354 



THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



entire force on the Isthmus. All Ameri- 

 can employees and European laborers 

 are paid in gold ; all on the so-called 

 "silver roll" are paid in Panamanian 

 silver. 



THE ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT 



The department of construction and 

 engineering is under the direct charge 

 of the Chief Engineer. He is assisted 

 by the Assistant Chief Engineer, who 

 considers and reports upon all engineer- 

 ing questions submitted for final action. 

 The Assistant Chief Engineer has charge 

 of the designs of the locks, dams, and 

 spillways, and supervision of these par- 

 ticular parts of the work. There is at- 

 tached to the Chief Engineer an assistant 

 to the Chief Engineer, who looks after 

 mechanical forces on the Isthmus and 

 has supervision over the machine shops, 

 the cost-keeping branch of the work, 

 the apportionment of appropriations, and 

 the preparation of the estimates. There 

 is also an assistant engineer, who has 

 charge of all general surveys, meteoro- 

 logical observations, and river hydraulics. 



The zone is divided territorially into 

 three divisions, each in charge of a 

 division engineer, the first extending from 

 deep water in the Caribbean south to in- 

 clude the Gatun locks and dams, known 

 as the "Atlantic Division." The second, 

 or "Central Division," extends from 

 Gatun to Pedro Miguel, and includes the 

 excavation through the continental divide. 

 The third, or "Pacific Division," extends 

 from Pedro Miguel, including the locks 

 and dams of that locality, to deep water 

 in the Pacific. 



The general plans emanate from the 

 office of the Chief Engineer and the de- 

 tails are left to division engineers, sub- 

 ject to the approval of the Chief Engi- 

 neer. The whole idea of the organiza- 

 tion in the department of construction 

 and engineering, and in fact of all the 

 work, is to place and fix responsibility, 

 leaving to each subordinate the carrying 

 out of the particular part of the work 

 intrusted to his charge. 



Each division engineer has charge not 

 only of the work involved in the con- 



struction of the canal, but all municipal 

 engineering, including water supply, 

 building and maintaining roads, and the 

 establishment and maintenance of sewer 

 systems. With the force under his 

 charge the division engineer executes 

 such sanitary draining as may be pre- 

 scribed by the chief sanitary officer, so 

 that all construction work, excepting the 

 construction of buildings, concerning the 

 location of which the division engineer 

 is consulted, however, is directly in the 

 hands of the division engineer. 



the y. m. c. A. 



Attached to the office of the chairman 

 is a general Y. M. C. A. secretary, who 

 has supervision of the commission's 

 club-houses, which are operated and main- 

 tained under the auspices of the Y. M. 

 C. A. Four of these are now constructed 

 and in operation, and four more are to 

 be built from funds recently made avail- 

 able by Congress. They have done much 

 toward securing a greater permanency 

 to the force, in giving healthful amuse- 

 ment, and to a better contentment on the 

 part of the employees. 



I have endeavored to show that a chan- 

 nel of sufficient width, in which the 

 waters of the many streams, especially 

 the Chagres, will not be a menace, is one 

 most desired for an Isthmian Canal. 

 The sea-level canal proposed by the ma- 

 jority of the Board of Consulting Engi- 

 neers is not of sufficient width, nor is the 

 proposed solution for the impounding 

 and diversion of the Chagres and other 

 streams based upon sufficient investiga- 

 tions to insure its success. The "ideal" 

 sea-level canal, the Straits of Panama, re- 

 cently proposed, is not based upon any in- 

 vestigations of the work to be done and 

 cannot, in view of the approximate esti- 

 mate of the cost of our own sea-level 

 canal, which is about one-third the size 

 of the "ideal" plan, be given serious con- 

 sideration. Every criticism against the 

 stability of our locks or dams can be 

 attributed to either an argument in favor 

 of one's own plans or to absolute igno- 

 rance of the exhaustive data concerning 

 their safety now in existence. The sev- 



