AT LARGE

Evening Star, Issue 19616, 23 July 1927, Page 2

AT LARGE

THROUGH THE PANAMA CANAL: STATISTICS AND A MORAL Ip the Panama Canal is not entitled to rank as the eighth wonder of tho world, it is certainly an amazing achievement. The facts about it arc available in. any encyclopedia, but as there is not one within my reach, and they are not at hand for everybody, a rough description from facts gathered from many sources, and an inference therefrom, may bo of general interest. * * -f * The Panama Isthmus, over since its discovery in. 1501, has made one of tho great trade rentes of tho earth. But. it was nob till it was proposed to cut a canal across’it that it drew to it the attention of the whole commercial world. I need pot detail the efforts and failures of the attempts of the French companies. It was not till America took tho job in hand that the business was carried through triumphantly. Tho work, was begun in 'May, 1901, and tho c;>na! was opened to commerce on tho, loth of August, 1914. Our ship’s approach to it was, of course, from tho side of the Pacific via tho city of Panama. Tho city has a fine appearance. Churches, towers, and bouses, showing above the lino of fortifications, stand out from the dark hills inland with an air of grandeur, to which "there is no equal on tho west coast of South America.” Though modernised in many ways since tho United States took over the canal, it still retains many of its older features—narrow streets, old churches and cathedrals, and the Spanish language, though English is generally understood. It has some noble buildings, and on a hill rising 630 ft about a mile to tho westward of the city is the famous Ancon Hospital, “the best equipped institution of this kind in the tropical zone.” Tho canal territory originally formed part of the Republic of Panama, but it was ceded in perpetuity to the United States in 1904, when the actual work of constructing the canal was begun by the latter. Tho canal zone proper consists of the territory lying five miles on each side of the canal, comprising 436 square miles, and extending three miles seaward. The towns of Colon and Panama are not included in tho concession to tho United States. But otherwise, to all intents and purposes, the zone is a separate territory, possessing a district government, judiciary, and police.

Of the canal itself there are two great essential features —a lake Soft above sea level, and two approaches to it at sea fevel. The lake is maintained at its high level by two dams. Ships passing through are raised from ono level to another by means of a series of locks. The entire route through tho canal from deep water to deep water is a little over fifty miles. Tho time spent in traversing it is from ten to twelve hours. Tho total excavation amounted to 232,353,000 cubic yards. Tho ship approaches the first of the locks in tho canal through a channel about 500yds wide and a depth of 43ft, and a sail tip this brings us to the first of tho locks. Here the ship is raised 55ft. The locks are constructed in pairs to allow ships to pass either way. Each lock is a massive concrete, chamber that can ho closed at either end by great steel gates. Passing through a small lake, the, vessel enters another lock, .aqtl -is; raised another 30ft above sea level. Emerging from here, the ship enters the great Culebra Cut, where the continental divide has been pierqed by excavation. The channel through the cut is Soft above sea level, 300 ft wide, 30ft deep, and nine miles. Ipng. Debouching from here, Gatun Lake is entered, a great sheet of water 164 miles square. It is artificially created by damming the Chagres River and other streams. The great dam by which this is accomplished is seen at Gatun. It is one and a-half miles long, 115 ft high, and tapers from a width of 2,500 feet at the bottom to 100 ft at the top. It. is constructed by enormous masses of ' rock and earth piled across tho valley, and to all. appearances it is one of the natural features of the landscape. It is 20ft above the lake level. About midway through the dam the spillway is located through which the surplus water from the lake is discharged into the Atlantic Ocean. It is cut through a natural hill of solid rock, and is capable of discharging 154,000 cubic feet of water per second. Port of the surplus of tho lake is diverted through pipes into tho hydro-electric plant, and is. forced through great turbines which generate sufficient electric current to light the whole canal zone and supply power for all electrical machinery connected with the canal—ip itself a marvellous achievement. Another flight of locks from the dam carries the ship down into Simon Bay, from whence a rim of seven miles brings us to Colon, on tho Atlantic coast.

# * * * Jn regard to thg locks, there are six parallel pairs of them, with a combined lift of 85ft. Each chamber of the locks is capable of admitting a ship I,oooft long with a draught of 40ft. But as a vessel of this enormous size is not likely to require attention for a long time the locks have been divided into two chambers of 400 and 600 feet long respectively. This is a saving of both time and water in making Jockages. Ships are not allowed to pass through the locks under their own power. They are towed through by electric locomotives running on rails on the lock walls. The usual number of locomotives required is four—two ahead, one on each wa}l, for towing, and two aStern, one on each wall, to keep the vessel, in a central position and to bring it to rest when entirely within the lock chamber. They are equipped with a slip drum, towing windlass, and hawser. This permits the towing line to he taken in or paid Oft without the actual motion of the locomotive on the track. The average time in filling and emptying a lock is about fifteen minutes. Several ships passed ns #n our way to the Atlantic end of the-canal, and wc were told that some twenty were waiting their turn there to get through. The making Of the canal cost a mint of money, but the venture of its originators is more than justified by the financial returns, if nothing else. I was told that the canal dues on the Port Albany alone would amount to £2,000. Our cargo was valued at some £60,000. Incidentally a glance at the manifest reveals the value of the Mother Country as a customer ot ours. Among other things, there were over 50,000 boxes of butter, 613,274 carcasses of frozen mutton, some 8,000 hale? of wppl, 750 gages p£ preserved moat, 156 hags of

boneless meet (whatever ib might be). For some of the other things it seems singular that it could fihtl a market at Home. For instance, I noticed over 1,000 bags of peas, nearly 200 bags of bacon and hams, and 500 carcasses of pork. Them there were bales of leather, skims, even tailors’ clippings, and 23 cases for which evidently they could find no name, as they appeared under the heading “ General ” —and’ so on and so on. When on© thinks of the hundreds of other ships emptying 'their cargoes into the English markets one gets his eyes opened to the worth of the Mother Country as a customer for our products. And one is left wondering what would happen to us, commeiv dally, if that door was closed. Looks as if wo might put up our shutters. Meanwhile, shall wc say.wo are glad that England has to import 40 per cent, of its food, though agriculture is its largest industry? Nest to it is the cotton industry ; it .is essential to its life, yet the funny thing i,s it does not grow a bale of cotton itself, and fourfifths of its manufactured products arc sold'in markets overseas. , » £ sjt $ At the Atlantic end of the canal is the city of Colon, In 1916 a fire practically wiped it out, but a new and greater Colon has taken its place. : It is almost entirely the creation of tho canal. It is a typical tropical town with many handsome buildings. * Close to it is Cristobal, a sort of twin city built by the canal authorities to accommodate its employees. Being in .tlio canal tone, Prohibition rules, but the thirsty individual has only to travel a few minutes to Colon, where he will get all ho wants —and more. A cynical poet says : Wherever virgin wealth is sold We’ve scooped the niggers in. Wherever men give ivory and gold, We give them measles, tracts, and gin. Tho sting of these lines is in their truth. But it does not touch the builders of the canal Previous to their advent the whole territory was wellnigh uninhabitable. The mosquitoes were masters of tho situation: hence came malarias and the dreaded yellow fevers. Before anything else cmild be done these infernal nests that caused these diseases—the mosquitoes—had to be reckoned with. The destruction of these and 'their continued banishment, are not the least wonderful achievement of the canal builders. The extirpation of the mosquito ended the health conditions have in every way improved. Tins and the mention of the further fact that at Cristobal there is an enormous coaling plant, the largest of its kind in the world, enable mo; to make transition to my last point. » * # « Probably, when one to think of it, the most impressive feature' of these canal achievements is the fact that they represent the productof mind over matter. It is strange, to think that tho whole thing was once a thought in a man’s brain —that amazing bit of grey something with »ts 9,200,000,000 nerves. Somebody has said that the most powerful thing in the world is an idea whose time lias come. The canal construction would not have been possible in an earlier era; for science had not discovered ■ .the forces that were needful to carry, it through. But now science lias put at the service of the .mind forces with which wc may wreck or regenerate tho world. Tho canal zone show's us ; in miniature what may bo don© on a wide scale to- clear the earth of Amman enemies and link together the most distant countries in mutual helpfulness. It is a parable of how science should be utilised in the uplift of humanity. Roosevelt said once that America “would not be a safe place’for any of us to live iu unless wc make it a safe place for all of ns to live in.” lb is true not only of America, hut of the world. Tho day is past when it is enough to cultivate the provincial mind. We must learn to think internationally. For the barriers that separated nations are all down, and pur next-door neighbors are not in the adjacent streets; they are around the globe and at the ends of the earth. Science, therefore, mast he yoked to ideals of peace, justice, and uplift, not for ourselves merely, but for all. “Where all are selfish,” -wrote Fronde, “the sago is no better than the fool, only rather more dangerous.” What has been done in the canal zone to clear ib of tho foes of human life and make it a gateway for world progress can be done on a vaster scale in cities and nations if only there be the will. The need is great, grows greater every year. What ought to be done can he done. And delay will be fatal, for modern science presents us with a world headed inevitably for perdition unless the spirit of service can take possession of the new powers which it has conferred. Tho ghastly prophecy of this in tho late won- ought to have hammered that into even the dullest brains. Ron.