizona, Oregon, and Washington. Into Chile, which 
 has a coast line of 2,500 miles on the Pacific directly south from 
 Panama, could be placed the State of Washington four times 
 over or California and Montana combined. Peru, which is 
 eagerly awaiting the opening of the canal, is equal to the com- 
 bined areas of France, Germany, and Austria, or those of Texas, 
 Nevada, Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico. Into Ecuador could 
 be put the larger part of Italy, or the greater portion of Missouri 
 and Arkansas. Colombia, with a resourceful coast line of 400 
 miles directly south from Panama, has an area twice that of the 
 German Empire. Into it could be placed Texas, Kansas, Ar- 
 kansas, and Louisiana. 
 
 Little Panama, chiefly known as the home of the canal, could 
 take care of both West Virginia and New Jersey. Mexico could 
 hold in its borders Germany, France, and the British Islands, or 
 the combined area of Texas, California, Nevada, New Mexico, 
 and Arizona. Guatemala is equal to Kentucky and New Jersey; 
 Honduras, to Pennsylvania and Rhode Island; Nicaragua, to 
 Vermont, Maryland, New Hampshire, New Jersey, and Mas- 
 sachusetts; and Costa Rica, to Maryland, Massachusetts, and 
 Delaware. 
 
 With the opening of the Panama Canal, there will be an 
 influx to these countries of capital and population which, acting 
 with the more ambitious and progressive element of population 
 already there, must bring about a new era of greater prosperity 
 and a larger trade which will benefit not only them but all the 
 countries doing business with them. 
 
 Having myself, as United States Minister to three Latin 
 
 93 
 
PRINCIPAL BUSINESS STREET, GUAYAQUIL, ECUADOR 
 
 American capitals, and as executive officer of the Pan-American 
 Union, carefully studied for many years the varied resources 
 and potentialities of South America, and having made, in 1906, 
 w^hen I was United States Minister to Colombia, a long over- 
 land journey through the Andean Mountains, plateaus, and 
 river valleys of Colombia and Ecuador, on the western coast of 
 Latin America, I sincerely believe that the Panama Canal will 
 initiate in all those countries a general movement which will 
 have a most important bearing upon the commerce and civiliza- 
 tion of all the world. 
 
 Considering the future of the Pacific coast of Latin America, 
 there comes up the question of the character of the peoples con- 
 trolling the policies and destinies of the countries bordering on it. 
 From personal knowledge of them I must frankly state that I 
 have great admiration for the quality of men who are in the 
 forefront of the statesmanship of these governments. The high- 
 class Chileans, Bolivians, Peruvians, Ecuadoreans, Colombians, 
 Panamanians, Central Americans, and Mexicans are worthy of 
 the fullest confidence and cooperation of the corresponding men 
 of the United States. During, for example, my experience as 
 United States Minister to Colombia, I met not only in Bogota, 
 its capital, but in the principal towns on the Pacific side of that 
 
 94 
 
country a remarkably large number of scholarly, able men, who 
 are earnestly desirous of developing in Colombia ideal progress 
 and stability of government. And certainly if there is any 
 country in all Latin America entitled to get benefits from the 
 canal it is Colombia. While my official position prevents me 
 from discussing in any way the differences between Colombia 
 and the United States over the Panama question, I do most 
 sincerely hope that that issue may be soon and amicably settled 
 in a way acceptable to this sister republic of South America. 
 
 In considering the meaning of the canal, we must also go 
 beyond our own Pacific coast and that of Latin America and 
 consider the whole Pacific Ocean and the countries bordering 
 upon it. According to the latest available figures, the annual 
 ocean-carried foreign trade of Australia amounted approxi- 
 mately to ^672,000,000; of China, ^568,000,000; of Japan, 
 $461,000,000; of New Zealand, $196,000,000; of British Colum- 
 bia, $33,000,000; of the Pacific coast of the United States, 
 $154,000,000; of the Philippines, $76,000,000; of Hawaii, 
 $70,000,000; of Alaska, $31,000,000. This makes a grand 
 total of approximately $2,250,000,000. If we add to that the 
 $750,000,000 of the twelve Latin American countries bordering 
 on the Pacific Ocean, we have a Pan Pacific foreign sea-going 
 trade of approximately $3,000,000,000. 
 
 Think what it means, that the day the canal is opened the whole 
 Atlantic and Pacific seaboard of the United States and the great 
 manufacturing and industrial central and eastern sections of the 
 country will have, for the first time in the history of modern com- 
 merce, direct access to this vast volume of international business. 
 
 When we add to this fact, moreover, the consideration that the 
 ports of Northern and Eastern Europe and Great Britain will, 
 through the canal, get more direct access than they have by the 
 Suez Canal to a considerable portion of this trade and that, in 
 turn, Austraha, the Philippines, China, Japan, Hawaii, Alaska, 
 British Columbia, and the Pacific coast of the United States will 
 have a new and competitive route to the Atlantic and Gulf coast 
 of the United States, to the Caribbean countries, to the Atlantic 
 coast of South America, and to the Eastern and Northern coast 
 of Europe, we will realize that the Panama Canal means, indeed, 
 the making anew of the commercial map of the world. 
 
 95 
 
GET READY FOR THE PANAMA CANAL 
 
 This panorama or picture, not overdrawn, of the world's com- 
 merce as affected by the Panama Canal, should inspire not only 
 the Government and people of the United States but of all 
 countries directly concerned to study minutely the meaning of 
 the Panama Canal. As there is more danger, however, that the 
 people of the United States, because of numerous other attrac- 
 tions and activities, will neglect, in comparison with competing 
 countries, the study and development of the Pan American and 
 the Pan Pacific field through the canal, it is highly necessary 
 that there should be inaugurated at once throughout the United 
 States what might be termed a " Paf7a?na Canal Movement.^' 
 
 Chambers of commerce and commercial clubs, civic, social, 
 and literary organizations, should undertake without delay a study 
 of the canal and what it means to the prestige, the influence, and 
 the commerce of the United States. Universities, colleges, pre- 
 paratory, high, and commercial schools should make the Panama 
 Canal a special line of study and research. They should study 
 the history, the development, the resources, the potentialities, the 
 peoples, the languages, of Latin America and the Pacific Ocean, 
 in order that their students, as coming citizens of this country and 
 of the world, can act and vote more intelligently and join in 
 making the canal bring the greatest benefits possible to trade and 
 society. 
 
 "A Get Ready for the Canal Movement," as it might also be 
 termed, should be inaugurated from New York to San Francisco, 
 and from Minneapolis to New Orleans. This phrase should be 
 the slogan of all kinds of commercial, social, and educational 
 organizations. Unless the people of the United States pursue 
 this method and undertake these activities in relation to the 
 Panama Canal, they will be disappointed in the results it will 
 bring and be distanced in the competition for its benefits by the 
 peoples and commerce of other countries. 
 
 Throughout all Latin America, throughout Europe, and 
 throughout Australia and Asia, there is deep practical interest in 
 the possibilities of the Panama Canal, and it is the theme of con- 
 stant discussion in foreign commercial, political, and economic 
 circles. Vast amounts of money are being expended in improv- 
 ing European, South American, and Asiatic harbors and steam- 
 
 96 
 
ship facilities in order to take advantage of the canal from the 
 very day it is opened. The trade agents of European manu- 
 facturers, exporters, and importers are journeying through the 
 countries and sections reached by the Panama Canal for the 
 purpose of finding new export and import markets. 
 
 If the United States is willing to spend approximately $400,- 
 000,000 in building the canal, it ought to spend a corresponding 
 amount of energy, effort, and even money in getting ready for 
 the canal. It should be improving its port facilities, deepening 
 its harbors and interior waterways, and constructing vessels so 
 that it may start even, as it were, with other countries when the 
 canal is opened. 
 
 There is danger that we will be so satisfied with our pride in 
 accomplishing such a great engineering feat, with our praise of 
 the work done, and with our plans for celebrating the opening 
 of the Panama Canal, that we will overlook or forget the practical 
 steps necessary to get actually ready for the canal and to utilize 
 it to fullest advantage when it is completed. We should do 
 everything to make this opening a gala event in the history of the 
 world and to insure a brilliant success for the Panama-Pacific 
 International Exposition of 1915 at San Francisco, and the 
 Panama-California Exposition at San Diego. But that cele- 
 bration and those exhibitions will be like the tinkling of cymbals 
 and the beating of drums if we do not follow up our prepa- 
 rations for them with even greater preparations for competition 
 in trade and influence with the rest of the world. The Director 
 General of the Pan American Union is urging all the Latin 
 American countries to participate in the San Francisco and San 
 
 HARBOR SCENE, CALLAO, PERU 
 
 97 
 
PLAZA IN NEW SECTION, LIMA, PERU 
 
 Diego Expositions, and it is to their credit that most of them are 
 planning to make elaborate exhibits. 
 
 In this movement nothing can help us more than an intimate 
 study of all the Latin American countries, an expressed appre- 
 ciation of their progress and possibilities, and practical cooper- 
 ation with them to bring good to them as well as to ourselves. 
 An unselfish spirit to make the canal and exposition benefit 
 them as well as the United States, and an avoidance of 
 policies, preachings, and methods of relationship which will 
 arouse their suspicions or check their desire for better acquaint- 
 ance and larger exchange of trade should characterize our 
 attitude. 
 
 For many years the Pan American Union, as an official inter- 
 national organization, maintained at Washington by all the 
 twenty-one American Republics, including the United States, for 
 the advancement of commerce comity, acquaintance, friendship, 
 intercourse, and business among them has been doing every- 
 thing in its power through its publications, special reports, and 
 its large correspondence, to make Latin America better known, 
 not only throughout the United States but throughout all the 
 world, and, in turn, to make the United States better known and 
 understood in Latin America. But this effort must be supple- 
 mented by a wide-spread Pan American movement which will 
 reach from the controlling statesmen and leading newspapers of 
 the country down through commercial organizations, clubs, and 
 schools to the masses of people and rising generation. Unless 
 this is done the great Pan American era which the opening of 
 the Panama Canal should solemnly inaugurate will be too long 
 delayed in its full fruition. 
 
 98 
 
CONQUEST OF THE TROPICS 
 
 The Panama Canal means many great things but possibly 
 none greater than the effect of its example in showing to the 
 world how tropical countries can be made healthful. The suc- 
 cessful completion of the canal is a conquest of the tropics. It 
 demonstrates that where even most uncompromising conditions 
 of climate and sanitation have prevailed changes can be rapidly 
 brought about that will make them the home of contented and 
 prosperous populations. 
 
 It is difficult to place any limit upon the good that will come 
 to the whole tropical belt of the world from the example of Ameri- 
 can sanitary achievement on the Isthmus. The largest unde- 
 veloped areas of the Western Hemisphere are now in the heart 
 of the tropics. In Brazil, Peru, the Guianas, Venezuela, Colom- 
 bia, sections of Central America and the countries of the Carib- 
 bean are vast unused jungle areas. These under the magic touch 
 which has been applied to Panama can be converted into great 
 areas of production and population. 
 
 Such an evolution will not only bring immeasurable wealth 
 and increased population to these countries of the tropics but 
 have a most direct effect upon the commerce and trade of all the 
 world and especially of the United States with them. The engi- 
 neers and the capitalists of the United States can indulge in no 
 more combined philanthropic and profitable effort than that of 
 cooperating with the governments and peoples of the tropics to 
 make these jungle districts productive and profitable. They con- 
 tain a wealth of timber and minerals, and large sections possess a 
 fertility of soil which will raise the products that are necessary 
 for the food supply of the world. 
 
 Already some governments of tropical lands and many of their 
 representative engineers and business men have been studying 
 carefully what has been accomplished on the Isthmus in order to 
 reproduce on a large scale similar methods of sanitation in their 
 own countries. 
 
 Already, moreover, a wonderful change has come over a con- 
 siderable portion of the low-lying malarial and insect-infested 
 coast of the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea as a result of 
 the example set at Panama. Along the coast of Mexico, Guate- 
 mala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, and Colombia 
 
 99 
 
HARBOR SCENE, VALPARAISO, CHILE 
 
 hundreds of thousands of jungle acres, which are only slightly 
 above the level of the sea, have been developed into veritable 
 banana gardens and made healthful for the residents, not only 
 native but from the north. The swamps are being drained, the 
 dreaded mosquitoes killed off, yellow fever exterminated, and 
 malaria subdued. The towns and villages along this remarkable 
 coast-line which formerly were characterized as pest holes and 
 only visited at the risk of health or life are now becoming model 
 sanitary settlements. 
 
 Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, and the various islands 
 which form the rim of the Caribbean are all being benefited to 
 some degree by this new era of sanitation, and they are fostering 
 its continuance in order that they may develop a greater prosper- 
 ity. Not only has this influence been felt actively and practically 
 on the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico, but along the entire 
 8,000 miles of Latin America's big Pacific coast line from northern 
 Mexico to southern Chile. It will soon be responsible for the elim- 
 ination from that coast not only of yellow fever and malaria but 
 of the plague and other dangerous contagious diseases which are 
 an overwhelming handicap to both commerce and progress. 
 
 The Government of Ecuador has recently requested Col. 
 Gorgas, the health wizard of the Isthmus, to go to Guayaquil and 
 show them how they can kill oflF yellow fever, which has, hereto- 
 fore, always prevailed at that port and kept it from realizing the 
 growth and prosperity which by its location it deserves. If his 
 work there is successfully executed, and the policies undertaken 
 
at other South American ports are continued, it will not be 
 necessary in the future, as now, to quarantine at Panama vessels 
 which touch Guayaquil and some other doubtful ports of the 
 Pacific. Such a new health condition will have a most beneficial 
 effect upon the trade and traffic of the Panama Canal. 
 
 What the engineers and doctors of the United States have 
 accomplished at Panama may mean an entirely new future, 
 vast wealth, and great population for that northern section of 
 Brazil which until now has almost seemed destined forever to be 
 a pathless jungle suited only to the growth of wild rubber. The 
 results accomplished at Panama mean that the greater portion of 
 the mighty Amazon Valley, with its 20,000 miles of navigable 
 waterways, now containing only a meager population and a few 
 cities and towns which are largely rubber-trading posts, can be, 
 as the world's increase in population and the demands for new 
 opportunities for mankind press upon it, converted into a garden 
 of population and productiveness. The same experience can be 
 enjoyed by Venezuela in the broad, resourceful valley of the 
 Orinoco; by Colombia in its rich low-lying areas of the Magda- 
 lena, the Cauca, and the Atrato rivers; by Ecuador, Peru, and 
 Bolivia, in the upper waters and tributaries of the Amazon which 
 drain their eastern slopes of the Andes. 
 
 GOVERNMENT BUILDING IN SUCRE, USE OF THE IRIXCIPAL CITIES 
 
 OF BOLIVIA 
 
 lOI 
 
CONGRESSIONAL BUILDING, SANTIAGO, CHILE 
 
 The American sanitary achievement at Panama will eventually 
 make the Caribbean Sea an American Mediterranean with a 
 population as active and prosperous as that which surrounds the 
 real Mediterranean. The Panama sanitary influence will also 
 reach Southern China, Siam, Burma, India, and the great tropical 
 belt of Africa, bringing beneficial results to humanity and civiliza- 
 tion which will extend down through countless ages of the future. 
 
 What a wonderful study is this meaning of the Panama Canal — 
 when the vast extent of its influence is considered. It is probably 
 true that the sanitation of the Isthmus, permitting the great 
 engineering work to be done, will prove even more wide reaching 
 in its good to the human race during the next few decades than 
 will the actual possession of a strategic and commercial water- 
 way uniting the two seas and permitting the passage from ocean 
 to ocean of the mercantile and naval fleets of the world. 
 
 THE CANAL AND THE WORLD-WIDE PEACE 
 In these days when there is so much discussion of permanent 
 peace among all the nations of the world, it is well to note the 
 possible significance of the canal in relation to this world-wide 
 peace movement. Closely associated with this thought, although 
 it may have a strange sound at first, is the military or naval value 
 of the canal. Remembering, however, that a distinctly military 
 
or naval advantage of one country or group of countries may be 
 a powerful influence for peace, the meaning of the canal in this 
 respect is easily appreciated. In its announced policy the United 
 States is constructing the canal for the strategic use or military 
 protection of the country as v^^ell as for commercial advantages. 
 By being able to move its naval fleets and squadrons rapidly from 
 the Atlantic and Gulf coasts to the Pacific coast, or vice versa, 
 the United States gains an extraordinary advantage from the 
 canal, which must reduce to a minimum the possibilities or 
 probabilities of its being engaged in war by foreign countries. 
 This meaning of the canal reducing the chances of war, the 
 necessary size of the United States navy, and the consequent cost 
 of maintaining a large navy, is indeed, a vital consideration; but 
 the influence of the canal for peace along other than military or 
 naval lines is far more impressive. 
 
 As more commerce is developed between nations, as more 
 travel goes back and forth between the peoples of diff^erent coun- 
 tries, as more intimate acquaintance grows between their repre- 
 sentative men, as they become more dependent, one upon the 
 other, in trade, friendship, and acquaintance, so much the less is 
 the danger of war between them or of the development of difi^er- 
 ences which might lead to war. The canal will so directly develop 
 the trade and travel between the commercial and political centers 
 of the United States and Europe, on the one hand, and those of 
 Latin America, Asia, and Australia, on the other hand, that it 
 cannot fail to be forever a mighty and tangible argument and 
 influence for peace. 
 
 Although the United States is fortifying the canal against the 
 possibilities of attack, the chances that these fortifications will 
 be forced to go into action against hostile vessels is, indeed, remote. 
 After the canal is opened the world will soon realize that it is an 
 absolute necessity for the commerce and general prosperity of 
 all nations, and a world-wide public sentiment will consider it an 
 international crime if any efi^ort is made to destroy it. 
 
 That great apostle and philanthropic promoter of world peace, 
 Andrew Carnegie, should rejoice that Uncle Sam, following his 
 example, as it were, has devoted a sum almost equal to his 
 reputed fortune to the endowment of universal peace in the 
 practical form of a great interoceanic waterway. 
 
 103 
 
PANAMA IN HISTORY 
 
 There is a real romance and charm about the history of Panama. 
 Justice cannot be done to it in this brief outhne, but some principal 
 facts will prove interesting. 
 
 From the days, in 1502, when Columbus investigated every 
 indentation of the Caribbean coast of Panama in search of a way 
 through to Cathay, the Isthmus has been more frequently the 
 center of world interest and richer in historical events than any 
 section of the two continents it connects. 
 
 Very soon after its discovery, that narrow strip which separates 
 the two great ocean highways of trade became the strategic point 
 of the western world of commerce and of the provisions for the 
 defense of Spain's monopoly. For three centuries it was the 
 lock that guarded her vitally important treasure houses on the 
 western hemisphere. 
 
 It was across this Isthmus that Vasco Nufiez de Balboa forced 
 his way in 1531 through the jungle to the discovery of the Pacific 
 Ocean. In 15 16, three years later, Pedro Arias de Avila (or 
 Pedrarias, or Davila, as he was familiarly known), and who was 
 the Spanish governor of the colony already established on the 
 Caribbean side, pushed forward his conquest of the country to 
 a native fishing village on the Pacific. Here he learned that 
 "for fishermen, the Indians said ' panama,' " and from that word 
 this region, which had been known as Darien, eventually derived 
 its name. 
 
 On the 15th of August, 15 19, Pedrarias founded the old city 
 of Panama and before long the colony assumed an importance 
 second to none in Spain's American empire. In that city the 
 colonial government (the Real Audiencia de Panama) established 
 by decree of the Emperor Charles V., dated February 26, 1538, 
 was given jurisdiction over Nicaragua to the north and all the 
 Spanish provinces to the south as far as the Straits of Magellan, 
 including the Provinces of Cartegena, Peru, -Chile, and what is 
 now Argentina. Subsequently, as the various colonies became 
 more thickly populated, this vast jurisdiction was reduced from 
 time to time and the Audiencias of Guatemala, Lima, Santa Fe 
 de Bogota, Charcas (now Bolivia), San Francisco de Quito, Chile, 
 and Buenos Aires were successively created. At last the Province 
 of Panama was restricted to its present area, and, prior to the 
 
 104 
 
RUIN OF CATHEDRAL TOWER AT OLD PANAMA 
 Destroyed by Morgan in 1671 
 
 securing of independence by the Spanish colonies about lOO 
 years ago, was attached to the Viceroyalty of New Granada. 
 
 With the transformation of the great empire of the Incas into 
 the Viceroyalty of Peru, after its conquest by Pizarro, this city 
 of Panama became the port of transhipment of the enormous 
 wealth in gold, silver (of near value in those days), and emeralds 
 which were poured into Spain as a result of the spoliation of the 
 Inca temples and the palaces of the nobility. It was also the 
 great entrepot through which the imports from the mother country 
 were distributed among the colonies to the south. At the height 
 of its importance, it outclassed even the Viceregal capital of 
 
 105 
 
Peru in splendor and social as well as commercial activity, and 
 was long spoken of as the richest and most luxurious city in the 
 world — a preeminence that was to depart only with its destruc- 
 tion by the romantic buccaneer, Sir Henry Morgan, in 1671. 
 
 Two years afterward, in 1673, a new walled Panama was 
 founded on the little coral peninsula below the hill of Ancon, 
 some six miles from the old site and strongly fortified against 
 further attacks. For nearly 200 years, until the construction of 
 the railroad across the Isthmus (1848-1855), the old forest and 
 palm-bordered, stone-paved highway from the capital to Porto 
 Bello on the Caribbean side continued to be the thoroughfare 
 over which much of Spain's commerce passed. 
 
 It was not until the eighteenth century that the flood of Peruvian 
 treasure began gradually to subside and the importance of that 
 golden gateway of the Spaniards began to wane. At that period, 
 as a consequence of her deposition from European supremacy, 
 a general lethargy had set in throughout Spain's colonies. With 
 the increasingly insistent efforts of other powers to participate in 
 the new-world trade, she had been forced to place an embargo 
 upon their ships to protect her monopoly, which had long before 
 become vested in a group of Cadiz merchants. All but four of 
 the ports in Central and South America were closed to interna- 
 tional traffic. The reawakening came only when the revolu- 
 tionary movement spread among the provinces in the years 1809 
 to 1824, and the patience of the colonists, strained to the breaking 
 point after centuries of selfish exploitation of their resources for 
 the benefit of the Crown and its favorites, availed themselves of 
 the opportunity afforded by the disorders caused by the Napo- 
 leonic regime in Spain to engage in a continent-wide struggle for 
 independence. 
 
 Politically and commercially as well as geographically, Panama 
 occupied by that time a largely isolated position, for she was then 
 only a more or less autonomous appendage of the Viceroyalty of 
 New Granada (which embraced what is now Colombia and part 
 of what afterwards became Ecuador), and was denied any profit- 
 able intercourse with the capital at Bogota by its location on a 
 high plateau in the midst of almost inaccessible Andean ranges. 
 Still, when out of that revolution was evolved, in 1821, Bolivar's 
 great Colombian confederation, made up of the Provinces of 
 
 106 
 
Venezuela, New Granada, and Ecuador, Panama chose to cast 
 in her lot with that republic and became known as its Department 
 of the Isthmus. In 1831, the year following Bolivar's death, the 
 confederation was dissolved and out of it emerged the separate 
 republics of Venezuela, Ecuador, and New Granada, Panama 
 remaining with the last named. 
 
 Later, in 1858, New Granada reverted to the old name and 
 became known as the United States of Colombia. Still later, in 
 1886, the name was changed to Republic of Colombia, the one 
 by which she is now known in the family of nations. Panama 
 continued as a department of that republic for a period of eighty- 
 two years — from 1821 to 1903. The present republic was pro- 
 claimed on the 3d of November, 1903. 
 
 From the viewpoint of our own times and with reference to 
 their effect on the world at large, perhaps, the most interesting 
 events in the history of Panama since her separation from Spain 
 are those connected with the efforts to establish a water commu- 
 nication through from the Caribbean to the Pacific. The search 
 for a natural waterway was the real aim of many of the famous 
 maritime exploits that followed immediately the discovery made 
 by Columbus himself that the Isthmus was a barrier which barred 
 the short route to Cathay and the spice islands of the Indies. 
 His failure to penetrate it did not carry conviction. It seemed 
 impossible that nature could have played such a trick as com- 
 pletely to close the route to these desirable places, which were 
 then thought to be, not on the far side of another and greater 
 ocean than the Atlantic, but only a short distance beyond the new 
 land which had been found. Several of the early cartographers, 
 selecting the narrow strip at Panama, actually went so far as to 
 depict an imaginary "Strait of Panama" on their maps. One 
 was shown by Waldseemiiller, for instance, on the map he pub- 
 lished in 1507. 
 
 Columbus's former shipmate, Vicente Yafiez de Pinzon, 
 sought such a strait from the Amazon to Florida. Juan de la 
 Cosa and Amerigo Vespucci were disappointed to find that neither 
 the Gulf of Uraba (Darien) nor the Atrato River disclosed it. 
 Juan de Solis was in search of it when he was killed by the natives 
 in the Rio de la Plata. From Newfoundland to the Gulf of 
 Mexico the Cabots tried to beat the Spaniards through by way 
 
 107 
 
io8 
 
of some northern passage. In 1524 the Florentine Giovanni de 
 Verrazano, saiHng under the patronage of Francis L of France, 
 tried the Chesapeake, which for a space bore the name "Mare 
 Verrazano" in his honor, and Jaques Carrier in 1534, and after- 
 wards other Frenchmen, explored the St. Lawrence. For the 
 Dutch, Henry Hudson essayed the river that was named for him. 
 From 1553 to 16 1 2, the Englishmen Willoughby, Thorne, Sir 
 Martin Frobisher, Sir Humphrey Gilbert, John Davis, and Cap- 
 tain John Smith continued the quest. Even the Jamestown 
 colonists of 1607 were directed to seek it by way of the rivers in 
 that region. 
 
 Meanwhile Magellan had found a way through at the southern 
 end of the continent to the south and sailed across the Pacific, 
 but it was thousands of miles from the Isthmus and so narrow 
 and so near the stormy Antarctic Sea that it was too perilous for 
 general commercial use before the days of modern shipping. 
 And so, after all this labor and many lives had been sacrificed in 
 vain, it was found that if there was to be a short and practicable 
 means of communication between the Atlantic and Pacific by 
 water it must be cut through by the hand of man. 
 
 Naturally it was the Isthmus of Panama that was chiefly 
 centered upon as the most available site for the undertaking. It 
 is amusing, however, to read that more than a century before this 
 conclusion was reached a governor of the province (Pascual de 
 Audagoga), amazed by a decree of Charles V. ordering a survey 
 of the country between the Chagres River and the South Sea 
 (as Balboa had dubbed the Pacific), had admonished the emperor 
 that the project could only have been advised by a man of scanty 
 intellect, for no prince, however powerful he might be, was 
 capable of accomplishing a union between the two oceans in a 
 region so mountainous and wild! 
 
 This spirited reply seems to have put a quietus on the plan for 
 an Isthmian Canal so far as Spain was concerned. Afterwards, 
 at various times, England and France manifested great interest 
 in it, but the government of the United States, apparently, did 
 not begin to consider the matter until 1835. On the 3d of March 
 of that year, at the instance of Henry Clay, the Senate, by resolu- 
 tion, requested President Jackson to take under advisement the 
 expediency of negotiating with New Granada and the Central 
 
 109 
 
FAMOUS CHAGRES RIVER AT FLOOD WITH WRECK OF 
 OLD FRENCH DREDGE 
 
 American republics respecting such a canal, and the President 
 commissioned Mr. Charles Biddle to investigate and report as to 
 the availability of the various routes. 
 
 Nothing came of this at the time, nor until attention was 
 directed again to the project in 1846, when, by the settlement of 
 the northwest boundary dispute with England, and as a result of 
 the Mexican war, the United States came into possession of 
 Oregon, California, and the territory north of the Rio Grande. 
 Then, impressed by the need of making these new possessions 
 more accessible from the Eastern States, Messrs. Aspinwall, 
 Stephens, and Chauncy, all North Americans, secured from the 
 New Granadan government, in 1848, a franchise to construct a 
 railroad between the town of Colon (for a time called Aspinwall) 
 and the city of Panama. In the year following, the gold rush of 
 the "Forty-niners" to California added impetus to the work and 
 the new land route, now the famous Panama Railroad, was 
 opened to general traffic in 1855. But still in the United States 
 the great waterway project hung fire. President Grant's message 
 to Congress on the subject, in 1869, brought forth no more 
 definite action than a resolution providing for an exploration of 
 the Isthmian route by officers of the navy, and later, in 1872, 
 authority for the creation of a commission to consider the reports. 
 
 In May, 1876, however, Colombia granted a concession for the 
 construction of the canal by way of Panama to Lieut. Lucien 
 Napoleon Bonaparte Wyse, an officer in the French army. This 
 
concession Lieut. Wyse sold to a group of French financiers, who, 
 because of the prestige he had acquired by reason of his bril- 
 Hant success at Suez, persuaded Count Ferdinand de Lesseps 
 to join them as chief engineer. De Lesseps went out to the 
 Isthmus in 1879, and, having gone over the ground with his 
 experienced eye, pronounced in favor of the undertaking and 
 determined on the course between Colon and Panama City over 
 which the United States Government was afterwards to under- 
 take the completion of the canal. Early in 1881 these French- 
 men organized La Compagnie Universelle du Canal Intero- 
 ceanique (known also as the Panama Canal Co.), to own the 
 concessions and carry through the undertaking. 
 
 In 1889, after eight years of active work, this company went 
 into bankruptcy and a new one that succeeded it in 1894 was 
 enabled to resume operations only to an extent sufficient to keep 
 alive its franchise. 
 
 On the 1 8th of November, 1901, the now famous Hay-Paunce- 
 fote Treaty was concluded between the United States and Great 
 Britain, and proclaimed February 22, 1902. It was intended to 
 supersede the Clayton-Bulwer treaty signed in 1850 (when the 
 two governments were contemplating a joint interest in American 
 canal projects) and to facilitate the construction of a canal over 
 any expedient route, and "to remove any objection which may 
 arise out of the Convention of 19th April, 1850, commonly called 
 
 Mr-'' 
 
 OLD FRENCH DUMP CAR THROUGH WHICH HAS GROWN A LARGE BANYAN TREE 
 
the Clayton-Bulwer treaty, to the construction of such canal 
 under the auspices of the Government of the United States, with- 
 out impairing the 'general principle' of neutralization estab- 
 lished in Article VIII of that Convention." 
 
 As the Hay-Pauncefote treaty has been involved recently in 
 serious diplomatic discussion between its signatories, the United 
 States and Great Britain, arising out of the former's proposed 
 tolls for the Panama Canal, the clauses of that treaty involved in 
 the discussion are given below: 
 
 Article III: "The United States adopts, as the basis of 
 neutralization of such ship canal, the following rules, substan- 
 tially as embodied in the Convention of Constantinople, signed 
 the 28th October, 1888, for the free navigation of the Suez Canal, 
 that is to say : 
 
 "i. The canal shall be free and open to vessels of commerce 
 and of war of all nations observing these Rules, on terms of 
 entire equality, so that there shall be no discrimination against 
 any such nation, or its citizens or subjects, in respect of the con- 
 ditions, or charges of traffic, or otherwise. Such conditions and 
 charges of traffic shall be just and equitable." 
 
 Article IV: "It is agreed that no change of territorial sov- 
 ereignty or of the international relations of the country or coun- 
 tries traversed by the beforementioned canal shall affect the 
 general principle of neutralization or the obligation of the High 
 Contracting Parties under the present Treaty." 
 
 In 1902, under the administration of President Roosevelt, 
 the Government of the United States, which had become more 
 than ever interested and had had under consideration the con- 
 struction of a canal through Nicaragua, concluded to take up the 
 work in Panama if satisfactory arrangements could be made with 
 the French company for the acquiring of its rights. As a result 
 of the report of a commission of which Admiral John G. Walker 
 was chairman, Congress, by the act of the 28th of June, 1902, 
 known as the "Spooner Act," authorized the purchase, provided 
 the French company would sell out for a sum not exceeding $40,- 
 000,000 and that arrangements could be made with Colombia 
 for the control of the right of way; otherwise, the alternative 
 route (Nicaragua) recommended by the "Walker Commission," 
 should be adopted. 
 
It was pending these negotiations, on the 3d of November, 
 1903, that Panama declared her separation from Colombia and 
 became an independent republic. W. I. Buchanan, the eminent 
 Latin American authority, was named special United States 
 envoy to Panama, and P. Bunau-Varilla, first Minister of 
 Panama to Washington. On the 28th of November, 1903, the 
 French company having agreed to sell for the stipulated price, 
 the Hay-Bunau-Varilla treaty between the new republic and 
 the United States was signed. It was promulgated on the 26th 
 of February, 1904. Under its terms ^10,000,000 was paid to 
 the government of Panama for the right of way and an annual 
 rental of ^250,000 agreed upon, to begin nine years after date. 
 The United States guaranteed the independence of Panama and 
 secured absolute control over what is now known as the Canal 
 Zone, a strip of land ten miles wide extending from Colon to 
 Panama City, through the center of which runs the course of the 
 great waterway. The French company's franchise and property 
 rights were purchased at the figure stated in the act of Congress 
 and the formal transfer to the United States was made on the 
 4th of May, 1904. 
 
 Six days after the promulgation of the treaty President Roose- 
 velt, acting under authority of the Spooner Act, appointed the 
 body known as the Isthmian Canal Commission to have charge 
 of canal construction. The appointment was confirmed by the 
 Senate on the 3d of March, 1904. Of the seven members of 
 which it was composed, Rear-Admiral John G. Walker (the same 
 
 OLD FRENCH CARS AND MACHINERY 
 
 113 
 
who had served on the earHer commission) was made Chairman 
 and Maj.-Gen. George W. Davis, Civil Governor of the 
 Canal Zone. They reached the Isthmus on the 17th of May and 
 two days later, by an appropriate proclamation, took formal 
 possession in the name of the United States. On the ist of June, 
 1904, John Findley Wallace, formerly general manager of the 
 Illinois Central Railroad, was appointed Engineer in Chief and 
 repaired at once to the Isthmus. There also went Col. W. 
 C. Gorgas, who had been health officer at Havana, Cuba, 
 during the occupation by United States troops following the 
 Spanish war, and, with the preliminary operations on the canal 
 itself, the all-important work of sanitation was begun. 
 
 In the fall of 1904, when I was United States Minister 
 to Panama, William H. Taft, then Secretary of War, visited the 
 Isthmus accompanied by William Nelson Cromwell and Charles 
 E. Magoon for the purpose of adjusting many delicate and 
 important questions which had naturally arisen between the 
 Government of Panama and that of the Canal Zone. These 
 three assisted by Governor Davis and myself held numerous 
 conferences with President Amador Guerrero of Panama and 
 the members of his cabinet until all questions at issue were 
 satisfactorily settled. In these discussions the great tact, amia- 
 bility, and judgment of Mr. Taft were most potent factors for a 
 harmonious agreement. 
 
 The Commission was reorganized by executive order of April 
 I, 1905. In the new personnel, Theodore P. Shonts became 
 Chairman of the Commission, and John F. Wallace was appointed 
 Chief Engineer and Charles E. Magoon, Civil Governor. The 
 other four members were Admiral Mordecai T. Endicott, Gen. 
 Peter C. Haines, Col. Ernst, and Benjamin M. Harrod. On the 
 28th of June of the same year, Mr. Wallace resigned and was suc- 
 ceeded by John F. Stevens, who entered upon his new duties 
 on the 1st of July, 1905. Later, by order of March 4, 1907, 
 he was made Chairman of the Commission in the place of 
 Mr. Shonts, who had resigned, and Col. George Washington 
 Goethals, of the Army Engineer Corps, was appointed to 
 the vacancy. Mr. Stevens, in turn, resigned on the 3d of 
 March, 1907, whereupon the Government determined to take over 
 the work itself, and on the ist of April, 1907, Col. Goethals was 
 
 114 
 
appointed Chairman and Chief Engineer. By a further order, dated 
 the next day, he was also made Civil Governor of the Canal Zone. 
 Other appointments to the Commission included Col. H. F. 
 Hodges, Lieut.-Col. D. D. Gaillard, Lieut.-Col. William L. Sibert, 
 Civil Engineer H. H. Rousseau of the navy. Col. W. C. Gor- 
 gas, Maurice H. Thatcher, and Joseph Bucklin Bishop, Secretary. 
 On August 24, 1912, the "Panama Canal Act" (see also page 
 48) w^as approved, providing for its opening, maintenance, 
 operation, and protection, also that "no tolls shall be levied on 
 vessels engaged in the coastv^ise trade of the United States." On 
 the 13th of November, 19 12, President Taft, under the authority 
 conferred by the act, issued a proclamation fixing the rates to be 
 paid by other vessels as follows : 
 
 "i. On merchant vessels carrying passengers or cargo, 
 one dollar and twenty cents (^1.20) per net vessel ton — each 
 one hundred (100) cubic feet — of actual earning capacity. 
 
 "2. On vessels in ballast, without passengers or cargo, 
 forty (40) per cent, less than the rate of tolls for vessels with 
 passengers or cargo. 
 
 "3. Upon naval vessels, other than transports, colliers, 
 hospital and supply ships, fifty {50) cents per displacement 
 ton. 
 
 "4. Upon army and navy transports, colliers, hospital, 
 and supply ships, one dollar and twenty cents ($1.20) per 
 net ton, the vessels to be measured by the same rules as are 
 employed in determining the net tonnage of merchant 
 vessels." 
 
 ELECTRIC LOCOMOTIVES TOWING STEAMSHIP THROUGH LOCKS 
 
NEW BUILDING AND HOME OF THE PAN AMERICAN UNION 
 IN WASHINGTON, D. C, U. S. A. 
 
 JOHN BARRETT FRANCISCO J. YANES 
 
 Director General of the Pan American Union Assistant Director of the Pan American Union 
 
 ii6 
 
THE PAN AMERICAN UNION AND THIS BOOK 
 A FINAL WORD 
 
 The perusal of these pages may perchance awaken the reader's 
 interest in the countries, peoples, and possibilities of Central and 
 South America and of the other Latin American nations border- 
 ing on the Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico, which, with the 
 United States, are the constituent governments forming and 
 maintaining the Pan American Union. If so, he is requested 
 to get in touch with that organization at its headquarters in 
 Washington and secure additional publications or information 
 concerning Latin America. If he comes to Washington, he is 
 invited to visit its beautiful home, sometimes described as a 
 "palace of peace and temple of commerce," which is both a 
 monument to the great principle of Pan Americanism and the 
 home of a practical office for the development of international 
 trade and comity. 
 
 The Pan American Union and its staff of commercial experts, 
 statisticians, translators, compilers, and editors, prepares reports 
 descriptive of the resources, products, foreign trade, material, 
 and educational conditions of all the Latin American countries, 
 and publishes a monthly bulletin, with editions in English, 
 Spanish, Portuguese, and French, which is in fact an illustrated 
 magazine of Pan American progress. On application, a list of 
 all of its publications will be provided to the person asking for 
 them or forwarded to his address. If it is desired to secure extra 
 copies of this handbook on the Panama Canal, or to send them 
 to other persons, they can be obtained for one dollar a copy, 
 postage prepaid, by addressing "Publicity Department, Pan 
 American Union, Washington, D. C, U. S. A.," marking the 
 envelope "Panama Handbook." As only a limited number of 
 copies is printed, orders should be sent in as soon as possible. 
 
 "G£r READY FOR THE PANAMA CANAL" 
 
 117 
 
BRIEF BIBLIOGRAPHY 
 
 BOOKS 
 
 Abbot, Henry L. : Problems of the Panama Canal; New York, 1907. 
 Barrett, John: Pan American Union; Peace, Friendship, Commerce; Wash- 
 ington, 191 1. Panama Canal, What It Is, What It Means; Washington, 1913. 
 Baxter, Jr., W. M. : The Panama Canal; Mount Hope, C. Z., 1912. 
 Bristow, Joseph L. : Report; Washington, 1905. 
 Bryce, James: South America; pages 4, 5, 18-36, N. Y., 1912. 
 
 BuLLARD, Arthur: Panama; * * * by Albert Edwards (pseud.); N. Y., 
 1911. 
 
 Cornish, Vaughn: The Panama Canal and Its Makers; Boston, 1909. 
 Currier, C. W. : Lands of the Southern Cross; * * * Was hington, 1901, 
 pages 351-364. 
 
 Goethals, George W. : Address, The Isthmian Canal; numerous reports; 
 Washington, 1909-13. 
 
 Grier, Thomas Graham: On the Canal Zone; Chicago, 1908. 
 
 Hall, Alfred B. : Panama and the Canal; New York, 1910; Isthmian Tourists' 
 Guide and Business Directory; Ancon, 1912. 
 
 Johnson, Emory R. : Panama Canal Traffic and Tolls; Washington, 1912. 
 Report; * * * Washington, 191 1; also Special Reports, 1912. 
 
 Johnson, Willis: Four Centuries of the Panama Canal; New York, 1906. 
 
 Knox, Philander C. : Addresses, Washington, 1909-1912. 
 
 Lindsay, Forbes: Panama, the Isthmus and the Canal, Philadelphia, 1911. 
 
 Panama and the Canal To-day; Boston, 1910. 
 Pennell, Joseph: Pictures of the Panama Canal; Philadelphia, 1912. 
 Pensa, Henri: La Republique et le Canal de Panama; Paris, 1906. 
 Pepper, Charles M. : Panama to Patagonia; Chicago, 1906, pages 1-21. 
 Porter, Robert H.: The Ten Republics; London, 1911, pages 97-108. 
 Robinson, Tracy: Fifty Years at Panama, 1861-1911; New York, 1 912. . 
 Root, Elihu: The Ethics of the Panama Question; New York, 1904. 
 Scott, William R.: The Americans in Panama; New York, 1912. 
 Shonts, Theodore P.: Speech January 20, 1906; Speech, January 24, 1907; 
 
 Speech, January 26, 1907. (All Washington.) 
 Stevens, Walter B. : A Trip to Panama; * * * St. Louis, 1907. 
 Sullivan, Cromwell : (Comp.) Compilation on Executive Documents and 
 
 Diplomatic Correspondence Relative to a Transoisthmian Canal in Central 
 
 America; New York, 1905. 
 Van Dyke, Harry: Through South America; New York, 1912, pages, XV- 
 
 XVII of Introduction and page 420. 
 Weir, Hugh C. : The Conquest of the Isthmus; New York, 1909. 
 
 118 
 
UNITED STATES OFFICIAL DOCUMENTS 
 Act to provide for the opening, maintenance, protection, and operation of the 
 Panama Canal, and the sanitation and government of the Canal Zone. Ap- 
 proved by the U. S. Congress, August 24, 1912. 
 Convention between the United States and Panama for the Construction of a Ship 
 Canal; Washington, 1904. 
 
 between the United States and Colombia for the Construction of a 
 
 Ship Canal, etc.; Washington, 1903. 
 
 between the United States and Great Britain to facilitate the Con- 
 
 struction of a Ship Canal; November 18, 1901. (Hay-Pauncefote treaty.) 
 
 Board of Consulting Engineers: Report; Washington, 1905. 
 
 Department of Justice: Panama Canal Title; Washington, 1902. 
 
 Isthmian Canal Commission: Preliminary Report, 1900; Annual Reports, 
 1904-1912; The Canal Record, weekly; Ancon, C. Z.; Civil Code, Wash- 
 ington, 1905; Civil Procedure, Washington, 1905; Laws of the Canal Zone, 
 first issue, Act i, August 16, 1904; Report of the Chief Engineer, Washington, 
 1905; Report of Chief Sanitary Officer, Washington, 1905; Report of Depart- 
 ment of Health, monthly, Washington; Report of Engineering Committee, 
 Washington, 1905; other reports, 1904-1912. 
 
 President: Message * * * transmitting a statement of action in executing 
 the act entitled "An Act to Provide for the Construction of a Canal Con- 
 necting the Waters of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans"; Washington, 1904. 
 Panama Canal Tolls; other messages, 1 903-1 91 2. 
 
 PERIODICAL REFERENCES 
 
 Abbot, H. L. : Natural Conditions Affecting the Building of the Panama Canal; 
 Eng. Mag., New York, August, 1904. 
 
 Authier, George F. : Realizing the Dream of Panama; Rev. of Rev., New 
 York, January, 1911. 
 
 Ballivian, Adolfo : Bolivia Awaits Opening of Panama Canal; Exporters Rev., 
 New York, May, 1912. 
 
 Barrett, John: Effect of the Panama Canal on U. S. Commerce; address 
 before Southern Commercial Congress; Bull, of the Pan Amer. Union, 
 December, 1909. Panama Canal and its Problems; Rev. of Rev., New York, 
 February, 1905. Panama Canal and its Effect on the World's Trade; Finan- 
 cial Rev. of Rev., London, October, 1912. Tolls of the Panama Canal; 
 Bull, of the Pan Amer. Union, December, 191 1; other articles, 1904-1913. 
 
 Bishop, Farnham: End of the Big Job; Century, New York, December, 1912. 
 Builder of the Canal; World's Work, New York, August, 1912. The Story 
 of Panama; St. Nicholas Magazine, New York, February, 1912. 
 
 Bishop, Joseph Bucklin: Wonderful Panama Canal; French at Panama; 
 World's Plague Spot Abolished; Benevolent Despotism at Panama; all in 
 Scribner's, New York, 191 3. 
 
 Chapple, Jose Mitchell: Canal Zone a Proving Ground and Social Life on 
 the Isthmus; Nat. Mag., New York, June, July, 1910. 
 
 Chappel, Jose Mitchell: Panama Canal as it is; National Magazine, New 
 York, June, 1912. 
 
 119 
 
CoNANT, Charles A.: Panama Canal in Relation to Commerce and Transpor- 
 tation; Amer. Industries, New York, June, 1912. 
 
 Cornish, Vaughan: The Panama Canal in 1908; Geographical Journal, Lon- 
 don, February, 1909. 
 
 FoRTESCUE, Granville: Present Progress on Panama Canal; Bull, of the Pan 
 Amer. Union, December, 191 1. Via Panama, What the Opening of the 
 Panama Canal Means to U. S. Business Men; Bull, of the Nat. Asso. of 
 Credit Men, New York, July, 1912. When the Canal is Cut; Metropolitan, 
 New York, August, 1912. 
 
 GoETHALS, Geo. W. : The Panama Canal; Nat. Geographic Mag., Washing- 
 ton, February, 1911. The Panama Canal; Nat. Geographic Mag., Washing- 
 ton, April, 1909. 
 
 Hale, William Bayard: A Picture of the Canal; World's Work, New York, 
 August, 1912. 
 
 Hutchinson, L.: Comparison of the Panama and Magellan Routes to Western 
 South America; Bull, of the Pan Amer. Union, September, 1906. 
 
 Johnson, Emory: The Panama Canal and its Commercial Aspects; Bull, of 
 the Amer. Georgaphic Soc, December, 1903. Panama Canal and the Com- 
 merce of the U. S.; Sci. Amer., November 9, 191 2. Panama Canal, Its Prob- 
 able Effect on Commerce; Times, Lond., So. Amer. Suppl., July 30, 1912. 
 Panama Canal and Transcontinental Traffic; Railway and Marine News, 
 Seattle, September, 15, 1912. 
 
 Laut, Agnes C: Preparation on the Pacific for Panama; What the Big Harbors 
 are Doing; Rev. of Rev., New York, December, 191 1. Southern Ports Prepa- 
 ration for Panama; Nat. Waterways Mag., Washington, November, 1912. 
 What the West Expects from Panama; Rev. of Revs., New York, July, 1912. 
 
 Lindsay, Forbes: The Prospective Panama Canal; Lippincott's, New York, 
 January, 1912. Situation at Panama; Rev. of Revs., New York, April, 1909. 
 The Harvest of Tares; Lippincott's; New York, April, 191 1. 
 
 Martin, Percy F. : The Panama Canal; Engineer, London, Spec. Sppl., 
 June 9, 1911. 
 
 Nelson, Frank L. : Practical Side of the Panama Canal; World To-day, New 
 York, June, 191 1. 
 
 Peabody, James: Commercial Value of the Panama Canal; World To-day, 
 New York, November, 1910. 
 
 Pepper, Charles M. : Lo que el Canal de Panama significa para la America 
 Latina; Foreign Trade, New York, March, 1910. 
 
 Pezet, F. a.: El Canal de Panama; Lo que su apertura significa para el Peru; 
 Ilustracion Peruana, Lima, November i, 191 1 and cont.; El Canal intero- 
 ceano de Panama; Boletin del Ministerio de Fomento, Lima., January, 1909. 
 Scientific Amer.; New York, Special ed., November 9, 1912. 
 
 Shonts, Theodore P. : What has Been AccompHshed Toward Building the 
 Panama Canal; Nat. Geographic Mag., Washington, December, 1905. 
 Panama Canal; Nat. Geographic Mag., Washington, February, 1912. 
 
 Showalter, W. J.: Panama Canal; Nat. Geographic Mag., February, 1912. 
 
 Taft, William Howard: An Answer to the Panama Critics; McClure's, New- 
 York, May, 1909; World's Work, special ed., August, 1912; numerous mes- 
 sages and proclamations, 1909-12. 
 
 120 
 
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