Gift ofthe Panama Canal(fitushaf.l $lQj

THE ' '

Vol. 4, No. 8 BALBOA HEIGHTS, CANAL ZONE, MARCH 5, 1954 5 cents QUARTERS REPLACEMENT PROGRAM NEARING CLOSE;

BIDS FOR RIDGE ROAD HOUSES OPENED THIS WEEK

Floating Airport

BIGGEST SHIP EVER to dock in Balboa is the U. S. Aircraft Carrier Franklin D. Booievlt. The

45,000-ton, 968-foot long carrier dwarfed the piers and docks in Balboa harbor. Too big to transit the

Canal, she went around Cape Horn to reach the U. S. West Coast. She has a 113-foot beam.

GOETHALS MEMORIAL

ROUSE INTEREST

DEDICATION PLANS

HERE AND IN STATES

Growing interest and enthusiasm is being displayed in the plans for the dedi- cation of the monument in Balboa which

honors Maj. Gen. George Washington

Goethals, known to millions of Americans

as "The Canal Builder" and to thousands

of Canal oldtimers as "The Colonel."

Final plans are being rapidly formulated for an extensive program in keeping

with the significance of the occasion and

the Canal's international role. Enthusiastic response for the observance honoring one of the great men of the Panama

Canal's history is being received from the major units of the Canal organization,

from oldtimers of the Goethals era, and

from civic and fraternal groups. The schedule of events will extend through the entire week in which the Goethals Memorial will be dedicated. These will be planned primarily for the

interest and enjoyment of the men and women who worked for the Canal while

the "Big Ditch" was still being dug.

March 31 Is Dedication Date The date of the dedicatory services which will be held at the monument at the

foot of the Administration Building steps has been moved forward one day. They

will be held March 31 instead of April 1

as originally announced. The change, ap- proved by the Goethals Memorial Commission, was made primarily because the

earlier date will be more convenient for visitors from the United States planning

to return that week on the Panama Line. In a memorandum addressed to Bureau

Directors, Governor Seybold has requested

all Canal bureaus and divisions to participate actively in making plans for the

dedication. The Governor has also appointed a General Committee to take charge of planning and organizing the dedicatory program and events incidental to the

dedication. William G. Arey, Jr., Public

Relations Director, is Chairman of the General Committee, and members are Lt. Col. David S. Parker, Military Assistant

to the Governor; F. G. Dunsmoor, Administrative Assistant to the Governor; Arthur J. O'Leary, Chief of the Accounting Division; Philip S. Thornton, Acting

General Manager of the Clubhouse Division; and Fred DeV. Sill, former Director

of Admeasurement, representing retired Canal employees.

The dedication program will be a daytime event and the exact hour for the program will be announced (See page 15)

Old Houses In Ancon

Scheduled For Razing

Early In Coming Year

The opening of bids this week

for the construction of seventeen Type 337 houses in the

Ridge Road area of Balboa

Heights was one of the final

steps to be taken in the Canal's

long-range housing replacement

program which began four

years ago.

Quarters construction for the coming

fiscal year will complete the program. Next year's program calls for the replacement of the older quarters in the AnconBalboa area with 40 family apartments

at an estimated cost of approximately

$1,000,000.

No more assignments are to be made

for the quarters scheduled for demolition. These include the remaining 4-family houses in Balboa Flats and all of the houses built during the Canal construction

period in Ancon. Most of the Ancon

houses are located on Ancon Boulevard,

Mindi Street, Bohio Place, Cascadas

Road, Porto Bello Street, Culebra Road,

and Colombia Road.

All of the 1907-1914 houses on these

streets are scheduled for demolition by

early in the coming calendar year; resi- dents there will soon receive notices to vacate their quarters. This last demolition program will approximately coincide with the completion of new quarters in the Balboa Flats and on Ridge Road.

"Mother-in-Law" Houses

The new houses to be built in the Ridge Road area are of the type which

has proved to be one of the most popular

of any erected in the long-range housing

replacement program. This type has been popularly designated as the "motherin-law" house because one bedroom and

bath is isolated across the patio from the other two bedrooms. The floor plan and

a picture of one of the new houses is carried in this issue of The Review.

Several of these houses were recently

completed in the Corozal area and two

were built in Empire Street. The Ridge Road development will require a considerable amount of grading

since the top part of the Ancon Hill spur

along which Ridge Road runs will be

flattened out to provide building sites on both sides of the (See page iSi
THE PANAMA CANAL REVIEW March 5, 1954

Forum On Operations

Of Local Rate Stores

Requested At Meeting

A request for a forum on operations of

local-rate commissaries was presented at

the February meeting of Governor

Seybold with representatives of local-rate

civic councils. The proposal was suggested by Mrs.

Hilda Butcher, representing the Santa Cruz General Committee. It was termed

"an excellent idea" by the Governor who

said that he would discuss the matter

with the Supply and Service Director. The idea was suggested by Mrs. Butcher in view of the success which

attended a forum on U. S.-rate commissary stores held last August. She pointed out there are many problems in the operation of the local-rate stores which repre- sentatives of various employee groups would like to discuss with Commissary

officials. The February meeting, third of the Governor-Local Rate Community Conferences on local-rate civic problems, was

featured by an expression of thanks to Governor Seybold and other Canal

administration officials for assistance in the organization of the civic councils. Governor Thanked

Speaking on behalf of the temporary

General Committee which organized the

civic councils in the various local-rate towns, Harold W. Williams of the Rainbow City Council, expressed appreciation

for help in launching the civic councils and providing for the monthly conferences. He mentioned specifically the help given by Norman F. Johnson,

Employee and Labor Relations Officer. "The new officers are now being elected

to the permanent General Committee and

this no doubt will be our last meeting

with you," Mr. Williams told the Governor. "We want you to know how much

we appreciate all that has been done. Many of the activities and work suggested

by the civic councils at these conferences

are underway. We would like to thank

you for the consideration you have given

to any and all questions we have pre- sented no matter how large or small. We

feel these conferences are sarving a very good purpose both for the administration and the various communities."

( rovemor Seybold, while expressing his thanks for the words of appreciation, said that the members of the temporary

I leneral Committee could take the laurels

for successfully launching the civic councils. "I know how hard all of you people

have worked on getting your councils organized and in good working order," the Governor said. "I knew you could do

it after you were once shown how to go

about it. I am certain that the leadership

you people leave behind you will be

greatly appreciated by those who follow, and you folks deserve a great deal of

credit and congratulations on how well

this has all been handled." Current Problems

The February meeting was featured

chiefly by a discussion of general community problems of the various towns. Under the heading of new business,

Governor Seybold called attention to the

Fire And Explosion Aboard "Lisholt"

One Of Worst Canal Zone Disasters

CHARRED WALLS, ruined lounge furniture and an abandoned pair of a woman passenger's shoes

are mute evidence of the fire which gutted the Norwegian ship Lishnlt in Balboa February ti.

The fire and explosion aboard the Norwegian freighter Lisholt in Balboa last month was one of the worst ship disasters ever to occur in Canal Zone waters. Four Canal employees lost their lives and

13 others were seriously burned. The explosion took place about 12 hours after the 5,651-ton vessel was damaged by fire while it was tied up at Pier 6 in Balboa. Canal firemen fought

the blaze for several hours and it was

almost dawn before the fire was

extinguished. Late that afternoon a party of firemen

and chemists went aboard the Lisholt for a check. The explosion occurred when

the door to a refrigeration room was

opened. The cargo of soybeans which

the Lisholt was carrying was removed and

the damaged ship towed through the

Canal for emergency repairs at the Industrial Division shops at Mount Hope.

Canal personnel were commended for

their action in the disaster. To Health Bureau personnel, for instance, went a

"sincere 'thanks and well done' " from

the Governor and Lieutenant Governor

while Capt F. A. Munroe, Jr., Marine

Director, told his people that the "courage, initiative, interest, and deter- mination displayed were in keeping with

the highest tradition of the Panama

Canal."

The tragic marine disaster took place

just a month to a day after one of the worst air accidents in the history of the Canal Zone. Seven men were killed and

a number of others injured January 6 near France Air Force Base in the crash

of a Navy patrol plane.

change from a quarterly to a monthly

issue of local-rate identification-privilege cards. He explained the reasons for the change back to the former system,

effective with the issue of March I-P

cards, and cautioned Civic Council

members to warn people in their communities not to lose their cards. The new

monthly cards can be replaced if reported

to the Contraband Control Section during

the first half of the month but will not

be replaced during the latter half. The Civic Council representatives were

told in reply to inquiries from Ellis L. Fawcett that: Consideration is being

given to installing a swimming pool at

Paraiso; tentative plans are being made

for space in the new Paraiso Clubhouse

for a first-aid station, postoffice, barber

shop, beauty shop, a small public meeting

room, and perhaps an office for the Federal Credit Union; recreational facili- ties are to be expanded there; but no

public funds are available to aid the Summer Recreation Program there or in other Canal Zone communities.

Governor Seybold announced to the conference members that local-rate employees required to move because of the

transfer of activities from one side of the

Isthmus to the other may retain quarters

for 30 days after their transfer in all cases when offered new assignments; and until the fiscal year ending June 30, for all others. Quarters, Garages

When a request was made for a reconsideration of the quarters assignment

policy, the Governor said that he realizes that moves, such as the proposed transfer

of cold storage facilities to the Pacific

side, create many personnel problems.

However, he said, it is a matter that

sufficient housing is not available to accommodate all when such transfers

are made.

The Governor promised a study of the question of garages in the principal local- rate towns. This followed a request for the CDnstruction of garages to be rented

to residents at Paraiso, which was sec- onded at the meeting by Council members

from other towns. Other actions taken at the February

meeting included: A report on resurfacing

of certain streets and removal of traffic hazards in Paraiso; a request to permit

busses to stop outside of regular stops in La Boca which was turned down; an announcement that (See page IS)
March 5, 1954 THE PANAMA CANAL REVIEW

Clubhouse Financing

Still Being Studied,

Conferees Are Told

Questions raised by the Pacific Civic Council representatives regarding financ- ing of clubhouse activities are still being

studied, Gov. J. S. Seybold told Civic Council delegates at the February

Shirtsleeve Conference. C. W. Chase, Pacific Council president,

had submitted a number of questions, most of which asked why under his understanding, employees, indirectly, paid

interest and depreciation on clubhouse

units built years ago from clubhouse

funds. Cited as examples were the Bal- boa Theater, some bowling alleys, and

Mount Hope stadium's lighting system.

The clubhouse financing was one of a number of matters discussed at the

conference, one of the shortest ever held. Under the heading of unfinished business, the Governor reported:

The pest mosquitoes which were complained of in Pedro Miguel are subaquatic

breeders in lakes and rivers, for which

control is difficult. The Pedro Miguel

garbage dump is covered daily, except for two days, and on these occasions dump

material is buried immediately the follow- ing morning. This prevents mosquitoes

from breeding in the garbage.

Inventory records show that the Pedro

Miguel commissary carries a large stock

of groceries and cold storage items in relation to the volume of business. Ambulance Calls An average of two or three calls for ambulance is received daily at the Gorgas

Medical Center; Atlantic skiers call the

central medical number for ambulance

service because the center, knowing the whereabouts of all Health Bureau equipment, is in the best position to dispatch most promptly the nearest and most

available ambulance.

Prescriptions issued by licensed physicians and surgeons in Panama are honored

at Gorgas and Colon Hospital pharmacies

when presented by eligible persons; some

items, such as alcohol, poisons, and

narcotics, are not available on prescrip- tions from sources other than the Zone. Under new business the Governor said: Moving from one apartment to another

in Pedro Miguel, by employees presently

residing in that section, may be done

under conditions mutually acceptable to the resident and the Acting Community

Services Director. In general, the criteria

will be governed by the employee's desire and the cost of preparation and operation

of the respective apartments to the Company. The charge of $1 monthly for covered

parking space at the corral was discon- tinued February 1. Food prices apparently are remaining

fairly steady in Canal commissaries. The

cost of 103 commonly stocked grocery items (the list was prepared by a Pacific Civic Council member) was $131.43 last October 28. Monthly reports on this

list show: $12S.84 on November 30; $124.87 on December 30; and $125.02 on January 31. Radio Census

During the conference, Mrs. Andrew

Bleakley of the Cristobal-Margarita Council asked whether the administration had

Hospital Book Service Starts

As Red Cross Campaign Begins

A MOBILE LIBRARY went into operation at Gorgas Hospital this week. Here, Mrs. Benjamin

Birdsall, chairman of Gorgas Hospital Gray Ladies, and Mrs. Elmer Abbott, who will serve as librarian

for the book cart, bring reading material to two Gorgas Hospital patients. A circulating library for the use of patients at Gorgas Hospital was inaugurated last Monday, coincidental with the beginning of this year's Red Cross drive

in the Canal Zone.

Just as many people are working to make this year's fund campaign for $25,000 an overwhelming success, so are many cooperating in the "Book Cart"

service at the hospital.

The request for a circulating library at the hospital was made by Col. Howard

W. Doan, Gorgas Hospital Superintendent, to Mrs. Edward Doolan, Chairman

of the Volunteer Services for the Canal Zone Chapter of the American Red

Cross. Mrs. Doolan turned to Mrs. Brodie

Burnham, Canal Zone Librarian, who

had for some time been eager to inaugurate such a service but had been prevented

by limited funds and personnel.

Books from Library

The outcome of their conference was

information on a man purporting to be

either from a radio station or from the Panama Census Bureau who was calling at employees' quarters in New Cristobal. Residents, she said, had heard reports of a plan to tax radios. The matter will be

investigated. G. G. Thomas, Gatun president,

reported difficulties of a woman who

wanted to donate blood at the time of the LishoU fire and explosion and was unable

for many hours to reach the proper

person. He suggested that any appeal

for blood donors should include a tele- phone number which might be called. A statement that the Pacific Civic Council cannot sponsor this year's July 4

celebration led to a general discussion of such activities, with various councilman

reporting on how such celebrations are handled in their communities. The Governor said that the forthcoming dedication

of the Goethals Memorial would be a

large community affair, but promised to give the July 4 activities further thought.

Norman Johnson, Employee and Labor

Relations Office, asked {See page 15)

a plan whereby the Library provided a

starter group of about 200 books, set aside for the hospital service. They

include about 50 mysteries, a group of westerns, about 75 popular novels, a few

volumes of cartoons, books of games,

several volumes of poetry, and some seri- ous nonfiction. Most of the books are in English but there are a few volumes in languages other than English—Spanish,

Swedish, Norwegian, French—for hospitalized seamen or other non-English

speaking patients. There are about 35

children's books in the collection. Mrs. Elmer Abbott, a Red Cross Gray

Lady of a number of years standing, is the hospital librarian. Three times each week she or one of her assistants will load about 50 of the books onto a small

truck built at the hospital by Neil

Heitman and Pierre Gibbs and take them through the wards. One of Many

While the book service is the latest offered by the Canal Zone Chapter of the American Red Cross it is only one of the

chapter's many activities. Other Red

Cross functions, in addition to the ever- readiness of the organization for emergencies, include: A canteen service for transiting troops, entertainment and

sightseeing for children migrating from

Europe to Australia and New Zealand; a home service unit which furnishes basic food items for indigent old people; first aid classes and a water safety program;

the Gray Lady services; aid for military

or civilian families stranded for lack of funds; and a steady supply of books and

magazines for transiting ships.

Chairman of this year's Red Cross

drive is C. W. Kilbey, Assistant to the General Manager of the Clubhouse Division. Charles A. Dubbs, Director of Secondary Education for the Canal Zone

Schools, is vice chairman of this year's campaign. The Atlantic side overall chairman is A. E. Beck, Superintendent

of the Terminals Division, while Stanley E. Loney, Clubhouse Division, is General

Chairman for local-rate solicitation.
THE PANAMA CANAL REVIEW March 5, 1954

FOR YOUR

A

INTEREST AND

JLML

GUIDANCE

£-£ >&CCIDENT PREVENTION

u An Attitude

Can Be Fatal

If you saw a man in the middle of the road on his hands and knees you wouldn't

necessarily be convinced that he was

intoxicated—but if you saw he was trying

to roll up the painted center line stripe,

you probably would decide that if he

weren't intoxicated, he must be crazy.

Such action might be described as an example of human failure—caused by a wrong attitude. In this case, since the man really wasn't crazy, the wrong

attitude was brought by drink. Much may be said about attitudes and

accidents. In fact many events which

are called "accidents" because the word

is such a pat alibi are in fact human

failures brought about by wrong or improper attitudes. However, the word

HONOR ROLL

Bureau Award For BEST RECORD

JANUARY

COMMUNITY SERVICES BUREAU

AWARDS THIS CALENDAR YEAR

Community Services 1 Civil Affairs Engineering and Construction

Health

Marine -- Transportation and Terminals

Supply and Service

Division Award For NO DISABLING INJURIES

JANUARY

AIDS TO NAVIGATION

CLUBHOUSE DIVISION

STOREHOUSES DIVISION

GROUNDS MAINTENANCE DIVISION

MOTOR TRANSPORTATION DIVISION

SANITATION DIVISION

AWARDS THIS CALENDAR YEAR

WORKING DAZE

AND COMPANY

"The overhead is really raising hob with our profits!"

N/UIONM SAFH1 COUNC :

accident has been around a very long

time and no doubt will still be here after we're gone.

Frequently the word is dressed up a

little, especially by newspapers, by adding

the work "freak." Remember the times

you have read in the papers about the "freak accident" that killed or maimed

someone or caused a lot of property

damage?

To many people the word accident

implies that the event was an unfortunate happening beyond human prevention,

which in itself is a wrong attitude.

There is no better accident preventive than the development of a right attitude but human nature, being what it is, cannot be changed at the drop of a hat. We think that you will agree when we

say that a person with a right attitude is

a courteous, considerate, and respecterof-rights sort of a person. The driver who waits for you to cross the street, the pedestrian who waits for you to drive past, the neighbor who

helps you when in trouble, the coworker

who gives you a lift on a heavy load, the buddy who loans you a ten-spot when

you're caught short—all of these acts

reveal attitudes. Then there is the driver who blasts his way through a busy intersection with his horn, the pedestrian who deliberately

steps out in the street right in front of you and nonchalantly strolls across the

street in his own little pedestrian lane while you burn up $1.49 worth of rubber

and brake lining making a stop to avoid

hitting him, and the neighbor who says I wouldn't pour water on him if he were

on fire—those acts also reveal attitudes. You can be certain that attitude has more to do with your getting into trouble than any other cause—except maybe

ignorance, which is something a lot easier to change than attitude. Ignorance and even stupidity can be cured if the attitude is right, but if the

attitude is wrong, believe me, you've got

yourself a project. We can only nibble

at the edges of attitude—and hope. We

know of no magic formula to correct an

attitude. It is something that comes

from within. It had to be planted there

in the beginning. But if it is there it can

be induced to grow and the one person who can do the most to cultivate a right attitude is you. When Mom says "I want to move into a new house" and Dad says "I like it here," you have a couple of attitudes, one

of which is leading to a human failure, because of a wrong attitude. May the

better man win.

JANUARY 1954

Community Services Bureau

Health Bureau

C. Z. Govl.-Pan. Can. Co. ( This Month)

C. Z. Govl.-Pan. Can. Co ( Last 3-Year Aver.)

Marine Bureau

Supply and Service Bureau

Engineering and Construction Bureau

Transportation and Terminals Bureau

Civil Affairs Bureau

l

Disabling Injuries per 1,000,000 Man-Hours Worked

( Frequency Rate)

10 20 30 40

1 '

1

11 in£»Y: 'v-'Vj'»J 13 ^

: ;-:-:-'--.-'>:-^

SSSftSKSSSS

Aids to Navigation

Clubhouse

Grounds Maintenance

Motor Transportation

Sanitation.

Storehouses

Commissary

Dredging

Electrical Hospitalization and Clinics Number of Disabling Injuries... 31 Industrial

Locks r

Maintenance

Navigation £

Railroad.

Terminals F'

: ^ : ': :':''i Amimulative Frequency Rate This Year

15

16 SRSSSS^

ffiftrSrV

' 1

1 10 20 30 40 50

Man-Hours Worked 2.326.147 LEGEND

Amount Better Than Canal Zone Government—Panama Canal Company Last 3- Year Average

Amount Worse Than Canal Zone Government.—Panama Canal Company Last 3-Year Average
March 5, 1954 THE PANAMA CANAL REVIEW

Famed Authority

As Paradise

Describes Panama

For Ornithologists

The Isthmus of Panama, according to Dr. Alexander Wetmore, is an ornithologist's paradise. There are more different species of birds in Panama than in all of North America north of Mexico, he told The Panama Canal Review. Of Panama's approximately 1,200 kinds, between

400 and 450 are found in the Canal Zone. Dr. Wetmore is a voice of recognized

authority on birds and bird lore. Since he was seven years old the tall, lanky, and

completely charming biologist has been

fascinated by birds and bird life, and has devoted as much of his busy life as

possible to studying birds and their habits. He has written of birds in South

America, Central America, and the West

Indies; he has made more than a dozen

lengthy field trips to Panama; he spent

six weeks in January and early February

this year in the Venezuelan territory of Amazonas where the party with which he was working "happened upon" a 7,000- foot mountain not shown on any map

and previously unknown apparently to any but the native Indians; and he has headed ornithological expeditions in the

Pacific and Spain, among other places. Assistant Secretary of the Smithsonian

Institution for 19 years and its Secretary

for eight, he is happy now to be away from

the administrative work which tied him

down to a desk and free once again to prowl highways and byways on the look- out for the vast number of unclassified birds which he knows can be found by someone who knows where to look and

what to look for. Ten Trips Here At the present time Dr. Wetmore and

his wife are in Chiriqui, on the tenth field

trip he has made to Panama. Out of these trips—and future trips, he hopes—will come a book on the birds of Panama, but

for that he is not yet ready. He is collect- ing birds for the National Museum in Washington and taking his own black- and-white photographs as he goes along.

Although he has visitsd Panama every year except one sines 1944 and although he has covered much of the Republic's

28,000 square miles, Dr. Wetmore is still finding what he calls "bird forms which

have been unrecognized scientifically."

Two years ago he classified several such

forms' on Taboga Island. Surprisingly,

they were related to known species from

the Pearl Islands some 40 miles away and

not to species on the comparatively

nearby mainland.

Just how and when birds came to the Isthmus of Panama, Dr. Wetmore says,

is a matter for scientific speculation. Before what geologists know as the Ice Age, when the world was in the Tertiary

Period, South America was an island. North American and Asian fauna had a passage-way through what is now the Bering Sea in those days when the climate was much milder, well into the Arctic

circle, than it is today. Each continental group had its own forms of life. Land Bridge

About a million years ago—to a scientist a million years is a fairly brief span

of time—the Isthmus of Panama was

formed. Birds and animals from the northern continent crossed the new land

bridge into South America and the South

American species went north. Or so

scientists infer.

Dr. ALKVAMJKK WETiUUKE

The Canal Zone, being as it is the low

point of the Isthmus of Panama, is the

natural dividing point between the mountain systems of North and South

America and the dividing point for the

bird forms of the two continents. Consequently birds found in Chiriqui may not

necessarily be found in Darien, although each is as truly Panamanian as the other.

Scientists d?plore generalizations and

like to say: "All generalizations are false, including this one." All of which means

that there are exceptions to everything. Birds peculiar to one section may sud- denly and inexplicably, Dr. Wetmore

says, turn up in another area. One

species of mocking bird native to Colombia

is now common in Panama Possibly it could have been brought in as a caged

bird. However it came, it is now seen in many sections of the Canal Zone. -.Canal Zonians who want to learn more

about the birds which live here are fortu- nate if they are able to find a copy of Bertha B. Sturgis' book, Birds of the Panama Canal Zone, Dr. Wetmore savs.

The book has been out of print for some

time but is found occasionally in second- hand book stores and a number of copies

are available at the Canal Zone library.

He considers the work an excellent one. Bird Watching

A novice at bird lore can, he says, attract to his home a good many species

of the more common birds—and an occasional unusual one—if he sets up a bird feeding stand and keeps it supplied with wet bread, fruit, and water, important at

this time of the year. Such a tray should attract the more common forms of tanagers, blue, gray, and red, the big brown robins, the peacock-feathered, red-legged honeycreepers,

the little yellow and black birds called "picogordos," and the crested ant shrikes, the males of which are barred like Plymouth rock chickens, and which incidentally are not found north of Mexico.

If he is fortunate he may even be able

to watch the antics of the blue-black

grassquits which spend their waking

hours sitting on a fence, or something of the sort, making sudden and repeated

vertical flights a yard or so into the air, and settling down just about where they

started from, all for the edification of demurely-colored females of the species. Private Zoo

With all of his exploration of bird life here, there is no Panama bird which has be?n named for Dr. Wetmore. In a sec- tion of his card file, back home in Washington, he has what he calls the Wetmore

private zoo. These cards list newly discovered

species of one thing or another which his

scientific friends have named for him.

There is a louse and a cactus, a bat and a

flea, two or three lizards, a fish, half a dozen birds from various countries, some

fossil birds, a shell or two and even a glacier—which he has never seen—on Palmer Peninsula in the Antartic. But

to date there is no Panama bird wet- moriensis. Possibly some day someone

will find a new species and honor the

ornithologist by giving it his name. Then

it will hold an honored place in the card

catalogue of the Wetmore private zoo. SENATE VISITORS

MEMBERS OF THE Senate Appropriations Committee learned some of the intricacies of operating

the Panama Canal Locks during their visit to the Canal Zone early last month on an official business hip. The four Senators spent three days here to familiarize themselves with conditions preparatory to hearings on Canal appropriations for the coming fiscal year. In the picture above taken during their visit to Miraflores Locks, left to right, are: Governor Seybold; Kenneth Bousquet, Clerk of the Appropriations Committee; Senator Allen J. Ellender, Democrat, of Louisiana; Senator Milton R. Young, Republican, of South Dakota; Senator Henry C. Dworshak, Republican, of Idaho, Senator John L. McClelian, Democrat, of Arkansas; and Col. C. J. Hauck, Jr., escort

officer for the trip.
THE PANAMA CANAL REVIEW March 5, 1954

GATUN LOCKS' NEW vehicular crossing was assembled on land before it was set in place across

the northern end of the locks. The swing-span bridge replaces the sea-gate spans on which vehicular

traffic has crossed the locks for many vears.

Swing Span Bridge Over Gatun Locks Cold Storage Move

To Be Opened For Traffic Next Week From Mt. Hope Plant

Started This Week

The transfer and realignment of cold storage facilities of the Commissary Division were started this week following the

leasing early last month of space in the Army's cold storage warehouse at Corozal. The move will be made gradually over

a period of several weeks to avoid dis- ruptions in the service. Some alterations

will be required at the Corozal warehouse

and the Balboa cold storage warehouse to meet Commissary Division requirements

for storage and handling of cold storage

products. This work is being done by

Canal units. The consolidation of Army and Canal

cold storage facilities is expected to pro- vide a more economical and efficient operation. It will also avoid the extensive and

expensive rehabilitation of the plant at Mount Hope which has been in use now

for the past 35 years.

«, The existing cold storage warehouse of the Commissary Division will not be

demolished but the major part of the plant will be closed down. The front part

of the ground floor will continue to be used for limited operations. Four meat

chill rooms will continue in use since the Commissary Division's abattoir will not

be moved. The cold storage facilities for ship service will also be maintained there. Employees Transferring | The consolidation will require the transfer of seven U. S.-rate and 91 local-rate employees to the Pacific side. Thirty-day

notices of the transfer were issued to these employees on February 15, but few if any

will be transferred within the 30-day

period.

It is expected that the men engaged in unloading work will be the first to be

transferred. The actual transfer of operations will begin, probably sometime late

this month, with the arrival of a large

shipment of cold storage products. It

will be sometime after that, however,

before the new plan is in full swing and

the Mount Hope plant will continue its operations and retail stores will continue

to be supplied from there until existing stocks are exhausted. With the transfer Commissary officials plan to modify and expand existing facili- ties for prepackaging. At present central- ized prepackaging is done at Mount Hope

and products are shipped from there to the individual stores. After operations are transferred to Corozal about half of the prepackaging of cold storage foods will be done at the Balboa warehouse. The other will eventually be divided among three of the

larger retail stores, two on the Pacific side and one on the Atlantic side. These

probably will be the Ancon, Tivoli, and

Cristobal Commissaries. Some alterations

will be required at the stores where the prepackaging of foods will be done. Refrigerated Trucks

It is planned to use refrigerated trucks

for the transportation of much of the

cold storage products to the Pacific side. The transfer of the main cold storage

operations to Corozal will not greatly

increase haulage since approximately

two-thirds of cold (,SVe page 12)

The new vehicular crossing at the lower end of Gatun Locks is expected to be opened for use during the coming week.

Work on installation of the four swing- spans which form the new bridge was

started by Maintenance Division forces on February 7 and the project is being

finished well ahead of schedule. The four

structural-steel frames and the steel- grid decks had been assembled prior to beginning the actual installation. The first job accomplished was the removal of the four sea-gate spans over which vehicular traffic has been handled

for many years, the first time these gates

had been removed since they were

installed before the Canal was opened

in 1914. The gates were partially floated off their pintles and were then towed into the Lick chambers where the four leaves were tipped over on their sides. They

have since been towed to an anchorage

in Gatun Lake until a final decision is made on their disposition.

Following the removal of the 400-ton

gate leaves, the pintles on which the gates

rest were removed and replaced by new

pintles. This was followed by the placing

of the framework and steel-grid roadway

for the new bridge. This was dene

February 22, 23, and 24. Work since then has been on the bridge approaches

and the mechanical and electrical con-

>ns necessary for the operation of the swing spans. Careful advance planning and close

c (ordination of several Canal units made

possible the c impli'tion of the work ahead

of schedule. Several of the operations were out of the routine but were handled

expediti msly by the men engaged on

the job.

Only one unscheduled job was neces- stry in the entire project. This devel- when it was found, after removal of one gate leaf, that the yoke at the top was badly worn. This required a reborjag of Ih yoke as well as building up and

i lining the bushing to fit the bridgepin,

The new bridge spans are fitted in the same manner in which the sea gates were

hinged to the lock walls. They will be operated by the old gate machinery by

remote centrol in the lock control tower. The gate spans fold back into the gate

recesses when not in use. The bridge spans cross the Lock

approach at right angles instead of being

mitered toward the sea like the guard

gates. The bridge has a nine-foot road- way and a pedestrian crossing on the sea

side of the bridge. The bridge is suffi- ciently wide only for one-way traffic which will be controlled by traffic signal

lights.

LEAVING TOMORROW

C. D. DAMERON, manager of the ( Hstobal I 'luh- house and Supervisor of the Clubhouse's northern

district, is sailing tomorrow with his family to make

their home in Urbanna, Va., about 00 miles east of Richmond. He has bought a 24-bedroom, colonial-type hotel where he hopes to have as guests many of his vacationing Canal Zone friends. A summer resort with

fishing and swimming, Urbanna is located on the Appomattox River, about 20 miles from Chesapeake

Kay.A Virginian by birth, Mr. Dameron came to the Canal Zone in 1941. He has served three tours of clubhouse duty in Cristobal —once in 1941, again in I'JJIM", and finally since 1950.
March 5, 1954 THE PANAMA CANAL REVIEW

Official Panama Canal Company Publication

Published Monthly at BALBOA HEIGHTS, CANAL ZONE

Printed by the Printing Plant Mount Hope, Canal Zone

John S. Seybold, Governor-President H. 0. Paxson, Lieutenant Governor

William G. Arey, Jr. Director of Public Relations

J. Rufus Hardy, Editor

Eleanor H. McIlhenny

Editorial Assistant

SUBSCRIPTION—$1.00 a year SINGLE COPIES -5 cents each On sale at all Panama Canal Clubhouses,

Commissaries, and Hotels for 10 days after publication date. SINGLE COPIES BY MAIL—lOcents each BACK COPIES—10 cents each On sale when available, from the Vault

Clerk, Third Floor, Administration Building, Balboa Heights.

Postal money orders should be made payable to the Treasurer, Panama Canal Company, and mailed to Editor, The Panama

Canal Review, Balboa Heights, C. Z. Annapolis

Appointee

WILLIAM HENRY DAWSON, who was graduated

with honors from Balhoa High School with the class

of 1953 and who is now a student in the Colorado

School of Mines, has been nominated by Governor

Seybold as the principal candidate from the Canal Zone for appointment to the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis. The son of Mrs. Frances Gabriel Dawson of Balboa, he was born in Ancon and received his education

in the Canal Zone Schools. While in Balboa High

School he was Sophomore Class President, a captain

in the Balboa High School ROTC, a member of the National Honor Society, and was on the High School

football and track teams.

Alternates for the appointment are Bartley Paul Smith and Charles Albert Hand, of Balboa High

School, and Lawrence Carpenter Cox, of Cristobal High School.

ONE of this year's big cruise ships to transit the Canal is the new Kungsholm, pride of the Swedish American Lines. It made its maiden trip through the Canal February 14

With over a month of the cruise season

still to go, this year's total number of tourists is expected to exceed by a consider- able amount the 12,225 expected before the season started. Between October 23, when the Maasdam

put in to Cristobal with 576 cruise passengers aboard, and by February 21, when the

Stella Polaris arrived with 160 tourists, a

total of 10,791 passengers had arrived in Cristobal on 29 cruises aboard 15 ships. Four more cr-iise ships last Friday and

Sunday increased the total through February to 12,485. Eight cruises are scheduled

for March and two in April. The number of tourists were aboard

cruise ships and on the United Fruit Company steamer Chiriqiti; not included in the

total are those who made the trip to the Isthmus on the Panama Line. The largest group to anive to date was the cruise party

of 781 on the Nieuw Amsterdam on Christ- mas Eve. The smallest groups were two of 80 each, carried on one trip of the Stella Polaris in January and on the Chiriqui's

late February sailing. About half of the cruise passengers made

the trip through Gaillard Cut on the ferry boat Presidente Porras or the tug I atun. According to figures compiled by the Navigation Division, the total carried on this service between December 24 and February

20 was about 5,100. During the entire

tourist season a year ago, 6,315 tourists made the Cut trip, which was then operated

by the Dredging Division. Two steps leading to an increased emphasis on the teaching of Spanish in the Canal Zone schools were announced last month by Governor Seybold.

Beginning with the school year Oi 1954 55 next fall, Spanish will be taught in all grades, from the first on up, in all of the Canal Zone's elementary sxhools. At the present time Spanish classes do not begin

until the fourth grade. In the schools in local rate communities,

which are attended primarily by Panamanian students, the pupils will be given

intensive training in Spanish so that the

teaching in these elementary schools will eventually be entirely in Spanish, although

English classes will be conducted so that the students may be bilingual. As part of the program, which is designed

to prepare children native to the Isthmus

for their eventual assumption of the obliga- tions of Panamanian citizenship, some

units of the Canal Zone schools will adopt

the basic study program of the Panama

public schools. Students in these schools

will thereby be able to acquire a thorough

knowledge of the Spanish language, and the

history, geography, and traditions of Panama. A special training course tor teachers in the local-rate schools will be conducted

during this year's Summer Institute in order that they may qualify to teach the new program. Northbound sailings of the Panama Line between May 21 when the Ancon sails for New York and June 18 when the Panama

makes the northbound trip have been

classed as "school boats" in this year's vacation season. As in past years, preference for passage on these five sailings will lie given to teachers and to employees with school-age children. The Cristobal, sailing on June 4 will be this year's "Teachers' Special." "School boats" southbound will be the

five sailings from New York from August

17 to September 14, inclusive, with the Panama, leaving New York on August 31

as the "Teachers' Special."

Conducted tours of Summit Gardens and

the showing of colored slides of tropical trees and flowers which proved so popular

in past dry seasons are again being given

this year. The first of the tours was held at the Gardens February 20, with a group of about

25 present. They walked through the

extensive experimental garden, while Roy

Sharp of the Gardens staff pointed out and

explained a number oi the native, or intro- duced, flowering trees and unusual plants. Last Saturday Mr. Sharp showed a

collection of colored slides Oi local flowers and flowering trees. Tours and slice showings will be carried on on alternate Saturdays during the remainder of the dry season.

The suction dredge Mindi will be placed on a one-shift basis late in May, according

to a decision made late last month. No

major harbor or channel improvement

projects are scheduled for the coming fiscal year and a one-shift b.isis is sufficient to maintain canal channels at their authorized

depths. Seven U. S.-rate and 25 local-rate employees will be affected by the change.

More than $50,000 in extra money went

to some 3,900 former employees of the Canal organization last week when disability relief pay checks were delivered. Legislation to increase cash relief pay- ments, long sought by the Canal Administration and many employee groups, was

enacted in February with President Eisen- hower signing the bill into law while on his recent vacation at Palm Springs.
THE PANAMA CANAL REVIEW March 5, 1954

DIABLO HEIGHTS was a town of 12-family houses when this picture was taken about 10 years ago. Today not a single one remains

YOUR TOWNadditional barracks and more 12-family

houses were added.

In the meantime Diablo Heights still had no official name. Early in 1940

there was a spritely exchange of official correspondence on the subject. Crede H. Calhoun, then Chief of the Division

of Civil Affairs, added his bit: "We have

a Paradise at Paraiso; I see no reason why

we should not have a Devil at Diablo."

Governor Clarence S. Ridley suggested

that the name might be Diablo Heights.

Town is Officially Named

Postal people pointed out that there might be confusion with so many

"Heights," Quarry Heights and Balboa

Heights being names of considerably

longer standing. C. A. Mcllvaine pro- duced the idea that Diablo Hill might be

hispaniolized into "Cerro Diablo," but

the Governor held firm to his original stand. On February 5, 1940, the reborn town was designated officially as Diablo

Heights.

A commissary was opened in May of that year and the post office the first of the following month. The Diablo

Heights school began sessions in September 1940, with 210 pupils. Work on the clubhouse was begun in October and the building was officially inaugurated the

following June.

In the meantime Diablo bachelors —

and others—had their meals at the "restaurant," a long, one-story building

which stood near the present intersection

of Walker Avenue and Endicott Street.

It soon became known as the messhall, a designation which has been carried over

even by teen-agers who never patronized

the original messhall—to the present clubhouse. Open 24 hours a day, it was

crowded at almost any hour and became a

favorite place for after-party coffee and

sandwiches.

Diablo Heights in those days was a

lusty place. A good many of its residents were construction people; they brought

construction camp customs and traditions with them. Some of them rebelled against what they considered the "stuffi- ness" of the Canal Zone; family brawls and neighborhood drinking parties were

a constant headache to the police.

But drinking and brawling was not all they did. They worked and they worked

hard. After hours they turned to making

their own fun. There was a Diablo

Although it is one of the newest of the Canal Zone's permanent towns, Diablo

Heights -as far as its history is con- cerned—may antedate almost any other

existing town. Like a phoenix, it has

risen from a succession of ashes, figuratively speaking.

During the middle part of the six- teenth century, according to Isthmian

histories, the narrow Isthmus of Panama

was terrorized by bands of Cimarrones,

runaway Negro slaves, who preyed upon

the treasure trains on the Camino Real. They became such a threat to life and

property that the Spanish viceroy sent

expeditions to clean them out. They

evaded such punitive parties and in 1552 were granted recognition by the Governor

of the Province. At that time they had

three main villages, one of which was

called Diablo. It was located near the

site of present day Diablo Heights.

The saga of modern Diablo began early

in the twentieth c?.ntury. Marine detach- ments, which came to the Isthmus during Panama's revolutionary period, were

stationed at Diablo, as well as at Mount

Hope and Empire. Later, in 1905, the Marine headquarters were established at Camp Elliott, on the west side of the Canal not far from Culebra and Empire.

First A Labor Camp

Late in 1906 members of the Isthmian

Canal Commission began to consider

locations for labor camps. These were

to be located as close as possible to the

places where work was going on, or where

it was expected to go on. One of these

to be at the "north end of the pro- posed Sosa-Corozal dam, on high ground

south of Corozal as near the end of the proposed dam as possible." It was to house at least 200 laborers and was to have five barracks, a kitchen, a messhall,

and a "gallego" (gallegos were European

laborers) messhall and kitchen. In May 1907, Chief Engineer George

W. Goethals officially named the labor Mo Camp." There is local tradition that during the time it was used

is a labor camp; Camp Diablo was the

if a bloody "wine riot." European

laborers had been issued wine with their meals on holidays. When the regular

issue failed to arrive they rebelled and

bombarded anyone who ventured their way with empty bottles, sticks or stones, or anything they could find to throw. As the story told by oldtimers went, a

padre was called on to settle the fracas as he was the only man who could get near enough the enraged laborers to negotiate

with them.

When the Sosa-Corozal dam project was abandoned, the six laborers' barracks

at Diablo were converted to quarters for 12 American families. Diablo was con- nected with Corozal by road and was

considered part of the town of Corozal. These old barracks-quarters were occupied until the end of the construction

period. In 1914-15 the Panama Railroad,

which had run from Corozal to Panama

along a route which, roughly, crossed the upper end of what is now Albrook Air Force base, was relocated so that it would run into Balboa. The relocation meant that part of Diablo Hill had to be

cut away. The last two of the old

buildings on the hill were vacated

January 5, 1915.

Several Plans Considered

During the 1930's there were several plans made and unmade for the Diablo

site. One called for a local-rate town

there; another proposed Diablo as a new

location for the oil-tank farm at La Boca. A third project, quickly rejected by the Governor, had to do with establishing a

private, noncommercial flying field on

the Diablo fill where spoil from the Canal

channel was occasionally clumped.

It was not until July 1939, that a defi- nite decision was made. Diablo Heights - although it was still being referred to as Camp Diablo - was selected as headquarters for the Special Engineering

Division, with two office buildings for the planning staff and quarters for about

289 employees. The office buildings, two

32-room bachelor quarters, twelve 12- family houses, 65 cottages, ten 10-family

buildings and garage buildings were all to be built with funds allocated to the SIP, or Special Improvement Projects

which had to do with the installation of protective devices on the Locks. The fast-growing force, however, called

for roofs over more people's heads and

GEORGE L. CAIN', Commissary Manager. .This

really is. His brother, Sgt. Edwin B. Cain of the Pedro Miguel Police, was identified wrongly in last, month's issue as George.)
March 5, 1954 THE PANAMA CANAL REVIEW

MISS RUTH E. CREASY, School Principal WILLIAM T. HALVOSA, Postmaster

DIABLOExcess Housing

HEIGHTS

Rented

During the subsequent comatose period

there was so much excess housing in Diablo Heights that the Canal was able

to offer 12-family accomodations to servicemen and their families. In 1950-

51 there were 207 service families—most

of them Army—living at Diablo Heights.

They were all required to vacate the quarters when demolition of the 12-family

houses began.

When the housing replacement program was started in 1950 Diablo Heights, with

its undeveloped sections, was a logical choice for some of the new construction. New streets were laid out, hilltops bull- dozed off, and quarters began to go up. The first on-the-ground-masonry quarters were built there. Today more new quarters are under construction where the

12-families once stood, and the town's

streets are again being rearranged.

Today the population of Diablo Heights

is again on the upswing. Units of the Comptroller's Office have moved into the

three-story office building; the Payroll

Branch has been at Diablo Heights for a number of years. From a low of 805 in 1951, the figure has increased until last March it was 9S6—almost equally divided between men, women, and children. (The dog population is uncounted, but

from all indications it is high.)

A Wholly Residential Area

There is no church in Diablo Heights.

The Camera Club, which occupies an

attractive, well-kept building on Hainx

Street, is the only organization housed

there. The Diablo Heights Dispensary was

closed some time ago, and the fire station

last year. Police and fire protection is furnished from the Balboa Central

Stations. Diablo's Civic Council is onethird of the tri-partite Pacific Civic Council. Except for its office buildings Diablo

Heights is a residential suburb. Its resi- dents are clerks and pilots, teachers and

engineers, electricians and boilermakers,

carpenters and office workers. But al- most without exception all of the "blue

collar people" work elsewhere; the small Dredging Division unit near the Canal

bank has the only craftsmen regularly

employed in town.

Diablo Heights is cool, drowsy, and,

except for the motorcycle enthusiasts who

make the nights hideous with their noise,

Heights Recreational Association, a local newssheet, and a dance club named the "Forty Club." Forty is short for 1940, the year when it was organized.

Sidewalk Meeting

Early that year, the Balboa Women's

Club had gi\ten several get-acquainted

dances for the Diablo Heights newcomers, who soon conceived the idea of forming a club of their own.

"So," according to Mrs. Ella Wertz, now of Ancon, who was a charter member

of the Forty Club, "we called a meeting

for the Balboa movie theater. When we

got there the building was locked and we

held our meeting on the sidewalk. We

gave our first dance a short time later and after that we had dances several times a month at the Tivoli or the Golf

Club. Our last dance was the night

before Pearl Harbor. What with black- outs and all, no one was much in the mood for parties after that." As the war continued, shortages of

ships, men, and materials required sus- pension of the Third Locks Construction. As a result the office building on Diablo

hilltop began to empty and the population

to dwindle. In 1941 its population was

2,003, but 10 years later it had dropped

to 805. There was a spurt of activity for about two years when Col. James Stratton and

his force began The Isthmian Canal

Studies. Again the commissary and

clubhouse were crowded with newcomers

and the office buildings were abustle with activity.

Out of this period came some of the

strangest buildings ever seen in the Canal

Zone. Engineers studying housing for the force which would be needed if third locks or a sea-level canal were built brought to the Isthmus several prefabri- cated aluminum houses. Other permanent houses of new types—the idea was

that a pair of permanent houses was to have between them a temporary house

during the crowded construction period, the temporary quarters to be removed

when they were no longer needed—went up in Diablo. All of these are still standing in Diablo Heights and always

baffle newcomers.

Diablo Heights, in this incarnation,

however, was never the uproarious place

it had been during Third Locks and SIP

days, and it lapsed into a near coma when

the sea-level canal studies were finished

in 1948.

quiet. The clubhouse is open all night

and early risers like customs inspectors or

railroad men due for an early call get breakfast there. But most of its house

lights are out well before 11 o'clock. The

days of wine riots of the early 1900's and

the lusty brawls of the 1940's are behind

it—for a while at least.

MKLVIN E. WALKER, Clubhouse Manager

Canal Sponsors Two

Exhibits During March

Two exhibits of both current and his- torical interest will be sponsored by the Panama Canal Company-Government in Panama during the month of March. One

will be the exhibit at the Inter-American

Medical Convention to be held in the Hotel El Panama, March 24 to 26, and

the other will be the Panama Canal

Company-Government display at the forthcoming International Trade Exposition to be held in Colon, March 20 to April 4. Featured at both exhibits will be

colored slides and photographs of the Canal Zone during the past 50 years. There also will be models of construction machinery and construction day buildings, maps, technical displays, and a col- lection of rare books and hospital charts. One of the most interesting of the medical exhibits will be a general history of the medical activity in the Canal Zone

between the years of 1904 and 1954. This

will be done by photographs, reprints of

articles written by former Canal hospital

physicians, old hospital charts, instru- ments used in early construction days,

and a miniature of old Section C, Ward

15, of Ancon Hospital, during the French

construction days.

A set of colored slides of well-known

scenes in the Canal Zone will be a prominent part of the Canal organization

exhibit at the International Trade Exposition in Colon. The slides will be projected upon the screen by an automaticslide projector.

Other exhibits will include two relief maps, one showing the terrain of the Canal Zone in 1906 and the other the

terrain several years after the completion

of the Panama Canal; a set of construction day photographs; a model of the

S. S. Cristobal in a glass case; a set of construction day photographs; photostats

of historical maps; and a rare-book and

small-item display, all part of the Canal Zone Library collection.
10 THE PANAMA CANAL REVIEW March 5, 1954

Fast Shipments Bring

Fresher Vegetables

To C. Z. Commissaries

No innovation of the Commissary

Division within recent years has met with more enthusiastic response from cus- tomers than the new plan for speedier

shipments of highly perishable fruits and

vegetables

Unqualified success marked the initial

sale of celery and lettuce in the Commissarvstoreslastmonth. The produce was in the hands of customers within little more

than a week from the time it was growing

in the Imperial Valley in California. Despite little advance notice, brisk

sales were reported at all stores where the

lettuce and celery went on sale only a few

hours after it arrived in Balboa on a United Fruit Company ship from New

Orleans. It had been picked only a week

before and was shipped to New Orleans by refrigerated trucks. The buying-and-shipping plan is not entirely new. It was first used last summer during the peach season when

fresh fruit was bought from the Pennsylvania orchards just in time to be shipped

to New York and be placed aboard the southbound Panama Line ships.

The new shipping arrangements will cut from five to ten days in travel time for highly perishable fruits and vegetables

from the southern and western States.

It is planned to employ the plan in handling a variety of fruits and vegetables.

The plan was outlined to a group of about 25 representatives of employee

organizations at the second forum on Commissary operations held last month.

Details of the plan were told by John J. Barton, Chief Food Buyer of the New

York Procurement Division. The plan is the result of many months

of study and work on the past of Commissary officials to s?cure the proper

coordination in buying and shipping.

The first shipment of lettuce and

calery was p3rsonally selected by Mr.

Barton during a visit to the southwest and

west. It was specially packed, chilled by

a new vacuum cooling method, and

shipped by trucks to New Orleans. Both

trucks and railway will be used for future shipments of such fruits and

vegetables, dependent upon distances and circumstances. Because of the success in handling and

selling the first shipment of lettuce and

celery, it is planned to continue this method of buying and shipping and to extend it to many other products. Both

southern and western ports will be used

as the growing season for fruits and

vegetables change. Shipments of fruits and vegetables will also be sent through

New York when that route offers advantages in time. The Commissary forum last month was

principally devoted to foods. It was the second of such round-table discussions of buyer-seller problems to be held between

Supply and Service officials and employeerepresentatives

F. R. Johnson, Supply and Service

Director, presided at the meeting and

told those attending that the forums are

led principally as a common meeting ground to find out what and how

rj operations can be improved.

He also announced that another forum

will be held at a later date.

Here Tt Is!

THE FIRST shipment to Canal Commissaries of States vegetables, only a week from field to store, is examined by F. R. Johnson, Supply and Service Director while John Barton of the Procurement Division

in New York, and Paul Friedman, Assistant Supply and Service Director, look over other green goods.

MARCH, beside being income tax month

oh, horrid thought is a fine month to catch up on odds and ends. Here are some bits and

pieces on a Few things to make living easier

or more pleasant. Nexl month we expect to be talking about Easter clothes and such. The Commissary people hope you have been getting some of the perishable delicacies they have had in the retail stores from time to time lately. They mean such items as frozen

calves' liver (the liver, not the calves, is frozen), ready for the pan, and quick frozen veal cutlets; frozen rainbow trout; smoked

caplin some people spell it capelin, but

either spelling means little fish-like smelts; packaged sauerkraut; packaged dill pickles; and an especially good Jewish-style pastrami.

Highly perishable, they are ordered in small quantities and no sure dates can be

given for the repeat arrival of any one of them. They are so palate-tickling that it is well worthwhile to keep an eye on the cold

storage counters to see what out-of-the-usual item is on hand from day to day.

Speaking of dates the grocery sections

this month should have canned "Sunipalms"

dates, 41 cents for a 12j-ounce tin. Vacuumpacked, they do not need refrigeration

and are a handy emergency shelf food. Other new food items due this month are a

Smilhfield ham spread, packed in Maryland,

39 cents tor a 3-ounce jar; and a set of six tiny "Morton salt miniatures,'' individual

saltshakers, each wilh the dislinctive Morton

package, about 18 cents. They should be

handy for picnics or for packing in lunch boxes.

three to four hours. Soap and water wash

off cream—and paint. It works equally well

for dirty jobs on house or car too. A |ar will sell for about 30 cents when it arrives some time this month.

UNOFFICIAL TASTERS at Mount Hope,

who sample samples, recommend a new line of food which will be on retail store shelves

this month. This is Castleberry's (of Augusta,

Ga.) seafood and cocktail sauce, and canned

pork or beef in barbecue sauce. The sea- food sauce, described as tangy but not tongue-searing, will be about 36 cents for a 6-ounce bottle. The barbecued meat is cooked over oak and hickcry coals, then chopped and blended with the barbecue

sauce. The tasters say it is good heated and

served on toasted buns; a No. 1 can ol the pork will be about 59 centi; the beef, in the same size can, 56 cents.

Dupont has a new product, a companion

piece for its paints. Called "Pro-tek," il

is a sort of vanishing cream to smear on hands and under fingernails before tickling a

paint job. One application is good for

AWNING-TYPE WINDOWS, those wide

horizontal panes which open like, well, like an awning, on some of the new houses, are decorative but may be hard to keep sparkling. For such, and other types too, the Canal

Commissaries are getting a new Fuller brush

with a four-foot handle. The brush does the washing; a rubber squeegee, nine inches long, which may be fastened to the handle oppossite the brush, wipes off the water. Due

soon, they will be $3.95 for brush, handle,

and squeegee. Also expected in the retail stores this month are new treated dust cloths which

dust, clean, and polish at one swipe, and can be washed and re-used up to 20 times, the manufacturer says. The price is about 55

cents. Jig Time/' a green liquid washes

combs, brushes, jewelry, and crystals in |ig time, just as the name says. A jar, advertised

to contain a six-month supply, will be about 85 cents. FROM ST. LOUIS the former author of this column recommends Samae cleaner for Reverware. She says it takes the rub out of polishing those copper bottoms. The commissaries already have it and endorse her recommendation: 60 cents for a large jar with a sprinkler top.

Also due soon are the "Jonny Mops

you ve been reading about in the womens

magazines. The clear plastic handles hold disposable pads which clean, deodorize,

and sanitize (it says on the box) a toilet in one application. The pads are detachable and can be flushed away alter use. A handle and six pads will sell for about $1.25; extra pads will be available. GENTLEMEN PEACOCKS sport the gay

clothes in their families. Canal Zcne men

can be peacocks in some of the new Palm

Beach slacks which have just arrived. They come in such colors as tomato catsup and

Meci.'.rrcnean blue (our own description), in 28- to 40-inch waist bands, from $9.75 to $13.25. More restrained, as far as color is concerned, but equally handsome is Donegaltype tweed suiting, 90 percent wool and 57

inches wide. It comes in mixtures in which brown, blue, gray, or green predominate and

would make fine sport jackets: $3.65 a yard.
March 5, 1954 THE PANAMA CANAL REVIEW 11

Increase In Coffee

Price Expected Here

Coffee prices, which have hit the headlines throughout the United States during

recent weeks with increases of 20 cents

a pound and more, may be increased five cents a pound in Panama Canal Commissaries in about 10 days.

Up to now Canal Zone householders have escaped the drastic rise in coffee prices and Commissary officials do not

expect that spiraling prices will reach

the same degree in the Canal Zone as in the States. The steady price of coffee in the Zone

during recent weeks was possible because warehouse stocks of the Commissary

Division were sufficient to avoid an

increase. However, with new stocks of green coffee being bought now at higher

cost, it is expected that retail prices will be increased five cents a pound about

March 15 and a further rise may be

required in about another month.

Bids were opened this week for 100,000

pounds of green Boquete coffee after this edition of The Review went to press. The cost of this lot of green coffee will affect the future retail prices in the stores. Whatever increase of coffee prices may

be required in the Commissaries will be

directly dependent on world prices of green coffee. For this reason, it is not expected that the increase will be as sharp

as in the States where speculation in coffee futures was a factor in the increase

in retail prices.

Any increase in Commissary prices also

is expected to be more gradual because

of the policy of averaging old and new

stock prices as new stocks are bought.

In addition, efforts will be made to buy

occasional lots of coffee at more reasonable prices by a thorough canvass of the market so that by some slight shift in blends the upward trend may be dulled. Coffee normally used in the various Commissary blends is bought from

Panama, Colombia, Brazil, Haiti, and El Salvador. Other sources of supply in coffee producing countries of Latin America also are being canvassed for coffee suitable for maintaining existing blends. Although speculation is being blamed

After Nearly Half Century

THE "ADMIRAL'S HOUSE" is nearing the end of its life

Another Canal Zone landmark is nearing the end of its life. The "Admiral's

House" on Fourth of July Avenue near

the District Court is being vacated. March 31 has been set as the latest date on which the five women who were living

in House 313 early last month must move

to other quarters;' after that date the old

building, which was first occupied in November 1907, will probably be demolished.

To oldtimers the house, which is a companion piece to the "Judge's House,"

is the "Admiral's House" although it was

used as Navy quarters for only about six years of its 47.

It is quite probable, although old records fail to show it, that the first occupant of the big building—which once had a room especially designed for a bilfor some of the rise in coffee prices in the

States, world prices on green coffee also are rising. An example was the recent purchase by the Commissary Division of a supply of coffee used for blending for which the price was 17 cents a pound

higher for the green coffee than the lot purchased previously.

Hard room -was J. C. S. Blackburn, who

headed the Civil Administration Department and was a member of the Isthmian

Canal Commission until December 190S. His two successors, Maurice H. Thatcher and Richard L. Metcalfe, both occupied

313, which was known in those days as No. 1 14. At the end of the construction

period the house was used for several months by the Joint Land Commission.

In the fall of 1914, it again became an

official residence and was occupied successively by two Panama Canal Auditors, H. A. A. Smith and Elwyn Greene. It then became the quarters for the Admiral

commanding the 15th Naval District and was used by three commandants: Rear

Admirals David F. Sellers, E. H. Campbell and N. E. Irwin, until 1933. After 1933, No. 313 became women's

bachelor quarters and was assigned to a group of teachers who ran the house as a

bachelor "mess" for several years. In

1942, the house was divided into two

apartments. Since that time one woman

has lived in the smaller apartment and

anywhere from four to eight in the larger section of the house. NEWEST OF CANAL ZONE SCHOOLS OPENED

THE TWO WIN'G addition to Rainbow City's elementary school was

placed in use early last month. Built to relieve the overcrowded condition at the school, the two wings have a total of eight classrooms. The new buildings

are identical with the classroom units at the new South Margarita elementary

school and have been completely equipped with new furniture and other new

and up-to-date classroom gear.
12 THEIPANAMA CANAL REVIEW March 5, 1954

Purchases In Panama

Top $1,175,000 Mark

Purchases of foods and supplies in the Republic of Panama by the Panama

Canal organization totaled $1,177,805

during the first half of this fiscal year. This was exclusive of purchases made by

the Armed Services or other U. S.- government agencies on the Isthmus. Food supplies bought from producers

in the Republic amounted to well above

$700,000 in value, with beef, sugar, fruits, and vegetables being the principal products bought to meet Commissary Division requirements. These purchases were

approximately $50,000 over those made

during a comparative period in the previ- ous fiscal year. The amount of sugar bought during the first six months of this

fiscal year was considerably more than

that bought during the first half of the previous fiscal year. The total purchases of all Panama

Canal units from Panama sources during

the first six months of this fiscal year fell below those in the first half of last fiscal year, with the principal decrease being

shown in the industrial products.

Approximately one-third of purchases

made in Panama during the last half of

this fiscal year were meat products. The

total value of such purchases exceeded

$400,000 with most of this amount being

spent for live beef steers.

110,000 Pounds of Seafoods

Seafood purchases from Panama sources were heavy during the six-month period.

A total of 60,000 pounds of fish and over

50,000 pounds of shrimp, lobster, and

turtle were bought for resale in the commissary stores. In addition to the long list of fresh

fruits and vegetables bought locally by

the Panama Canal Company, a variety

of other food and agricultural products

are purchased regularly. Among the

principal purchases in value are coconuts,

brewers' grain, black strap molasses, rice bran, biscuits and crackers, candy,

Eskimo pies, and yeast. A list of about 75 different items made

up the industrial and miscellaneous products bought from Panama suppliers

during the first half of this fiscal year. The value of purchases ranged from a few

dollars to over $60,000 an individual item. Some of the principal purchases

in this group were cement, automobile

parts and accessories, advertising, periodicals and printing, film rentals, office machines and supplies, paints, and

photographic supplies.

The table below shows the amount of purchases in the Republic of Panama

under the various classifications for the

first half of the present and previous

fiscal years.

First Half First Half

Fiscal Year This Fiscal 1953 Year

Meat products__ $409,954 Mill ,635

iltural products:

Fruits and vegetables.... 64 , 033 61 , 057 Sugar 184,964 236,817

igricultural products 23,019 22,647

"(ducts 16,527 13.193 Beverages 77.497 76,596

29.444 30,620

Industrial products and misleous... 439.128 334,639

TOTAl $1,243,457 $1,177,805

Ancon Building Shuts Up Shop

As Clubhouse And Restaurant

Although several plans for the use of the Ancon Clubhouse building, which

closed as a clubhouse unit last Sunday, are being considered no definite decision has yet been reached. The building dates back to the days

when the Canal organization went into the restaurant business, briefly, in a big way. After the end of the construction

period, the Canal organization decided to build and operate modern restaurants. Buildings similar to that which has just

been vacated at Ancon were built in Cristobal, Balboa, and Pedro Miguel.

The Ancon restaurant was opened

October 4, 1917. A clubhouse unit, meantime, was functioning in a frame building on the site of the present concrete bachelor quarters near the Commissary. The

clubhouse building was destroyed by fire in 1924. The Panama Canal operated the rest- aurants for several years but during the

early 1920's they were leased to Carl Strom who had had about 12 years ser- vice as a steward. During the Strom

period, the restaurants rivalled the Hotel

Tivoli as an eating place. Oldtimers

COLD STORAGE MOVES THIS WEEK

FROM MOUNT HOPE PLANT

{Continued from page 6) storage products

retailed are sold on the Pacific side. While the new plan of operations will provide some flexibility in the supply of

retail stores on the Atlantic side from the Commissary Division headquarters, all frozen meats, dairy products except ice cream, and fruits and vegetables will be

stored at Corozal and retail stores on

both sides of the Isthmus will be supplied

from there. This arrangement will mean

no increase in the haulage since trucks returning to the Atlantic side would

normally be empty.

The cold storage plant at Mount Hope

is one of the Commissary Division's oldest buildings and has an interesting history.

Its construction was started during World

War I when the demand for canned beef

for Army needs exceeded existing facilities. At that time the Commissary Division had a thriving cattle industry to supply needs in the Canal Zone. The original plans for the Mount Hope

buildings provided for the installation of canning machinery in the plant and the purchase of cattle from Colombia and

other adjacent areas. The canning machinery had already arrived on the Isth- mus before the war ended and plans for a canned beef factory were dropped. The

machinery was never installed and the space was then assigned to the present

Industrial Laboratory.

recall that they "dressed for dinner" on Thursday and Sunday evenings -other

nights were less formal —and that there occasionally was dinner music. The contract with Mr. Strom was ter- minated May 15, 1934. Restaurant operations then were turned over to the then Bureau of Clubs and Playgrounds which was already serving light meals. Two of the restaurant buildings, at Ancon and

at Cristobal, became clubhouses; the Balboa restaurant was remodelled into the police station, and that at Pedro

Miguel became the location for the post

office and the District Quartermaster's

Office. There have been a number of changes

to the building in the past 20 years. A

soda luncheonette was added during the

early 1940's and restaurant operations were shifted almost entirely to a cafeteria basis last year. With the closing of the Ancon Clubhouse as a clubhouse, some of its functions have shiftsd to the Tivoli Guest House.

Children from the Ancon Elementary

School are now lunching at the Tivoli and

a coffee shop has been opened at the

Tivoli. Another innovation begins tonight

when a special "family night dinner" will be served at the Tivoli Guest House and

at Balboa and Margarita Clubhouses.

The dinner will cost the adults of the family 95 cents each at the Tivoli and

75 cents at the clubhouses, while chil- dren's portions will be 60 cents at the

Tivoli and 50 cents at the clubhouses. After dinner the entire family may go

to the Balboa or the Margarita theater

as a unit. Family price at Balboa —

regardless of size—will be $1; that for the family at Margarita will be 75 cents.

OUR OUT-OF-DOORS

Roses have always been one of the

favorite flowers of the home gardener.

A few hints on the proper conditions for growing and the care of rose plants might

be helpful.

To begin with, a rich, well-drained soil

is desirable. The plants should be ferti- lized about once each month. Any commercial fertilizer may be used and tankage

is very satisfactory.

Mulching around the plants with grass

cuttings and leaves is helpful, especially

in dry season, as a mulch helps retain moisture around the plant. A few rusty

nails or iron should be added to the soil when roses are planted. Iron is taken up by the plants and helps hold the petals on the flower for a longer period of time.

It also intensities flower color.
March 5, 1954 THE PANAMA CANAL REVIEW 13

QUARTERS REPLACEMENT PROGRAM NEARING CLOSE;

BIDS FOR RIDGE ROAD HOUSES OPENED THIS WEEK

ONE OF THE most popular of the new on-the-ground masonry houses is Type 337, popularly known

as the "mother-in-law house." A number of these quarters are to be built on Prospect Street and in the Ridge Road area in Balboa Heights. A floor plan of this type is shown below. The drawing was first published in the January 1952 Revtcw. w

©

CAR POWT

TERKACC

r ING £. DINING BED Root1

Tfei r TYPE 337 3 BEDROOM HOUSE

""• f m ^ I I • MQ.WCCK'xa ^ COM1TI BUREAU

(uaintEniHi; t>-vi« GRAPHIC SCALE

(Continued from page i) street. The grade

will be lowered an average of about

five feet. The work there also entails a consider- able amount of street realignment. The

old macadam street leading into the area from Heights Road will be replaced and

a short deadend street will be constructed. Four of the 17 one-family masonry

houses will be located on Quarry Road

which was recently repaved. Two will be located near the intersection of Heights

and Ridge Road, eight will be spaced

along Ridge Road, and three will be on

the new deadend street. Culvert for Flats

In the bids opened last Wednesday,

provisions were included for the construction of a 6-foot by 4-foot box culvert which is designed to divert drainage from

the Balboa Heights area out of Balboa

Flats. This, and grading being done in the Flats, is expected to alleviate flooding

in the area. With construction of the Ridge Road

houses ready to begin, work on other major building projects is proceeding.

The last of the houses in the new

Corozal residential area are to be completed and transferred to the Housing

Division for assignment by March 15. The Corozal and Empire Street houses were built under a contract awarded at

the beginning of last year to MaccoPanpacific, Inc., at a total cost of approximately $2,750,000.

The landscaping work at Corozal also

is well advanced. A contract for sodding

and sprigging the area was awarded last November to E. 0. Hauke Construction

Company. This work is scheduled for completion by April 15 after which the Grounds Maintenance Division will complete the landscaping.

Other Construction

The construction of 33 two-story duplex

masonry houses at Diablo Heights is being done by Isthmian Constructors,

Inc. The completion date for this contract is September 19, but the work

is well ahead of schedule. Work is ready to begin on the construction of 63 houses in Balboa Flats. This contract was awarded late in January to Framorco, Inc., and notice to proceed was delivered to the contractor

last week. Maintenance Division forces have been busy in the area for the past

several weeks doing grading and street work required in Zone 1. Balboa Flats, one of the principal

residential areas of the Pacific side since soon after the Canal was opened in 1914,

is due for a complete renovation. The

work there includes the provision of ample play areas, grading, street realignTen Years Ago

In February

February, 10 years ago, was War Bond

month with a vengeance. From February 7 through February 12, thousands of Isthmians swarmed into the Carnival area near the Balboa Stadium,

having fun and buying bonds. Well over

$1 ,000,000 worth of War Bonds were sold

as part of the Carnival activities. Girls from both sides of the Isthmus competed

for the title of Queen; on the Pacific side supporters of Miss Ethel Kriza, now Mrs.

J. H. Hearn, won the crown for her by

buying $730,499 worth of bonds while

Atlantic side backers of Miss Anna Marie

Chase put her onto a War Bond throne

with purchases totalling $324,233. As a sequel to the Carnival the two

queens competed for the title of Miss

Canal Zone in a contest to raise funds for the purchase of a bomber, with Miss

Chase winning the title. A few days

later Governor Glen E. Edgerton for- warded to the U. S. Treasury a check for $50,000, representing contributions to the bomber fund.

At appropriations hearings in Washington, Governor Edgerton told Congressmen

that work on the Third Locks had been suspended. He said that the full project

would probably not be started until after the end of the war.

Back from Washington, several days

later, the Governor told local newsmen

that the Panama Railroad had "no doubt

as to the restoration of its steamship

service after the war."

Col. Henry C. Dooling, who had been

Assistant Chief Health Officer and Superintendent ofGorgas Hospital, was appointed

to the post of Chief Health Officer. He

succeeded Maj. Gen. M. C. Stayer.

Zonians celebrated, in a restrained

fashion, the return of fresh eggs to the Canal commissaries. For several weeks

the commissary stock had consisted of Argentine eggs of dubious vintage.

Forum On Operations Of Local-Rale

Stores Requested At Meeting

(Continued from page 3) payroll deductions

for the purchase of medicines is not

feasible; a continuation of a study to provide occupational training for boys at the Pedro Miguel Detention Home; provision

for protection from the rain for customers

at the kerosene and salad oil section of Paraiso Commissary; and an announce- ment that street name signs are being

placed in Paraiso. Attending the meeting in February

were the Governor: E. A. Doolan, Personnel Director, and Mr. Johnson, for the Canal administration; and for the Civic

Councils, Ernest Williams, Mr. Fawcett,

and Cyril Atherly, of Paraiso; Arthur W.

Crooks, Marcus Granum and Cleveland

Roberts, of La Boca; Zachariah Williams,

Chagres General Committee; Mrs. Louise

Walker, Richard Burns, and Mrs. Butcher

of Santa Cruz; and Harold Williams and

Jefferson Joseph of Rainbow City.

ment, and a variety of houses. Both

masonry and composite buildings will replace the drab 4-family frame buildings

there.
THE PANAMA CANAL REVIEW March 5, 1954

MARCH SAILINGS PROMOTIONS AND TRANSFERS

From Cristobal Panama... 'March 6 .March 12 Ancon. . March 19

I'm, -March 2(> From New York

obal _Marrh 2 Ancon March 9 Panama March 16

Cristobal .. ...March 23 Ancon .March 30

I i ives Cristobal Saturday ; arrives New

York Friday. (Northbound the ships are

In Haiti from 7 a. m. to noon Sunday;

southbound the Haiti stop is Saturday from

7 a. in. lo 4 p. in.)

January 15 through February 15

ANNIVERSARIES

Employees who observed important anniversaries during the month of February are

listed alphabetically below. The number

of years includes all Government service with the Canal or other agencies. Those

with continuous service with the Canal are

indicated with (*). 45 YEARS

"William Jump, Timekeeper, Industrial

I livision. 35 YEARS

*John D. Logsdon, Supervisory Administrative Assistant, Electrical Division. "Charles W. Meissner, Foreman, Pacific Locks.

id YEARS

John G. Johnson, Storekeeper, Division of Storehouses. *Morris Mirrop, Administrative Assist- ant, Gorgas Hospital.

25 YEARS

"Clarence L. Foiles, Supervisor, Division of Storehouses. *David I.. Gatz, Auditor, Office of Comptroller. "Charles L. Leeser, Foreman, Printing

Plant.

20 YEARS

*David J. Burkett, Pipeline Suction Dredge Operator, Dredging Division. "Marcella G. Green, Clerk-Stenographer, Division of Schools. "Robert B. Sager, Structural Engineer,

Engineering Division. Manuel A. Smith, Engineering Aid,

Meteorology and Hydrographic Branch.

15 YEARS

Adrian R. Barber, Accounting Clerk,

Office of Comptroller.

*F. W. Holmberg, Customs Inspector,

Postal, Customs, and Immigration Division. "Rudolph W. Rubelli, Pilot, Navigation Division. Howard J. Toland, Policeman, Police

I >i\ ision. Walter C. Watts, Lock Operator,

Atlantic I. en ks.

FEBRUARY RETIREMENTS

Retirement certificates were presented

the end of February to the following employee- who are listed alphabetical!)-,

together with their birth places, titles, th of service and future addresses. Francis W. Feeney, Massachusetts;

Medical Technician, Board of Health

tory; i4 years, 6 months, 6 days;

Richmond, Va. William C. Fritz, Nova Scotia; Supervisory Construction Inspector (General), Contract and Inspection Division; 16 years,

7 month-, 1') days; Providence, K. I. Morris Mirrop, Russia; Administrative

ant, Gorgas Hospital; 1

(

> years, 2

14 lays; Florida. Louis Pincus, Russia; Signalman, Naviation Division; 20 -ear-, 7 months, 15 Fresno, Calif. Berney J. Robinson, Louisiana; Steam

Engineer, Oil Handling Plant, Balboa; tl irs, 9 months, 1 day; Canal Zone, for present. Ira L. Wright, Pennsylvania; Assistant

ollei 12 years ami .i month-:

irdale, W. Va.

Employees who were promoted or translerred between January 15 and February

15 are listed below. Regradings and

within-grade promotions are not listed. ADMINISTRATIVE BRANCH

Harold I. Perantie, from Executive

Assistant to the Executive Secretary to

Chief, Administrative Branch. CIVIL AFFAIRS BUREAU

Mrs. Joyce C. Hudson, Clerk-Stenographer, from Correspondence Section to

Office of Chief, Postal, Customs, and Immigration Division. Mrs. Margaret M. Nash, from Substitute Teacher to Junior High School Teacher. Mrs. Elizabeth B. Kiegley, from Substitute Teacher to Elementary School Teacher. Mrs. Helen P. Walker, from Substitute Teacher to Kindergarten Assistant. Robert Berger, from Motorcycle Officer to Motorcycle Officer and Policeman. Andrew Kozar, from Policeman to Policeman and Motorcycle Officer. William H. Munyon, from Lieutenant

to Captain, Police Division. Owen B. Shirley, from Vice Principal to Assistant Principal, Rainbow City Occupational High School. COMMUNITY SERVICES BUREAU

Stanley M. Hamilton, Supervisory Administrative Assistant, from Hotel Washington to Tivoli Guest House. OFFICE OF COMPTROLLER

Francis J. Leonard, from Valuation Engineer (General) to Valuation Engineer

(Railroads), Plant Inventory and Appraisal

Staff. Paul F. Helton, from Supervisory

Steward, Hotel Tivoli, to Accountant,

Internal Audit Staff. Cecil Kovel, from Property and Supply

Clerk, Dredging Division, to Accounting

Clerk, Plant Inventory and Appraisal Staff. Mrs. Martha L. Lerchen, from ClerkTypist, Gorgas Hospital, to Clerk Stenographer, Office of Chief, Fiscal Division. Mrs. June A. Hudgins, from Substitute Teacher, Division of Schools, to Bookkeeping Machine Operator, Agents Accounts

Branch. Edward H. Appin, from Tabulating

Machine Operator to Time, Leave, and

Payroll Clerk, Payroll Branch. Mrs. Sylvia E. Staples, Card Punch

Operator, from Personnel Records Division

to Payroll Branch. Mrs. Helen M. Cicero, Tabulating

Machine Operator, from Personnel Records

Division to Payroll Branch. Mrs. Mamie E. Hogan, Time, Leave, and Payroll Clerk, from Payroll Branch to Agents Accounts Branch. Harry E. Musselman, Tabulation Planner, from Tabulating Machine Branch to Payroll Branch. Mrs. Elna G. Montayne, Card Punch

Supervisor, from Tabulating Machine

Branch to Payroll Branch. Preston G. Gau, Alfredo Lombana,

Tabulating Machine Operator, from Tabulating Machine Branch to Payroll Branch. Miriam E. DeBolt, Card Punch Operator, from 'Tabulating Machine Branch to Payroll Branch.

Lucille A. Waters, Accounting Clerk, from 'Tabulating Machine Branch to Payroll Branch. ENGINEERING AND CONSTRUCTION

BUREAU

Wallace E. Thrift, from Powerhouse

Operator Dispatcher to Power Dispatcher,

Electrical I >iv ision. George V. Kirkland, from Pumping

Plant Operator to Pumping Plant Operator

and Foreman, Public Works, Maintenance

I >iv "ision. Mrs. Ethel G. Cooper, from Clerk- Stenographer to Property and Supply Clerk, Dredging Division. Peter W. Foster, from Apprentice to Automatic Telephone Switchman, Electrical I >iv ision. Edwin C. Tompkins, from Steam

Engineer, Floating Crane, to Engineer,

Pipeline Suction Dredge, Dredging Division.

Robert G. Fuller, from Storekeeper

(General) to Supervisory Storekeeper (General), Maintenance Division. Mrs. Mary E. Specht, William W.

Wood, from Accounting Clerk to Supervisory Fiscal Accountant, Maintenance

I >iv ision. James F. Ahearn, from Plumber, Maintenance Division, to Construction Inspector, Contract and Inspection Division. Reed R. Mcllvaine, from Supervisory

Clerk, Tivoli Guest House, to Accountant,

Internal Audit Staff. Charles J. Holmes, from Machinist to Motorboat Maintenance Mechanic, Dredging Division. Harry J. Linker, from Motorboat

Maintenance Mechanic, Dredging Division, to Diesel Operator-Machinist, Electrical Division. Thomas A. Brennan, from Diesel Operator-Machinist to Operator ForemanMechanic, Electrical Division. OFFICE OF GOVERNOR-PRESIDENT

Frederick L. Denton, from Auditor,

Internal Accounts Staff, to Organization

and Methods Examiner, Executive Plan- ning Staff. HEALTH BUREAU

Mrs. Ana L. Alvarez, from Clerk- Typist, Gorgas Hospital, to Supervisory

Clerk-Stenographer, Board of Health Laboratory. Florence H. Edbrooke, from Assistant Director of Nurses to Director of Nurses, Colon Hospital. Dr. John M. Wilkerson, from Chief, Medical Service, Colon Hospital to Superintendent, Colon Hospital, and Colon

Health Officer. Mrs. Ethel K. Hearn, from Staff Nurse

to Head Nurse, Gorgas Hospital. Mrs. Ruth A. Fishbough, from Accounting Clerk to Medical Record Librarian,

Gorgas Hospital. Eller J. Holcomb, from Staff Nurse, Colon Hospital, to Public Health Nurse,

Division of Quarantine. Mrs. Barbara M. Armistead, ClerkTypist, from Division of Storehouses to Gorgas Hospital.

Thelma L. Capwell, from Staff Nurse, Gorgas Hospital, to Head Nurse, Corozal

Hospital. Dr. Leo Rettinger, Medical Officer, from Atlantic Medical Clinics to Colon

Hospital. Mrs. Johanna E. Hargy, Staff Nurse, from Colon Hospital to Atlantic Medical

Clinics. Mrs. Gilma J. Cude, from Clerk- Stenographer, Internal Security Branch, to Clerk-Typist, Board of Health Laboratory.

Rae F. Elicker, from Staff Nurse,

Atlantic Medical Clinics, to Assistant Director of Nurses, Colon Hospital. INTERNAL SECURITY BRANCH

Philip M. Goodman, from Investigator

to Assistant Chief of Internal Security. Mrs. Evelyn D. Engelke, Clerk-Stenographer, from Police Division to Internal Security Branch. MARINE BUREAU

Hubert Hart, from Fireman, Fire Division, to Towing Locomotive Operator,

Atlantic Locks. Marion B. Woodruff, from Policeman,

Police Division, to Towing Locomotive

Operator, Pacific Locks. Henry P. Butcher, Jr., from Guard,

Atlantic Locks, Security Branch, to 'Towing

Locomotive Operator, Atlantic Locks. Claude H. Knox, from Restaurant Manager, Cristobal Clubhouse, to Guard,

Locks Security Branch. John W. Whipple, from Construction

Inspector, Contract and Inspection Division, to Dock Foreman, Navigation Division. Walter J. LaMont, from Assistant to Superintendent, Northern District, Motor

Transportation Division, to Towing Loco- motive Operator, Pacific Locks. Charles 0- Peters, Jr., from Assistant Foreman, Atlantic Locks, to Towing

Locomotive Operator, Pacific Locks. John E. Hoger, from Guard to Towing
March 5, 1954 THE PANAMA CANAL REVIEW 15

Forty Years Ago

In February

An Executive Order, providing conditions for employment for the permanent

force of the Panama Canal, was signed by

President Woodrow Wilson. To be effec- tive April 1, 1914, it provided for: A 25

percent salary differential, based on Government compensation in the United

States; an eight-hour working day for those above the grade of laborer; free medical and hospital care for employees.

It also restricted employment, with a few exceptions, to citizens of the United

States and Panama, in those jobs paying

over $75 monthly or 40 cents hourly, and

established that a charge might be made

for rent, fuel, and electric current "in accordance with such regulations as the President may hereafter establish."

The erection of structural steel in the framework and roof trusses of the new

Administration Building was completed and

the walls were up to the level of the second

floor around most of the building.

The first Canal Administration Building,

meanwhile, urns sold to the Panama Govern- ment for about $80,000. Built for a hotel,

it was sold to the French Canal Company in 1881 and transferred to the U. S. in 1901

It is now the main Panama postoffi.ee.

Junior Councilmen

On the waterway itself, work was

almost finished. All work on the lock

gates, except for some painting, had been

completed. The control houses for all three sets of locks were practically done. At Gatun five submarines, which had

been stationed at the Atlantic entrance

to the Canal for over a year, were drydocked in the upper east chamber for overhaul.

On February 4, 40 years ago, the Senate

confirmed the nomination of Col. George W.

Goethals as the firstGovernor of The Panama

Canal. Another appointment was that of "Naval Constructor" Daniel C. Nutting,

Jr., as Superintendent of the Mechanical

Division.

Locomotive Operator, Atlantic Locks. Milton M. LaCroix, from Lock Operator

Machinist, Atlantic Locks, to Motorboat

Maintenance Mechanic, Aids to Navigation

Section. George S. Zimmerman, from Lock

Operator Machinist Leader to Lockmaster,

Atlantic Locks. Henry H. Shirk, from Lock Operator

Machinist to Lock Operator Machinist

Leader, Atlantic Locks. Alvin P. Lim, Sheetmetal Worker, from Maintenance Division to Industrial Division, SUPPLY AND SERVICE BUREAU

Evelyn M. Molyneaux, from Ticket

Seller, Clubhouse Division, to Clerk-Typist

Division of Storehouses. TRANSPORTATION AND TERMINALS

BUREAU

Milton E. Stone, from Shipjoiner,

Industrial Division, to Freight Traffic Clerk, Terminals Division. James A. Brooks, from Supervisory

Storekeeper to Claims Investigator, Terminals Division. George A. Jones, Jr., from Accounting

Clerk to Supervisory Business Accountant,

Terminals Division. John K. Brayton, from Supervisory

Storekeeper to Supervisory Traffic Clerk, Terminals Division. Henry E. May, Jr., from Freight Traffic Clerk to Supervisory Property and Supply

Clerk, Terminals Division. Nancy A. Ramsey, from Typist to Clerk-Typist, Terminals Division.

GATUN JUNIOR COUNCILMEN protected last month to The Panama Canal Review that thev

are very much alive. The Review had been erroneously informed, by a Gatun resident no less, that the town had no Junior Civic Council. .Mice Hannigan, Junior Council President, explains the organization: "The Junior Council has 52 members. All those living in Gatun and riding the school busses to and from Cristobal Junior High and Senior High School are members. We were organized in the mid1 940's under the guidance of the Gatun Civic Council to provide a system of self-government for the

'teenagers with regard for providing for any entertainment and amusement and to serve when needed as

assistants to the Civic Council ... We believe that Gatun has the only Junior Civic Council and that

its members rate recognition as a distinct part of the community of Gatun."

Other officers of the Gatun Junior Council are Jay A. Cunningham, Vice President, and Grace Argo,

Secretary Treasurer.

Goethals Memorial Dedication Plans

Rouse Interest Here And In States

{Continued from page 1) later. This

and many other details for the dedicatory

services and events of the week of the program are still being considered by

the committee.

Many Prominent Visitors Expected

Because of the international fame of General Goethals and his work on the Canal, the dedication program is expected

to attract many visitors in addition to former employees who are planning to

visit the Canal Zone that week.

Among the distinguished guests who

will be specially invited to attend will be members of General Goethals' family,

members of the Goethals Memorial Commission, former Panama Canal Governors, and members of the Panama Canal

Company Board of Directors. The Canal Board of Directors has

authorized a special round-trip fare of $120

for former employees of the "Goethals

era" on the Panama Line. The reduced

fare will be offered on the two southbound

sailings prior to the dedication and two

northbound sailings after the event, to the extent accommodations are available. A large number of former employees now living in the States have indicated

their intention of attending. They

include many prominent Canal officials both of the construction era and later years, some of whom retired only a few

years ago. Oldtimers Planning To Attend

Nearly 100 applications for accommodations on the Panama Line had been

received by February 16, the day after ac- ceptance of applications began. The list included the following former employees:

C. L. Bleakley, James E. Bradley, John

Z. Bromley, Archie H. Burn, Adrian M.

Butcher, Stuart G. Carkeet, Carl J. Clapp,

Frank T. Clark, John P. Corrigan, St., H. T. Critchlow, Paul C. Curtis, John C. DeLaVergne, George E. Duckworth, John

J. Eason, and Thomas N. Etchberger.

David J. Evans, John J. Fitzpatrick,

Maurice W. Fox, Alexander M. Fraser, Harry J. Gaeb, A. C. Garlington, Frank

J. Gerchow, Archie M. Gibson, James J. Gilbert, Frank E. Greene, J. Wendell

Greene, John R. Grobe, James P. Heenan,

Charles D. Hoffman, George L. Hughes,

Robert J. Huntoon, Ben Jenkins, Harry

A. Kersey, Benjamin B. King, Sr., and

Louis S. Kiser. Raymond S. Morris, John J. Murray,

J. C. Myrick, Otho W. Nichols, William D. Rogers, Manning E. Rupp, Ralph H.

Sarter, Harold M. Schmeck, Harry F. Sedwick, S. J. Shreves, Richard Slattery,

Milton A. Smith, Joseph H. Stilson, Frederick G. Swanson, Richard G. Taylor,

Edward J. Vogel, George B. Ward, Frank

S. Wichman, and Daniel E. Wright.

Many of those who made application

will be accompanied by their wives.

Clubhouse Financing Still Being

Studied, Conferees Are Told

(Continued from pagz 3) cooperation from

council representatives in seeing that

residents of their towns keep children away from the ladders and scaffolding

being used in the present program of roof painting and repairs.

Attending the conference were: The

Governor; E. A. Doolan, Personnel

Director; and Mr. Johnson, for the administration; and for the councils: Mr. Chase and Carl Hoffmeyer, Pacific; Fred W. Whitney, Pedro Miguel; James

D. MacLean and P. B. Hutchings, Gamboa; Mrs. Thomas Gibson and Mr. Thomas, Gatun; and Mrs. Bleakley,

Cristobal-Margarita.
16 THE PANAMA CANAL REVIEW March 5, 1954

One-time Fire Station Becomes Home

For Canal Zone's Senior Camera Club

A PICTURE SHOW, color slides or black and white prints, always brings a bi? turnout at the

Atlantic Camera Club. Camera fans, apparently, are of all ages

The Atlantic. Camera Club, like any new householder, is house-proud. Today

Camera Club members are just as apt to be discussing plumbing and paint as they

are wide-angle lenses and fine-grain

developers.

For, after a good many years of moving

from pillar to post, or anyway from one meeting place to another, the Camera

Club has a home of its own. Unlike the Diablo Camera Club which owns its own

building, the Atlantic Camera Club has

its headquarters in a leased building, but

its members hope that the location can

be permanent for many years to come. The formal opening last December 1 1 of the club's new headquarters in a one-story

building just outside the entrance to the Commissary Industrial Plant at Mount

Hope, was a high spot in the history of the club which has had the longest continuous existence of any camera group in the Canal Zone. About 75 members and friends attended

the opening, saw a print display and ate a fine dinner. Mrs. Harry Peck, whose

husband is a camera fan and who turns out an occasional print herself, celebrated

the occasion by making a decorated cake

for the members and their guests. The cake was frosted with an icing map

of the Isthmus of Panama, linking the American continents, with a circle showing

the Club's location, and thinner lines of

icing sketched some of a "shutter bug's" camera gear.

Fire Station To Club

With the formal opening of the building now history, the Camera Club members,

headed by their president, C. S. Townshend, are turning their attention to arranging the interior of the building and

fitting out the studio and darkroom it will contain. The big meeting room is in order, furnished with some items which the club had had in storage during their wandering

period and with other things which

members donated. Little work needs to be done in the library which will house

files of photographic magazines, some of them complete for a dozen years past, and the club's collection of text and

reference books on the fine art of picture

taking and print making.

The building was constructed originally as an auxiliary firepump shelter during the war years. Later it was used as a refriger- ation service shop by the Commissary

Division. It has a kitchen which members

hope to turn into a darkroom.

Organized In 1936 "On July 18, 1936," according to the minutes of the club's first meeting, "a group of interested persons met at the

Cristobal Army and Navy YMCA for the purpose of discussing the formation of a Camera Club. It was agreed by those present to form such a club, its purpose

being to facilitate the exchange of ideas on the technical phases of photography

and to promote interest generally in this science as a hobby. "Mr. P. E. Miller (a Secretary for the Clubhouses; he resigned in 1942) was

elected president and Mr. Carl G. Brown

(now Chief of Area Sanitation in Ancon)

Secretary-Treasurer.

'

Today the Camera Club's senior member is Mrs. Esther Calcutt. Although she

did not attend the organization meeting, she joined soon thereafter and showed

prints in the club's first exhibition. She

has been a member continuously, and its president for two years. For over a year after its formation the club met at the YMCA and then moved

to a building in the playground area behind the Cristobal High School. In

1940, with material and labor donated

by the members, a darkroom was added

to the building. In 1952 this building was condemned and razed and the Camera

Club found itself homeless. Search For A Home

After a brief return to the YMCA, the Camera Club moved into space in the headquarters of the Inter-American Women's Club building. There meeting space was adequate but there were no opportunities or facilities for either darkroom

or library, so last May the club moved

again, this time to the Elks' Home in Brazos Heights.

Meantime the club's officers and members kept on the lookout for a place which

they could call their own. Several possibilities were explored and discarded and

then, last summer, the Commissary Division said it no longer needed the building

used for a refrigeration service shop.

The space and location was close to

ideal for the club's purposes and an offer was made to purchase it outright. No

agreement was ever reached on this and

last fall the building was turned over to the Camera Club under a lease which has no specified time limit and at a small monthly rental. The club maintains it and pays the cost of utilities. As in most camera clubs, members work

in both color and in black and white. There are frequent print exhibits, the last one containing 37 prints. Coincidentally

this was exactly the same number as had been shown in the first exhibit in December 1937. Member Of PSA

Its affiliation with the Photographic

Society of America enables its members to have their prints judged in competition

with U. S. photographers and also pro- vides a steady source of programs and

photographic information for local camera

fans. Membership in the Camera Club is open to anyone interested in photography,

civilian or military. A number of the

military members have been outstanding

photographers and, club officers say, have

contributed much to their fellows in the way of lectures, demonstrations, and

criticisms. The Camera Club has recip- rocated; not long ago Atlantic Camera

Club members served as judges for prints

and slides made by the then active Fort Sherman Camera Club.

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NEW HOME for the Atlantic Camera Club is

this frame building near the Commissary Division entrance at Mount Hope.

Over the almost 18 years of its existence the Camera Club membership has varied between a high of around 50 to a low of only two or three. Today the roster stands at about 40. Regular meetings are held on the second

and fourth Mondays of each month. At

each meeting, at any of which guests are welcome, members show work on one or two of the many projects which are always under way. New officers for the Camera Club were

elected in February and take office this month. In addition to Captain Townshend, the president, they are: F. G.

Farrell, vice president; John J. Devlin, Treasurer; and Mrs. Buren Douglas,

Secretary.

I