BOOKS OF THE DAY.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1734, 26 April 1913, Page 9

BOOKS OF THE DAY.

THE "BIG DITCH." ww Fr lf e te hook, "Panama and What It Means (Cassplls rand Co.'; per b. and W. Mackav) is a.'fihj) piece of journalism, just .what everybody wanted now that the Panama Canal is approaching completion. 1 -'lt is written in Mr. i raser s somewhat caroless, "slapdashy" W ""t,it Presents tho averago reader with all necessary facts and figures in a straightforward, attractive way. Just UO j V " ®; er y°n e is interested in the Canal, and Mr,/ 1 rascr's book should command un immediate and widespread audience, ■tho opening sentences are worth quoting: '\ e3 >" observed the American enthusiast, "it is a great ditch. You w 6 n , p " at cnrs with dirt? j:t, f h° timo the Atlantic joins the Pacific, wo shall havaremoved as much dirt as would fill- a train of such cars 96,000 miles long, which is getting" pretty near four times found the earth. Yes, it is a great ditch." } Ihis is tho spirit of tho 35,000 men who, between Colon, and Panama, ar'o digging and blasting, damming rivers, fighting laud-slips, building locks, so the great Canal will lie finished long before the official opening day, which is in 1915. It ia a big thing. The world is looking) on. It is an / enterprise which fits tho American temperament. It is a dramatic as well as a colossal undertaking. Others havo tried to build canals across tho Isthmus. The French camo to failure, j ■The Americans camo to succeed. | Everybody is working at top speed, and tho end is within sight.'

Historical and Political. ' . Such is tho introduction to a Look, every chapter of which is full of interesting information. Mr. Fraser sketches the past of Cnnnl construction 011 the Isthmus, of whoso history, since the days of the first Spanish discoverers and conquerors, ■ through the days of tho buccaneers, right down to tho present time, he gives a well-written summarj/. The chapter in which he relates "the story of. the convenient Panama "revolution," which enabled tho Americans to, "euchre!' tho greedy Republic of Colombia, by making a deal with the newly-established Republic of Panama, makes curious reading. The baby republic was, ho clearly . hints, brought into existence by American.' intrigue, aifd some day, by a similar process, it may,'disappear: Cousin"Jonathan is not going to spend eighty-five millions sterling for the benefit of'a few thousand lazy Spanish' half-breeds. Also, Mr. Fraser hkt a good deal to. say ,about the future of the_ Canal as a.,great .trade highway, und gives a lengthy and interesting. account of tho various negotiations on tho hubject of the Canal between the United 'States aiid tho British Governments. As to the texed of the interpretation; of • the Hay-Pau'ncefoto Treaty, ho nays' (referring to the Bill giving preference to American strips engaged 111 "coast■yiso" traffic) _ I will only remark here that though in England this' has been interpreted as -an unscrupulous violation, of a writ-ten-compact in order that favouritism • 7nay bo 9hown : to American ships and foreign'ships l>o proportionately penalised, it was another motive'" that really ' actuated.",the United States President ' and the two Houses. The, idea, was , to deliver a blow at the transcontinental American-railways; \Wiich~are - . by no means popular, by; relieving ' ships plying between... Asiatic and Pacific ports;.from :thoburdens of . tolls, and giving tliom a better chance to compete with 'the. railways in the carrying of, freight. . ,

.As to the political, as well as the commercial possibilities arising out of the opening of the great waterway, Md Fraser has much to say, but for a summary of Ills views on these matters I have no space. The average reader 'wilt be most interested in the description of the Canal itself, and of the stupendous difficulties with which the -engineers have had to contend. •

The Route and Some Figures There wag a long and acrimonious fight among the experts as. to the relative' advantages of a sea-level canal or a lock system. The former was voted too costly —as it is the ,Big Ditch will cost ! over eighty millions sterling '.—and the lock, systein wa9 finally,decided upon. Many . of us have perhaps imagined a "pyramid of locks raising warships and liners up . mountain-sides into the olouds." ■ Mr. -. Eraser enlightens us on this point, Thn highest point any ■ vessel ,win bo lifted above sea-level will be 85 feet —up by three , steps, across a great dam, along an arti- \ fioial river, and then gently down three steps, and so to the sea. The real length of the Canal from .deep, water to deep ' water is .fifty miles.: From Colon, at the Atlantic end, there is a straight se*eu , miles of 500-feet-wide canal. . Then- you \ reach the famous Gatun locks—three of \ them—and the vessel is lifted up 85 feet to the level of an. artificial lake, Ifi-t square miles, in area, formed by damming the river ■ Chagrcs. The buoyed Soute across the lake is 24 mile.s. Soon now 'here comes the famous Culebra Cut, and ZKsaifo to Pedro Miguel (which thMmericans have rechristened Peter Magill. Now yon tegin "going downstairs." A, lock will l,bwer you 30J feet to Miraflores Lake. A 1 mile and a half of steaming and two more Ipcks lower you 51 2-3' feet, and you I wjill bo on the level of the.Pacific. Away /you go for over eight miles, and you reach \Y Panama and glido out into the ocean, jI Such is a lough outline of the' Panama j Canal. ■ The work to bo done has been something stupendous. The difficulties in i .controlling tho Chogres Kiver, which, j after tropical rains, becomes n turbulent ton'ent, tearing away everything in. its readh, have been enough to make the most eauguine engineer despair. A' river which ris6s 31 feet in 2i hours is an awkward river to dam.. At.one point' tlio Chagres, "in its tumultuous moments," discharges per second about two-thirds tho amount of water, which goes over Niagara Rills in the same time. But these determined, capable Ame.-ican engineers have captured the river. Its way.fcj tho Atlantic is stopped by the Gatun Dam; a whole valley has been turned into a great lake. There are twenty-one million., cubic yards v of material in that daiji..... As to tho work which .has been, done ' - f in the famous ■Culebri Cut, wlicro Ic.' Uides have been kj frequent .ami so d* hictive, I must refer my readers to book. .For his .description of the'Citlcbra Cut ulono his book is well worth buying.

The Czar of the Canal Zone. . "Tho Caar of tho Isthmus' 'is Colonel .' G. W. Goetha.ls, .and there is no court of appeai.-'jH® is Chairman of the Canal Commission and Chief Engineer. When Cousin Jonathan first tackled tho Big Ditch job, tho' Chairman was ,a civilian', and thero' was an executive of eight officials. This proved a failure, and ltoosevelt. in an inspired moment, sent down Goethals. tho foremost engineer in tho United States ATmy. He is "Boss," and everyone; in the zono recognises his word as-supremo. The Colonel has never put on his military uniform since first .lie set foot on tho Isthmus five years ago, but his orders "go," as the Americans put it; - There is, as Mr. Eraser says, "no democratic nonsense in Panama." Tho Colonel is a big, straight-shouldered man, with "grey eyes curiously like Kitchener's." He never "hustles" or "blows." »t He .hates notoriety, and has a special deIt* testation of photographers.' Most days out ion the line by; six o clock, -he works hard nil the morning watching tho progress made, and devotes tho afternoons to offico work. Every Sunday morning he holds' a' court at his headquarters at Culebra, overlooking tho "Big Cut." It is a court for investigating' complaints., "Anybody with a grievance, white : man, black man, yellow man, or nondescript, is freo to see Colonel Goethals." Tho "quietest mannered of bitr 'he produces conii-

dence, and his judgment is accepted. He doe 3 not often smile. Those who know him best says he is reserving a big, hidden capacity for beaming for a certain day in September liext, when he hopes—bar accidents—that a vessel-will steam from Colon to Panama. For regular tiaffio purposes, lie expects the Canal to bo Teady sometime in 1915, but the waters of tho Atlantic and Pacific will, lie hopes, be united in September, 1913. We shall see what wo shall see.. How Fever was Fought. Next to Colonel Goethals, tho man whoso name deserves to bo most famous in connection with tho Panama Canal is Colonel Gorgas, tho chief sanitary officer. This is tho mini who has waged such a successful war against tho disease-spread-ing mosquito that yellow fever, within tho zone, is practically annihilated. At first, until Gorgas got to work—utilising, be it remembered, tho experience and teaching of a British officer, Sir Ronald Hess—and- organised his corps of kerosene sprinklers—the mosquito hates kerosene just as Old Nick is credited with hating holy water—yellow fever played the very deuco with the Americans. The Colonel "cleaned up" Colon, and did tlie same for Panama, and at first tho bill for sewerage and sanitation works generally so frightened Cousin Jonathan that the Treasury at Washington grumbled deep and loud. The American public was impatient, "Get on with cutting the Canal: make the dirt ily. Americans are not Frenchmen to be knocked over with tho first nasty smell." .That was. the popular cry, and it was cchoed at Washington. Gorgas had a stiff fight against official indifference, but when in June, 1905, there were 65 cases of yellow fever, Washington thought less of the dollars and more of the men's health. Gorgas and his assistants were now encouraged where they, had been snubbed, and by September the number of yellow fever cases had dropped to two! Tho death-rate in Panama now is only 26 per thousand per year. In Bom-. bay it is 55, in Madras 35, and so on, But, points out Mr. Fraser, we must remember that "all tlie people, black and white, apart from tho Panamanians, are pickea healthy peoplo; men and women in the flush of their manhood and womanhood, and every arrival has to bo certified healthy and pass through a sieve/ of inspection." Gorgas himself is tho first to laugh, at tho popular delusion in the States that he has freed, the whole of the Isthmus from disease. "So far," eays, Mr. Fraser, "as tho fever-breeding mosquitoes are concerned, all that has been done is, by kerosene, to fence off the working parts. Outsido that, in the jungle, i. affairs are just as they were." -.Kerosene has dono the trick, so far as Mr. Mosquito is conccrned—some 200,000 gallons of oil a year has been used. Everywhere goes the nigger with a copper can fastened on his back sprinkling mos-quito-breeding grounds. "When tho mosquito larva comes up through tho water ; to breathe, it rnns into the greasy ccum', and it never knows for what purpose it -came into the world." Keroscno lor the mosquitoes and quinine for tho men have scotched tho chief scourge of the zone. But there is still typhoid to be fought— the house fly 'is blamed for this—and everywhere there is a sternly compulsory .burning of garbage. Pneumonia, too, is a 'bad enemy to the black labourers,Vwiio, will persist , in sleeping in wet.-clothes' after a hard day of-work-in tho-rainy seasons. But Gorgas'.'aild'iJiis "assistants have worked wonders ou tho whole, and have even induced tho Panama halfbreeds to keep themselves decently clean.

,The Men Who Are Making the Canal.

Mr. Eraser has a,very interesting chapter on the men wJio are making tho "Big Ditch." They are a mixed lot. Practically half the labour employed in the Canal, zone is inado up of British subjects—West Indians, from Jamaica and Barbadoes. The chiefs of the Canal, directors, superintendents,, clerical and medica.! staffs, skilled artisans, everybody abovo an unskilled'labourer, mustbe American. At first tho West Indian labourers were a disappointment, not displaying anything like the same energy as they would exhibit at home. Colonel Goethals soon realised tho source of the trouble, which was that the Jamaicans and Barbadians were "sulking" under tho "crude speeches"—in plain English the, offensive language of the American gangers. Tho Colonel put notices up that foremen were not to swear at tho labourers, and that offenders would tye sacked. Some of them were .actually "fired." and tbere was somo chaff . from tho United States about the Colonel ."trying to run the Zone although it were a Sundayschool." But the .G'oltael had his way," and the daily output of tho labourers visibly increased. The coloured men get a minimum of fivcpenco an hour. Tho American skilled artisans nre well paid. Shipyard artisans, machinists, and ironworkers earn from 2s. to 3s. an hour; boilermakers, according to grading, Is. lOd. to 2s. Bd.'; carpenters, 2s. 8<I.; steam shovel men, on duty eight hours but actually working only six hours, ,£37 a month. Educated labour is, in proporless generously remunerated. A physician gets J230 a month, a cook gets .£25. The explanation that many young_ doctors and engineers nro only,too willing to-work for low" salaries, for the sake of the experience. Living is cheap, much cheaper than in the States. There is no rent to pay, and the Commissary Department, which deals in everything, sells at practically cost price. The Cold Storage Department provides good, fresh meat of all kinds at very low prices. -Everybody has free lodging and free doctoring. ' There are free "club houses"— managed by the Y.M.C.A. There are no labour troubles now. Once or twice, tho "ripple of industrial trouble disturbed the waters," but when "a strike was threatened." Colonel Cioethals broke it with the order, "All men who fail' to come to work because arc dissatisfied, will be provided with free transportation to tho United States." That settled it. "The pay is too good, and tho management too excellent for the agitator .to sow discontent. There is no Saturday afternoon half-holiday on tho Isthmus. Only oh Sundays is tho scream of the •drills and tho thunder of thi blasting temporarily silenced. On Sundays baseball is played. > It would be easy to go on quoting from Mr. Eraser's book, but my space-limit has already been far overstepped. The book contains a large number of excellent illustrations from photographs and a map of the Isthmus showing the canal route. (The price is 'is. Gd.) [The Book of The Duv Article next week will have for its subject Dr. Newman's interesting work, - "Who are tho Maoris,'"]