PANAMA CANAL

Evening Star, Issue 23335, 3 August 1939, Page 19

PANAMA CANAL

OPENED TWENTY-FIVE YEARS AGO The Panama Canal completes this year a quarter-century of activity, and the United States Government prepares additional defences to preserve it from, attack. Canal zone officials are outlining ceremonies to mark the recurrence* of the historic date of August 15, when the water highway was opened in 1914. The captain of the modest s.s. Ancon, of the Panama Railroad Company, which made the first transit of ih® canal, probably never thought of the enormous stream of ocean traffic that would come after him, of the trad® routes established for centuries that would be changed, and finally of the defences now believed necessary to keep it safe. When the s.s. Santa Maria, carrying Secretary Hull and the American delegation, passed through just after the new year began, more than 100,000 ships of 300 tons or over had made the transit of the canal. A little less than. 500,000,000 tons of freight, had gpne through, goods of the United States west coast for the east coast, and from the west coast of South America for the east of the United States or fop Europe, from the east coast of South America for the Orient.

The canal originally cost 380,000,000 dollars; improvements have brought the present capital investment to 541,000,000 dollars. When the s.s. Santa Maria,, made the passage the canal had takeuin through tolls about 450,000,000 dollars.

A large-size passenger ship must payj many thousands of dollars to go through the canal. The Empress of Britain, largest commercial ship to transit, was charged 18,985d01. The British battleship Hood had to pay 22,400d01. Congress has in its files a report presented last year on Panama Canal tolls in which the prediction is made thafc the net tonnage of the canal will probably pass the 41,000,000-ton annual mark within the next 25 years. Canal zone officials calculate this means that in the 1960’s a yearly average of more than 8,000 ships will pass along the water highway, since the average tonnage of ships using the canal is 5,000. This is considerably above the. peak year of operation—l929—when 6,289 ships went through. The boon of the canal to shipping comes in the distances shortened on various trade routes. The distance saved from New York to San Francisco is 7,873 nautical miles, from Liverpool to San Francisco 5,666 miles, from New York to Valparaiso 3,747 miles, from Liverpool to Honolulu 4,403 miles. The world trade routes converge upon the Panama Canal, the heaviest traffics coming from the United States intercoastal route. Consequently ships of American registry form tho largest national group that has used the canal, British ships come next, .with Norwegian third. The movement of cargo from the Pacific to tbe Atlantic is about twice the amount shipped from Atlantic to Pacific ports. Of commodities that have passed through, mineral oils maka up the most important in point of quantity. The last five years have seen a decline in oil shipments; but this has been balanced in part by increased shipinents of wheat, lumber, canned goods, and fruits from the North American west coast and shipments of manufactured or semi-manufactured good* from Atlantic to Pacific ports.