Gift ofthe Panama Canal Museum

Vol. 7, No. 8 BALBOA HEIGHTS, CANAL ZONE, MARCH 1, 1957 5 cents Renamed N. Y. Office

Now Has Three Major

Operating Divisions

A reorganization of the Panama Canal Company's New York Office, dividing its functions among three major units, be- comes effective today. The reorganized

office will be known henceforth as the New York Operations.

It will comprise three units: The Pro- curement Division, which was formerly

part of th"? Supply and Employee Service Bureau; the Steamship Division, which

is concerned w

r ith the operation of the Panama Line; and the New York Accounting Division, which will handle the

fiscal aspects of the New York Office. Lester A. Ferguson, until recently Chief Procurement Officer, has been appointed

General Manager of the New York Operations. He is succeeded as Chief of the Procurement Division by John J. Barton.

E. H. Harms remains Chief of the Steamship Division, and Peter DeStefano heads

the newly-independent Accounting Division, with the title of Assistant Comptroller-New York. Independent Action The change has been made to coordi- nate the operations more closely and to strengthen management controls. The new organization will permit the inde- pendence of action so necessary to distant

operations, and should reduce the difficul- ties of administering accounting and pro- curement operations from the Isthmus. Mr. Ferguson has been with the Pan- ama Canal Company since May 1953. Following his graduation from Western

Reserve University in Cleveland, he spent

16 years in merchandising, all in the Washington area. Among his positions were those of Assistant General Manager

of the E. A. Filene Department Store in Arlington, Va., Sales Manager of the Hecht Company in Washington, and Manager of the P. J. Nee Furniture Company in Washington. During World War II, he was a Lieu- tenant in the U. S. Coast Guard, and

from May 1951, until he joined the Pan- ama Canal Company, he was Director of the Consumers Goods Program for the

Office of Price Stabilization. Division Chiefs Mr. Harms is well known to the Pan- ama Canal organization and also to the

entire shipping industry. As head of the Panama Line, he will continue to handle

the operation of the two ships and the

Line's pier operations. He has been with the Panama Canal Company since December 1951. Before

joining the Company, he was operating manager on the Pacific Coast for the

Carnival9 s Coming

CARNIVAL SPIRIT is personified by this murga from Balboa High School. They sang and played

at the Carnival flag-raising in Balboa last week and will take part in other carnival festivities. In the usual

order, they are: Orlando Xufiez, Edgar Ameglio, Chipi Azcarraga, Victor Herr, B. H. S. Director of Music, Rolando Chanis, Don Randel, Antonio Revilla, Sonia Caiias, and Joline Clare. (For a story on the w-hy's and wherefores of Carnival, see page 8.) Health Bureau Wins Annual

Safety Cup For Third Time

In a ceremony scheduled for today

the Health Bureau will be presented with

the Safety Trophy offered annually by

the Governor-President to the CompanyGovernment Bureau achieving the highest percentage improvement in accident frequency rate over its own previous

three-year average. This will be the third time since the

big silver cup was offered in 1953 that it has been won by the Health Bureau. The trophy was won in the calendar year

1954 by the Community Services Bureau. The cup will be presented personally by Governor Potter to Col. Charles 0. Bruce, Health Director, during today's ceremony.

All bureau heads and staff members, Pope & Talbot Steamship Lines. Mr. Barton, like Mr. Ferguson, has behind him a long history of merchandising. He attended Girard College in Phil- adelphia and then joined Shrafft's Stores

in New York where he served as chief food buyer from 1928 until he entered

the military' service in 1942 as a Major

in charge of the Army Quartermaster Market Center in New York.

After the end of the war, he served for three years as president of the Westland Foods Products Company in New York

and California. He has been with the Canal organization since 1949 as chief of the Food Branch of the Procurement

Division.

as well as safety representatives from the various Canal units have been invited. Employees in the immediate vicinity who

can leave their work for the brief program

also are invited to attend.

In the competition for the Governor's

Safety Trophy for the calendar year 1956, the Health Bureau barely nosed out the Supply and Employee Service Bureau

with a 93 percent improvement over its previous three-year record, as compared

with 88 percent achieved by the Supply and Employee Service Bureau. The past year's figures on safety im- provement were high for all bureaus. The improvement percentage records for other units were: Transportation and

Terminals, 74 percent; Marine, 69 percent; Civil Affairs, 68 percent; and Engineering and Construction, 32 percent. With such high improvement percentages by the various bureaus, the CompanyGovernment showing on an overall basis was 70 percent improvement over the pre- vious three-year average in its accident- frequency rate, dropping from a 10.74 average to 3.22 last year. ARMED FORCES DAY

OPEN HOUSE—March 16

Fort Gulick Albrook AFB
THE PANAMA CANAL REVIEW March 1, 1957 Willing Hands Of Volunteers

Built New Little League Park

FATHERS AND FRIENDS helped build the Little League Turk at Pedr A long-standing dream came true last month for between 450 and 500 boys in the Canal Zone's Latin American towns, and for the grownups who sponsor their

Little League activities. Late in the month the youngsters and their adult

friends helped to dedicate their own Isth- mian Little League park, built entirely by the volunteer efforts of men from La

Boca, Paraiso, and Santa Cruz. The new miniature ball park is located next to the Pedro Miguel fire station, on

the site where men and boys of the vanishing town of Pedro Miguel once played

ball. It is built to Little League specifi- cations and dimensions and will eventually be almost identical in appearance

with the Little League park on Gaillard Highway. The idea for a ball park for the Latin American youngsters was conceived 1: st

fall by a group of men interested in baseball. They approached the Paraiso Civic Council on their plan, obtained Governor Potter's permission for use of the Pedro Miguel site -for which they now

hold a license raised funds for building matsrhls by three bazaars at which they used equipment loaned by Charles Williams, and lined up sponsors for their six teams. On -January 2 they received a franchiss from Little League Baseball, Inc., in Williamsport, Pa., and within a few clays were at work readying the site and be- ginning construction of the four-fool c >n- crete block wall which surrounds it. As

this issue of THE REVIEW went to press, they were hoping to find some surplus portable bleachers for spectators. The six team sponsors are L R. Sommer, Tivoli Motors, Mutual of Omaha,

Tropelco, Nehi, and Norge Refrigerators. Each of the teams has 15 members and

to each team arc attached two "farm

clubs" of 15 boys each. The farm clubs prepare potentially good but younger

material for later spots on the teams

Ives. The Isthmian Little League Ba i ball Association is under the direction of a

board headed by Claude A. Smith of Paraiso. Arnold Dorville is vice presi- dent, Dudley Farrell, treasurer, and Hamilton Lavalas, secretary. Rudolph Prince

is chairman and Joseph French, vice chairman of a committee on sponsors and

screening. Gilbert Burton of Santa Cruz

has been helping the league in its publicity. Few Knew Canal Better

Than Gen. Hans Kramer

GEN. HANS KRAMER is shows above or September 26, 1941, the opening day of the excavation at the Third Lurks at Pedro Miguel, Left to right are

Col. Thomas Larkin, Gov. J, ('. Mehaffey, and Thomas M. Price of Panama Constructors, Inc.

Of the many thousands of men and women who have been connected with

the Panama ("anal operation in the past two decades, few have taken the intense

Balboa Heights Office

Moves Will Begin Soon,

Take About Two Years

A round of moves and changes in office assignments which sooner or later will affect most of the units with offices in the Administration Building at Balboa

Heights will be started within the rext few weeks and continue for two years. The revision of space assignments in the Administration Building will be re- quired partly by the move of the units

of the Personnel Bureau to the old A neon Commissary Building which is to be reno- vated and remodeled. All units of this bureau, with the exception of the office of the Personnel Director, will be consoli- dated in the Ancon building. Work is to be started soon on the re- arrangement of the Balboa Heights Pest

Office lobby and the preparation of office space for members of the Comptroller's

Staff. After Personnel Bureau units in the Administration Building are moved, the space they are using on the first floor will be assigned to Staff units of the Comptroller's Office and units of the Executive Planning Staff. Work is to be started at an early date on the renovations necessary to the base- ment on the west wing for use as a Civil Defense Control Center, described in the December issue of The Review. Most of the other space assignment changes scheduled in the Administration

Building will not be made for about a year and will follow the completion of air conditioning for which funds have been

included in the budget for the coming

fiscal year. The transfer of the Printing Plant from Mount Hope to the Pacific side, originally scheduled for early this year, will be de- layed until sometime in 1958.

interest in its problems and future as Brigadier General Hans Kramer who died

late last month in San Mateo, Calif. His background knowledge of problems

relating to the capacity of the Canal was. an invaluable asset during the Isthmian Canal Studies of 1947. He came to the Isthmus in January 1945 with Brig. Gen. James H. Stratton when they were employed as consultants on advance plans

for the 1947 Studies. Later, General

Stratton returned to head the Special Engineering Division which conducted

the studies, and General Kramer was

appointed a member of the Hoard of Consultants. General Kramer was a Captain in the

H. S. Army Corps of Engineers when he was first assigned to the Canal organization in November 1938 as Assistant Supervising Engineer on the Third Locks

project. He was in charge of much oi the field work and planning for that proj- ect and in March 1942 he was made Supervising Engineer to succeed Gen. Thoma

B. Larkin. General Kramer remained in charge1 of the project until the following September when he was transferred to active Army

duty in the Mid-Pacific theater.
March 1, 1957 THE PANAMA CANAL REVIEW

C\°\-\-[\$~\

"HERE'S HOW IT should be done," Governor Potter seems to be telling Di-eetors Ogden R. Reid, wearing cap, and Robert P. Burroughs, at his right during a tugboat trip through Gaillard Cut. The trip permitted Board members to get a first-hand look at the tricky navigation problems in that section of the Canal. Others in the picture are: Paul M.Runnestrand, Executive Secretary, far left; and Steven V. X.

Powelson, Assistant Comptroller, John B. Blaffer, Board member, and J. A. Fras»r, Dredging Supervisor.

Success Of Board's "Workingest Session"

Credited To All Who Helped Arrange It

In the "workingest" session ever held

in the Canal Zone the Canal Company's

Board of Directors took a positive step

in the determination of the Canal ca- pacity problem at its January meeting. The success of the annual meeting here was ascribed in no small part to Canal

employees of all ranks who participated

in arrangements and in the presentation

of data for consideration. This feeling was expressed in a letter to Governor

Potter last month from Ogden R. Reid, one of the Board's newest members, who

said in part: "Wherever we went in the Canal Zone, we were met by courtesy and consideration . The dedication of your staff was

self-evident. I know the members of the Board were deeply impressed by the hard

work, int?resting approach and scope of the presentations." The Governor added his word of praise

in a memorandum to Bureau Directors and Staff members.

"I wish to thank you all for the very

fine presentations that were made to the Board of Directors," he stated. "I have

received a great number of compliments from all of the Board members on. the

presentations, their completeness and

clarity. "Arrangements made for the capacity problem pleased everyone and I believe gave them all a very clear picture of our

current situation and the potential prob- lems that we must face. "Their general comments were that the meeting was 'the best ever'." Plan For Study Announcement of the Board's determination to adopt at an early date a positive course to follow for increasing the Canal's capacity to meet the future re- quirements of snipping came at the close of the January meeting. In an interview' with local press correspondents, Secretary

of the Army George H. Roderick, Chair- man of the Board, announced the ap- pointment of an ad hoc committee to study this problem on an overall basis and recommend what action should be

taken. Later last month the Secretary an- nounced the appointment of Maj. Gen.

Julian L. Schley and Ralph A. Tudor, of San Francisco, to serve as members of the committee with Governor Potter as Chairman. The question of increasing the Canal's capacity has been under continuing study by the Board since the inception of the Canal Company five years ago. The

action taken at its last meeting came after an intensive study of the traffic situation

as it exists today and various plans which have been proposed in the past. While no time limit has been set for a report by the ad hoc committee, Mr.

Roderick, in his announcement, stressed that the time factor is of prime import- ance in view of the increasing amount of Canal traffic and the serious problems

posed by "clear-Cut" ships a subject which was discussed in the February

issue of The Review.

In this connection, the study has al- ready been initiated and Governor Potter has announced the appointment of a

OVERLOOKING GAILLARD CUT and Contractors Hill at the right, the site of Culebra, Canal construction-era capital, proved an ideal spot for an old-fashioned picnic luncheon for members of the Board.

Various sites in the former town were marked for the information of visitors. Working Committee on Canal Capacity from the Canal organization to develop

plans and to recommend necessary im- improvements. This committee is headed by Lt. Gov. H. W. Schull, Jr., with Capt. W. S. Rodimon, Col. Hugh M. Arnold, John D. Hollen, and Maj. David Smith

as members.

Captain Rodimon, as Marine Director,

will develop improvements desired and

analyze alternate methods of operation with operating costs involved. Colonel

Arnold, Engineering and Construction

Director, will have charge of preparing

estimates and construction schedules, and evaluating plans. Mr. Hollen, Chief

of the Executive Planning Staff, has been

assigned to collect data on traffic, vessel

costs, funding plans, and to make studies

of supporting services, such as housing,

schools, hospitals, and commissaries re- quired by proposed improvements. The

coordination of planning and correspond- ence will be handled by Major Smith.

Military Assistant to the Goverror. The Directors made a trip through

Gaillard Cut, one of the serious bottle- necks in the flow of traffic, and devoted

an evening session to a presentation of the plans developed by the Isthmian Canal Studies of 1947. During the course

of their trip through the Cut, the members were given an unscheduled visw of hazards of navigation in the rock-bound

channel when a large vessel suddenly

veered just north of Gold Hill and stopped

without damage, crosswise of the channel immediately in front of the tug on which

they were traveling. The Board members spent much of

their first day on an Atlantic side inspection trip to visit the areas in Colon which

are to be transferred to Panama; to in- spect Commissary installations; and for a briefing on the proposed development

of the Margarita townsite. An important aspect of the formal meetings was the study (See paye IS)
THE PANAMA CANAL REVIEW March 1, 1957 Here's The Man

Who's Engineer And Builder

AS DIRECTOR of the Engineering and Construction Bureau, Col. Hugh M. Arnold must keep his finger—or his pointer—on a number of things.

Any dredging to be done today? Want

to lop off the side of a hill, lay out a

townsite, design or build a house? How

about converting a power system from

25 to 60 cycles, and meanwhile, keep power flowing all over the Canal Zone.

Is there enough water in Gatun and Madden lakes to generate that power?

All of these things—anything, in fact, that has to do with engineering and construction for the Company-Government

organization—come under the direction

of the Engineering and Construction Bureau, a 1 ,075-man-and-woman outfit headed by Col. Hugh Montgomery Arnold. As Director of that Bureau, he directly supervises the operations of five divisions: Contract and Inspection, Dredging, Electrical, Engineering, and Maintenance; one

Project, Power Conversion; and the Meteorological and Hydrographic Branch. He divides his time about evenly be- tween office and field. Although his job is largely concerned with "paper

work," it has taken him from the top

of Gold Hill to the ridges in Margarita

where, Congress willing, the townsite

will expand, and from a barge in Gatun

Lake to the lowest recesses of the hydroelectric plant which turns water

into power. In the 30 months he has been here there are few parts of the Canal Zone he has not visited many

times. \ Like every job in the top echelon of the Canal organization, his is challenging.

Financially, the biggest job currently is the Power Conversion Project which, when it is completed a few years from now, will have cost about $13 million for "area" conversions, plus another $4 million f.ir the Locks. Another big job which came under his

direction —he arrived just as it was be- ginning-was the cutback of Contractors

Hill to keep part of it from toppling off into the Canal. This particular job in- volved an old local problem, which has

also cropped up, and out, on Paraiso Hill and Morgan Avenue: Stabilizing the unstable and treacherous Cucaracha formation. But the most interesting of his local

jobs, Colonel Arnold feels, was neither of

these. It was preparing specifications for new towing devices for the Locks and

evaluating the bids received for them.

In addition to his job as Engineering and Construction Director more accurately, as part of that job—he serves on

a number of official committees. The

newest of these, which he heads, is one

to analyze the recreation facilities in the Canal Zone and develop a guide plan for "good, adequate recreation." He is also chairman of the Canal Zone Board of Registration for Architects and Professional Engineers, the Plumbing Code

Committee, and the Permanent Joint Sewage Disposal Committee. He is a member of the Working Committee on Canal Capacity, the Incentive Awards

Committee, and the Appraisal Board, for other than floating equipment. He is a

director of the Panama Section, American

Society of Civil Engineers, having served

as president of the Section for the year

1956; he is also a director of the local post of the Society of American Military

Engineers.

In what spare time he has, he serves mi several "extra-curricular" committees. He is chairman (if the Steering Committee

on Engineers Week, of the Personnel sub- committee (if the Board Of Management

of the Balboa VMCA-USO, and of the Building Committee of the Cathedral of

St. Luke, where he also teaches a Sunday

School class of teenage boys and heads Boy Scout activities. Colonel Arnold was born in Georgia

as anyone can plainly hear. It will take him a good many years to live down a request by a member of a Congressional committee before which he was testifying here that he speak "a

little slower and with a little less Southern accent." He attended Georgia Tech for two

years and is a graduate in Civil Engineering from Alabama Polytechnical Insti- tute. He worked for the Georgia High- way Department for several years and

then joined up with the Corps of Engineers. There he worked with two men

who were later to have important Pan- ama Canal jobs: Col. Hans Kramer, at Conchas Dam in New Mexico, and Col. James Stratton at Caddoa Dam in Colorado. Colonel Kramer later headed the Canal's Special Engineering Division and

Colonel Stratton the Canal Studies of 1947. Colonel Arnold, then still a civilian, was in charge of a $2 million base construction project in Trinidad when he was called to active duty with the Army

in 1941. All of his war service was in the

Pacific; he was Engineer for the Western

Pacific Base Command when the war

ended. Then came several tours in the United

States, one of them as Executive Officer to the Assistant Chief of Engineers on

Civil Works, where one of his bosses named Potter also later held a high

position with the Canal organization. In June 1954, Colonel Arnold was transferred to the Canal organization from the Army War College in Carlisle, Pa. He lives with his Georgia-born wife Mary you'd know where she comes

from, too -and their two sons, on a berm of Ancon Hill overlooking Al- brook Field and Panama Bay. The

boys are Hugh, 10, who is known as Mike, and John Charles, 9, who is called Johnny.

Tempo Of Power Conversion

Project Is Now Accelerated

The tempo of the Power Conversion

Project has been speeded up appreci- ably within the past few weeks, Col.

E. B. Jennings, Project Engineer, said

late last month.

In the Atlantic area, 137 units at Rainbow City had been converted as of February 20 and the contractor, Sachse,

expects to begin the domestic conversion in Gatun in March. All quarters

in Margarita have been using (>0-cycle equipment for several weeks.

Since last month's report, Sachse has completed conversion of the Margarita

Service Center, the Tarpon Club, the Toro Point Lighthouse, Mind] Dairy, and the quarters in the Dairy area. Work is continuing in the Industrial

Division area which is also being changed from 220 to 440 volts, and at

(loco Solo Hospital. Preliminary work

is underway in the Commissary Divi- sion at Mount Hope. Three generators have been "put on

the line" at the Gatun hydroelectric

station and installation of the fourth

started. Mount Hope (See payc li)
March 1, 1957 THE PANAMA CANAL REVIEW Orchids, Over

By Atlantic

When Queen Elizabeth of England

visited the Isthmus in November 1953, she was presented with a number of

gifts. Of them all, probably the most

beautiful was a bouquet of orchids grown

in the Canal Zone. The donors, who in- eluded Walter J. Wilkinson, of Gatun, had planned to give the Queen a corsage but found out that flowers are always

carried, never worn, by Royalty. These home-grown orchids, all Cattleyas in rare colors, made a striking bouquet and later in the day the Queen

saw more from the same orchid fanciers;

si imc of Mr. Wilkinson's orchids were

part of the table decorations at the luncheon given for Her Majesty by Governor and Mrs. Seybold. Mr. Wilkinson is a past president of a group of enthusiastic orchid growers who are members of the lively Gold

Coast Orchid Society which will hold

its fifth annual orchid show this week- end at the Elks' Home in Margarita. While members of the society are concentrating right now on grooming their exhibits for the annual show, this is only

part of a program which keeps them

occupied the year around. During the dry season they take advantage of the good weather to take field trips to localities where orchids flourish, wild or under

cultivation, and for these trips they try

to have experienced field men as guides and instructors. Throughout the year they hold frequent meetings at which they present programs

of interest to beginners as well as the more

experienced growers. The programs are planned to cover all phases of orchid cul- ture as well as to appeal to those who simply

enjoy the bloom of an unusual species. Sometimes they go far afield to get

their material for such programs. They

have had material from the United States and from countries where orchid culture

is well advanced; they have shown color

slides which demonstrate various methods

of culture as well as show the beauty of an

exotic bloom. Occasionally they have had what members consider a "real treat," a visit from an accredited Judge of Awards

or an advisory consultant or an established grower from some such remote

spot as Hawaii. But, back to the orchid exhibit this weekend. About 300 of the rarest and most beautiful blooms produced on the Gold Coast will be included in the ex- hibition. Any visitor who thinks that,

like Topsy, they just grew, is dead

wrong. The society's members spend long hours grooming, potting, and feeding

their plants and more hours exchanging

ideas and general orchid-growing infor- mation—as well as plants—with other

orchid hobbyists. Long Greek and Latin names slip with

ease into their conversation and it's a poor orchid fancier who doesn't know

the difference between the various types of "growing media" and the kinds of fertilizer most likely to make a Vanda suavis or a

neo-moorea-irrota grow fat and healthy. Two of the large collections belong to Mr. and Mrs. Wilkinson and Mr. and

Mrs. Thomas Fels. Mr. Fels, incidentally, is president of the society this year.

300 Of Them, To Be Shown

Side Growers This Weekend

MR. AND MRS. THOMAS FELS, of Gatun, have more than 1 from the common Bamboosa to fine imported varieties. Mrs. Fe500 orchid plants in their collection,

; is also skillful at making corsages. Their collections include many of the varieties native to Panama as well as some

imported from such far-away tropical countries as Hawaii, India, and Burma. Many of the plants are imported as young sprouts which, given the right conditions, will become full-grown, bloomproducing plants in a few years. Orchid lovers are quick to defend

their precious plants against the charge

that they are parasites. Orchids, they

say, grow well with lots of air, water, and plant food but never take suste- nance from another plant. They also point out that contrary to general belief, Panama's climate is not

ideal for orchid growing. The rainy sea- son is too wet, the dry season too dry, and the temperature does not drop to the

ideal 50 degrees during the night. Nevertheless, most orchids can be coaxed to luxuriant health in a greenhouse—that

is, with the exception of a few Colombian

WALTER J. WILKINSON

He grew orchids for a Queeu

and Volcan region orchids which fold up when they leave the highlands.

Police Sergeant George Martin, Vice

President of the Gold Coast Orchid Society, has had some luck orchid hunting

in the Gatun Lake region and on occasion has found some fine specimens of the

nco-moorea-irrota , which produces hand- some brownish blooms.

Society members' collections also in- clude such famous local orchids as the "Holy Ghost" orchid, national flower of Panama; the "Semana Santa" orchid, which blooms during Holy Week; and

the "Swan" orchid, the inside of which

resembles a swan. Mr. and Mrs. Fels, who are charter members of the Gold Coast Society, started growing orchids some time ago when they had "terrible luck" with roses. In their collection they have everything from the common bamboosa, which they

say anyone can grow, to a number of rare blooms imported from the Far East. Mrs. Fels says that she has never worn an orchid as a corsage since she

started cultivating them but she will, on occasion, produce a corsage or a bouquet for a friend. Several years ago

she took a course in flower arrangement

and corsage making when she was in the States on vacation. One of the best things about their hobby, the members of the Orchid Society believe, is that it can be carried over into retirement or after one leaves the Isthmus. Several members have

started by collecting or raising a few- plants here and have built up some

worthwhile collections after they returned

to the United States. Among them are Clyde Wood, who is well known for his collection of what orchid collectors call "botanicals," Colonel and Mrs. Don

Aurenman who, friends say, are accomplishing fine things in the field of Cymbidiums, and Percy Hooper, who has a

varied collection.
THE PANAMA CANAL REVIEW March 1, 1957

FOR YOUR INTERESTED GUIDANCE IN^CCIDENT PREVENTION

NEW ALL-TIME LOW IN INJURY EXPERIENCE FOR CALENDAR YEAR 1956

Due to the fact that the Canal Zone Government-Panama Canal Company

had only 89 employees who were disabled during the 1956 calendar year, because

of injuries sustained on the job, we ex- perienced a disabling injury frequency

rate per 1,000,000 man-hours worked of

3.22. Also, for the first time in history, we went through an entire calendar year without having a fatality. These facts contributed to an equally all-time low in severity rate, which is the number of days

charged for disabling injuries per 1,000,- 000 man-hours worked. These new rates compare favorably with the injury experience of all industry and all other Federal agencies for the calendar year 1955, which is the latest year for which comparable figures are HONOR ROLL

Bureau Award For BEST RECORD

JANUARY

SUPPLY AND EMPLOYEE SERVICE BUREAU

CIVIL AFFAIRS BUREAU HEALTH BUREAU AWARDS THIS CALENDAR YEAR

Civil Affairs 1 Health 1 Supply and Employee Service 1 Engineering and Construction Marine

Transportation and Terminals

Division Award For NO DISABLING INJURIES JANUARY

COMMISSARY AND SERVICE CENTER

DIVISION LOCKS DIVISION HOSPITALS AND CLINICS MAINTENANCE DIVISION HOUSING AND GROUNDS DIVISION INDUSTRIAL DIVISION ELECTRICAL DIVISION MOTOR TRANSPORTATION DIVISION RAILROAD DIVISION POLICE DIVISION

FIRE DIVISION STOREHOUSE DIVISION AIDS TO NAVIGATION

SANITATION DIV ISION AWARDS THIS CALENDAR YEAR

Aids to Navigation Commissary and Service Center

Electrical Fire

.

Housing and Grounds

Hospitals and Clinics Industrial. _ Locks Maintenance _ Motor Transportation

Police _ Railroad Sanitation Storehouses . Dredging

Navigation Terminals

available. Comparisons are as follows:

C.Z. Govt.-P.C. Co.

All Industry AllFederaL

Frequency

Rate

3.22

6.96

7.80

Severity Rate 304

815

552

Likewise, our total direct costs per employee per year of $5.35 are less than

half the average of $10.98 per employee

for all other Federal agencies. Our costs now include all direct expenditures, or charges, for compensation leave, medical, and hospitalization, plus also the evaluated future cost for all cases still pending

at the end of the year. These costs for the year 1956 amounted

to $73,446.32 or $S25."24 per disabled employee. At this rate, the improvement in 1956 in our frequency rate over the prior 5-year average indicates a savings this year of $242,600 in direct costs for the

disabling injuries that never occurred. The table below shows the injury ex- perience of all bureaus in the order of percentage improvement in frequency

rate over each bureau's own last 3-year

average.

BUREAU

g

* 1

"So °*

Employee-hours ofExposure 5

e

OS

3

S

"3a;

-2s

C?2 %

Change

over

owi

last

3-year

average

Frequency

Rate

Health 7.00 2,188,252 1 .46 34 16 93 Supply and Employee Service _ _ _ - 7.28 6,647,211 6 .90 148 22 88

Transportation and

Terminals 21.53 4,739,743 27 5.70 5,41(1 1,141 74

C.Z. Govt.-P.C. Co.

Total ... 10.74 27,665,940 89 3.22 8,422 304 70 Marine... 13.16 6,846,663 28 4.09 444 65 69

Civil Affairs 7.86 1,992,163 5 2.51 1,825 916 68

Engineering and Construction .

.

7.07 3,734,084 18 4.82 455 122 32

Staff and Administration. _ 1.88 1,011,173 3 2.97 45 45 —58

Panama Line (ex- cluding unlicensed personnel N.A. 506,651 1 1.97 61 120 N.A.

FREQUENCY RATE Disabling injuries per 1.000,000 employeehours worked. JANUARY 1957 BUREAU

Supply and Employee Service

Civil Affairs

Health

C. 1. Govl. Panama Canal Co.< Thij Month)

Marine

Engineering and Construction

Transportation and Terminals

s^ ~1

1

, ,-.,,..

Number of Disabling Injuries. 4 LEGEND

5 10

Employee-hours worked 152,240,255

| Frequency Rale this month

.'.'.'.'.'.J Accumulative Frequency Rate this Calendar Year 13 1954-1955-1956 Calendar Year Average
March 1, 1957 THE PANAMA CANAL REVIEW

OF CURRENT AND FUTURE INTEREST

ROTC CADETS on both sides of the Canal Zone are putting the final polish on their military perform- ance preparatory to the annual Field Day on March 15 at the Balboa Stadium. Above, Cadet First Sergeant Norman Wiley takes notes while Cadet Captain William Dolan checks a rifle. Left to right, are: Wiley, Dolan, Cadet Private First Class Larry Eastman, Cadet Private Rolando Chanis, Cadet

Corporal Michael Hazera, and Cadet Private George Altman.

The periodic chest survey, made of all employees in the Company-Government,

is again in full swing. Last month the Chest X-ray unit at Gorgas Hospital completed

its work with the men and women of the Engineering Division, began and completed

all Pacific side personnel of the Police Division and, as the month ended, began taking chest X rays of students in the seventh

through twelfth grades of the U. S. -citizen schools and their teachers. Students in these grades in the Latin American schools

will have their chests X-rayed when classes resume in May after the long vacation. On the Atlantic side, the chest X-rays

are given at Coco Solo Hospital. In February, this unit was making chest X-rays

of all employees in the Railroad and Terminals Bureau, with other units and the schools to follow. During the months of December and

January, a total of r,oo2 chest X-rays were made at the two units. These disclosed only 87 suspicious X-rays. Of these, 30 were known cases and the others are being

studied further.

Professor of Accounting at the University

of Georgia. He will give a series of 10 lec- tures on the general subject of "Communications," between March 13 and March 23. The course is the second of a series planned

for employees working on the financial end

of the Canal operations. Mr. Heckman has been with the LT niversity of Georgia as Professor of Accounting

since 1921; since 1946, he has also been

Professor of Law. He is a Certified Public Accountant and has been engaged in this business since 1928. New Arrival

Between 40 and 50 employees of the

Office of the Comptroller will have an op- portunity this month to learn more about

the complicated business of report writing. Their instructor will be Harold Heckman,

£mi-~

Official Panama Canal Company Publication Published Monthly At Balboa Heights, C. Z. Printed by the Printing Plant, Mount Hope, Canal Zone

\V. E. Potter, Governor-President H. W. Schull, Jr., Lieutenant Governor

VV. G. Arey, Jr., Public Information Officer

J. Rufus Hardy, Editor Eleanor H. McIlhenny, Assistant Editor On gale at all Panama Canal Service Centers, Commissaries, and Hotels for 10 days after publication date at 5 cents each. Subscriptions, $1 a year; mail and back copies, 10 cents each.

Postal money orders made payable to the Pan- ama Canal Company should be mailed to Editor, The Panama Canal Review, Balboa Heights. C. Z,

ALLEX ALEXANDER, new Information Specialist

in the Panama Canal Information Office, arrived on

the Isthmus by plane last week alter the East Coast

waterfront strike disrupted plans for his initiation with a Panama Line trip. He was accompanied by

Mrs. Alexander. A native of Flushing, X

T

. Y., Mr. Alexander is a graduate of the University of Florida and has done

special study at Columbia University and Xorth

Carolina State College. During his senior year in Florida, he lived in the University's Inter-American

Institute. He comes to the Isthmus from Raleigh, X. C,

where he has been working for the Associated Press.

The Karst family made local news last month. Paul F. Karst, Sr., formerly Finance

Superintendent of the Coco Solo Branch

Fost Office, was honored at a retirement

party given by friends and fellow employees

February 15 at the Albrook NCO Club. He

and his wife will live in St. Petersburg, Fla. Meanwhile, Paul Karst, Jr., who teaches

physical education at Balboa High School, was granted a year's leave of absence. He

leaves in June to take graduate work at the University of Texas in Austin. Not all Canal Zone visitors leave tangible proof that they have been here, but one did

recently. The visitor was Alice Curtis Des- mond, author of a number of travel and

juvenile books. She was accompanied by

her husband, a State Senator from Xew

York.

Mr-,. Desmond took time to stop at the Canal Zone Library and autograph the copies of her books which were not out on cir- ulation. In each she wrote: "To the Canal

Zone Library and its readers, with every good wish from the author," and then

signed her name. Desmond books owned by the Library

are: South American Adventures, t>lamorous Dolly Madison, For Cross and King, and

Jorge's Journey. ©

CIVIL DEFENSE

NEWS

IN THE CIVIL DEFENSE NURSES

AIDE TRAINING PROGRAM

The interest shown in the Civil Defense Nurses Aid Training Program by Canal Zone high school girls on both sides of the Isthmus was demonstrated last month when 95 girls signed up for this year's course; last year, the first that the training was given, 48 girls were graduated. Several ol the girls registering this year are graduates of the previous course and are

re-taking it as a refresher. The American Legion Auxiliary, which

sponsors the program, has appointed the

following representatives: Atlantic side: Mrs. Bertha Brown, Mrs. Louise Griffon, Mrs. Frances Gulley; Pacific side: Mrs.

Pat George, Mrs. Dorothy Knox, Mrs.

Betty Malone, and Mrs. Eleanor Becker. The girls' committee in charge of enroll- ment was made up of: Virginia Reynolds,

Girls State Governor; Sandra Motta, Lieu- tenant Governor; Maria Girard, President

of the Nurses Club; Judy Griffon, Kathleen Cox, and Pat Maedl, all of Cristobal High School. Jack C. Randall, Chief of the Housing

Division, attended the Civil Defense Welfare

Training Course given during February at Battle Creek, Mich., at the Federal Civil Defense Administration Staff College. This course is designed to train civil de- fense welfare officers to plan and organize

welfare services at community level, stress- ing feeding, clothing, lodging, registration and information, and rehabilitation and

assistance. The Civil Defense Unit will participate in the Armed Forces Day celebration to be

held this year on March 16 at Albrook Field and Fort Gulick. Three fire-fighting vehicles have been

turned over to the Civil Defense Unit by

the Fire Division. These brush trucks will be equipped with tanks and rebuilt into decontamination equipment. Ultimately

there will be two units on each side of the Isthmus. MARCH VOLUNTEER CORPS MEETINGS

Town Place ' - Hou

Margarita Service Center a. m

Balboa USO-JWB 9 a. to. Rainbow City School 6:30 p. Gamboa Civic Center 8:30 a. Santa Cruz Service Center 8 p.m.

Paraiso School 7:30 p. Gatun Service Center 8:30 a. Diablo Service Center 9 a. m.
THE PANAMA CANAL REVIEW March 1, 1957

I Viva El Carnaval!

From Sixaola in Bocas del Toro Province to Puerto Obaldia near the Colombian border, pollera petticoats are Happing today from clotheslines, or are bleaching on the grass. In the cities, last-minute shoppers are combing the stores and markets for flat

little slippers of bright-colored velvet, for lengths of brilliant ribbon, and for glittering, shimmering tembleques to pin into

their hair. The floors of the toldos are being waxed, drummers are tightening

the parchment heads on their cedar or palmwood tambores, and last-minute touches are being put onto costumes

which, tomorrow, will transform youngsters into devils and clowns and pirates and cowboys. Bands of diablicos will roam the streets, holding unwary passerbys hostage until they ransom themselves with a few pennies or a nickel. For the next four nights, the music from the toldos—the great openair dance halls in the cities, the bohios in the little Interior towns- will go on until dawn. On Sunday everyone who can will don

Panama's national dress; the women will wear beautifully embroidered or appliqued

polleras or the plainer tumba-hombres, and

the men, the gay, embroidered short- trousered, shirt-tail-out montunos. Traffic will snarl in the larger towns as car- loads of boys and girls cruise up and down,

pslting each other with confetti and ser- pentine. Monday, Panamanian men say (their wives are silent on the subject), is their night to howl. It is the night when, by

tradition, married men can roam as they

please, without having to account to

their wives for their whereabouts.

In the larger towns, Tuesday is par- ade day. Floats and decorated cars

will carry costumed queens and princesses and their attentive escorts along

IX 1926, THE Canal Zone's Queen was Rena de Young, now Mrs. L. B. Sartain. She and her court rode on this float in the Panama Carnival parade. The princesses are, left to right: Constance Graff (now Mrs. R. A. Engelke), Mary Pease, Frances Brown Whitlock, and "Pipa" Briggs. The float was

built under the direction of George Haldeman.

QUEEN LOIS wore the Canal Zone crown in 1941. Her coronation took place at the Balboa Stadium

in the presence of the Panama Queen-elect and members of her court, who appear at the right. At the left of the picture is Polly Perkins, a Zone princess, with Gordon Graham, Robert Peterson, and John Sawyer, at Queen Lois' left. The crown bearer was David Mcllhonny. Queen Lois was then

Lois de la Mater; she is now Mrs. Jame? 0. Crutchfield, of Novato, Calif. Her husband is a lieutenant

colonel at Hamilton Air Force Base.

the streets; bands of musicians will wander along between the floats, sometimes dancing back and forth from

curb to curb; gaudily-dressed marchers

will add color to the throng.

Until dawn on Wednesday. Just as the sun comes up that morning, fat fish, in miniature coffins, will be tossed into the sea or buried under a handy tree. Some of the merrymakers will stop at church on their way home, others will have one last dance before they go to bed. Then, and not until then, will carnival be over and life begin to resume some

sort of normalcy. What's it all about? How did it start? Carnival, of course, is the last fling, the last chance to have fun before the 40 days of Lent begin. Panama's Carnaval is the same as New Orleans' famed Mardi Gras, and, like the Mardi Gras, a modern version of the old Roman Lupercalia. It is celebrated in all Latin countries. Panama, historians say, paid little attention to a formal carnival until 1910. At first, carnival was a round of parties and dances for men and women in cos- tumes and masks. Later the masks were abandoned and now are seldom seen. Gradually the idea of having a Queen of Carnival began to develop and by 1913 had become traditional. By then, Panamanian women had re- discovered the beauty of the traditional

pollera, the full-skirted, becoming dress

their ancestors had brought from Spain. Some historians believe the pollera is derived from the dress of the Andalucian

gypsies; certainly there is a marked re- semblance between the Panamanian

pollera and the dress worn by a group

of Andalucian beauties who danced at the Balboa stadium a decade ago, when

Spain sent a shipload of dancers and

singers to acquaint the new world with

their folklore. The gypsies, tradition has it, believed

bracelets were symbols of servitude and

this carried over to the pollera. Early

descriptions of the elaborate1 jewelry which accompanies a pollera the pearl mosquetas, the cadenas ckatas, the seapuTHE5 SOMEWHAT modernistic float wastheCsi

It was the first vear the Panama parade had been by the
March 1, 1957 THE PANAMA CANAL REVIEW It Begins Tomorrow

laries, the cabrcstillox, which are chains

set with gold coins in filigree framesinner mention bracelets. The pollera begins with a petticoat, or

petticoats, of row after row of linely- tucked muslin, put together with fine, hand-made insertion. Over this goes a

full, ankle-length skirt of wide bands, separated by lace insertion whose pattern

is the same as that embroidered or appliqued on the white lawn or linen of which tin- pollera is made. The skirt ends with a ruffle, which can be spread out to be admired. The ruffle and the bands which make up the skirt are pains- takingly ornamented with a design of

fruit or flowers. Traditionalists frown upon any but hand-made polleras; several years ago the pollera which won the carnival's first prize had taken five women

six months to make. The blouse has a deep, embroidered or appliqued band, edged in lace and gathered onto a neckband, through which is woven yarn ending, front and back, in great pompoms. The color of the yarn must be the same as the color of the

ribbons which are fastened to the front and back of the skirt, and of the flat velvet slippers which are always worn

with the pollera. Into the wearer's hair go gold-edged combs and anywhere from a dozen to four dozen pairs of tembleques. The hair- ornaments are made of beads or tinsel fastened into hairpins or wire. Their name comes from the fact that they

tremble when their wearer dances. The tumba hombres, or country polleras,

differ from their grand city cousins in that they have no embroidery or applique and that the shirts are made from bright- figured calico or some other cotton goods. Native straw hats are always worn with

the tumba hombres. As carnival grew in importance in Panama, so did it in the Canal Zone. Toward the end of the construction

period, Zonians were beginning to take

part in the four-day festivity and offer- ing their help to their friends across the line. The earliest entry in the Canal Zone's carnival file reports that

ione's entry in the Carnaval de Concordia in 1949.

ited through the Canal Zone; Zonians turned out

; dreds.

Adm. H. H. Rousseau ordered electric lights installed in the Colon park for the carnival celebrations of 1912. The following year the president of the Colon Carnival junta asked for "a first- class battleship of the dreaduaught type" on which the Carnival Queen could make

her formal entry into the city. He settled

for a decorated tug. In later years, one

of the Panama Railroad's little motorcars was used frequently to bring the

carnival queen to her realm, although one

year the queen rode in a pailor car, be- hind an "oil-burning locomotive and

baggage car." By the early 1920's, Zonians had be- come so carnival-conscious that they decided to have their own queen. In

1922, the American Legion sponsored a

hotly-contested poll in which votes were

sold and the proceeds used to pay carnival expenses. The first queen elected in this fashion was Viola Bissell, daughter

of a Panama Railroad conductor. She was succeeded the following year by

Anita Sergeant, sister of Canal pilot Richard Sergeant and of William Sergeant

of the Contract and Inspection Division. Canal Zone Queen for 1924 -the carnival was still Legion-sponsored- was Belle Jones, whose brothers, Egbert and George,

still live in the Canal Zone. All of these queens rode down Central Avenue in special floats which consistently won

prizes. As consistently until the Canal Zone withdrew from competition in 1936

the prize money was donated to charity, usually the Red Cross. There was no Canal Zone queen in 1925 but in 1926 Gov. M. L. Walker se- lected a queen to represent the Canal Zone in Panama's (See page 12) IN 1937 THE Canal float was a wide departure from previous years; the Queen, Miss Ruth Bauman,

represented Panama, and her nine maids represented Panamp's nine provinces. The girls, selected by

the Bureau of Clubs and Playgrounds, were: Janet Callender, Margaret Haw, Ruth Wright, Diana

Edgerton, Regina Quinn, Mary Ann Conklin, Lilia Booth, and Eleanor Hobson. The men on the float were Jack Siler, Edward Sullivan, and Tom Malone and the pages, Guy and Ross N'ewland.

QUEEN BETTY was the Canal Zone's queen in the Carnival of Victory in 1946. Then Betty Presley, she is now Mrs. John Olsen of Balboa. With her here on the Zone Queen's float are members of her court. Lower row, left to right: Millie Vintson, Donna Patterson, Elizabeth Lundy; second row: Beatrice Wohlfarth, Rosemarie Nickisher, Barbara Bartholomew, and Lorraine Terry; third row: Marilyn Flynn,

Shirley Bailey, Connie Bailey, Marguerite Flynn, and, beside Queen Betty, Jackie Hutchings.
10 THE PANAMA CANAL REVIEW March 1, 1957

THIRTY POSSIBLE CANAL routes were studied in 1947. The diagram above lists them by numbers. Under their popular names they are: 1—Tehauntepec; 2-9—Nicaragua; 10—Chiriqui; 10-15—Panama; 16—San Bias; 17-19—Caledonia; 20-24—Tuyra or Darien; and 25-30—Atrato.

Centuries Spent On Surveys And Plans

For Canals On Main Isthmian Routes

EDITOR'S NOTE: This is the second

of a series of five articles on the Isth- mian Canal problem. Given the time, manpower, equipment, and money, a canal to join the Atlantic and Pacific oceans could be constructed anywhere from the frigid northern border

of Canada to Tierra del Fuego.

In all this vast distance, however, there

are only a few hundred miles between the North and South American continents where it would be economically feasible to construct or operate a ship canal of any kind. In the 1,800 miles from Mexico* to Colombia there are only eight loca- tions on the American isthmus which lend themselves to sarious consideration of a

canal. These are Tehauntepec in Mexico;

Nicaragua; Chiriqui; Panama (the exist- ing canal route) ; San Bias; and Caledonia

in Panama; Darien or Tuyra River, cross- ing Colombia and Panama territory; and

the Atrato River, wholly within Colombia. Some of these locations have several routes which have been investigated. During the course of the Isthmian

Canal Studies of 1947, 30 different routes were studied. Eight of these were Atrato River alignments. The

Pacific terminals of the Atrato routes ranged from San Miguel Bay to the mouth of the San Juan River some 300 miles farther south. Each of the possible canal routes has some distinct advantages: Tehauntepec,

its location with respect to the major

shipping lanes; Nicaragua, its large lakes; Panama and San Bias, the narrowness of land; Caledonia and Darien, their deeply

indented coastlines; and the Atrato, its long, deep rivers. Most also have some serious disad- vantages, such as length of the canal

route or elevation of the continental di- vide. These disadvantages become glar- ingly apparent when comparisons are made with the Panama route. It was

largely these disadvantages which inevit- ably have led competent engineers since early Spanish colonial days to select the Panama route in preference to others. Aside from its natural advantages of

terrain, the Panama route would now

be favored in any present comparison

because of the cost of harbor develop- ments, sanitation, housing, and defense

installations which would be required

for a canal elsewhere. The cost of har- bor developments in Nicaragua was es- timated in 1947 at $230,0000,00 and costs

of townsites, municipal improvements,

health, and sanitation were estimated

in excess of $500,000,000. The total of these two sums is about three times the

original construction costs of the Pana- ma Canal. The history of the search for the most

suitable canal route spans more than

four centuries and is filled with glowing

tales, intrigue, arguments, and failures. None of the eight main routes was

lately discovered or investigated. In fact, within 60 years after Columbus discov- ered America five of the most favored

routes had been recommended and actual

surveys, however inadequate, had been

made on some, notably Panama, Nicaragua, and Tehauntepec.

Various investigations of these and

other routes were made during the latter half of the Sixteenth and throughout the Seventeenth Centuries, mostly at the in- stance of the Spanish Crown or by Governors of the Spanish provinces in the New World. Interest in an Isthmian

canal was dormant through most of the

1700's but was revived near the turn of that century by the travel and writings

of Baron Alexander von Humboldt. The most notable and reliable sur- veys of the various routes were made

from about 1840 until 1900, and during

this period every known route of today- was given special attention, not all of which was of a comparative nature.

Nevertheless, these studies provided a fund of valuable information on top- ography, hydrography, and climatic

AN ARTISTS conception of a ship railway across Tehauntepec Isthmus appeared in a Mexican newspaper shortly before the 1947 Studies were begun. Ship railway's and tunnels through mountains were

included in the Isthmian Canal Studies of 1947.

conditions which was usable in the

later and more refined surveys which

finally led to the building of the Pan- ama Canal and to the 1947 recommendation for its conversion to a sea-level waterway. With respect to previous surveys and

available data, the 1947 report said: "The 30 routes were selected for stud}- as a result of a review of all earlier sur- veys, investigations, and studies, and

from an inspection of current maps, sup- plemented in some cases by aerial and

ground reconnaissanres. "With few exceptions, the studies of the interoceanic canal routes were based

on engineering data and other information previously obtained by others. The

available data were sufficient for comparative evaluations of the several routes. In all cases, sufficient information exists to indicate beyond any reasonable doubt

the relative feasibility and cost of the

routes." Public Law 280, of the 79th Congress,

included in its directive that the Governor of The Panama Canal also investigate any new means of transporting ships

across the isthmus. Accordingly, the 1947 Studies included an investigation of a ship railway across

the land, the only new means the report

said was found worthy of even casual

consideration. The idea of a ship railway, or what

might hi' called today a "piggy back"

canal, was not a new one. It was first suggested in ISM) by James 15. Eads, prominent American engineer, who advocated a 134-mile railway across Tehauntepec for the transfer of ships up to S,0()() tons. This plan continued to have active but intermittent support until the Isth- mian Canal Studies effectively pointed

out some of its disadvantages, such as the high costs of foundation work, the engineering problems of crossing streams, and its vulnerability to sabotage or attack. A feature of ship canals across the
March 1,1957 THE PANAMA CANAL REVIEW 11

Lock Canal Routes Sea-Level Canal Routes

Excavation Approximate Excavation Approximate

Route Length Tn^T (In thousand Cost* (In thousand Cost*

at uivute

cu. yds.) (In thousands) cu. yds.) (In thousands) Tehauntepec 165 812 3,360,000 $13,280,000 6,130,000 Not estimated Nicaragua 173 153 1,000,000 3,566,000 5,200,000 Not estimated

Chiriqui 55 5,000 Other details not developed 68,800,000 Not estimated Panama 51 1 340 191,000 $2,308,000 1,069,000 $2,483,000 San Bias 40 1,100 1,480,000 5,960,000 2,080,000 6,272,000 Caledonia. _. 63 1,100 1,110,000 4,751,000 1,880,000 5,132,000 Tuyra River 135 470 1,120,000 Not estimated 2,140,000 Not estimated Atrato River..""" 95 932 1,450,000 $4,147,000* 1,810,000 $5,261,000$

* 1947 estimates. fThe proposed sea-level Panama Canal would be 46 miles long. tEstimates based on joint I'S-Colombia survey.

American Isthmus long advocated for several routes was given special attention

in the 1947 Studies. This was for a tunnel through the continental divide. Few

investigations and recommendations for the San Bias route have failed to take note of the favorable possibility of driving

a ship tunnel through the high mountains and thus saving a tremendous amount of excavation required by an open cut. Careful considerations were given in 1947 to the comparative costs of a tunnel and an open cut and it was con- cluded that, aside from its many dis- advantages in operation, an open cut could be effected as cheaply or less than

a tunnel. The cut-and-tunnel comparison was made for each route studied, both sea-level and lock canals, and at no location was it found that a tunnel

could be favored.

It was estimated that a tunnel, without

lighting, ventilation, and other such es- sentials, would cost over $200,000,000

a mile. Since later issues will discuss in some

detail the Nicaragua, Panama, and Atrato

routes, the following briefly summarizes

the history and main features of the five main routes proposed elsewhere. Not long after Hernando Cortez con- quered Mexico, he urged Charles V, of Spain, to dig a canal across the Isthmus

of Tehauntepec. In his conquest, Cortez

obtained some maps from Montezuma

indicating the narrow neck of land in the southern end of Montezuma's domain, and he ordered some of his lieutenants to map the land and prepare data on the

feasibility of a canal. The first reliable survey of the route was made in 1850 by the Tehauntepec

Railroad Company, of New Orleans. This was supplemented by other topographical and engineering data at inter- vals until the railroad was completed in 1894. An extensive survey of the area was also made in 1870 by Capt. R. W.

Shufeldt of the U. S. Navy. The alignment selected as the best, in 1947 was a modification of that recom- mended by Shufeldt. This begins on the Gulf of Campeche off the mouth of the Coatzacoalcos River and generally follows that river valley to the continental divide. The route crosses the divide at 812 feet elevation and follows an almost direct

line down the western slope to the Pacific Ocean. The length of this route is 165

miles.

It is interesting to note that the

Interoceanic Canal Commission, ap- pointed by President U. S. Grant, rec- ommended a system of about 140 locks

to get ships over the Tehauntepec summit. This number was drastically re- duced by the Isthmian Canal Studies

of 1947 to ten lock steps on each side

CUTTING A SHIP canal through this dense jungle and mountainous terrain would be a prodigous

feat. This aerial view shows the section of the Darien route at the confluence of the Chucunaque and

Morti rivers. A field survey of this route was made in the course of the 1947 Studies; the base camp may be identified on the sandbar of the river. The field survey and aerial reconnaisance were made

during the 1947 dry season.

of the divide to lift or lower ships to sea level. The Chiriqui route, near the Costa Rican border, has little to offer in the way of advantage for a canal except the deep coastline indentations of the Chiri- qui lagoon on the Atlantic and the Chiriqui Gulf on the Pacific which cut

the land width to 40 miles. The ridge forming the Continental Divide there is 5,000 feet and higher. No field study for a canal on this route had ever been made

and none was made in the 1947 Studies. However, sufficient mapping of the area

for proposed highways and railroads was

available to determine the approximate

cost of a canal. The conclusion was that the route was

impracticable for a lock canal because of the numerous lifts required and the lack

of large rivers to provide lockage water.

Its consideration for a sea level waterway

was precluded by the fact that the amount of excavation would be ten times

greater than on any other route investi- gated. Except for the height of the continental divide, the San Bias route offers more advantages for a sea-level or lock canal than any other, including the

present canal route. It is ten miles

shorter than the Panama Canal; there

is a sheltered natural harbor on the Gulf of San Blas;*the Atlantic and Pacific slopes are deeply dissected by

rivers; and there is ample water supply

for a lock canal. However, the lowest gap through which a canal of suitable alignment could

be built is 1,060 feet above sea level and

almost one and a half billion cubic yards

of excavation would be required for a

lock canal, nearly eight times as much as required for the Panama Canal. Because of its favorable location and many natural advantages, the San Bias has been the object of numerous surveys

over the centuries. The Caledonia routes—three were in- cluded in the 1947 Studies—get their name from the bay in which they orig- inate on the Atlantic coast. All three have the same Pacific terminal in the

large natural harbor of San Miguel Bay. The Caledonia route differs from all others in that the Continental Divide at

this point swings to within seven miles

of the Atlantic coast instead of being near

the center of the Isthmus or near the

Pacific as on other routes. The difference

in alignment of the three routes studied

in 1947 was wholly on the Atlantic slope, with the most northerly, the Sasardi- Morti, being selected as the most favorable. The Caledonia route (See page is)
12 THE PANAMA CANAL REVIEW March 1, 1957

iVIVA EL CARNAVAL!

(Continued from page 9) carnival. She was Rena de Young, now Mrs. L. B. Sartain; the previous fall, as Miss Balboa, she had carried the Canal Zone's colors

to the Atlantic City Beauty Pageant. She was the last of the official Canal Zone queens until 1941, although the Canal Zone entered a float every year an official carnival was held in Panama

City. During this period the girls who

rode on the float were selected by a

special committee or by the now defunct Bureau of Clubs and Playgrounds.

Occasionally, other Canal Zone organizations entered floats in the Panama City

parade. In 1937, there were seven Canal Zone floats, in addition to the official one. These were entered by the Red Cross, the Red, White, and Blue Troupe, the Red

Cross Life Savers, the Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, the Anconites, and the Quinn

School of Dancing.

In 1941 Panama and the Canal Zone

again went all out for carnival. The

Canal Zone was asked to elect a queen

to rule with ten others—a national queen and one from each of the Provincesover the Mardi Gras celebration. Friends and relatives scurried to nominate their

favorites; a committee of judges selected the five finalists and from their names

Gov. Glen E. Edgerton drew that of the queen, Lois de la Mater. She was

crowned at Balboa Stadium on February

15, and later ruled over a grand coronation ball at the Hotel Tivoli. For the next four years, war put an end to official carnivals. In 1946, however, Panama announced its Carnaval de

Victoria; the American Legion and the Civic Council sponsored a contest and a Canal Zone queen was again elected. She was Miss Betty Presley, now Mrs. John Olsen of Balboa. She was the only Canal Zone queen to be crowned in Panama. The coronation, simultaneous

with that of Queen Marcela of Panama

and Queen Marina of Central America,

took place in the Olympic Stadium. The next Canal Zone queen was Nanette Lynch, in a contest again sponsored by the American Legion. This regal race was distinguished by the entry of two

pretty WACS, the first time members of the armed forces had ever competed. They did not win, but their presence made the contest unusually exciting. Miss Lynch was the last of the Canal

Zone's queens. There was no official car- nival in 1948, but in the 1949 Carnaval

de Concordia, there was again a contest. This time, however, the four top votepolling Zone candidates served as Prin- cesses in the court of the Panama Queen. This year the Canal Zone is again

taking part in an official Panama Carnival, El Carnaval del Progreso. The

first act of the Republic's 1957 Carnival Queen, Rosalia Barraza, was to raise the blue-and-white pennant which means the Carnival's on —in a special ceremony last Saturday at Balboa. A hundred-member C. Z. group will participate in Queen Rosalia's coronation tomorrow night at the National Stadium; a Canal Zone Community

float, prepared by the Balboa Lion's Club, will be entered in Tuesday after- noon's parade; and a special Carnival

exhibit is on display this week at the Canal Zone Library Museum.

PAGES FROM THE

C&K&VS HIST

THIS MONTH

50 Years Ago

March 1907, marked the biggest turn- over of top Canal personnel which would

take place for many years. It was the month that Lt. Col. George Goethals

arrived to become Chairman and Chief Engineer of the Isthmian Canal Commission. It was the month that President Theodore Roosevelt appointed a new

Commission, all of whom for the first time were to live on the Canal Zone. The Canal Zone had reacted with somc- what less than enthusiasm to the news that John F. Stevens had resigned from the Zone's top job; many of the force signed

petitions telling him that if he would stay

they would prove their loyalty and appreciation "by renewed efforts." "Has Stev- ens acted rightly!" the "Star & Herald"

asked in an editorial, and folloiced up a day or so later with a headline "Culebra's Caesar has fallen, the victim of tortuous government methods." About mid-March the SS Panama

docked at Colon with 47 Congressmen, Maj. David DuB. Gaillard, and the then

Lt. Col. Goethals aboard. Goethal's first public statement somewhat allayed the Zone's general apprehension: "No change whatever will be made in the splendid

organization built up on the Isthmus by Mr. John F. Stevens. The work will be continued as it stands today and will not

be interfered with in any way."

This broke the ice, and there was further thawing the following Saturday when, at a smoker at Corozal, he said: "I do not expect a salute from any man on the job . . . I

will welcome any suggestions, 1 shall listen, to any complaints or grievances . . . There

will be no more militarism here in the future than there has been in the past ..."

Late in March, Stevens presided over

a full meeting of the Commission, ten- dered his resignation as Chief Engineer and completed his plans for transferring

his duties to Goethals on April 1. By then

the Commission had assembled on the Isth- mus. They were: Goethals, Gaillard, Col. W. C. Gorgas, Rear Adm. H. H. Rousseau,

.lacks m Smith, Maj. William L. Sibert, J. C. S. Blackburn. As March ended, Secretary of War William Howard Taft arrived aboard the "triple- screw cruiser 'Columbia'," accompanied by four eminent engineers, to investigate re- ports that the foundation of the proposed Gaiun Dam would nut support the weight

of the great earth fill to be built there. Also during March: A slide at Culebra

carried away a few houses, a shop, and

the did Washington House; the first death

sentence pronounced by American officials was passed cm Adulphus Coulson, a West

Indian convicted of poisoning his wife. 25 Years Ago

Zonians grieved with the Lindbergh

family over the kidnapping of their baby

son in Xew Jersey; for almosl the entire month local matters were shoved off the

front pages by news of the kidnapping and its subsequent events.

In Washington, representatives if the

Steamship Owners Association appeared

before a House sub-committee to oppose a

bill standardizing measurement of vessels using the Panama Canal. The west side of Thatcher Ferry was

completed and workmen began driving

piles for the east landing. Thatcher High- way paving was complete from Arraijan

to the Farfan road junction. Plans were announced for the Canal's largest bachelor apartment, building, 28 apartments,

at Fort de Lesseps, and two clubhouses were begun in the construction town at Madden Dam.

Westinghouse Electric icon a $50,000

contract for equipment which would make

remote control operation of the Cristobal, Balboa, and Summit sub-stations possible. President Hoover signed a bill, limit- ing for the first time the size and weight

of vehicles using Canal Zone highways. The House of Representatives authorized a Public Defender for the Canal Zone

and, in another bill, repealed a long in- effective Executive Order of 1909 which made it a misdemeanor for anyone to "entice laborers from the Isthmian Canal Commission or Panama Railroad."

Carl Strom and Henderson C. Smith

were given a contract to operate the Canal

Zone's restaurants for a three-year period. The "Empress of Britain"—at 63,750 dis- placement tons, the largest vessel to have

entered Cristobal harbor—brought IfiO tourists on a round-the-world cruise. 10 Years Ago

A report by Governor Mehaffey to the Secretary of War, covering fiscal year

1946, showed that the Panama Canal was out of the red for the first time in three years. Local labor unions reacted suddenly, and

violently, to word that Panamanians were

eligible for Civil Service jobs. The provision appeared in a presidential Exeeutivt Order

establishing new Civil Service regulations. Harvey Slocum and Leon Zach, two

prominent engineers, arrived as consult- ants on the Isthmian Canal Studies. The

former was an expert on cost, the latter on townsite planning. President Truman

asked that the Canal report lie submitted by the end of 1947, and the Special Engineering Division swung into a 54-hour work week six 8-hour days and two 3- uour evenings to be ready for the Board

of Consultants' meeting in May.

In Washington, Rep. Willis Bradley, a

retired Navy captain, came nut as an advocate of a Terminal Lake Plan for the Panama Canal, ami Hep. Albert ./. F.ngel declared that reports of Communist sun-ess

in organizing Zone workers were unfounded, Capt. Philip G. Nichols was appointed Marine Superintendent, to succeed Rear Adm. II. II. MacLean. One Year Ago

Paul M. Runnestrand succeeded Eugene

C. Lombard as Executive Secretary of the Canal Zone Government 1'anama Canal Company.
March 1, 1957 THE PANAMA CANAL REVIEW 13 Prize Winner

HIGH SCORE in the final examination in the Accounting Systems course given by the Junior College Extension Division earned -a prize for Theodore

Melanson, left above. Mr. Melanson, of the Plant Evaluation and Transfer Staff, receives his prize from

Philip L. Steers, Jr., Comptroller, while instructor Shephard Clark looks on. The prize: A book on

accounting systems.

Centuries Of Surveys And Plans Made

For Canals On Main Isthmian Routes

{Continued from page it) has many natural advantages over most of the others but

the excavation costs would be excessive because of the elevation of the Continental Divide which is 1,100 feet. The

ridge along the Continental Divide is ex- tremely narrow, by comparison with

other routes, which led to consideration

of a ship tunnel. The terrain and water

supply are also favorable for a high level lake-and-lock canal. While the first transisthmian cross- ing was made on this general route in 1513 when Balboa discovered the Pacific and it was used by explorers and ad- venturers during the sixteenth century, the Darien isthmus was practically a- bandoned for settlement or transportation for 250 years. Several surveys were made in the

1850's and these were supplemented by

more complete investigations in 1870 by

Comdr. T. 0. Selfridge, USN, the Inter- oceanic Canal Commission, 1870-75; the

first Isthmian Canal Commission, 1899-

1901; and the 1947 Studies. The lower Darien Isthmus, site of the Darien or Tuyra River routes, was first suggested as a canal location in the 1500's but interest in such a possibility lapsed

until 1846 when a Panama Railroad employee published a report of a purported

reconnaissance of the Tuyra River valley. This was later discredited but it aroused much interest and within the next 30

years several surveys of a serious nature were conducted Of the five routes inves- tigated in 1947, the one selected as the most favorable was 135 miles long, util- izing a section of the lower Atrato River on the Pacific slope and most of the long Tuyra River valley to the San Miguel

Bay in the Atlantic, also the terminus of the three Caledonia routes. While the summit elevation on this route is only 410 feet, somewhat lower than the Panama route, the length of the proposed canal and the difficulties antic- ipated in flood control led the 1947 invesCommissary problems, from stock

shortages to fish filets, were discussed pro and con last month at two forums

held at the Administration Building at Balboa Heights and attended by repre- sentatives of the Commissary Division and the Commissary's customers. The first forum was held the night of February 18, the second a week later. Because of the deadline for this issue of The Review, the following account concerns only the February IS meeting; the second will be reported in the next issue. "It is the Commissary's responsibility

to take care of its customers," Wilson H.

Crook, Director of the Supply and Employee Service Bureau, told the men and women at the first meeting. "We are now getting used to the re- duced volume of trade and finding out what our demand is. Then it will be up

to us to fill that demand."

Later he pointed out that the Commissary surcharge has not been in- creased and that Commissary prices have remained stable, except when ris- ing prices in the States mean a higher

price for the Commissary to pay for its merchandise. Every effort, he said, is being made to keep down overhead. Incompetent employees or those who

have difficulty dealing with customers

will be removed, and closer connections between selling-units and warehouses will do much to eliminate complaints that

fast-selling items are frequently out of stock.

All improvements to the Commissary

can be greatly accelerated, he said, if those attending the forums express their opinions and desires, not only as to service but as to stock. Mr. Crook repeatedly urged the customers to bring or send to the commissaries pictures or descriptions

of items they would like carried in stock. Information as to prices and sources will help Commissary buyers in obtaining such items, he said.

* In this connection, Mrs. J. W. Casey

of the Balboa Womans' Club, at Mr.

Crook's request, showed dresses and

shoes which she had purchased recently

in the United States and which she considered as suitable for sale in the commissaries, while several others presented

pictures or descriptions of other merchandise. During the early part of the meeting,

as is customary, Mr. Crook reported changes made as the result of suggestions from previous forums: The vegetable sec- tion at Balboa Commissary has been re- arranged; the stock of girls' shoes has been expanded, both in sizes and styles; one large shipment of women's dresses has been placed on sale and more are coming;

the variety of nurses' uniforms and shoes has been increased; the "Made for the Panama Canal Commissary" labels will no longer appear in clothing items; artigators to the conclusion that it would

be unsuited for a sea-level canal and not

favorably comparable in several respects with other locations for a lock canal.

rangements are bring made for car-hop

delivery service of groceries at Balboa Commissary on a trial basis; and the matter of charge accounts for all U. S.- Rate employees, together with a provision

for installment purchases of large items,

is under study. The possibility of bringing Florida

fruits and vegetables to the Canal Zone

on fruit ships which come south in

ballast, has been discussed with several shipping companies; although at pres- ent none of them are in a position to render this service, two lines have indi- cated an interest and will give the matter further study. Much of the general discussion at the February 18 forum concerned out-of- stock items, especially in meat and cold

storage, and women's clothing. Mr.

Crook assured the forum that the short- ages are temporary and that the Commissary's goal is to build up a selection

of stock desired by the employees. This

will apply not only to food but also to the drygoods and hardware lines. The recent dress sale came in for some

criticism, especially in connection with

congestion at Balboa. Several women

suggested that this congestion could be reduced if dresses of certain sizes could be put on sale on certain days, while

others would be put out on other days. This suggestion will be tried with the next large shipment.

In answer to a query as to the outcome

of the recent survey on what commissary

hours the buying public prefers and on

the possibility of having the stores remain

open through the noon hour, Mr. Crook

said this was still being studied. A check

is now being made in all commissaries and gasoline stations of the hourly buying

load. Other matters and suggestions pre- sented during the forum included: A

request that the commissary carry

dress patterns; a criticism of the fre- quent change of brands in food items; the use of charge-a-plates for charge- account customers; a system for dating

bread; a request for "wash-and-wear"

trousers for boys; shortages in school

supplies and a criticism of the poor

quality of writing paper and writing pads now in stock. Those attending the February 18 forum

were: Mrs. Pat LeBrun, Pacific Civic Council; Mr. and Mrs. H. T. Carpenter,

Cristobal-Margarita Civic Council; Mrs.

Frances Gilley and Mrs. Joan O'Connell, American Legion Auxiliary; Mr. and Mrs.

E. W. Hatchett and Mrs. Margaret Coate

Central Labor Union; Mrs. Frances Longmore, Mrs. Virgilia Pearce, and Mrs.

Carol Rigby, USCA; Mrs. C. V. Schei- degg, Gatun Civic Council; Mrs. G. O. Parker and Mrs. J. W. Casey, Balboa Woman's Club; Mrs. T. J. Dee, Emblem

Club; R. C. Daniel, Railroad Conductors; Mrs. Elsa Bailey, Robert Medinger, and

the following Commissary Representatives: R. L. Sullivan, T. G. Relihan, V. J. Huber, C. P. Shay, J. F. Manning. W. C. Bain, J. M. Brown, L. W. Mcllvaine, and

Mrs. Gladys Conley.
14 THE PANAMA CANAL REVIEW March 1, 1957 PROMOTIONS AND TRANSFERS

January 75 through February 75

Employees who were promoted or transferred between January 15 and February

15 are listed below. Within-grade promotions are not reported. ADMINISTRATIVE BRANCH

Jerry W. Detamore, from Methods Ex- aminer to Management Analyst, Records

Section. CIVIL AFFAIRS BUREAU

Richard C. Hogan, Dick R. Brandon,

from Window Clerk to Mail Delivery Postal

Clerk, Postal Division. Nolan A. Bissell, from Finance Branch

Superintendent to Relief Finance Branch

Superintendent. Postal Division. Mrs. Mary M. Queen, from Substitute Teacher to Junior High School Teacher.

Division of Schools. Horace J. Mirabella, from Substitute Window Clerk, Postal Division, to Police- man, Police Division. Lealand A. Larrison, from Clerk-in-charge Window Service, Cristobal Post Office, to Finance Branch Superintendent, Postal

Division. William M. Jensen, from Window Clerk

to Finance Branch Superintendent, Postal

Division. Charles R. Soukup, from Supervisory Steward. Service Center Division, to Cus- toms Guard, Customs Division. Thomas A. Frensley, from Policeman to Policeman and Detective, Police Division. OFFICE OF THE COMPTROLLER

Mrs. Frances P. Smith, from Bookkeeping Machine Operator to Accounting Clerk, Accounting Division. Hugh W. Cassibry, from Systems Accountant. Accounting Policies and Procedures, to Rates Analyst; Budget and Rates

Division.

Bernice A. Herring, from Dipper Dredge

Operator to Dipper Dredge Master, Dredging Division. John L. Mason, from Wireman to Electronics Mechanic, Electrical Division. Edgar F. Daggett, from Automotive Equipment Operator, Special, Motor Transportation Division, to Pumping Plant Operator II, Water and Laboratories Branch. Edmund R. MacVittie, from Assistant Superintendent, Division of Storehouses,

to Architect (General), Engineering Division. Anthony H. Hopiak, from Boatbuilder,

Industrial Division, to Shipwright, Dredging Division. OFFICE OF THE GOVERNOR-PRESIDENT

Mrs. Carol L. McAmis, from Clerk-Sten- ographer, Administration Branch, to Clerical Assistant (Stenography), Office of the Administrative Assistant to the Governor. Floyd R. Johnson, from Advisor, Store- house Staff, to Plans Officer, Executive

Planning Si, hi OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY, WASHINGTON OFFICE

Mrs. Laura J. Reese, from Secretary to Administrative Assistant. HEALTH

Dr. Rodolfo V. Young, from Medical Offi- RETIREMENTS

Retirement certificates were presented

the end of February to the Following employees who .in- listed alphabetically, togeh the birthplai c po il lengl I ol Canal service, and future addresses. Paul F. Karst, Ohio; Branch Supeiintendent, < latun Posl < >ffice; I 7 years, I h, 17 days; St. Petersburg, I la Raymond Osmond, Pennsylvania; Meteorologii .il Aid, Cristobal I ' yeai -.<> months,

8 days; California. John L. Reese, Jr., Pennsylvania; I on

troi House Operator, Pedro Miguel Locks;

1 month, 27 days; El Volcan, K. P. John S. Skinner, Jr., Alabama; Power

Dispatch I

I I >i\ ision ; 3 I years, -1 months, lx days; Miami, Fla.

cer (Tuberculosis) to Chief, Chest Service, Gorgas Hospital. Mrs. Elizabeth J. Brown, from Cash

Accounting Clerk to Supervisory Accounting Clerk, Gorgas Hospital. Mrs. Ara S. Norris, from Staff Nurse to Nurse Supervisor, Gorgas Hospital. MARINE BUREAU

Karl W. Shirley, from Junior High School Teacher, Division of Schools, to Marine In- spection Assistant, Navigation Division. Alexander Rienks, from Elevators and

Cranes Inspector II to Inspector I, Industrial Division. Walter E. Marek, from Plumber, Maintenance Division, to Pipefitter, Industrial Division. Charles V. Scheidegg, from Foreman Wireman to Control House Operator, Atlantic Locks. Andrew Metzgar, from Wireman to Wire- man Foreman, Atlantic Locks.

Frederic J. Berest, Edward J. Michaelis, from Guard to Tour Leader (Interpreter), Locks Division. James B. Crane, Herbert A. Greene, Jr., from Marine Inspection Assistant to Admeasurer, Navigation Division. SUPPLY AND EMPLOYEE SERVICE BUREAU

Arthur C. Payne, from Accounting Clerk

to Housing Management Aid, Housing and Grounds Division. James M. Kelley, from Clerk to Accounting Clerk, Housing and Grounds Division. TRANSPORTATION AND TERMINALS BUREAU

Norbert W. Hammond, from Stockman

Foreman, Commissary Division, to Guard,

Terminals Division. ANNIVERSARIES

There are few employees of the CompanyGovernment organization who do not know

William Jump, either in person or by reputation. His 52 years of service, 48 of them on the United States rolls, make him the Canal's

senior employee. His job as Timekeeper in the Industrial Division —the same unit

WILLIAM .JIMP

with which he has spent his entire careerkeeps him busy but he Ins still managed

to find time to serve on the Community

Chest Board, run the Intcrnation.il Boy

Scouis, help manage various charitable

dtivcs, and serve on the ( "\\ ie Councils. He «as I mm in Gorgona, while the French were still making a token effort to build the Panama (anal, lie went to work

with the Mechanical Division, .it the Gor- gona shop-,, when Ik- was IS years old, and moved with that Division when it trans- ferred its "iii'' I.. Empire, Balboa, and

finally to Cristobal. Two years ago last month, when he celebrated his fiftieth anniversary on the job, he was honored by a public ceremony at- tended by the Governor, the Alcalde of Colon, and a number of other dsitinguished

local figures. 35 YEARS

In comparison with Mr. Jump's service, Francis J. Krause and Richard Thompson

are brash newcomers to the Canal organization. But in comparison with the service of most other employees, their 35 years apiece are quite impressive. Mr. Krause, an Electrical Supervisor, more formally known as a General Electrical Foreman, at the Miraflores Locks, was born

in Germany; he was a Christmas Eve pres- ent for his parents. He went to the l T nited States as a boy and is a naturalized U. S.

citizen. He served with the Pennsylvania

National Guard on the Mexican Border, was an infantry corporal during World War

I, and was living in Darby, Pa., when he

decided to come to the Canal Zone in 1923. Although his service here has been broken,

it has all been with the Locks Division. He has been a towing locomotive operator,

a tunnel operator, a control house operator,

a lockmaster, and now electrical supervisor. Mr. Thompson, a signalman in the Navigation Division in Cristobal, came to the Canal Zone from Jamaica when he was just entering his teens. He worked on Gatun

Locks before they uere ready to raise ships up and down; his later jobs included work

at the Gatun "hotel," on Gatun Dam, on

the Frijoles-Mount Hope transmission line, and with the Electrical Division. He was

with the Lighthouse Division in Cristobal when he was transferred to his present job

in 1949. A qualified code operator, he re- ceives the blinkered signals from ships entering Cristobal harbor and reports the movements of all vessels in Limon Bay.

30 YEARS

February was 30-year month for three men in widely diversified jobs. They are: William D. Hardie, Supervisory Management Analyst for the Administrative Branch

;

Alton E. Jones, Chief Senior Towboat Engineer for the Navigation Division; and

John C. Wallace, Supervisory Commissary

Supply Officer. Mr. Hardie, who was born in Grafton, W. Va., has spent his entire Canal career with the Administrative Branch. Several years ago, he worked for several months in the Company's Washington and New York

offices, deciding on the disposition of old

files and records. Mr. Jones, who comes from South Creek, N. C, began his Canal career as a steam

engineer on the Dredging Division's big

floating cranes. In 1948 lie transferred to what is now the Navigation Division, and

is now chief engineer on the tug Cardenas

in Cristobal. Mr. Wallace was born in Roxbury, Mass., but came here as a youngster; his father was captain of the tug Porto Bello. He

worked for a while with the Terminals Division and until it was closed in December

was manager of the Camp Bicrd commissary. He is now at the Balboa Cold Storage

unit.

25 YEARS

February marked the entrance into the Quarter-of-a-Century Club for two employees: Mrs. Dorothy W. Montayne and James

J. Morris.

All but a brief pari of Mrs. Mont. i\ lies MARCH SAILINGS

From Cristobal

Cristobal March (< Am on March 13

Cristobal March 23 Ancon - March 30 From New York

An, on March 5

Cristobal March 15

I in on March 22

Southbound Bhipi uin. h leave New York Fridays an in Haiti the following Tuesday. Those which sail

ii'.ni \.u Ynrk Tuesday sixMid Saturday in Haiti. Northbound, il"- --liit>- stop in Haiti two days

aftei clearing Cristobal: Monday i"i those which

sailed H"i" i ristobal Saturday, and Friday foi those which ' leafed Cristobal Wednesday.
March 1, 1957 THE PANAMA CANAL REVIEW 15

Success Of Board's "Workingest Session"

Credited To All Who Helped Arrange It

(Continued from page 3) and approval of plans for the Panama Railroad based on recommendations recently approved by

the House Merchant Marine and Fisheries Committee. Board members attending the meeting

in addition to Secretary Roderick and

the Governor, were Maj. Gen. Glen E. Edgerton, John H. Blaffer, Robert P. Burroughs, Ralph H. Cake, Charles S. Reed, Ogder R. Reid, and John W.

Martvn. The sessions were also attended by Lt. Gov. H. W. Schull, Jr., Vice President; Philip L. Steers, Jr., Comptroller; and W. M. Whitman, Secretary, all general officers of the Company.

seivice has been with the Industrial Division, where she is a clerk-stenographer. She comes from Patterson, X. J. .Mr. Morris, who was born in Lowell, Mass., is a Contract Specialist with t^e Contract and Inspection Division. His

other Canal jobs have been with the Constructing Quartermaster, Building Division, Dredging Division, Pacific Locks, and Contractors Hill. 20 YEARS

It was 20-year men only, in February;

there were no women on the list of those completing 20 years of Government service

last month.

Although the 20 years includes all gov- ernment service, here or elsewhere, two of February's 20-year men have spent the

entire two decades with the Canal organization. They are: Capt. Conrad G. Didrickson, one of the senior Atlantic side

pilots, and Walter Wagner, Power Dis- patcher for the Electrical Division. Mr. Wagner is also former president of the Central Labor Union-Metal Trades Council. Others having continuous Canal service

are: Wendell G. Cotton, Housing Manager

at Cristobal —a native Zonian, he was once

president of the Cristobal High School Stu- dent Association; and Harold W. Griffin,

File Supervisor at Gorgas Hospital. Mr.

Griffin comes from Section, Ala. Others who completed 20 years of gov- ernment service in February are: Henry J. Clancy, Wireman with the Electrical Division; Russel E. Hellmund, Transfer Clerk, Tocumen Airport L'nit, Postal Division; George R. Howard, a Canal Zone police

officer working out of the Balboa station

like Mr. Cotton, he is a native Zonian; Thomas B. Idol, Guard Supervisor, Dredging Division; Floyd R. Johnson, another Canal Zonian —he was born in Ancon —

Plans Officer, Executive Planning Staff; John S. Pettingill, Assistant Director of Physical Education, Schools Division; and

Paul D. Richmond, a detective working in the Cristobal Police District.

15 YEARS

Eight of the 14 employees who completed

15 years of government service in February

have unbroken Canal service. They are: James P. Boukalis, Machinist, Industrial Division —his service is all with that Division; Nelson R. Clark, Marine Traffic Controller, Navigation Division ; Roy G. Lattin, Chief Towboat Engineer, Ferry Service; William B. Mallory, Chief, Motion Picture Branch, Service Center Division; Ralph L.

Sell, Lead Foreman for Quarters Maintenance, Maintenance Division; Roger J. Sigl, Auto Repair Machinist, Motor Transportation Division —he has unbroken service with this Division; John R. Townsend,

Master of the tug, Catun; and Fred M.

Weade, Pilot, Navigation Division. Other 15-year employees are: Julius Cheney, Electrician Foreman, Aids

to Navigation; Benjamin S. Chisholm, Manager, Balboa Service Center; Herbert

C. Hawvichorst, Wireman, Electrical Division; Louis E. Palmer, Sheetmetal Worker.

Industrial Division; Thomas H. Scott, Chief Accounting Policies and Procedures Staff, Office of the Comptroller; and Carl W.

Warner, Lead Yard Foreman, Railroad

Division.

Tempo Of Power Conversion Project Is Now Accelerated

(Continuedfrom pays i) substation is in

full operation and Agua Clara better than half completed.

In the Central Area, which comprises

Gamboa, Summit, and Paraiso, work

has begun on the Summit substation. As this issue of "The Review" went to press, the area contractor, L. R. Sommer, expected to begin conversion of some of the motors in the Dredging

Division and Penitentiary this month. The east coast shipping strike has

delayed the arrival of some of the re- frigeration units needed for the domestic conversion. Some of these were on

the New York docks when shipping

stopped. As soon as enough of these reach the Canal Zone, the domestic

conversion will start. Specifications are being completed

for the Pacific area conversion. This

project, which will be one of the largest

in the conversion program, will probably be ready to advertise for bids some

time this month. The Pacific area covers that section

of the Canal Zone south of Pedro Miguel and includes I.os Rios and the townsites at the Pacific end of the

Canal. Cargo Carrier

THIS YANLOAD OF merchandise for the Commissary Division was the first piggy-back freight to be

carried by the Panama Railroad under a recently-developed plan to improve the railroad's efficiency. Panama Line Award

AN* OVERALL inspection rating of 97 won for Panama Line vessels the Public Health .Service's Certifi- cate of Sanitation for the past calendar year. The rating was described in a letter from the Service as a "most worthy achievement." The award covers the Ancon, Panama, and Cristobal, since all three were

in service last year. It was presented during a special ceremony in the New York Office of the Panama

Canal Company. Above, Sylven Martin, Chief, Sanitation Engineers, second from left, presents thi- certificate to Eugene S. P. Martin, Executive Assistant of the Panama Line. Others shown, left to right, are A. B. Marks, Sanitation Engineer; L. A. Ferguson, Chief, Procurement Division; and Peter DeStefano, Assistant Comptroller, New York Office.
16 THE PANAMA CANAL REVIEW March 1, 1957 5

AND SHIPPING

OVER 1,000,000 man-hours of work without a disabling injury were repre- sented by a National Safety Council Award of Merit presented last month

to the Marine Bureau. The award is not only the first for the Canal Company's Marine Bureau, but also only the second in the whole field of marine

industry. The presentation was made at Pedro Miguel Locks by Charles S. Reed, a member of the Company's Board of Directors, to Capt. Warner 8. Rodimon, Director of the Marine Bureau. Shown above are some of the Marine Bureau's employees who attended the ceremony. TRANSITS BY OCEAN-GOING

VESSELS IN JANUARY

1956 1957 Commercial 701 664

U. S. Government 30 19

Total 731 683 TOLLS * Commercial $3,167,577 $2,847,465

IT. S. Government. 129,413 98,842

Total $3,296,990 $2,946,307

* Includes tolls on all vessels, ocean-going and small. RECORD BREAKER

The largest shipment of iron ore ever

to transit the Panama Canal was carried from the Pacific to Atlantic last month

aboard the SS Ore Monarch. The ship- ment, 37,684 tons, was 1,230 tons more

than the same ship had carried on her only previous trip through the Canal. The Ore Monarch made her record- breaking transit February 10. She was

en route from San Juan, Peru, to Phil- adelphia, Pa. She is owned by Universe

Tankships, Inc., for whom Payne &

Wardlaw are local agents. ALL AUTOMOBILES

About once a month a ship transits the Canal carrying nothing but automobiles. This trend, statisticians say, has been going on for some time now. February's auto ship was the [nteroceau

Line's MoManger, southbound with automobiles, 175 of them, as her s ile cargo. They were consigned from London to the r. S. west coast. Of the cars, 246 were

to be discharged at Portland and 229 at Seattle. SCHOOL SHIPS

Five Panama Line sailings in May and

June have been designated as those on which preference will be given to teachers and to employees who have school-age

children traveling with them en route to the United States, and five more sailings

have been set aside in August and Sep- tember as those on which similar prefer- ence will be given for southbound trawlers. Such sailings are familiarly known

as "school boats." The northbound sailings are those scheduled for May 22, June 1, June 8, June 19, and June 26. The southbound

school boats will be those sailing from New York on August 9, August 20, August 27, September 6, and September 13. STRANGE SHIPMENTS

All sorts of odd and unusual cargo

goes through the Canal every month.

February was no exception. Last month's somewhat out of the ordinary shipments

included: 26 tons of banknote paper from

Great Britain to Valparaiso, Chile; resin and methanol from New York to Japan;

flavoring and animal feed from New Orleans to Puerto Armuelles; cocoa cake from Great Britain to New Zealand; and

three Santa Gertrudis bulls from the United States gulf coast to Ecuador. FAMILY PLAN

Two members of the sea-going Roscoe

family visited the Canal Zone during February when the Maine Maritime Academy training ship State of Maine

called at Cristobal. They were Midship- man Kenneth A. Roscoe and Capt. George L. Roscoe, son and cousin, re- spectively, of Capt. Kenneth S. Roscoe, Panama Canal pilot stationed in Cristobal. Capt. George Roscoe was commanding officer of the State of Maine and Midshipman Roscoe was one of the cadets making the training cruise.

1' 'i RISTS, HUNDREDS 01 them! And look what happens to the parking lot at the Balboa railroad

station! The visitors the day this picture was taken were part of the 684 who arrived <m the SS Uli/mi'ia.