The Panama Canal 



561 



come obsolete. If the docks, wharves, 

 warehouses, terminal yards, locomo- 

 tives, and cars of the Panama Railroad 

 had been in good repair, which they 

 were not, they still would have been 

 entirely inadequate to properly care for 

 and handle the small commercial busi- 

 ness the road was transacting. The 

 existing facilities, poor as they were, 

 were rendered less efficient by the entire 

 absence of any mechanical appliances on 

 the docks to assist in receiving or dis- 

 charging the steamers' cargoes. The 

 negro laborer was the only power em- 

 ployed ; he was at once the only hoist- 

 ing machine and the only traveling crane 

 in use. Imagine, then, the congestion 

 which necessarily ensued when the ac- 

 cumulated orders in the states began to 

 arrive in large quantities on both sides 

 of the Isthmus. To aggravate the situ- 

 ation, while the deluge of arriving ma- 

 terial was at its height, the commercial 

 business of the road increased nearly 50 

 per cent over the year before ; and at 

 the moment when we thought affairs 

 could get no worse, two cases of bubonic 

 plague at La Boca resulted in two con- 

 secutive quarantines at that place, com- 

 pletely tying up that outlet for 60 days. 

 Furthermore, the personnel of the Pan- 

 ama Railroad as acquired had not been 

 educated on modern lines, and therefore 

 was completely paralyzed when con- 

 fronted with the onerous conditions 

 caused by this congestion. It was neces- 

 sary, consequently, to begin at once the 

 construction of new wharves equipped 

 with modern mechanical appliances, and 

 of large terminal yards at both ends of 

 the road ; of extensive warehouses ; of 

 suitable machine shops, and of a modern 

 coal hoisting plant, which will reduce 

 the cost of handling coal from ship to 

 engines from $1.30 to about 12 cents 

 per ton. 



We have also purchased new and 

 more powerful locomotives, larger cars 

 for both passenger and freight services, 

 and heavy steel rails for relaying the 



road, and have strengthened the bridges 

 to. enable them to carry the heavier 

 equipment. We have reorganized the 

 personnel of the road, putting into the 

 higher positions experienced, aggres- 

 sive, up-to-date men, with the result 

 that with the old equipment and facili- 

 ties they have cleared up during the last 

 thirty days an accumulation of over 

 12,000 tons of commercial freight. With 

 the advent of our increased dock facili- 

 ties, terminal yards now nearly com- 

 plete, and new power and equipment 

 now arriving, the road will be in a posi- 

 tion to handle efficiently and economic- 

 ally a vastly larger volume of business 

 than heretofore. 



While all this necessary work was in 

 progress the task of purchasing, for- 

 warding, and distributing the enormous 

 quantity of materials and supplies of all 

 kinds was receiving our constant and 

 most careful attention. The purchases 

 included not only the items entering 

 into the permanent plant, but also those 

 required for the preliminary work. To 

 give you an idea of the magnitude of 

 these purchases I will read for you the 

 principal items : 



61 steam shovels. 



1,300 flat cars. 



12 rapid unloaders. 

 22 unloading plows. 



13 earth-spreaders. 

 324 dump-cars. 



12 hoisting engines. 

 120 locomotives. 

 5,000 tons of steel rails. 

 125,000 cross-ties. 

 12,000 pieces of piling. 



14 air compressing machines. 

 3 cranes. 



152 rock-drills. 



30,000,000 feet of lumber (approxi- 

 mately). 



2 dipper dredges. 

 646,000 pounds blasting powder. 

 617,500 pounds dynamite. 

 7,000,000 paving brick. 

 3,500,000 building brick. 



