1909] on the Americans and the Panama Canal. 701 



River, for which plenty of material j was at- hand § from the Culebra 

 excavations. A bridge 1d20 feet long had been erected near Gamboa. 

 A number of connecting tracks with the old line greatly facilitated the 

 work. 



The railway was well-equipped. New heavy rails had been relaid 

 on the old line, which ran to perfection, so much so that on the main 

 track 574 trains were operated daily, this including, of course, the 

 heavy traffic of dirt trains as well as the passenger and freight trains. 

 Great credit should be given to Mr. Slifer, the general manager of the 

 railroad, and to his two engineers, Mr. Budd and Lieut. Meers, for 

 the excellent work they have accomplished. 



Ill due justice to the French, it must be said that they indeed 

 worked more on the Panama Canal than the people gave them credit 

 for. What work they did, considering the inferior machinery they used 

 as compared with that which can be procured to-day, was certainly done 

 well. The machinery, mind you, was inferior in design and size, but 

 not in quality ; for, indeed, the machinery imported on the Isthmus 

 by the French was excellent of its kind, and perhaps the best that 

 could be obtained in those days. In the Zone one hears only words 

 of unstinted praise from Americans of the work done by the French. 

 Many of the Belgian engines used by the Frencli are still being used 

 by the Americans. So are some of the dredges. Most of the French 

 material has been discarded, because it was out of date and insuf- 

 ficient — not because it was bad. 



French buildings, too, on the Zone are quite good. Many are 

 occupied by Americans. 



*iThe Americans follow a great deal what the French have done on 

 the Zone. American engineers recognise that the French surveys 

 and maps were excellent, and with slight variations and enlargements 

 they are to-day being used in the construction of the canal. Even 

 the lock canal idea with a dam at Gatun is not an American one, but 

 an old French idea, I believe, first advanced and then discarded by 

 Godin de Lepinay in 1879. 



The proverbial deadliness of the Panama Isthmus was the chief 

 enemy of the first workers on the Canal. Until the Canal Zone 

 could be freed from yellow fever, from bubonic plague, from cholera 

 and small-pox ; until the disastrous effects of malarial fever could be 

 checked ; until the Zone could be rendered sufficiently healtiiy so that 

 the imported employees — whether American, of Latin races, or negroes 

 — could live there in reasonable safety, and, above all, in a peaceful and 

 restful state of mind and happiness ; until the normal physical and 

 moral strength of each unit of the labour force could be kept up 

 without ett'ort ; until the terror that sudden death from fever could, 

 in the ignorant workmen, be absolutely eliminated — the progress of 

 the work could never be satisfactory. So, rightly, the Americans, 

 upon acquiring the Canal rights, first spent two and a half years in 

 rendering the Isthmus of Panama absolutely healthy by methodical 



