The Panama Canal Part 5

This loss of moral tone was the most dangerous symptom of all. A feeling of "let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die" gained possession of the ca.n.a.l workers, and in the indifference of despair many tore down the nettings over the windows of the ca.n.a.l building and began to neglect all the sanitary precautions enjoined on them by the department. Evidently a calamity was in prospect which would have brought to an end, perhaps for ever, American ca.n.a.l ambitions at the isthmus. The restoration of public confidence and sense of responsibility seems to have been due largely to Mr. Charles E. Magoon, governor of the ca.n.a.l zone. He set himself to rebuke and remove the morbid bravado then prevailing. "He began by frankly and publicly declaring that he, personally, was afraid of the fever, and that in his opinion all non-immunes who professed not to be afraid were 'talking rot!' Then he ordered all the window-screens to be repaired and kept in place, and announced that if any man was caught leaving them open or tearing holes in them, something uncommonly unpleasant would happen to him. Now when a man of Judge Magoon's mental and physical stature admits that he is afraid, any lesser man is a fool to say he isn't; and when a man of Judge Magoon's resolution gives an order and prescribes a penalty for its violation, that order is very likely to be obeyed."[11]

[Ill.u.s.tration: _Clinedinst--Was.h.i.+ngton, D.C._ COL. WILLIAM C. GORGAS, Medical Dept., U.S. Army, Head of the Department of Sanitation, Ancon.]

Governor Magoon arrived at the isthmus in May 1905, just as the yellow fever epidemic was reaching its climax. From that moment he and Colonel Gorgas, to whom he gave the most complete support, set themselves to fight the fever. The first thing to do was to get all the patients within screened buildings, whether the hospital or their own homes, so that no _stegomyia_ mosquitoes could saunter in and take the poison.

Then the towns of Colon and Panama were handed over to a campaign of spring-cleaning such as the world has never witnessed. Then the ca.n.a.l building was thoroughly fumigated with pyrethrum powder or sulphur, and not simply the official building but every single house in the city of Panama was similarly disinfected. Dust and refuse were everywhere burnt.

A very efficient system of inspection was adopted, and a rigid quarantine enforced against all foreign places whence the yellow plague could be imported into the zone.

But more important than the immediate expedients were the more permanent sanitary improvements carried out in Colon and Panama. These towns were repaired with brick or cement, and provided with what they had never yet enjoyed, a proper system of drainage. Waterworks were also constructed outside the towns, and a supply of pure water made available for every household. Hitherto water had had to be stored during the dry season in tanks and cisterns, in which the _stegomyia_ mosquito revelled exceedingly. These were now no longer necessary, and stagnant water, wherever it collected in the town, was drained away. In order to expedite these splendid reforms, Governor Magoon withdrew the workers from the ca.n.a.l and concentrated all efforts on the sewers and waterworks. So speedily was the work carried forward that the water was turned on for public use from the main in the Cathedral Plaza on July 4.

The results of this drastic campaign were soon apparent in the dwindling of the yellow fever returns. In July there were still forty-two cases and thirteen deaths on the isthmus, with twenty-seven cases and ten deaths among the employees. August showed a great improvement, with twenty-seven cases and nine deaths on the isthmus, and twelve cases and only one death on the ca.n.a.l. The improvement continued through September, October, November, and in December only one case was reported on the isthmus and one on the ca.n.a.l. Three months having elapsed since the last case, and, therefore, every _stegomyia_ which could possibly be infected with malaria having departed this life, the epidemic was entirely past and over. As I have pointed out, there cannot possibly be any return of it under these conditions unless the infection is brought from without. And if any new cases are at once isolated and screened from afternoon calls of the mosquito, the outbreak may be easily and infallibly suppressed. We may say, therefore, that the yellow spectre at the isthmus has been shorn of all its terrors.

Malaria is, however, a very different proposition. A corresponding crusade has been carried on for six years against the little _anopheles_ gnat, the little criminal who carries the malarial poison. His happy breeding-grounds are in open country marshes and pools, and there is no lack of these in the ca.n.a.l zone. It was impossible to deal with the entire three-quarters of a million acres of that territory, but wherever the ca.n.a.l workers were settled determined war was waged against the mosquitoes. It should be remembered that the _anopheles_ can fly only about a hundred or two hundred yards. The jungle was therefore cleared away for a few hundred yards round each village and settlement, marshes and pools in this area were drained off, and into all the ditches where stagnant water had collected oil was poured, which so effectually turns the mosquito's stomach that it never recovers. Some 1,200 acres of the zone were thus treated, and of course the regulations as to house-screening applied to malaria no less than to yellow fever. The employees were also supplied freely and generously with quinine.

The result has been not the eradication of malaria, but the reduction of the cases to about one-third the number at which they stood in 1906. Yet even so, among the 40,000 employees on the ca.n.a.l during the year ending June 30, 1912, there were 7,000 malaria cases in the hospitals, with 32 deaths, 22 of these being white people. The heavy rainfalls at the isthmus will probably prevent the complete sanitation of the country in this respect, for the simple reason that the destruction of the _anopheles_ mosquito or the eradication of the malarial germ can never be complete. There will always be people going about with the malarial organism in their blood, and always _anopheles_ mosquitoes ready to become infected with it and to carry the infection about. But, as we have seen, much can be done by the means described to reduce the ravages of the disease. In 1906, out of a working force of 26,000, there were 21,739 cases of malaria. We have seen how this figure had been brought down in 1912. In 1906 it was almost certain that any white person coming to reside at the isthmus would catch malaria. Now it is quite possible to live there in perfect health, quite free from any malarial infection.

It may be useful to mention that the entire death-roll among the employees on the Panama Ca.n.a.l and railway from the American occupation down to June 30, 1912--that is, about eight years--was 5,141, of whom 284 were Americans. Of this total, 4,119 died of disease and 1,022 from violence or accident. During the same period 49 American women and 87 American children died.[12] Sir Ronald Ross, as I have said, was told by the British Consul at Panama in 1904 that the French lost in the nine years of their occupancy some 50,000 lives, princ.i.p.ally from malaria and yellow fever. This may be an over-estimate, but there is no doubt that the American figure shows an enormous improvement on the French.

It is easy to conclude that what has been done in sanitation at the isthmus of Panama may be done anywhere else in the tropics, where malaria and yellow fever prevail. That may be true, but we must also remember that the work of Panama had behind it all the wealth and resources of a mighty republic of 90,000,000 citizens. The expenditure on these hygienic purposes at the isthmus has been enormous, though not a penny has been wasted. Down to the end of December, 1912, the total outlay of the Department of Sanitation was $15,500,000. Waterworks, sewers, etc., accounted for another $2,500,000, so that we get a grand total expenditure on sanitation of $18,000,000. This will certainly rise to $20,000,000 before the ca.n.a.l is finished, so that for the ten and a half years of its construction there will have been an annual expenditure for all health purposes of $1,900,000. It is not likely that there will be many tropical areas of this kind with so large a sum available for the luxury of scientific sanitation. Again, it must be noticed that the administration had special advantages at the isthmus.

It exercised something like military authority. It had absolute powers of deportation, and could enforce its regulations as it pleased. And in considering the statistics it must also be borne in mind that not only the physical but the moral and mental health of the work-people at the isthmus was promoted in every way. We shall look into the life of the Panama construction camps in the next chapter. The social interest and amus.e.m.e.nt provided for the employee must have counted for something beside the sewering and screening and mosquito-hunting. All the same, the success achieved at Panama is full of hope and promise for tropical life in the future. Colonel Gorgas writes encouragingly:--

I think the sanitarian can now show that any population coming into the tropics can protect itself against these two diseases (malaria and yellow fever) by measures that are both simple and inexpensive; that with these two diseases eliminated life in the tropics for the Anglo-Saxon will be more healthful than in the temperate zones; that gradually, within the next two or three centuries, tropical countries, which offer a much greater return for man's labour than do the temperate zones, will be settled up by the white races, and that again the centres of wealth, civilization, and population will be in the tropics, as they were in the dawn of man's history, rather than in the temperate zone, as at present.

Apart from the question of disease, it is far from certain that the white man can ever remain as "fit," as capable of bodily labour, in equatorial regions as in his native temperate conditions, or that his descendants will also maintain the same standard of health and strength.

Ordinary non-professional opinion would perhaps discount Colonel Gorgas's forecast as a little too optimistic.

FOOTNOTES:

[8] "Sanitation of the Isthmus." Mr. J. B. Bishop in _Scribner's Monthly_, February 1913.

[9] _Scribner's Monthly_, February 1913, p. 248.

[10] _Journal American Medical a.s.sociation_, July 6, 1907.

[11] "Four Centuries of the Panama Ca.n.a.l."

[12] See _Scribner's Magazine_, February 1913, p. 251.

CHAPTER X.

LIFE AT THE ISTHMUS.

Before we go on to describe the ca.n.a.l and its method of construction, we must look at the sort of social life and civil administration which has prevailed since the Americans arrived. Construction camps in tropical climes are not usually distinguished for order and good morals. The Americans determined to make an exception at Panama. They had a perfectly free hand and the enjoyment of all sovereign rights at the isthmus, and were able to construct a brand-new little state on the most approved and ideal principles. We have seen what instructions were given by President Roosevelt to the first commission. An entire administrative system had to be established within this little plot 10 miles wide and 50 long. Laws had to be framed and civil government established, with all the needful accessories of judicial courts, police force, fire-brigades, customs and revenue service, post-offices, public works and financial department. The administration carried what is known as "paternalism" to all lengths. That is, it did all the catering and providing itself, and left little or nothing to private companies. Of course, everything had to be imported, for the little territory itself produced nothing. Whole villages and settlements with all the accessories of social life had to be built along the line of works. Over 2,000 structures, including offices, hospitals, hotels, messes, kitchens, shops, storehouses, and living quarters, were constructed, and more than 1,500 buildings taken over from the French, which were made available by necessary repairs.

Colonel Goethals gives us a brief insight into the work of the Commissary Department of the Panama Railroad:--

The Commissary Department of the Panama Railroad Company was enlarged until it is now [1911] a great department store, supplying to the employees whatever may be necessary for their comfort and convenience. Manufacturing, cold-storage, and laundry plants were established, and turn out each day about 90 tons of ice, 14,000 loaves of bread, 2,400 rolls, 250 gallons of ice-cream, 1,000 pounds of roasted coffee, and 7,500 pieces of laundry. Four or five refrigerator cars, loaded with meats, vegetables, and such fruits as can be obtained, are sent out on the night freight to distant points, and every morning a supply train of about 16 cars, of which number six to eight are refrigerator cars, leaves Cristobal at 4.30 to distribute foodstuffs and laundry to the local commissaries along the line, where the employees make their purchases, and where the hotels, messes, and kitchens secure their supplies for the day.

A graphic and representative picture of one of the construction settlements along the ca.n.a.l was given by the correspondent of _The Times_ at Panama.[13] He chose "Emperador," or "Empire," as the typical village. This is the headquarters of the central division of the construction work, and is situated about halfway along the great Culebra Cut. The correspondent writes:--

According to the census just completed, it contains 7,152 inhabitants, of whom 1,757 are whites, 3,701 negroes, 1,569 mestizos, 101 Chinese, and 24 East Indians. North of the main street is a section called the "native town,"

apparently because it is inhabited by natives of other countries than Panama, but really because here was situated the native hamlet alongside which the French built their construction camp in 1881. It is occupied by the part of the population not employed by the government, and here are the American saloons, the Spanish _cantinas_ and restaurants, Chinese shops, East Indian fancy-work shops, and negro tailoring and shoemaking places. On the south side of the American settlement are the labour "camps," consisting of barracks and eating-places. All the buildings are of wood, constructed to last not over ten years; and none are large, excepting the administration buildings and the club-house.

On three sides of the village are the huts of the labourers who prefer the half-jungle life with its freedom; and here, with discomfort and squalor and liberty, is the only picturesque part of the settlement; all else is orderly, of one pattern, almost smug. On the fourth side the village is limited by the ca.n.a.l itself.

In the centre of the village is the commissariat, where the ca.n.a.l and railroad workers buy their food and clothing. Here congregate every morning the housewives of the village to do their shopping, and at night, after work, the men, to complete the family purchases. There is a similar store in each ca.n.a.l village--eighteen in all. The commissariat does away with the middleman's profit and buys in such large quant.i.ties, and for cash, that it obtains the lowest prices, while the many ways in which the materials purchased can be used prevent waste. If there is cause for complaint on the part of any cla.s.s in the ca.n.a.l workers, that cla.s.s is the bachelors, for they are discriminated against in the matter of quarters. But good provision is made for their meals, at the so-called "hotels" for the white employees, and the messes and kitchens for Spanish and negro labourers.

Another remarkable evidence of how the ca.n.a.l administration stands _in loco parentis_ to all its work-people is that it has provided twenty-six churches and maintains fifteen ministers of religion. This is interesting because it shows how the state, when conducted on common-sense principles, may provide for religious instruction without causing any offence or inflicting any injustice. The administration treated all denominations with perfect impartiality. Of the fifteen ministers it supported, four were Episcopalian, four Baptist, three Roman Catholic, one Wesleyan, and one Presbyterian. But this was not the entire provision of churches and chapels on the isthmus. There were fourteen other churches not under direct government control, but a.s.sisted by the government in many ways. Of the forty in all, thirteen were Episcopalian, seven Baptist, seven Roman Catholic, two Wesleyan, and eight undenominational.

As I have pointed out, the moral sanitation of the isthmus was cared for as well as the physical. For example, in September 1905, a man living in the ca.n.a.l zone was charged with running a roulette table. He pleaded that he owned a concession from the Republic of Panama. That excuse was not allowed, and he was sentenced to fine and imprisonment for transgressing one of the ca.n.a.l zone laws. Gambling, which had always been one of the Panamanian vices, was quite forbidden within the zone.

Remembering the descriptions given of the state of morals at the isthmus during the French occupation, one cannot help being struck with the contrast afforded by the American regime. Criticisms of the ca.n.a.l scheme, of climatic and social conditions in the zone, appeared in the early days from time to time. Mr. Johnson quotes an example which is so amusing as to bear repet.i.tion:--

A land as feverish to the imagination as to the body is Panama. It is a land making a fitting environment to the deeds of conspiracy, piracy, loot, cruelty, and blood that have princ.i.p.ally made its history for centuries. This gloomy, G.o.d-forsaken isthmus is a nightmare region. One descriptive writer has truly said of it that it is a land where the flowers have no odour, the birds no song; where the men are without honour and the women without virtue. He is not far wrong. The birds, brilliant as is their plumage, have no musical notes. The dense forests teem with bright-hued parrots, parroquets, and other birds, which squeak and scream but do not sing. There are beautiful orchids to be found in the swamps and jungles--fair to look upon, but they have no odour. The oranges have green skins instead of golden, the plantains must be fried to make them fit to eat, the reptiles and insects are often venomous, and myriads of parasites are ever ready to invade the human body and bring disease and death. In the atmosphere itself is something suggestive of the days of the old pirates and their fiendish cruelties and orgies. There is no life in the air; it is depressing, damp, miasmatic, and intensely hot.

For a great part of the year thunder-showers succeed each other all day long and half the night, with sheet lightning all around the horizon after dark. There is practically no twilight, day pa.s.sing almost instantly into night. It is no wonder that this uncanny land has made its residents degenerate into plotters, revolutionists, murderers, and thieves. Its aspect is one of darkness, treachery, and curse.

President Roosevelt had something to say on these recurring criticisms in a message to Congress in January 1906. He wrote:--

From time to time various publications have been made, and from time to time in the future various similar publications, doubtless, will be made, purporting to give an account of jobbing or immorality or inefficiency or misery as obtaining on the isthmus. I have carefully examined into each of these accusations which seemed worthy of attention.

In every instance the accusations have proved to be without foundation in any shape or form. They spring from several sources. Sometimes they take the shape of statements by irresponsible investigators of a sensational habit of mind, incapable of observing or repeating with accuracy what they see, and desirous of obtaining notoriety by widespread slander. More often they originate with or are given currency by individuals with a personal grievance. The sensation mongers, both those who stay at home and those who visit the isthmus, may ground their accusations on false statements by some engineer who, having applied for service on the commission and been refused such service, now endeavours to discredit his successful compet.i.tors, or by some lessee or owner of real estate who has sought action or inaction by the commission to increase the value of his lots, and is bitter because the commission cannot be used for such purposes, or on the tales of disappointed bidders for contracts, or of office-holders who have proved incompetent, or who have been suspected of corruption and dismissed, or who have been overcome by panic and have fled from the isthmus. Every specific charge relating to jobbery, to immorality, or to inefficiency, from whatever source it has come, has been immediately investigated, and in no single instance have the statements of these sensation mongers and the interested complainants behind them proved true. The only discredit adhering to these false accusations is to those who originate and give them currency, and who, to the extent of their abilities, thereby hamper and obstruct the completion of the great work in which both the honour and the interest of America are so deeply involved.

It matters not whether those guilty of these false accusations utter them in mere wanton recklessness and folly, or in a spirit of sinister malice to gratify some personal or political grudge.

The soundness and purity of the ca.n.a.l zone administration has long ago been established beyond all question and cavil. The Americans have given an example to the world how a great work of this kind, involving the gathering together of a large mult.i.tude of workers from many races and nations, may be carried on without those moral and physical evils which have marked too many enterprises of the kind. In fact, the way in which the Americans have arranged and controlled the life of the ca.n.a.l zone stands quite as much to their credit as the skill and determination they have shown in the actual construction of the ca.n.a.l.

But we have said nothing yet about the workers themselves on the ca.n.a.l.

The Americans, on taking over the work from the French, found about 700 West Indian negroes engaged in excavating the Culebra Cut. From this contingent as a nucleus a much larger army of workers was built up. The numbers rapidly grew. In December 1905 there were 5,000 employees; in 1906, 24,000; in 1908, 31,000; the highest figure being reached in 1910, when there were 50,000 workers available for duty. Of the employees, speaking roughly, one-seventh have been white Americans, all, of course, skilled workers, one-seventh European labourers, and five-sevenths West Indian negroes. The British West Indies, especially Barbados, have continued to be the main source of labour supply. But the West Indian at the outset left a great deal to be desired in his work and efficiency.

In 1905 complaints were made on the subject by the chairman of the ca.n.a.l commission to the President of the United States. In 1906 the chief engineer reported:--

The criticisms of the character of the common labour which were made in last year's report still hold good. Our labour consists almost entirely of West Indian negroes, and their efficiency is very low, although we have a few of this cla.s.s who are fairly steady workers--by this it is meant that they average to work all the time, but the great body of them do not. The majority work just long enough to get money to supply their actual bodily necessities, with the result that, while we are quartering and caring for twenty odd thousand of these people, our daily effective force is many thousands less. Preliminary steps have been taken toward securing a large number of Spanish labourers direct from the north-west provinces of Spain, also for the securing of a trial s.h.i.+pment of Cantonese Chinese, as it is believed that the introduction of labourers of different nationalities will be beneficial.

The Chinese project was frustrated through the influence of trade unions in the United States, backed up by representations from the Pacific coast states. The West Indian labourer quickly began to earn a better report. It was found that his inefficiency was largely due to insufficient and improper food. He speedily improved when turned on to the generous and nouris.h.i.+ng diet provided in the zone. In order to be certain that he had the full advantage of the provided meals, the price of them was very wisely deducted from his wages. Moreover, the American foremen soon began to learn that the men from Barbados, Trinidad, and elsewhere were British subjects and could not be treated as though they were southern state "c.o.o.ns." With a better understanding and more sympathetic treatment of the black employees, much more work was got out of them, and a good deal of the credit for the building of the Panama Ca.n.a.l is due to the 30,000 workers[14] who have been recruited mainly from the British islands in the West Indies.

But the southern European contingent has been found to be excellent material. It was thought that the work-people of Spain, Italy, and Greece would take more easily to navvying work in the tropics than people from more northerly regions of the temperate zone. The results were, on the whole, satisfactory. The Greeks were, it is true, not equal to the Italians or the Spaniards, and very few of them were recruited for ca.n.a.l work. The Italians, also, though several thousands of them were engaged, proved rather hard to handle. They were bitten with collectivist ideas, and inclined to act on trade union lines. The Spaniard was, in every way, the most satisfactory workman introduced from Europe. He was taken in an unsophisticated state directly from his village in Galicia or Castile. He was tractable and orderly, and quick and ready to learn. Hard labour under the tropical sun and in the hot damp of the isthmus seemed to have no exhausting or enervating influence whatever upon him. The Spaniard shows no sign of settling down on the isthmus. He either goes home with his savings or on to railway work in Brazil. Some 9,000 have been directly recruited, but this number does not include all the Spanish labourers whose muscle has helped to the completion of this great work.

A word or two should be said about the wages earned on the ca.n.a.l. The West Indian recruit was offered 6-d. an hour for common labour and an eight-hour day, in addition to free quarters, medical care, and repatriation. Meals were supplied to him at the rate of 1s. 2-d. per day. Later the pay of all not under contract was reduced to 5d. per hour, and the price of the three meals to 1s. 1-d. Negro artisans, such as carpenters, masons, blacksmiths and others, of whom there were some 5,000 employed in connection with the ca.n.a.l works, received pay varying from 8d. to 22d. per hour. There were in 1912 4,400 negro artisans receiving 8d. an hour or more, while 400 received 1s. an hour, and the work was constant.

The European labourer, in addition to free quarters, received $1.60 per eight-hour day, and more for overtime work. He was charged 40 cents a day for his three meals, which left him a minimum net wage per day of $1.20, or a little less than thirty s.h.i.+llings a week. Many, however, received more, and a good number of Spanish work-people must have gone home with a nice little nest-egg in their pockets.

The skilled labour was done almost entirely by United States employees, though the "gold roll," as it was called, included at first some Europeans. The pay was excellent, the social life, with its gymnasia, billiard-rooms, concerts and so forth, attractive, and the commissariat, with its three good meals at a fixed charge, quite up to the standard of a good hotel. The billets on the isthmus were therefore popular, and about 7,000 Americans on an average have been in employment there.

As I have pointed out, the responsibility for the construction of the ca.n.a.l was vested in the President of the United States, who acted through an executive commission resident in the ca.n.a.l zone. The work was organized in a large number of departments, each responsible for a big task. These were excavation and dredging; locks and dams; machinery and buildings (also responsible for paving and other improvements in Colon and Panama); labour, subsistence, and quarters; material and supplies; sanitation (responsible also for hygiene in Panama and Colon, which towns are technically outside the zone); civil administration; the Panama railroad. There were also some smaller divisions, such as accounts and an office of a purchasing officer in Was.h.i.+ngton, nearly all the supplies for the ca.n.a.l being obtained in the United States. It should be added that the Republic of Panama is responsible for the policing of the two big towns, but the department of civil administration of the Panama Ca.n.a.l Commission employed 200 police, 88 of which were native West Indians.

This busy hive of labour will soon present a very different aspect. With the approach of the ca.n.a.l to completion the numbers of the workmen will gradually be reduced. A drastic process of sifting and selection will be carried out among the Americans employed on the works. Only about 2,500 men will be necessary to operate the ca.n.a.l, when it is in full working order. These will be established at the locks and other important points. In fact, the ca.n.a.l authorities recommend a complete depopulation of the isthmus except, of course, the terminal cities and the operating stations on the ca.n.a.l. Otherwise, they think, a large expense for sanitation will be necessary which might thus be avoided. But the question of defence must not be forgotten. It will certainly be found advisable to maintain a pretty large American garrison at the isthmus, and to the population we have mentioned perhaps even 8,000 American troops must be added. The busy scenes still prevailing in the ca.n.a.l zone will now soon have disappeared like a dream, and the future traveller who looks from the s.h.i.+p-rail over the s.h.i.+ning waters of Gatun Lake or beyond to the vast and silent tropical forest will have difficulty in reconstructing the spectacle which the narrow lands presented during the ten strenuous years of construction.

FOOTNOTES:

[13] _The Times_, September 26, 1912.