(specially written for "the
PRESS.")
By S. Hurst Seager, F.R.I.B.A
The very brilliant success which has
been achieved by the Americans at Panama forms a striking example of the value
of a single organisation in the carrying out of any national or community
scheme. It proves beyond question of dispute that whatever the organisation may
be—whether it be formed under the State under any form of local government or
under a specially created body it must have under its control every activity
necessary to the success of the venture. If success is to be gained nothing
must be left to chance. All things great and small must be carefully considered
and provided for. Unfettered complete control must be given to one master mind,
who should have the power to associate with him experts in all these branches
of work necessary to the fulfilment of the undertaking.
The final accomplishment must result
from the close co-operation of many trained minds working in harmony for one
ideal—the realisation of the vision of great achievement. Those engaged in the
work must be free from any speculative financial interest in it. All these
elements of success were present in the organisation which the Americans
formed, and were conspicuously absent in that of the French.
The gigantic failure of the French was
the result of the promoters, shareholders, and all officials connected with the
work at Panama concentrating their attention not on the success of the Canal as
a great inter-nation undertaking of world-wide importance, but rather on the
profits they were likely to get out of it. There was no master mind.
The great international value of the
Suez Canal completed under De Lesseps in 1869 appealed strongly to the
imagination of the whole world. De Lesseps became a universal hero. Especially
was he worshipped by the French, and when he proposed in 1875 to form a company
to procure a concession for the building of a canal at Panama the country rose
in his support.
£12.000.000 was asked for: £52.000.000
was subscribed. "De Lesseps has cut a canal at Suez and must therefore be
a great engineer, and can cut a canal at Panama. The fact that he was not an
engineer, but only a company promoter was, in the fullness of his fame
forgotten, as was also the fact that to dig a ditch through the perfectly
healthy sandhills of Suez was a very different task from that of carrying a
canal through the deathful tropical jungle and over the mountains of Panama.
The Americans have succeeded where the
French failed because they have carried out a great work of Peace exactly under
the same administration and organisation as have been proved to be necessary in
carrying to a successful issue, the Art of War. The building of the canal, the
laying out of the towns and the erection of all buildings and works in
connexion with them were in fact carried out by American Army engineers. At
first in 1904—-when the United States took over the works from the French—the
Americans made the serious mistake of creating a constitution which provided
for a Governor of the Canal Zone, a Chairman of the Canal Commission, and a
Chief Engineer. It was soon found that the overlapping powers of these officers
led to friction: this, together with the fact of the interference in control by
officials in Washington, seriously hindered the progress of the work. It was,
therefore, a master stroke of policy on the part of Mr Roosevelt in 1907, when
he appointed Colonel G. W. Goethals to be both chairman of the Commission and
Chief Engineer, with complete control over the whole of the Canal zone. Under
this new constitution there was no more delay. The work went forward with
extraordinary rapidity, and without a hitch. The difficulties met with were
these which Nature created. These were successfully surmounted, and the whole
of the work stands to-day as a great masterpiece, an outstanding object lesson
for the world's wonder and education.
It shows what great things can be
accomplished for the benefit of humanity if the old methods are abandoned and
outworks carried out —as was this one —by the complete co-ordination and
co-operation of all concerned. It is in this way our present cities must be
improved—our new ones built. The general form of the Canal itself is now well
known the world over but it is perhaps not sufficiently realised that the
country through which it passes is extremely beautiful, and that the towns
which have been built by the Commission are as interesting, as examples of town
or city building, as are the locks and canal works from an engineering point of
view. The Canal Zone under the control of the Commissioners is a strip of
country 10 miles wide, stretching right across the Isthmus from shore to shore,
a distance of 40 miles. This area is rented in perpetuity by the United States
from the Republic of Panama, for the sum of £50,000 a year. Within this belt
the only part not under the complete control of the Commissioners is the town
of Colon, at the Atlantic end, and the town of Panama, at the Pacific end.
Colon came into being in the middle of the 19th century, when the railway
across the Isthmus was built by a French company, and Panama has grown from the
city founded by the Spaniards in 1673, after the destruction by Morgan, the
buccaneer, of an older city established in 1519. Panama may, therefore, be
regarded as the oldest city in the Western World. Even in these two towns,
which are integral parts of the Republic of Panama, the Commissioners are given
power to supervise the whole of the sanitary arrangements - of this power they
made good use, and both towns were subjected to a thorough cleaning up. Roads
were formed to take the place of the insanitary ditches which ran down the
centres of the streets; a drainage system was carried out, and a good water
supply installed. Still, this is not sufficient to make Colon an attractive
town. Narrow streets, lined with two storey wooden buildings, with verandahs
and balconies, and occupied by as mixed a population as is to be found in any
spot on earth.
Panama, the capital, has also a mass
of old wooden buildings, but the wealth which has come to the Republic as
payment for its concessions, has enabled it to build some fine modern works,
notably the National Institute or University, the City Hall, the Theatre, and
interest centres in the Cathedral —a Spanish Renaissance work, completed in
1760. All these are surrounded by
well-laid-out, open spaces, grassed and planted, the cocoanut palm forming a
striking feature.
Adjacent to these old towns are the
new ones built by the Canal Commission—Christobal, joining with Colon, Balboa
with Panama. Balboa is in two distinct portions, one for the Americans, the
other for the native employees. That for the Americans —Ancon—is built on a
high plateau formed by the spoil taken from the Culebra cut and commands a
magnificent view of the Ray of Panama, at the entrance to the Canal, and of the
first series of locks. This is the capital of the Canal Zone, and the site of
the fine block of administrative buildings. The buildings and houses are
grouped on true town-planning lines, around large, open spaces, or along
parkways.
The residential roads are in some
instances narrow and well sheltered by palms, forming beautiful shady retreats
from the burning rays of this tropical zone. Although we passed through in the
wet season, and in the hottest month, we were fortunate to have a fine bright
day—September 14th —a temperature of only 84 degrees, tempered by a cool
breeze. We saw the whole district therefore under most favourable conditions,
and the impression created was one of extreme beauty. Combined with this
triumph of engineering is an example of the expenditure of time and thought in
the endeavour to make the whole work not only successful but also beautiful.
Success in this endeavour is as full and complete as is the triumph of
engineering. There is not a discordant note. Science and art and Nature are
here combined to produce a beautiful and impressive whole. All the buildings
are of one style, spoken of as the "Spanish Mission Style." They are
very simple in character, with broad horizontal masses, well-proportioned
fenestration, low red tiled roofs, with deeply overhanging eaves. They are of
concrete treated to a pale buff colour. The sites are excellently chosen or
made —it is already difficult to tell which, for Nature here in this warm and
wet region is fast covering up the evidence of the liberty man has taken with
her: the excavations along the Culebra cut and the spoil which has been thrown
out are quickly being covered with luxuriant foliage. Soon it will be
impossible to realise where the work of man leaves off, and that of Nature
begins.
All this science and art, and our
enjoyment of it, is made possible by the conversion of what was a malarial
pestilential region into a perfectly healthy one by the self-sacrificing
labours of the medical staff to look after the health of the workers. At the
head of this staff was Colonel Gorgas, and the work accomplished is justly
regarded as the greatest conquest over disease and death the world up to that
time had seen.
The Americans had the advantage over
the French in that—the science of healing and the knowledge of preventive
measures had advanced considerably since the French commenced their work.
English physicians had proved that any disease could be transmitted by insect
bite and that the bite of a certain kind of mosquito was the cause of malaria.
American physicians had proved that another kind of mosquito transmitted yellow
fever. Both these and many other species— 50 of them were present at Panama
—the air was black with them, and the task of the medical staff was to get rid
of this death dealing plot—a task so successfully accomplished that not a
single mosquito was seen during our journey through and out our stay in this
region. It is literally a case of pouring oil on the troubled waters, for at
the head of every stream, every rivulet, which finds its way into the zone, are
placed large tanks of oil continually dripping on to the water, spreading as it
flows, and as is well known, forming the thin scum under which no larvae can
live. Continued vigilance is necessary, and therefore a large army of workers
is still maintained to fill the tanks and to spray with oil or poison all
marshy places and stagnant pools. As an extra precaution all the houses and
hotels are provided with insect-proof screens. Hospitals and dispensaries,
comparable with the best, have been built in the new cities and at suitable
places along the canal, where all the employees of Commissioners get advice,
treatment, and medicine free of charge. Thus is the health of the people
assured, and their material welfare, education, comfort, and happiness no less,
for not only are the houses provided for the 10,000 employees under the
Commission, but large stores are built and managed by them, where everything
required to clothe and feed this "army" can be obtained at prices
free from any suspicion of profiteering. Large laundries have been erected.
Schools and colleges have been founded, and well equipped and free transport
granted to all white children to reach them. Well-furnished libraries, reading
rooms, and club houses have been provided, places of entertainment built,
companies of players and musicians engaged. The Y.M.C.A. organisation, which
has done good work here as elsewhere, has been very liberally supported, and
the salaries of many of the officials paid by the Commission. The Commission
are also the builders and proprietors of two very fine hotels—the Washington
and Christobal —on the shores of the Caribbean Sea, and the Tivoli at Ancon,
overlooking the bay at Panama. These were built and are maintained for the
higher officials and for the thousands of tourists who will as a result of the
Commissioners' foresight flock to the canal zone.
Independent settlement will not be
encouraged in the zone area. It will be kept under the complete control of the
Commissioners, who have already established a large experimental farm close by
the Chagree river, and have ranches on which there are already many thousand
head of cattle. The Chagree river falls into the canal near its centre, above
its highest locks, and is harnessed to supply all the power for the locks, the
railway, and the towns. The completion of the task of the Commissioners is not
yet. Before many years have passed the canal zone will be widely known as an
example of successful agricultural and industrial development; famous also for
its City Building, as famous as the canal which now passes through it.
Press, Volume LV, Issue 16688, 24
November 1919, Page 8
