The Panama Canal and Its Makers

These facts are illustrated by the figures given on the next page.

Let us take a chart of the world and examine the portion comprised between the parallels of 40° North and 40° South and the meridians of 120° East and 160° East of Greenwich. This band, in which are included Japan and Korea, Shanghai and the Philippines, New Guinea and most of Australia, is of particular interest in relation to Canal trade. Let us take the standpoint, not of Europe or of America, but of traders residing in this area. Near its western margin the Suez and the Panama routes to New York are equal in length.

Near its eastern margin, which lies, however, outside Japan and Australia and only passes among small islands, the Suez and Panama routes to Liverpool are of equal length.

On a line rather west of the centre and running from rather west of north to rather east of south, all places are equidistant from New York and Liverpool—the latter viâ Suez, the former viâ Panama.

It needs no prophet to foresee interesting commercial developments in a region where the alternative routes and alternative sources of manufacturing supply offer almost equal allurements.

I must also draw attention to the position of New Orleans and other ports on the Gulf of Mexico in relation to the Canal. At present New Orleans by sea is further than New York from Valparaiso and San Francisco, Yokohama and Shanghai, but it is 581 miles nearer to Colon. Hence, when the Panama Canal is open it will be 581 miles nearer than New York to those ports, and to Sydney, Melbourne, and Wellington. Thus, as the Mississippi waterway is improved, an increasing proportion of the manufactures and other products of the great Mississippi basin will find their way to foreign markets viâ the Gulf ports, and an increasing proportion of imports will find their way to the Mississippi basin through these ports.^[33]

In dealing with the shortening of sea routes it was shown that the greatest reduction was that between the two coasts of North America, but even so the sea route remains longer than that by land, so that the question of commercial advantage is not settled by a mere statement of sea distances, and the indisputable and undiluted advantages of the Canal route for the Atlantic and Gulf ports of North America are those of commerce with the Pacific coast of South America, with New Zealand, Australia, Japan, Northern China, Manchuria, and Eastern Siberia.

From the naval point of view, however, the results of shortening the sea distance from New York to San Francisco are scarcely diminished by the fact of railway communication, since only crews and stores, and not warships, can be transported by rail.

In order to understand the effect of the Canal upon the naval position of the United States the student of affairs must, in addition to the information given above, examine the positions relatively to the Canal of the possessions, particularly the insular possessions, of the United States and of other naval Powers. This will enable him to gauge for himself the more permanent factors which determine the value of the new line of communication, the opportunities it affords for concentrating force where wanted, and the responsibilities of defence which it entails. With the aid of a fairly good atlas this can easily be done by anyone acquainted with the general facts of naval power at the present time. The geographical facts, which are perhaps the only ones beyond question or dispute, are sufficiently simple.

On the Steamships Available for Canal Transit.

The Isthmian Canal Commission, in the Report of 1899, distinguishes between the commercial and the industrial benefits of the Canal, meaning by the former term the increased carrying of goods, and by the latter the development of production induced by improved facilities of carriage.

The tables of distances already given show the potential commercial advantages, and how they are distributed in different measure among different countries, and these figures have all the permanence which makes geographical figures of such enduring importance.

But the actual commercial advantage of a ship canal depends equally upon a second factor, viz., the available ship-tonnage. Supposing a Panama Canal to be open at the present time, there would be hardly any United States ships to use it, except in transport between home ports from which ships flying foreign flags are debarred. The transport to South America, New Zealand, Australia, Northern China, and Japan would necessarily be almost wholly carried on by ships of other nations, especially British.

The absence of an American merchant marine trading with foreign ports is indeed a circumstance without parallel among other nations engaged in modern manufacture. Many interesting facts relating to this strange phenomenon were put on record in the debates of the United States Senate in the early part of 1908.^[34]

At that time there was not one steamship flying the flag of the United States between her ports and those of Brazil, the Argentine, Chile, or Peru.

The three steamships of the Oceanic Line formerly plying to Australia were then laid up in the harbour of San Francisco, being unable, although subsidised for mails by the United States Government, to compete with foreign vessels. There were, however, three United States steamers plying from Puget Sound to Japan and China, occasionally reaching the Philippines.

The mails from New York and the other Atlantic ports of the United States to Brazil and the Argentine go viâ Europe, so that in this important matter New York is actually 3,000 miles further than Europe, instead of being 370 miles nearer to those countries.^[35]

In the same debate Senator Depew said that ships receiving the United States mail subsidy, the only form of subsidy given, have to be American built, manned by Americans, and the diet of the sailors as prescribed by law. He added that—

"The labour unions have rightly and properly taken care of their wages. The result is that the cost in wages and food to run American ships under American conditions across the Pacific is double that of European or Japanese steamers."

The relative cost of operating American and European vessels was given by the Hon. Elihu Root, Secretary of State, in an address delivered November 30, 1906,^[36] as follows:—

The operation of an American steamship of 2,500 tons costs $18,289 per annum more than that of a British ship of this tonnage, or $7.31 more per ton; and

The operation of an American steamship of 3,500 tons costs $15,315 per annum more than that of a German ship of the same size, or $4.37 more per ton.

Thus it is evident that, in spite of geographical advantages, there are at present some grounds for the extreme opinion sometimes expressed in the United States that the Canal is being built with American money for the use of Europe—and, one may add, of Japan.

What attempts may be made to remedy this state of things, and what effects such attempts may have, are matters on which I shall not stay to speculate.

CHAPTER VII

The Kiel Canal has further a military purpose, providing a short line of communication for warships. It cost $40,000,000. The Panama Canal is commercial, industrial, and military, and will cost more than all the above put together.

Up to June 30, 1908, the United States Government have spent $126,047,062 on the Panama Canal, made up as follows:—

The amount authorised to be appropriated by the Act of June 28, 1902, was $135,000,000, plus $50,000,000 purchase money, that is to say, $185,000,000 in all, for "the canal, harbours, and defences."

What the total cost will be is unknown, but Colonel Goethals stated in evidence (January, 1908) that the Canal would cost at least $250,000,000, and possibly as much as $500,000,000.

The combined cost of the Suez, Manchester, and Kiel Canals has been $205,000,000.

The following important ship canals have been completed for smaller sums:—

Adding these figures to those already given, we have a grand total of $264,000,000 for the cost of nine of the greatest existing ship canals, which is about the same as the lowest current official estimate for the final cost of the Panama Canal.

In the case of a commercial company undertaking such a work as the Panama Canal, the charge for compounded interest increases as the unremunerative years advance at an appalling rate, which would surprise anyone not versed in the cumulative capability of figures which increase in "geometrical progression."

Fortunately it is not necessary for the United States to reckon the cost of the Canal in this way, and the Government have been in a peculiarly advantageous position for financing the Canal.

The bonds bear interest at 2 per cent., and in December, 1907, were slightly above 103. As all American banks have to deposit gold with the United States Treasury it evidently pays to take up and deposit these bonds, which reckon as gold, receiving 2 per cent. interest.

Moreover, the small amount of securities with Government guarantee in America renders such issues convenient, so that the Government can raise money more cheaply than with us, although for industrial purposes the rates may be higher.

At the present time the payments of Government pensions in connection with the Civil War are yearly diminishing at a rapid rate. Finally, there has been in the Treasury a large surplus of cash. Thus from one cause and another the expenditure already incurred has not yet been felt.

As I write the last lines of the account in which I have endeavoured to state the salient facts relating to a great undertaking at only moderate length, I recall our departure from Colon harbour on the R.M.S. Orinoco homeward bound. I confess that after the Canal Zone most places seem only half alive, and I long to be back where one can watch human activities so great and so intelligent, while the spirit is soothed by the balmy air which blows warm and fragrant from the tropical forest.

May the arduous labours of the Isthmian Canal Commission be crowned with success!

INDEX

A
Abbot, Brigadier-General Hy. L., 76
Alhajuela, 77
America, South, possibilities for white peasantry, 148-9
Anopheles mosquito, see also Malaria, 132, 137
Antwerp, port of, see Distances
Arango, Mr. R.M., 77
Aspinwall, W.H., and colleagues construct Panama Railway, 30
Asiatic ports, see Distances
Australia, see Distances
B
Barbadians as labourers, 104
Bohio, abandoned site of dam, 70
C
California, rush of gold-seekers to, 29
Canal, Panama, national and commercial status defined, 39-43
"        " tide-level schemes, 52, 54-55
"        " curvatures of, 60
"        " time of transit through, 64
"        " date of completion, 95-6
" Suez, opened 1869, 30
"        "   effect on value of Panama route, 30
"        "   dimensions and cost, 59, 173
Caribbean Sea, Spain unable to protect her ships in, 27
Chagres, River, course of, 48
"        " sudden rise of, 51
Charles V. of Spain, canal project, 26
Children, white, health of, on Isthmus, 143
Climate of the Isthmus, 140-2
Clubs for employees, 143
Colombia (formerly New Granada), treaty with United States, 1846, 28
"    Senate of, does not accept offer of United States, 1903, 38
"    want of sea-power, 39
Colon, protection from "northers," 78
"    yellow fever in, 129
Columbus discovers Bay of Limon, 25
Commission, Isthmian Canal, Report of 1901, 36-37
"        "         "   a second appointed, 113
"        "         "   a third appointed, 114
Congress, appoints Isthmian Canal Commission, 1899, 25
"    "Spooner" Act of, 37-58
Congress, Act of, sanctioning 85-foot-level canal, 1906, 53
Constantinople, conquest by Turks, 1453, 25
Contract Construction of Canal, proposed by Second Commission, 114
Cortes searches for a strait, 26
Culebra, view of works from, described, 84-90
"    Cut, form and dimensions of, 81-84
"        " amount excavated in, 94
Currents in Canal advanced as objection to tide-level scheme, 55
"    tidal, below Milaflores, 66
D
Dam, Bohio, abandoned, 70
"    Gamboa, controlling feature of tide-level scheme, 54, 57
"    Gatun, as proposed in minority report of Board of Consulting Engineers, 56-58
"        " plans of, April, 1908, 70-74
"    Milaflores, 69
"    Pedro Miguel, 69
De Lesseps, Ferdinand, forms First Panama Canal Company, 1879, 31
"        " plan for tide-level canal, 52
Depew, Senator, on the cost of operating American ships, 168
Dimensions of Panama and other Canals, 59-61
Distances, Shortening of, by Suez Canal, 160
"        "         " by Panama Canal, 153-165
"        "         " to Pacific Coast of North America, 155, 156
"        "         " to Pacific Coast of South America, 155, 156
"        "         " to Asiatic ports, 158, 159, 161, 162
"        "         " Australian and New Zealand ports, 158, 161, 162
E
Employees, number of, on Canal Zone, 112
Engineers, French, ability of, 32
"    Board of Consulting, Majority Scheme for tide-level canal, 53-55
"        "         "         " Minority Scheme for high-level canal, 56-70
"    names of chief, 113-115
"    Corps of, U.S.A., and public works, 115
Excavation, amount of, by French Companies, 94
"        "         " by American Commission, 94
F
Fever, Yellow, 121-132
"        " geographical distribution of, 130-131
"    Malarial, see Malaria
Floods of the Chagres River, 51
" control of, 54
Forests, tropical, insulate the Canal Zone, 39
Fortifications for defence of the Canal, 40, 78
French Companies, excavation accomplished by, 94
"    Engineers, ability of, 32
"    Investors, 31-32
G
Gallinger, Senator, on the lack of U.S. steamships trading with foreign ports, 167-8
Gamboa, site of controlling dam of the tide-level scheme, 54
Gatun dam, see Dam
"    Lake, 56, 69
"    locks, see Locks
Germany, steamships of, cost of operating as compared with American steamships, 169
Goethals, Colonel George W., Corps of Engineers, 20
"        "         "         " appointed Chairman of Commission and Chief Engineer,
April, 1907, 115
"Gold Roll," see Labour, skilled
" " Europeans on, 110
Golden Hill, highest original level at, 82
Gorgas, Colonel W.C, M.D., head of Department of Sanitation, 113, 125, 126, 130
"        "         "         " on the future of the white race in the tropics, 144-5
Gorgona, workshops at, 97
Grant, President, recommends construction of Isthmian Canal, 1869, 34
Greeks as labourers, 107
Gulf ports, see Distances
H
Hamburg, see Distances
Harbours, at terminals of Canal, 78
Havana, yellow fever at, 123
Hotels, Commission's, for employees, 111
I
Indies, East, original objective of Canal project, 26
Ismailia, effect of malaria at, 14
Italians as labourers, 107, 108
"    as peasantry in the tropics, 149
J
Jamaica, effect of Canal on position of, 164
Jamaicans as labourers, 104
"    as policemen, 105
Japan, steamships of, to use Canal, 169
"    see Distances
K
Kiel Canal, dimensions of, 59-61
"        " cost, 173
Kingston, see Jamaica
L
La Boca, tide at, 65
"        " scheme for locks abandoned, 67
Labour on the Isthmus, Chinese proposed, 106
"        "         " West Indian, 101-106
"        "         " European, 106-110
"        "         " skilled, 110-112
"    white, in tropical countries, 140-150
"    Panamanian, 134
Limon, Bay of, discovered by Columbus, 25
Liverpool, see Distances
Lock at Pedro Miguel, depth of water above, 68
"    gates described, 63
Locks, dimensions of proposed, 60, 62
"    at Gatun, distance from deep water, 62
"        " Gatun, course of Canal below, 62
"        " depth of water above, 68
"    at Milaflores, variable lift of, 65
Longitude, meridians between which distances viâ Suez and Panama are equal, 162
M
McKinley, President, 35
Magellan, Straits of, discovered 1520, 26
Malaria, 132-137, 146
Manchester Ship Canal, cost of, 173
Manila, distance from New York viâ Suez and viâ Panama, 159
Marines, U.S., force of on Isthmus, 118
Mauretania, s.s., dimensions of, 59, 60
Meteorology of Isthmus, 76
Mexico, war of United States with, 28
Milaflores, see Dams and Locks
Mississippi, basin of, 164
N
Naos, Isle of, 67, 92
New Granada, treaty of U.S. with, 28
New York, see Distances
New Zealand, see Distances
Nicaragua, canal route through, 28, 37
O
Obispo, change in course of Chagres River at, 48
Oregon, battleship, voyage of, 1898, 34
Organisation, efficiency of, in 1907 and 1908 compared, 86-88
P
Panama Canal Company, First, formed 1879, 31
"        "         "         " in liquidation 1889, 33
"        "         "     New, formed, 33
"        "         "         " accepts  offer  of $40,000,000, 37
"        "         "         " work of, 50
"    Isthmus of, topography, 47
"    Province of, revolts, 38
"    Railway, completed 1855, 29
"        " purchased by First P. C. Company, 32
"        " relaying of, 97
"    Republic of, independence guaranteed by U.S., 38, 39
Pedro Miguel, see Dams and Locks
Peru, Spanish possessions in, protected by Isthmus, 27
Police, force of, 117
Pneumonia among negroes in the tropics, 139
Plague, bubonic, 139
R
Rainfall on the Isthmus, 51
Reed discovers cause of yellow fever, 124
Rio Grande, valley of, 49
Ross, Ronald, discovers cause of malaria, 123
Roosevelt, President, 53, 96
Root, the Hon. Elihu, 168
S
St. Lawrence, the, a supposed route to China, 26
San Blas route, 36
Sanitation, Department of, 118, 125, 128, 133, 139
Sea-power, importance of, in Isthmian affairs, 39
Societies, benevolent, in the Canal Zone, 144
Spaniards as navvies and as peasantry in tropics, 108-110, 149
Spanish War, voyage of Oregon during, 34
Steam shovel, rate of loading by, 91
Steamships available for Canal transit, 165-169
"    relative cost of operating American and European, 169
Stegomyia mosquito, mode of infection by, 124
Stephens, John F., chief engineer 1905-1907, 113-114
T
Tide, range of, at La Boca, 65
Tolls on the Panama Canal equal for all nations, 43
Tourists, attractions for, on the Isthmus, 89
Track-shifter, the, 91
Transportation of spoil in Culebra Cut, 91-93
Treaty between U.S. and New Granada, 1846, 28, 38
"        "         " Great Britain (Clayton-Bulwer) 1850, 29
"        "         " Great  Britain  (Hay-Pauncefote) 1901, 19, 37, 40
"        "         " Republic of Panama, 1903, 39, 40, 42
Tropics, future of white race in, 140-150
U
United States, civil war in, interrupts Canal scheme, 30
Unloader, the, for dirt-cars, 91
W
Wages on the Isthmus, see Labour
Wallace, John F., chief engineer, 1904-1905, 113
Water supply for high-level canal, 74-77
West Indians, relations with American employers, 102-104
"        " immunity from yellow fever, 122
"        " see also Labour
White race, future of, in tropics, 140-150
Women, white, life of, on Isthmus, 142
Y
Y.M.C.A. and management of clubs, 144
Z
Zone, the Canal, 19

UNWIN BROTHERS, LIMITED, THE GRESHAM PRESS, WOKING AND LONDON.