Newspaper Page Text
Mr. Persons Pictures
Wonders of Panama
(CONTINUED FROM PAGE FIVE)
strip of land. After these conquests
the Isthmus became prominent as a
great trading center, and to such an
extent that the Spanish in order to
successfully fight the dense and rapid
jungle growth, had built a paved road
from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Later
Henry Morgan and his pirates were at
tracted by the gold of Peru and they
captured and destroyed the ancient city
of Panama formerly located about six
miles from the present city. After the
virgin gold of South and Central Amer
ica began to be exhausted by the dep
redations of the Spanish, the Isthmus
sank into inactivity until the discovery
Os gold in California in '49, and then
the great desert of Colorado barring the
pass-age of the people of the United
States from the East, they sought a
passage into California via Panama,
while the gold seekers from South Am
erica streamed across the narrow strip
in quest of the same spot. Then the
genius of the people of the I nited
States asserted itself in the survey of
the Isthmus for *a railroad, and later
this was constructed under such ad
verse circumstances as to cause it to
be popularly said that each tie in the
track represents a life sacrificed in the
laying, but this is a gross exaggerra
tion. Yet let it be said to the credit
of the builders of this short railroad of
less than fifty miles, that their work
-was far more daring and difficult at f
that time without any sanitary provis-|
ions, and witli the machinery of that ;
day, than is the construction of the j
Canal under the existing and favorable;
circumstances of today. '1 he railroad
boomed as no railroad has ever boomed ;
before, but it saw its decline when the ■
Union Pacific was completed and San ,
Francisco was tied to New ork by
rail, for Panama has few natural re-|
sources with practically no agriculture, j
and the gold fields of California be |
came exhausted. It was to be revived
in 1881, for the French government
chartered a private company headed
by the famous DeLesseps fresh from
his glories as the builder of the Suez
Canal, authorizing the building of the
Panama Canal. The railroad was an
important asset and was purchased by
the French company, and while you
hear it spoken of as the French road,
let it be remembered that it was and
now is an American road built by
Americans with American capital.
Work on the Canal was started under
the most promising circumstances after
r uch ceremony and the flaw nf a gU-at
deal of champagne, but the French had
not reckoned with-t he great adversaries
of yellow and malarial fevers to say
nothing of the plague brought by ships
from oriental ports. Thep did not know
then ns the world learned later and
knows now, that the innocent looking,
if annoying little house mosquito was
the sole medium through which yellow
fever-and malaria could be transmit
ted and that while they were furnish
ing their hospitals for the treatment
of the thousands of sick, that their fight
against the little pestiferous red ant
bv putting the legs of their hospital
cots in bowls of water to keep them
off the patients, that they weie fur
nishing ideal breeding grounds for the
two species of mosquitoes which only
carrv the vollow fever and malarial
germs. In consequence while they
built hospitals without regard to cost
or expense, and in charge of the best
physicians and surgeons, their fight
was hopeless, for it was not in the
right direction, and this is sadly at
tested to by the cemeteries at Mount
Hope and Monkey Hill and in Panama
where many a thousand of the Hower
of France’s youth gave up their lives
in an heroic effort to benefit the world.
They literally died by the thousand.
Rome say 20,000 lost their lives. The
old Hotels Central and the Grand in
Panama were meeting grounds where
in me n jested with death, and sat at
banquet board on an evening to be
stricken next day. soon to be earned
to the cemetery. And yet the French
wore not afraid. Men were never lack
ing and it was only after $300000,000
had been expended by auch bad mam
ngement and fraud, that the inflow of
men for the purpose of building the
canal finally ceased, and the work st or
ped The French company did a great
deal of work however and much of it
i, being used today by the Americans.
Their surveys and maps have proven
of groat value to our engineers, and it
cannot be said that their efforts were
without value. It too uneven a
fight against yellow fever aud malar-
ial fever, about which they knew noth
ing and could not control. This coup
led with the scandalous management
of the company did not only result in
failure to the old French Company, but
brought its great head DeLesseps into
disgrace with a prison sentence. Too
much work had been done, and too
much money had been expended for
the stockholders to throw up their
hands and quit their franchises gained
from the Columbian government, so
desultory work was continued so as to
keep up the semblance of work, until
it became apparent that the canal was
needed by the nations of the world, and
that no nation was so well qualified to
build it as that of ours, and we paid
the French $40,000,000 for their outfit.
There was much to be done before
the work could actually commence. The
Republic of Columbia had to be con
sulted and its consent to the sale of
the territory needed obtained, and the
French company had to be bought
before anything could be done towards
actual construction. The importance
of the canal was recognized and has
been recognized for more than 300
years. A proposal for a canal had been
made by Saavedra in 1520. In 1550
Galvao suggested it. Bolivar, the great
South American liberator, proposed it
in 1842, and after General Grant be
came president he negotiated for the
right to build the canal, but his efforts
failed. Gen. Grant as a subordinate
officer had crossed the Isthmus in the
’so’s while serving with a detachment
sent out by the Government to pro
tect interests in California, and when
Columbia, or New Granada as it was
then known, turned down his treaty
proposals, he became disgusted and
took up the question of the Nicaragua
route. That our government had some
rights in the premises was attested by
the treaty of 1846 in which this gov
ernment entered into a treaty with
New Grenada by which “the govern
ment of New Granada guarantees to
the government of the United States
that the right of way or transit across
the Isthmus of Panama, upon any
modes of communication that now ex
ist, or that may be .hereafter con
structed, shall be open and free to the
government and citizens of the United
States . . . And in order to secure
unto themselves the tranquil and con
stant enjoyment of these advantages
and as an especial compensation for
said advantages, and lor the favors
they have acquired by the fourth, fifth
and sixth articles of this treaty, the
United States guarantee positively and
efficaciously to New Grenada, by the
present stipulation, the perfect neutral
ity of the before mentioned Isthmus,
with the view that the free transit
from one to the other sea may not be
interrupted or embarrassed in any fu
ture time while this treaty exists; and,
in consequence, the United States also
guarantees, in the same manner, the
rights of sovereignty and property
which New Grenada has and possesses
over said territory.” It was under
this treaty right that the American
government interfered in 1903, and
recognized the Republic of I anama.
Many of our people have criticised
the conduct of President Roosevelt for
the hasty acknowledgement of this new
born republic, and it has been often
said that we took the territory from
Columbia; be this as it may, this gov
ernment had since the making of the
treaty protected an open passageway
over the Isthmus and suffered several
outrages against her citizens with the
patience born of a great power in her
consideration of a puny power, and al
ter Colombia has suffered 53 revolu-
tions in 57 years, during which time
our government had to land marines in
‘defense of the Colombian government,
lour president felt as if it was an act
of outrageous ingratitude for that re-
I public to attempt to hold up this gov
ernment in its negotiations for terri
tory over which to build the canal;
laud after its failure to ratify the pro
posed treaty of 1903. it was but natur
al, and 1 think right, for the people
of the State of Panama to rebel against
the government when it meant so much
to them for the canal to be built. Hence
■the revolution of 1903 was bloodless,
’because of the strong arm of the Amer
; ican government, and for seven years
j there has been no revolution in Pana-
Itna; there are fewer widows and more
i living fathers than the country has
I ever known before, for while it has been
popular for writers to picture these
I Central American revolutions as comic
I opera affairs, let it be known that the
I courage of the people was and is as
great as that of the ancient Grecian,
and the combats as deadly as that type
of courage could make them. I his
country then made its treaty with
* Panama and by its provisions we get
(ostensibly, a strip ten miles wide
i across the Isthmus, while as a matter
jof fact this government can appropri
ate the whole Isthmus unto the uses
of the canal if this should ever become
necessary, for this is the treaty with
■that tiny republic: We guarantee to
i “maintain the independence of the
Republic of Panama,’’ and to pay into
! its treasury $10,000,000, and begin
nine years after date (1912) to pay an
' annual rental of $250.00. In return
• for this we get all that we want, that
is a zone 10 miles wide over which we
have “the rights, power and authority
. . which the United States would
possess and exercise if it were the sov
ereign of the territory ... to the
entire exclusion of the exercise by the
Republic of Panama of any such sov
ereign rights, power or authority.
Also this wide provision: “The Repub
lic of Panama further grants to the
United States in perpetuity the use,
occupation and control of any other
lands and waters outside of the Zone
above described which may be neces
sary and convenient for the construc
tion, operation, sanitation and protec
tion of said canal.”
This much for the machinery of
state necessary to get the right to
build the canal, now the American peo
ple began to cry for the ‘ ‘ dirt to fly,
as Chief Engineer Wallace, the first
appointed, described it.
Tht first thing that had to be done
was to make life tolerable and possible
in the Canal Zone. The cities of Colon i
on the Atlantic side and Panama on
the Pacific side were the worst pest
holes in the world. Our government
demanded the right under the above
treaty to put them into habitable shape
so that something besides a Jamaican
negro and an Indian half breed, both
of whom are immune to yellow fever
and malaria, could live and at the same |
time work. The streets of both had to '
be paved, waterworks instead of water i
carts had to be provided, sewers laid,
and houses torn down and fumigated.
Cristobal, an American town separated
by a street was built on the Atlantic
side, whereas ancient Ancon Hill, on
the Pacific side was selected for the
American town of Ancon, also separat
ed from Panama by only a street.
“Spigotties” on one side, as the na
tives are called, and “Gringos” on the
other, as the Americans were dubbed
by them.
Engineers and machinery were neces
sary to build the canal, but men were
needed to direct the machines, under
the direction of the engineers, and an
American could not live on the Isthmus.
It meant death for him to go there al
most, and the world knew it, so the
vanguard of doctors had to precede the
army of laborers, and Col. Gorgas of
the United Staaes Hospital Corps was
called upon. He had made Havana a
healthy citv, and banished yellow fe
ver and malaria from their ancient
fastenings in that city as well as other
parts of Cuba, and the Phillippines.
He was qualified for the new work in
Panama, and he undertook it with a
zest for which his sunny nature is not
ed. He is an Alabamian, and a typical
Southerner in temperament. He is the
only man alive it is said, who could
have fumigated every house in Panama
city within two weeks without open
rupture with the inhabitants, and this
can be better appreciated when we re
member that it necessitated each occu
pant vacating his or her house for 24
hours. But he did it and his squad have
fought dirt, filth and mosquitoes until
they have conquered. When it is
known that a mosquito cannot convey
vellow fever or malarial germs unless
'it comes in contact with a yellow fever
or malarial patient, the importance of
a strict quarantine is appreciated, and
this Col. Gorgas enforced. Every ship
was examined as it came into port,
and every case of malarial or yellow fe
ver was quarantined. He discoverer
that the mosquitoes which conveyed
these diseases were not swamp mos
quitoes, but house mosquitoes, breeding
iu small receptacles about the house
and iu rain water pools; that they did
not fly far from the place of their
breeding, and that when they got into
a house it was because there was noth
ing t 0 keep them out. That the yellow
fever mosquito required nine days af
ter biting a yellow fever patient be
fore it became dangerous, and hence
he had that much time in which to
I fumigate the houses and kill them, and
■that an insecticide- automatically drop
’ ped in all of the surface drains largely
tended to destroy this house mosquito.
With all of this knowledge his work
was swift and sure, and today instead
of being the world’s death hole, the
Isthmus of Panama is one of the health
' iest spots on the globe and the traveler
'can go there with impunity, for there
|is a splendid system of good water,
while yellow fever and malaria have
been wiped out. In both Cristobal and
Panama as well as at all other points
where permanent structures are erected
by our government, they are complete
ly screened. This does not only- aid in
the fight against the mosquito, but it
also “swats the fly,” and makes ty
phoid an undreaded disease, as the
water supply is always of the purest
quality.
So much for the preliminary work
necessary to the “digging of the
ditch.” with health assured the rest
was only a matter of men and days.
Both have been plentifully supplied,
and the great canal which deLessseps
with so much sang froid claimed would
be built, is nearly completed.
Charles Edwards, a popular writer,
has said in his book on Panama that
he was surprised to find nearly every
white person that he met, speaking the
soft southern accent known to our
Southern States, and he claims that of
the 5,000 w’hite men on the job, that
most of them are from Georgia and
Alabama, and that the Canal is being
built by' Southerners. I do not know
whether this is true or not, as my stay
in the Canal Zone was of such short
duration as to make it impossible to
interview the actual workers on the
Canal. That the lot is a creditable
body of the vogorous, active, American
type is evident, and that they are do
ing the -work cannot be questioned. As
deLesseps said: THE CANAL WILL
BE BUILT.
Figures are usually trite and unin
teresting, but let us appeal to them in
order that w’e might get seme mental
grasp of the vastness of this enter
prise, for it is indeed so vast that it
is hard to grasp even when you look at
it with your own eyes:
Length from deep water to deep
water, 50 miles.
From shore line to shore line, 40
miles.
For Unnatural Discharges=MEN and WOMEN |
f Money refunded if it fails to cure in three to seven days. |
J Guaranteed not to stricture or stain. Prevents contagion, s
I TREATMENT CONSISTS OF
11 bottle painless injection fluid. 1 rubber tipped male syringe and B
I 1 package medicine for internal use. 1 package of absorbent cotton.
I Complete treatment $1; 3 treatments $2.75 at dealers or by exp., prepaid, r
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ATLANTIC NATIONAL
FIRE INSURANCE COMPANY
MACON, GEORGIA
JOHN J. McKAY, Secretary and Manager
A GEORGIA COMPANY
REPRESENTED BV BLOODWORTH & JACKSON
THE ■
/oox^rP=^LQ
' slmade-;
now is
mk MB I1 M k cent 1
The smallest in the Realm of Coin. Some are always Pennies
But Some Grow into DOLLARS
Put them in a Savings Bank, they will soon grow into a
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MAKE EVERY ONE COUNT
We Pay 4% on Savings Deposits
THE MONROE COUNTY BANK
FORSYTH, GEORGIA
Bottom width of channel (maximum)
1,000 feet,
i
Bottom width of channel (minimum)
300 feet.
Locks (in pairs), 12.
Locks usable length, 1,000 feet.
Locks usable width, 110 feet.
Gatun Lake area, about 210 square
miles.
Gatun Lake channel, from 85 feet
to 45 feet deep.
Culebra Cut, depth when completed,
(about) 475 feet.
Culebra Cut, channel depth, 45 fq^.
The three big jobs, as they are^xwk
ed, are (1) Gatun Lake, (2) Gatun
Locks and (3) Culebra Cut.
There is nothing novel about the con
struction of the canal or its locks, but
there is something unusual about its
size. It is stupendously big. The
greatest liberty taken with Dame Na
ture, is indeed the creation of Gatun
Lake. If you can imagine a lake cov
ering more than 200 square miles of sur
face poised 85 feet above the sea level
in the mountains, fed by a tropical
river, which becomes so boisterous dur
ing the rainy season that it has been
known to rise 44 feet in 24 hours, you
can faintly grasp what the engineers
have done in the creation of Gatun
Lake. In forming this great reservoir,
they have used the ancient Chagres
river, with its tremendous watershed
for the source of supply. When the
construction of a dam was mentioned
sufficiently strong to hold in this great
i body of water, and thus construct a
j lock canal, during the time of the
i French, the best engineers in the world
| laughed at the idea. What to do with
the Chagres river was a problem, and
’ deLesseps blithely passed over the sub
' ject by saying that they would change
the flow of it from the Atlantic to the
1 Pacific. Not so with the Americans.
; (CONTINUED ON PAGE ELEVEN)