The Panama Canal stands out as one of the most noteworthy contributions
that the Teutonic race has made toward the material improvement of the
world. So regarding it, Englishmen and Germans may take some pride to
themselves from this great achievement of the Americans. The Teutonic
race has its limitations. It is deficient in the gaiety of mind, the
expansiveness of heart, which add so largely to human happiness. Its
bent has lain in directions that are, superficially at all events, less
attractive. But by its cult of cleanliness, self-control, and
efficiency, it has given a new meaning to civilization; it has invented
Puritanism, the gospel of the day's work, and the water-closet. These
reflections may not seem very apposite to the subject of the Canal; but
they will suggest themselves to one who arrives in Panama after
traveling through the Latin States of South America.
It was, however, by some sacrifice of moral sense that the United
States gained control of the Isthmus. They offered a financial deal to
the republic of Colombia: the terms were liberal, and the Colombian
Government had in principle no objection to make money by the grant of
a perpetual lease of so much land as was needed for the Canal. But it
haggled unreasonably over the details, with the object of delaying
business until the period of the French concession had expired, so that
it might secure, not only its own share of the compensation, but the
share that was to be paid to the French investors whose rights and
achievements were taken over by the United States. A revolution
occurred: the province of Panama declared its independence of Colombia,
and at once completed the bargain. The revolution was so exceedingly
opportune in the interests of the United States, and of the French
concessionaires, that it is impossible not to suspect its instigation
in these interests. Beyond a doubt the United States assisted the
revolutionaries: they prevented the Colombian forces from attacking
them. Panama was originally independent of Colombia, and had been badly
treated by the Colombian Government, which, in its distant capital of
Bogota, was out of touch with Panamanian interests, and returned to the
province but a very small share of its taxes. But, however this may be,
we may take it, without straining facts, that the United States, being
unable to bring Colombia to terms, evicted her in favor of a more
pliable authority. This is not in accord with Christian morality. Nor
are political dealings generally. And, from a practical point of view,
it was preposterous that the cupidity of some Colombian politicians
should stand in the way of an improvement in geography. The agreement
with the newly born republic of Panama gave the United States a
perpetual lease of a strip of land, ten miles broad, across the
Isthmus. This is styled the "Canal Zone." The Latin towns of Panama and
Colon fall within its limits. But they are expressly excluded from the
United States jurisdiction.
In substance the Canal works consist, first, of an enormous dam (at
Gatun), which holds up the water of the river Chagres so as to flood a
valley twenty-four miles long; secondly, of a channel--nine miles in
length--(the Culebra Cut)--which carries the valley on through a range
of low hills; and, thirdly, of a set of locks at each end of this
stretch of water that are connected by comparatively short approaches
with the sea. The surface of the lake will be from 79 to 85 feet above
sea-level, and vessels will be raised to this height and lowered again
by passing through a flight of three locks upward and another flight of
three locks downward. The passage of both flights of locks is not
expected to occupy more than three hours, and ships should complete the
transit of the Isthmus--a distance of about fifty miles--within twelve
hours at most. The design of the work offers nothing that is new in
principle to engineering science. Dams, cuttings, and locks are
familiar contrivances. But they are on an immensely larger scale than
anything which has previously been attempted. The area of the lake of
impounded water will be 164 square miles, and it has been doubted
whether the damming of so large a mass of water, to a height of 85
feet, could safely be undertaken. But this portion of Central America
is apparently not liable to earthquakes. And the dam is so large as to
be a feature of the earth's surface. It is nearly half a mile broad
across its base, so that although its crest is 105 feet above sea-level
its slope is not very perceptible. Its core is formed of a mixture of
sand and clay, poured in from above by hydraulic processes. This has
set hard, and is believed to be quite impervious to water at a much
higher pressure than that to which it will be subjected. In the center
of the river valley--a mile and a half broad--across which the dam has
been flung, there very fortunately arose a low rocky hill. This is
included in the dam, and across its summit has been constructed the
escape or spill-way. During seasons of heavy rain the surplus discharge
of river water will be very heavy, and a cataract will pour over the
spill-way. But it will rush across a bed of rock, and will be unable to
erode its channel. And it will be employed to generate electrical power
which will open and shut the lock-gates and generally operate the Canal
machinery. The river Chagres will energize the Canal as well as fill
it.
The locks are gigantic constructions of concrete. Standing within them
one is impressed as by the mass of the Pyramids. The gates are hollow
structures of steel, 7 feet thick. Their lower portions are
water-tight, so that their buoyancy in the water will relieve the
stress upon the bearings which hinge them to the lock-wall. Along the
top of each lock-wall there runs an electric railway; four small
electric locomotives will be coupled to a vessel as it enters the lock
approach, and will tow it to its place. The vessel will not use its own
steam. This will lessen the risk of its getting out of hand and ramming
the lock-gate, an accident which has occurred on the big locks that
connect Lake Superior with Lake Huron. So catastrophic would be such a
mishap, releasing as it might this immense accumulation of water, that
it seemed desirable at whatever expense to provide additional
safeguards against it. There are in the first place cross-chains,
tightening under pressure, which may be drawn across the bows of a ship
that threatens to become unmanageable. Secondly, the lock-gates are
doubled at the entrance to all the locks, and at the lower end of the
upper lock in each flight. And, thirdly, each flight of locks can be
cut off from the lake by an "emergency dam" of peculiar construction.
It is essentially a skeleton gate, which ordinarily lies uplifted along
the top of the lock-wall, but can be swung across, lowered, and
gradually closed against the water by letting down panels. In its
ordinary position it lies high above the masonry--conspicuous from some
distance out at sea as a large cantilever bridge, swung in air.
Peculiar difficulties have been encountered in establishing the
foundations of the locks. The lowest of each flight are planted in deep
morasses, and could only be settled by removing vast masses of estuary
slime to a depth of 80 feet below sea-level. The sea was cut off and a
dredger introduced, which gradually cleared its way down to the bottom
rock. But the troubles which the American engineers will remember are
those which have presented themselves in the Culebra cutting. The
channel is nine miles long. Its average depth is between 100
and 200 feet, but at one point it reaches 490 feet. The formation
of the ground varies extraordinarily. At some points it is
rock; at others rock gives place to contorted layers of brilliantly
colored earth which is almost as restless as quicksand. Unfortunately,
it is at places where the cutting is deepest that its banks are most
unstable. The sides of the lowest 40 feet of the excavation--the actual
water channel--are cut vertically and not to a slope; in a firm
formation this reduces the amount of excavation, but in loose material
it must apparently have increased the risk of slides. But, however this
may be, slips on a gigantic scale were inevitable. The cutting is an
endeavor to form precipitous slopes of crumbling material under a
tropical rain-fall: it may be likened to molding in brown sugar under
the rose of a watering-pot. The banks have been in a state of constant
movement, and are broken up into irregular shelves and chasms, so that
at some points the channel resembles a natural ravine rather than an
artificial cutting. One thing is certain,--that for some years to come
the channel will only be kept open by constant assiduous dredging. But
it is, of course, easier to dredge out of water than to excavate in the
dry. The material excavated from the Culebra channel will aggregate
nearly one hundred million cubic yards. Some of it has been utilized in
reclaiming land; much has been carried out to sea and heaped into a
break-water three miles long, which runs out from the Panama or
southern end of the Canal, and will check a coast-ways current that
might, if uncontrolled, silt up the approach. The Canal is a triumph,
not of man's hands, but of machinery. Regiments of steam shovels attack
the banks, exhibiting a grotesque appearance of animal intelligence in
their behavior. An iron grabber is lowered by a crane, it pauses as if
to examine the ground before it, in search of a good bite, opens a pair
of enormous jaws, takes a grab, and, swinging round, empties its
mouthful onto a railway truck. The material is loosened for the shovels
by blasts of dynamite and, all the day through, the air is shaken by
explosions. Alongside each row of shovels stands a train in waiting;
over a hundred and fifty trains run seaward each day loaded with spoil.
The bed of the Canal is ribboned with railway tracks, which are shifted
as required by special track-lifting machines. The masonry work of the
locks is laid without hands. High latticed towers--grinding mills and
cranes combined--overhang the wall that is being built up. They take up
stone and cement by the truck-load, mix them and grind them--in fact,
digest them--and, swinging the concrete out in cages, gently and
accurately deposit it between the molding boards. How sharp is the
contrast between this elaborate steam machinery and the hand-labor of
the _fellahín_ who patiently dug out the Suez Canal! But there are, so
to speak, edges to be trimmed: this mass of machinery is to be guided
and controlled, and there is work to employ a staff of over thirty
thousand men. Some four thousand of them are Americans, who form a
superior service, styled "gold employees" in order to avoid racial
implications. Their salaries are calculated in American dollars. The
remainder, classed as "silver employees," are paid in Panama dollars,
the value of which is half that of the American. Two series of coins
are current, one being double the value of the other; and, since the
corresponding coins of the two series are of about the same size,
newcomers are harassed by constant suspicions of their small change.
The "silver employees" number about twenty-six thousand. Some of them
are immigrants from Europe--mostly from Italy and the north of
Spain--but the great majority are negroes, British subjects from
Jamaica and Trinidad. It was foreseen that if negroes from the Southern
States were employed, the high wages rates might unsettle the American
cotton labor market: so it was decided to recruit from British
colonies, and it is not too much to say that, so far as the Canal is
hand-made, it is mainly the work of British labor. Several hundreds of
Hindus have found their way here; they are chiefly employed upon the
fortifications, because, it is said, they are unlikely to talk about
them. These British colored laborers, with their families, constitute
the bulk of the population of the Canal Zone: the town of Panama swarms
with them, and one sees few of any other class in the streets of Colon.
The American engineers have thus been working with a staff that can
claim the protection of the British Minister; and it is pleasing to an
Englishman to hear on every side the heartiest tributes to the energy,
tact, and good sense of England's representative, Sir Claude Mallet.
At the outset the negro laborers were exceedingly suspicious of the
American authorities, and were ready to strike on the smallest
provocation: they have refused to take their rations until Sir Claude
has tasted them. He possesses the complete confidence of the British
labor force, and indeed the Hindu immigrants, who deposit money at the
Consulate, will hardly wait to obtain receipts for it.
Speaking of rations, it may be mentioned that the Canal authorities
undertake to feed all their employees, and a large commissariat
establishment, including extensive cold-storage depots at Colon, is one
of the most prominent features of their administration. Every morning a
heavy trainload of provisions leaves Colon, dropping its freight as it
passes the various labor settlements. In numerous eating-houses meals
are provided at very moderate charges, and at Panama and Colon large,
up-to-date hotels are maintained by the American Government. These are
used very extensively by the Canal staff, and give periodic dances,
which are crowded with young people. The vagaries of the one-step are
sternly barred by a puritan committee, and, to one who expects
surprises, the style of dancing is disappointingly monotonous. But
these hotels are also of great use in conciliating the American
taxpayers. Tourists come by thousands, and elaborate arrangements are
made for their education by special sight-seeing trains, by
appreciative guides, and by courses of lectures. The Canal staff is
also housed by the State--in wooden structures, built upon piles, and
protected by mosquito-proof wire screening. The accommodation for
bachelors is somewhat meager; but married couples are treated very
liberally, and their quarters are brightened by pretty little gardens.
The rates of pay are high, and there are numerous concessions which to
one of Indian experience appear exceedingly generous. But the
expenditure throughout is on a lavish scale: the Canal will not cost
much less than eighty million pounds. The money that is drawn from the
American taxpayers is, however, for the most part returned to them.
Practically the whole of the machinery is of American manufacture; the
food is American; the stores that are sold in the shops are mainly
American; and the only money that is lost to the States is that which
is saved by the foreign laborers. Very few of these have any intention
of remaining under the American flag, or will, indeed, be permitted to
remain.
Residence within the Canal Zone, apart from the towns of Panama and
Colon, is only to be permitted to the permanent working staff of the
Canal and to the military force in occupation. It should be added that
the salaries of the American "gold employees," liberal though they may
appear, do not tempt them to remain in service. One is astonished to
learn that nearly half the American staff changes annually: young men
come to acquire a little experience and save a little money, which may
help them to a start in their own country. Service on the Canal works
leads to no pension; and the medal which is to be granted to all who
remain two years in employ is but moderately attractive to men whose
objects are severely practical. The chief controlling authorities are
all in the military service of the State.
In the Northern States of America the British love of cleanliness has
become a gospel of life, and the sanitation of the Canal Zone is a
model of scientific and successful thoroughness. To India it is also a
model of hopeless generosity, nearly three million pounds having been
spent in improving the health conditions of this small area. The
agreement which reserves the towns of Panama and Colon to the
administration of the republic of Panama provides for American
interference in matters that may concern general health, and the Canal
authorities have taken the fullest advantage of this provision. The
streets of both towns have been paved; insanitary dwellings have been
ruthlessly demolished; water-works have been provided by loans of
American money, the water rate being collected by American officials.
The meanest house is equipped with a water-closet and a shower-bath.
Panama and Colon are now models of cleanliness, and from their
appearance might belong to a North American State. Efficiency is the
watchword, and in cleansing these towns the American health officers
have not troubled themselves with the compromises which would temper
the despotism of British officials. Americans can hardly be imagined
as stretching their consciences by such a concession as that, for
instance, which in British India exempts gentlemen of position from
appearance in the civil courts. Efficiency is not popular with those
who do not practise it, and the Latin races of Southern and Central
America have no love for their northern neighbors. The Americans, like
the Germans, would increase their popularity did they appreciate the
value of personal geniality in smoothing government.
Within the Canal Zone the jungle has been cut back from the proximity
of dwelling-houses; surface water, whether stagnant or running, is
regularly sterilized by doses of larvicide; all inhabited buildings are
protected by mosquito-proof screening, and, in some places, a
mosquito-catching staff is maintained. At the time of my visit not a
mosquito was to be seen; but this was during the season of dry heat.
During the rainy months mosquitos are, it seems, still far from
uncommon; and the latest sanitary rules emphasize the importance of
systematically catching them. Medical experience has shown that if
houses are kept clear of mosquitos, there is very little fever, even in
places where the water pools and channels are left unsterilized. Wire
screening, supplemented by a butterfly net, is the great preventive.
But we can not attain the good without an admixture of evil: behind the
wire screening the indoor atmosphere becomes very oppressive. Yellow
fever, the scourge of the isthmus in former days, has been completely
eradicated. Admissions to hospital for malarial fever amount, it must
be confessed, to several thousands a year. But, judging from the
terrible experiences of the French Company, were it not for these
precautions fever would incapacitate for long periods the whole of the
staff.
The hospital, a heritage from the French, is a village of wooden
buildings set upon a hill overlooking the Gulf of Panama, in the midst
of a charming study in tropical gardening. It is managed with an energy
which explores to the uttermost the medical experiences of other
tropical countries, and is not afraid of improving upon time-honored
methods. The daily dose of quinine is seldom less than forty-five
grains, and patients are not allowed to leave their beds until their
temperature has remained normal for five days at least. Complaints of
deafness are disregarded; if the patient turns of a blue color he may
be consoled by a dose of Epsom salts. It is claimed that by this
drastic treatment the relapses are prevented which, in India and
elsewhere, probably account for at least nine attacks out of ten.
Democracies are not always fortunate in the selection of their
executives. But Mr. Roosevelt's Government was gifted with the wit to
find, in the United States Army, men who could carry out this big work,
and with the good sense to employ them. So much is told of the
commanding influence of Colonel Goethals, the chief in command; of the
administrative talents of Colonel Gorgas, the head of the sanitary
department; of the engineering skill of Colonel Sibert, the protagonist
of the Gatun dam, that an Englishman must wish to claim kinship with
these American officers who are making so large a mark upon the surface
of the earth. Devotion to the great work in hand has exorcised meaner
feelings, and you will hear little of the "boost" which we are tempted
to associate with the other side of the Atlantic. I asked Colonel
Sibert whether his initial calculations had needed much correction as
the operation developed. "Our _guesses_" he replied, "have been
remarkably fortunate." The medical staff relate with delight how a
British doctor, sent by the Indian Government to study their methods,
being left to himself for half an hour, succeeded in catching quite a
number of mosquitoes of a very noxious kind within the mosquito-proof
precincts of a hospital ward.
New York is now divided from San Francisco by 13,135 miles of sea
travel. The Canal will reduce this distance by 7,873 miles, and will
bring New York 6,250 miles nearer Callao and 3,747 miles nearer
Valparaiso. The Pacific Ocean includes so large an extent of the
curvature of the earth that the effect of the Canal in developing trade
routes with Asia will depend very greatly upon their direction across
it. Vessels from New York which, after passing the Canal, trend
northward or southward upon the great circle, will find that the Panama
route will be much shorter than that _via_ Suez; they will save 3,281
miles on the distance to Yokohama and 2,822 miles on the distance to
Melbourne. But if their course lies along the equator the Panama Canal
will not curtail their journey very materially. It is surprising to
find that Manila will be only forty-one miles nearer New York _via_
Panama than it is _via_ Suez, and the saving on a journey to Hong Kong
will be no more than 245 miles. In trading with Peru, Chile, Australia,
North China, and Japan, the merchants of New York will gain very
materially by the opening of the Canal. They will gain, moreover, by
the withdrawal of the advantage which English merchants now enjoy in
trading with New Zealand, Australia, North China, and Japan _via_ the
Suez Canal. At present London is nearer to these places than New York
is by 1,000 miles or more. The Canal will not only withdraw this
advantage: it will give New York a positive advantage in distance of
2,000 to 3,000 miles. It is more than doubtful, however, whether the
Canal would ever have been constructed in the sole interests of
commerce. Its chief value to the United States is strategical; it will
mobilize their fleet and enable them to concentrate it upon either
their eastern or their western coastline. The Canal will primarily be
an instrument against war; but, like much else in this world, it will
incidentally bestow multifarious advantages. The importance of
fortifying it is manifest. It would appear that the locks at either end
are open to naval bombardment; indeed, those at Gatun are clearly
visible from the sea. Fortifications are being constructed at both
entrances, and it is probable that the Canal Zone will be garrisoned by
a force of 25,000 men. World enterprises involve world responsibilities.