Gift ofthe Panama Canal Museum tmie: ^-]-\Tl4)

Vol. 2, No. 9 BALBOA HEIGHTS, CANAL ZONE, APRIL 4, 1952 5 cents

Distinguished Sightseers

1953 BUILDING PROGRAM CALLS FOR EXPENDITURE

OF $31,750,000 FOR HOUSES, PUBLIC BUILDINGS

Schedule Will Reach

Peak In 12 Months

After Next July 1

A program of contracting for

approximately $31,750,000 for

Canal housing is planned during the coming fiscal year if appropriation requests now before

Congi'ess are approved.

The House Appropriations

Committee has recommended a

$3,000,000 cut in the amount

requested for the building program next year.

The building schedule will

i-each a peak during the 12-

month period beginning in July

1952 under the revised plans

which call for completion of the

quarters replacement and construction program by the end

of the fiscal year 1956 instead

of 1958. Next year's expenditure will be by far the largest

of any year in the six-year program, although work to be

started will extend well beyond

July 1953.

The majoi' portion of the money next

year wOl be spent on the local-rate quarANDREW HEISKELL, publisher of Life Magazive, and Mrs. Heiskell (Madeleine Carroll) were among the group of leading publishers and editors of North and South America visiting the Pedro Miguel Loclis recently. The visit was made during the course of the meeting of the Directors of the Inter- American Press .Association held in Panama during the latter part of March.

Miss Carroll, beautiful stage and screen actress, and her husband were as thrilled by the Locks operation as thousands of other visitors who see them for the first time, .\fter their visit to the Pedro

Miguel Locks, the group made the trip through Gaillard Cut aboard the craneboat Atlas.

2,500 Men Being Employed As Result

Of Canal Building, Townsite Program

This issue of your Canal Review was delayed

in expectation of announcing a decision in Washington. D. C. on the proposed transfer of a tract

of land under military jurisdiction to the Canal Zone Government for the housing program. .\n unexpected postponement of a final decision re- quired a partial reprinting of this entire issue. Tlie plans for the Canal's quarters construction program for the coming fiscal year, as described

in this issue, are subject to drastic changes, de- pendent upon final action on the request for appropriations.

Monthly payrolls on the Isthmus will have been increased this year by approximately $2.50,000 by the end of AprO as a result of the Canal's building and townsite development program for this fiscal year.

It is presently expected that some 2, .500 men who were without jobs at the beginning of last January will be on the payrolls of the Canal or its contractors by the middle of May. The peak of employment

for the Canal's contract work this fiscal year, amounting to $8,500,000 for housing

alone, will be reached about that time and

wUl continue for several months thereafter. Estimates of their labor requirements

furnished the Canal by contractors total

2,300 men, exclusive of supervisory and

technical forces. All of these will be re- cruited locally and will be "employed"

through the Canal's Central Labor Office which is the centralized employing agency

for all local-rate work in the Canal Zone. The rates of pay for these 2, .300 employees, plus the number to be employed by

the Canal Company itself, wOl range from

35 cents to $1.50 an hotu", with an average

rate of 60 cents. Under the work schedules of some of the contractors of more

than 40 hours weekly, this hourly wage

average will mean an income of over $100

a month a man.

In addition to 2,300 given employment

by Canal contractors, the (See page lO)

ters construction. The entire new town

of Cardenas with 933 family apartments

and 300 bachelor units is scheduled for construction. In addition, 200 family

apartments and 50 bachelor units will be

constructed at Chagres, and 200 family

apartments and 150 bachelor units will be built in the Camp Bierd and Old Cris- tobal area. Margarita on the Atlantic side and the

area selected for the new townsite devel- opment on the Pacific side will be the

principal scenes of activity in the U. S.- rate communities. In addition, 24 new

family apartments are to be buOt on Empire Street in Balboa. Bachelor Apartments Planned

The coming fiscal year (See page 15)
THE PANAMA CANAL REVIEW April 4, 1952

Conferees Discuss Girl Scouts' 40th Birthday

Housing, Food Cost,

And Schoolbusses

The housing program is beginning to move along, Lieutenant Governor Herbert D. Vogel told the Governor-Emplo\-

ee Conference during the March meeting. Matters of housing, commissary supplies and prices, school busses and parking occupied most of the time of the conference which lasted beyond the usual

four o'clock closing time. During a general discussion of housing,

during which Colonel Vogel said he was

unable at that time to give the conferees any definite information on the transfer by the Army of land to replace the Summit building site, the Lieutenant Governor said that sufficient housing will be completed at Margarita by October to begin the vacating of old quarters in Cristobal. Colonel Vogel commented that the housing construction program had been

readjusted to permit the oldest and worst housing to be replaced first, deferring the replacement of some of the comparatively newer e.xisting houses until later in the program. For instance, he said, the houses of later construction in New Cristobal will not be immediately replaced. Quarters will be provided instead for those living in the very old quarters of other areas. "Worst First" Scheduled

The schedule he said had been realigned

to replace the "worst first, the best of the

old houses last, and spread the benefits of new housing out." He touched briefly on plans for the coming fiscal year and said the entire pro- gram was scheduled for completion in fis- cal year 1956. Daniel P. Kiley, representing the Pacific side Locks employees asked if gasoline

prices would go higher, and Colonel Vogel

said that no further increase—except in case of an increase in the supplier's

charges—was contemplated. After a general discussion of the gasoline situation, the conferees were told that a fuller report

would be made at a coming meeting. Bronson Powell, of the Pedro Miguel

Civic Council, protested the "second-and

third-class canned stuff we are getting in the commissaries." This was followed by

a general discussion of commissary quality and prices. Rufus Lovelady of the AFGE reported that an independent sur- vey of prices of 58 staple items showed an

increase of 4.84 percent in the last nine months, as against an increase of 4.7 per- cent for generally similar items in the United States.

School Bus Suggestion

The question of school bus transportation was brought up by Raymond Ralph

of the Gatun Civic Council. Several of those present asked if bus schedules could not be adjusted to provide accommodations for chikh-en remaining after school

for extracurricular activities. During this discussion, Russell Hileman

of the Cristobal-Margarita Civic Council

asked if "we couldn't get together with

the Army and consolidate our bus facili- ties." Colonel Vogel said he would apGIEL SCOUT TROOPS from both sides of the Isthmus lined the Administration Building steps at a

rally last month in commemoration of the 40th anniversary of the founding of the organization. Highlight

of the impressive ceremony was the presentation of a Thanks Badge of the Girl Scouts to Mrs. F. K. Newcomer, wife of the Governor, for her help in Scout worlt during the eight years of her residence in the Canal

Zone. This is one of the highest honors bestowed by the organization. Mistress of ceremonies at the 40th

anniversary rally was Mrs. M. D. Monagan. The address of welcome was presented by Mrs. Andrew Bail- kowski and the group singing was led by Miss Mary Patton, Director of Girl Scouts in the Canal Zone.

CANAL NOW LISTED AS DEFENSE AGENCY

IN CONNECTION WITH PERSONNEL ACTION

Both the Panama Canal Company and

the Canal Zone Government have now

been listed as defense agencies in connection with personnel actions under Civil Service regulations.

This action will have an important

effect on the employment of personnel

and on voluntary separations from the Company-Government service. It gives the Company and Government authority

for making non-competitive appointments

of certain present or former employees in the "indefinite" status.

It also grants the prerogative of acquiring new employees by transfer or other- wise from non-defense agencies. This has

not been possible under Civil Service reg- ulations during the present emergency

period.

Under the employment rules governing

defense agencies, the Company-Government will have authority to restrain employees from employment with nondefense and other defense agencies. This,

however, is a permissive authority, and

the Company-Government may grant

permission for the transfer of an employee to another Government agency. The listing of the Company and Government as defense agencies means that

the reemployment rights hitherto effect- ive for employees transferring to a defense agency will no longer be effective unless such a transfer is with permission.

However, an employee who transfers to the Panama Canal Company or the Canal Zone Government from a non-defense agency will have the reemployment rights

granted under Civil Service regulations.

The Civil Service Commission's departmental circular listing the Company-Government as defense agencies for the first time was issued March 17.

point a committee to see if such an arrangement could be worked out. Mr. Lovelady commented that there is a bill before Congress to grant educational assistance, including transportation,

to areas outside the United States, and

that possibly "someone could build a fire under that bill." During the meeting—which was held on the hottest day of the year, to dateColonel Vogel showed the conferees plans

for new housing and promised a folio of house plans for each of the five Civic

Councils. Other questions discussed included:

locks guards; transfer of emergency patients from Colon to Gorgas Hospitals;

Company subsidy of recreation; some

form of identification of employees who

are travelling in the United States; divi- sion of charges for Civil Government

among the various Company functions; and location of fuse boxes in the newer

quarters. Attending the conference were: Colonel

Vogel, Edward A. Doolan, Personnel Director; Forrest Dunsmoor, Executive Assistant to the Governor, for the Administration; Albert Saarinen, Carl J. Hoffmeyer, J.

J. Tobin, Owen J. Corrigan, Walter Wagner, E. W. Hatchett, for the Central Labor Union-Metal Trades; F. S. Baumbach

painting supervisor, a visitor; C. W. Hammond, Margaret Rennie, Mr. Hileman, William H. Ward, Mr.

Ralph, and Mr. Powell for the Civic Councils; Mr. Kiley for the Pacific Locks

Employees; Mr. Lovelady for the AFGE;

Robert C. Daniel for the Railway Conductors and Andrew Lieberman for the Marine Engineers.
April 4, 1952 THE PANAMA CANAL REVIEW

Residents Of Silver City Will Vote

On New Official Name Of Their ToAvn

THIS AERIAL VIEW of the new section of Silver City shows the large number of new houses which have been completed in that area. This section has been niclinamed "Rainbow City" by the residents because of the multicolored houses there. The Panama Can'al Re\ie\v is sponsoring a referen- dum of all residents of Silver City and the area now Icnown as Camp Coiner

to determine if the majority want the name of their town officially changed. A total of 91 duplex apartment buildings were constructed in this area by

Framorco, Inc., under last year's program and 96 more duplexes are now

under construction by the Isthmian Constructors, Inc.

For the first time in the history of the Canal Zone the residents of a community

are to be given an opportunity to vote

their preference for the name of their town. Governor Newcomer has authorized

The Panama Canal Review to conduct

a poll of the residents of Silver City

(including Camp Coiner") to determine if they wish to change the name of the town. The poll will be conducted this month by The Review in collaboration with the International Boy Scouts by a house-to-house canvass.

Six names have been proposed. They

are:Silver City Manzanillo

Rainbow City Granada

Folks City Mindi

The Governor's decision to take a vote on the name of the Canal Zone's largest

and presently the fastest-growing town

was reached after the nickname "Rainbow City" came into general use by

residents of the new section of Silver City. The name "Rainbow" was chosen

as being most descriptive of the varied

colors of the new houses. Unless there is an overwhelming vote

in favor of one name, Governor Newcomer will make the final selection from

the three names receiving the most votes.

If the residents express an overwhelming

preference for any one name, the Governor has announced that he will choose

that name. Vote Planned For April 16-18

It is presently planned to distribute

ballots April 16 to all employees who

have assignments to quarters in the area. The votes will be collected two days later after which the votes will be tabulated by a committee composed of Judge E. I. P. Tatelman, Cristobal Magistrate; William Jump, President of the International

Boy Scout Council in the Canal Zone; and J. Rufus Hardy, Editor of The

Review.

A formal report on the result of the ballotmg will then be forwarded to Governor Newcomer for the selection of the official name, which will be an- nounced in the next issue of The Review.

The ballots will be distributed and

collected by the members of the five International Boy Scout Troops of Silver City, who will work under the general

direction of Joseph A. Hassocks, Scout

Commissioner, and Romeo G. Miller, District Commissioner. There are over 200 members of the fi\'e troops and it is expected that the ballots can be distri- buted and collected in a few hours' time. Scout Troops To Help

The scout troops to assist and their Scoutmasters are: Troop 1, David Stanley; Troop 2, Charles Lucas; Troop 4, Daniel T. Foster; Troop 12, Romeo G.

Miller, who also serves as District Commissioner; and Troop 13, V. A. Laing.

According to old Panama Canal records

the name Silver City was never officially adopted by the Canal. The name sort

of "grew up" with the town after a

series of evolutions. Accordingly, the town will be officially named by Governor Newcomer after the vote is taken. The construction of the town was

authorized in July 1919 by Governor

Chester Harding. The area was filled by spoil taken from the Army post of Fort Davis then under construction, and

the houses were built during 1920 and

1921. The town cost originally in the neighborhood of $750,000, of which

$600,000 was paid by the Panama Rail- road Company.

Town's Name "Grew Up"

The evolution of the town's name as SOver City was a tortuous one. The

first reference to it was a report of the Building Site Committee which recom- mended that "when funds are available, a town for silver employees be built on

the new fill south of Folks River and

south and east of the Corral." This

recommendation, approved by Governor

Harding, was signed by Major E. E.

Person, Assistant Chief Health Officer, Chairman; Major W. R. Grove, Chief

Quartermaster; Hartley Rowe, Resident

Engineer of the Building Division; and

Daniel E. Wright, Municipal Engineer.

The memorandum of the Building Site Committee was forwarded to the Governor by Judge Frank Feuille, then

Special Attorney for The Panama Canal,

who was serving as Chaii'man of a Committee on Standard Nomenclature of Geographic Features of the Canal Zone,

which had been appointed some years

earlier by Col. George W. Goethals. In forwarding the report, Judge Feuille used the original and proper name of "Fox" River instead of "Folks" River. Many Names Used

During the time the town was being

constructed, several different designations were used. Among these were: The Folks River end of Manzanillo

Island; silver town at Mount Hope; new

silver townsite at Big Tree; and Cristobal

Silver Townsite.

After the area was occupied, it was

variously called Silver town. Silver Town, and Silver city. The name

"city" in Silver City was not capitalized

until July 1921 when used in some

official correspondence. Thereafter, however, all official correspondence referred

to the town as Silver City, although the

files do not indicate that it was for- mally named as were other towns of the Canal Zone, such as (See page 7)
THE PANAMA CANAL REVIEW April 4, 1952

Model Railroading Is Intensive Fun

Like lightning, model railroading as a hobby may hit anybody, any time, at any age. And, like lightning, the hits may be few and far between but a second

stroke is rarely needed. For e.xample, when junior wakes up

on Christmas morning, he may find the

old man under the Christmas tree operating his new train which Santa just left him. Such an occasion often means

that an adult model railroad engineer has been born. Few outside the ken of model rail- roading realize that it is a national pastime and is organized on a national

basis. The National Model Railroad

As.sociation, Inc., has some 9,000 members scattered through the United States, and several other countries. It publishes its own periodical which is now

in its 18th year and is widely circulated. Here in the Canal Zone the group i.s known as the Canal Zone Society of Model Railroad Engineers, all of whom

are also members of the national organization. The local branch now has only

seven members and three junior members

although it also claims an inactive membership of eight who retained their association with the society after returning to the United States. What the local society lacks in numbers, howe\er, the members make up in enthusiasm and in railroad track, loco- motives, rolling stock, yards, switches,

tunnels, depots, scenery, trestles, and

all the other paraphernalia.

Headquarters at Corozal

Headquarters of the model railroaders are in the old Corozal railroad station which the club rents at a nominal fee. The entire baggage room is occupied by

a built-up platform, except for a narrow

passageway around the walls, on which

has been built some ten miles (in muiiature) of track. The model itself, known as the Pan-Am Railroad, is complete with railroad yards, towns,

mountain scenery, switches, and a maze

of wirmg to control the trains and the

block system.

The " Canal Zone Society of Model

Railroad Engineers last month celebrated

its fourth anniversary. During those

four years the intricate track system has

been rebuilt three times. Each rebuilding, they claim, only incites further interest for improvements and developments.

One of the club's current problems,

according to C. F. Van Steenberg, Jr., President of the Society, is to arrange for a proper division of the railway system.

When complet<>d, this will permit a member to operate the yards and transfer control to another member when a

train reaches the main line.

Variety of Occupations

A roster of the club membership is the best indicator that model railroading

is a bug which can bite anyone. Mr. Van Steenberg is employed as an electrical engineer by the Navy. The occupations of other officers and members

are: A. G. Baggott, Tunnel Operator at Gatun Locks, Vice President; Mrs. Ida H. Fuller, of the Payroll Division, Secre- tary and Treasurer; J. J. Wood, of the Finance Bureau; B. M. Duff, Automotive Inspector of the {See page 12)

RELATIVE SIZE is demonstrated here by pretty Marie JenlUns, Balboa High School student, holding

a section of tracks with a late-model Diesel engine and car. Much of the wall space at the club's headquarters in the Corozal railroad station is taken up

by pictures of railway equipment, such as the cal- endar in the background of this picture.

THIS BUCOLIC scene with the barn and silo in the background is built along one section of the main

tracks. This scenery was recently completed by Mrs. Ida H. Fuller, only woman member of the club. The tunnel at the left is one of several located on the 650 feet of main track. The model railroaders are

particular about every small detail of the layout and one member recently brought some tiny tramps made cf safety pins to lie alongside the tracks or "ride the rods."

n

n^T?

A POTEN'TIAL model railroader is Governor Newcomer who visited the headquarters of the Canal Zone Society cf Model Raitoad Engineers recently. The Governor donned an engineer's cap and operated a model of the Panama Railroad train. The town in this picture was built by the members of the club, complete with the church and steeple at the far right. The streetcar

in front of the main building can be operated on the train tracks.
April 4, 1952 THE PANAMA CANAL REVIEW

FOR YOUR

A

INTEREST AND

i-jm

GUIDANCE IN

i-/

^CCIDENT PREVENTION

OUR 1951 TOLL—

1 FATALITY—550 DISABLED

During the calendar \ear IQ51, the Panama

Canal Company—Canal Zone Government

had 550 lost time injuries, one of which was

a fatality. These represent a total of 38,112 working days lost from the job. The accident frequencx- rate experienced was 15. 2,!, which was an 11 percent im- pro\ement over the pre\ious best record of 17.02. established in 1949. This frequency

rate is a new low record for the entire organization.

The divisions and units chiefl\' responsible for this over-all improvement were

the Building Division, Industrial Bureau,

Fire Division, Commissary Division,

Grounds Maintenance Division, Terminals

Division, and miscellaneous units of the

following; Supply and Service Bureau,

Civil .Affairs Bureau, Community Services Bureau, and Railroad and Terminals Bureau. These units established new accident frequency rates ranging from 10 percent

to 100 percent over their own previous best

records. Because of the reorganization, 1950 is the first year that statistics are available

for all the bureaus as they now exist. The

".Accident Statistics for the Calendar Year

1951," which has just been published, compares the 1951 record of all bureaus

with their own 1950 record, rather than

with any previous low record which any may have had prior to the reorganization. This starting from "scratch," as it were,

places all bureaus on an equal basis for any

future comparison of one record with that

of another.

.Almost all the bureaus bettered their own 1950 accident frequency record by a HONOR ROLL

Bureau Award For BEST RECORD

February

COMMUNITY SERVICES

BUREAU

AWARDS THIS CALENDAR YEAR

Community Services 2

I ndustrial I Civil Affairs Engineering and Construction

Health

Marine

Railroad and Terminals

Supply and Service

Division Awards For NO DISABLING INJURIES

February

NAVIGATION DIVISION

MOTOR TRANSPORTATION DIVISION

DIVISION OF STOREHOUSES

GROUNDS MAINTENANCE DIVISION

AWARDS THIS CALENDAR YEAR

Grounds Maintenance __ 2 Storehouses 2 Clubhouses 1 Electrical 1 Motor Transportation 1 Navigation 1 Commissary

Dredging _. Hospitalization and Clinics Locks

Maintenance

Railroad

Sanitation

Terminals .. _

5 percent to 54 percent improvement, with

the Industrial Bureau taking top honors

with the 54 percent improvement. These

Bureaus were the Industrial, Supply and

Service, Railroad and Terminals, Communit\- Services, Engineering and Construction, Health, and Civil .Affairs. These

achievements in accident prevention greatly contributed to the substantial lowering of the accident frequency rate for the entire organization.

It is possible for all divisions and units

to better their own best record, and this

is the goal toward which all should continually direct their efforts. Therefore, when

it comes to accident prevention and the promotion of safety, it does not matter much w^here a division or unit stands at any

given time in comparison with others, but

the important thing is for them to continually strive to improve their own record.

.As their frequency rates approach a minimum, the eft'ort necessary to show

additional impro\-ement will have to be

greater, and the least letup in safe practices

will have greater adverse results in their records.

It is hoped that everyone will continue

with the splendid spirit of interest, cooperation, and effort, that has been shown in 1951 for accident prevention, with its resultant promotion of human welfare and

elimination of pain, suffering, and wage

loss that occurs w-hen safety is not gi\en

the support it deserves. The following units will receive the Di\ision HonorRoll award for No Disabling

Injuries for the month of February: N.A\'IG.ATIOX DIVISION. MOTOR TR.ANSPORT.ATION DIVISION, DIX'ISION OF

STOREHOUSES, GROUNDS M.AINTENANCE DIVISION. The Grounds Maintenance Division is tied in first place with

the Division of Storehouses in the number

of awards for this vear. The COMMUNITY SERXICES BURE.AU for the second time this year will receive the Bureau Honor Roll award for having the Best Record of the Month.

While L. \V. Chambers, Safety Inspector

for the Locks Division, is on vacation in the

States, he will attend Safety Conferences in Michigan and Ohio, and a training course on "Fundamentals of Industrial Safety," National Safety Council. During his absence, R. S. Phillips, engineer, will act as Safety Inspector for the Pacific Branch, and

R. J. Danielsen, engineer, will act as Safety Inspector for the Atlantic Branch.

IT HAPPEXED this way. Police officer Hiram

Overall could be telling Balboa Magistrate Edward

Altman. To demonstrate how accidents occurred, miniature cars and trucks can be placed in any position (except on their sides) on the new magnetized

board. The board is visible from any point in the courtroom, unlilre small disgi-ams which were used

formerly. The board is the only one of its kind in the Canal Zone courts.

SAFE alpha BETS

is for accident

Also Alert. The second helps keep you From getting hurt. The first, you can see Without being a wizard. Knocks you and production

From "A" down to "Izzard."

B

warns of Burns,

Bruises, Bumps, Bustecl Bones. They can happen to Bauer, Borkowski or Jones, So Be careful, Be watchful. Be Bright and Be Brave.

If you're stung By these B's, Brother, then you'll Behave.

FEBRUARY 1952

Communily Services Bureau

Civil Affairs Bureau

Marine Bureau

Engineering and Conslruclion Bureau

Supply and Service Bureau

Panama Canal Co.-C. Z.Gov'l (Best Year)

Panama Canal Co.C 1. Gov'l(I952 lo Dale)

Panama Canal Co. C. Z. Gov't (This month)

Industrial Bureau

Health Bureau

Railroad and Terminals Bureau

Number of Disabling Injuries. .49

Disabling Injuries per 1,060,000 Man-Hours Worked

(Frequency Rale)

Man-Hours Worked. 2,795,601

LEGEND

Amount Better Than Panama Canal Company—Canal Zone Government Best Year

Amount Worse Than Panama Canal Company—Canal Zone Government Best Year
THE PANAMA CANAL REVIEW April 4, 1952

Chauffeur Since 1908 Recalls Boer

War, Jamaica Quake, Canal Building

Ten Years Ago

In March

A swagger stick and a smile—that's Fitz Herbert AUeyne Griffith. The swagger stick- the current one is of polished

bhick palm—is a habit acquired in the nine years he spent in Queen Victoria's British Army before he came to work for the Isthmian Canal Commission way back

in 1908. The smile is just a part of him.

Griffith was 73 years old IVIarch 2, just

two days after he was retired from his job of many years, driving a truck which

hauled lumber to repair Pacific side houses. With the exception of a 15-day

lay-off in the fall of 1908, when he

switched from his first Canal Zone job

as a carpenter for the Panama Railroad

to the job he held for so many years, his service was unbroken.

When Griffith went to work as a teamster for the Motor Transportation Division on November 15, 1908, the Ancon

"corral" was located near the site of the

present Ancon postoffice. He worked with

horses and mules, the latter just as stub- born as mules anywhere else in the world. Only way to get along with them, he recalls, was to let them know right off who

was boss. When the Division was motorized he became a chauffeur and was listed that way on the rolls during all his years of service. Served In Africa

Born in the Parish of St. Lucia in Barbados, Griffith went to school there. In

1899, when he was 20, he enlisted in the

British Army. His day-by-day uniform was khaki but his dress imiform was really

something to see: black trousers with yellow seams down the sides, a flannel coat

and, for special occasions, a scarlet jacket.

The Boer war had just broken out, but

it was only after some 18 months of train- ing in Jamaica that Griffith's infantry

unit was sent to Africa. They never got

into the active fighting. They were held

as a reserve component at Sierra Leone,

where Africa's shoulder juts out into the

Atlantic. In 1905 Griffith was made a

corporal bombardier in the Royal Artillery, earning "one and sixpence a day."

Two years later, and a year after he had been returned to Jamaica, nature

took a hand in ending Griffith's military

career. One of Port Royal's frequent

earthquakes destroyed most of the artil- lery's guns. This led to the disbanding

of one of the two artillery companies sta- tioned there.

Griffith went back to Barbados and

then to Demarara, British Guiana, for a

while. His brother was working in the Canal Zone and Griffith decided to come

here. He landed in Cristobal on March

11 and two days later was at work.

Ancon As It Was In 1908 When he went to work in the Ancon

Corral, the Ancon commissary was a

"little shack" near the present police station, where cold storage was distributed every day. The Ancon postoffice was

where it now stands but it was an old wooden building. The District Court was located about on the site of the pres- ent Ancon school. A gate across Gorgas

Road, just about at the location of the present St. Luke's Cathedral, shut off the Ancon Hospital grounds.

One day in February 1928 Griffith was

FITZ HERBERT .\LLEYNE GRIFFITH

on his way to work when he found a revolver lying in the street near the Ancon postoffice. He picked it up and was examining it when it went off, the

bullet passing through the index finger on his left hand. The revolver apparently

belonged to a prowler who had been

routed by police a short time earlier as he was trying to force his way into the

old Ancon Masonic Temple.

Now that he is a retired man, Griffith doesn't know exactly how he will spend

his time. He must care for his wife who

has been blind for almost three years. He expects to find some chance to read

the Scriptures and "figure the right and

wrong of it," and he will also have more

time for his three grandchildi'en, the sons and baby daughter of Joseph N. Griffith of the Industrial Bureau. As grandfather

he enjoys them all, but he "favors" the

five-year-old boy.

Inquiries Still Coming

On French Company Bonds

Although the second French Canal

Company went out of business in the Canal Zone almost 50 yeai-s ago and it

is well over 60 years since the first bond

issue was sold in France for construction

of a canal m Panama, inquiries are still being received here as to the \'alue of the

old bonds. During the past year inquiries have come from Pakistan, France, the island

of Cyprus, India, Canada, and Egypt.

One inquiry came from New 'i'ork City,

but this apparently concerned other bonds

and not those of the French Company.

Questioners are being told that the United States Government, present owner

of the Panama Canal, did not assume re- sponsibility for the transactions of the French Canal Company. They are re- ferred to the Credit Lyonnais, in Paris,

for information on the bonds. According to the United States Consul

General in Paris, this firm acts as inter- mediary for the Societe Civile des Obligations a Lots du Canal Interoceanique de

Panama.

War, and its local repercussions, and

the Third Locks continued to make Isth- mian headlines ten years ago. Reporters interviewed the sole survivor

of a torpedoed ship, a duty which was to become only too familiar as the months

passed. He was a 17-year-old messboy

who had spent 21 days in a floating life- boat, without water and covered with oil. From his bed at the Coco Solo Naval

Hospital, the youth reported how one by

one the ten others in the lifeboat had died

or gone mad and jumped into the sea.

Instmdions were issued to civilian and

military personnel as to how to recover bar- rage balloons ichich had escaped from their moorings aroiind vital installations. In the Canal Zone 431 air-raid shelters had been completed or were under construction.

Strict regulations governing the taking of photographs and possession of cameras in or about the Canal Zone were issued. Some

250 local students began turning out the

scale model planes to be used in aircraft recognition training.

The Canal announced that negotiations were successfully completed with a large Eastern manufacturing firm for fabricat- ing and furnishing the miter gates, main

valves, and bulkheads for the third locks. The cost was to be $16,190,418.

Earlier in the month the United States

Steel Export Company had submitted a

bid of $17,503,411 for'the 44 miter gates

alone and had asked for as long as five years to complete delivery. This bid was

rejected.

Col. Thomas B. Larkin, head of the Special Engineering Division, ivas ordered back

to Washington for a new assignment. Later, with the rank of Major General, he became

Quartermaster General of the Army.

He was succeeded as Supervising Engineer by Col. Hans Kramer; Lt. Col. Charles Barth (killed in May 1943 in the sa77ie plane

crash which cost the life of Lt. Gen. Frank

Andrews') became Assistant Supervising

Engineer.

The razing of a number of buildings at Gatun and Pedro Miguel was started by

The Panama Canal. This was the result

of tests which showed that buildings

burning on or above the le\-el of the locks would light up the locks and possibly aid

in accurate bombing.

Buildings to be razed included the old Gatun postoffice, several quarters in Pe- dro Miguel, all unnecessary buildings in- side the lock walls and the second floor of the Gatun Clubhouse. "Light fences," 26 feet high, later were built along the

locks.

The Panama Railroad let it be known

that the color of all its passenger coaches was to be changed from the oldtime maroon

to a new Pullman green. The new change was an indirect result of war conditions. The maroon paint had been made with a cadmium base which with the war became

not only exceedingly expensive but difficult

to obtain as it was considered a strategic material.
April 4, 1952 THE PANAMA CANAL REVIEW

^PANAMA Bj^jj CAN AL

Official Panama Canal Company Publication

Published Monthly at BALBOA HEIGHTS, CANAL ZONE

Printed by the Panama Canal PreBB Mount Ho-pe, CanalZone

F. K. Newcomer, Governor-President

H. D. VoGEL, Lieutenant Governor

E. C. Lombard, Executive Secretary

J. RuFUS Hardy, Editor

Eleanor H. MclLHE>fNY

Oleva Hastings

Editorial Assistants LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Letters containing inquiries, suggestions,

criticisms, or opinions of a general nature

will he welcomed. Those of sufficient interest

will be published but signatures will not be

used unless desired. SUBSCRIPTIONS—$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 M.\IL-10 cents 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 the Editor, The

Pan.\ma Canal Review, Balboa Heights,

C. Z.

To Subscribers

Please notify us promptly of any

change in your mailing a ddress.

Post offices everywhere have pre- 1 pored postal card forms for notices

of changes of address.

Residents Of Silver Cily To Vote On Official Name Of Their Town

Army Secretary Visits Canal

FRANK PACE, .Jr., Secretary of the Army, had his first view of the Panama Canal diu-ing a three- day visit last month. At a press interview on the day before his departure he expressed amazement at the engineering mgenuity of nearly 50 years ago which made possible the Canal and its facilities. Secretary Pace spent the entire day, Sunday, March 23, in conference with Governor Newcomer

on matters pertaining to the Panama Canal Company and the Canal Zone Government and on an inspection trip to the Pacific Locks and a trip through the Canal. The picture above was taken just after the party left the launch at the Aids to Navigation Division landing in Gatun. Left to right are: Governor Newcomer; Secretary Pace; Canal Zone Policeman Theodore E. Englebright; Lieutenant Governor Herbert D. Vogel; and Fred Korth, Deputy Department

of the Army Counsellor. The special message to the employees of the Panama Canal Company and the Canal Zone Government from Secretary Pace, issued on the day of his departure, is shown below. The last time the Canal Zone was visited by a Secretary of the .\rmy was four years ago when Secretary- Kenneth C. Royall was here. Although visits to the Canal by Secretaries of the Army (or War)

while in office have been relatively infrequent, there have been several since the construction work was

begun in May 1904. William Howard Taft was the first, coming to the Isthmus in November 1904, while

Secretarv of War.

'ANAI. ZONK OOVKRNMENT

IVAI.BOA URIOUT*!. nANAL ZOrfB OKFlr>H OK T!1R OOVKHNOR

(Continued from page 3) Frijoles, La Boca,

and Balboa. Camp Coiner Included

The official name to be selected for Silver City will include the section now

known as Camp Coiner and residents there will be given an opportunity to vote along with residents of "rainbow"

city and those of the old section of Silver City.

The name Camp Coiner, which is to be eliminated after the selection of the new name, was given to the area in 1942 when it was occupied by the main offices of the Construction District of the Pan- ama Engineer Division. Up until then,

it had been known as Camp Randolph

and the change in names was made to avoid confusion. The name was selected

in honor of Lt. Col. Richard T. Coiner,

Corps of Engineers, who died in August

193.3 while .serving as Department Engineer in the Canal Zone. The use of the name was continued without official recognition after the area was transferred

to the Canal in 194.5 for a housing

development.

March 25, 1952

It has been a source of great satisfaction to see

the Panaaa Canal and to observe parts of its operation during my brief visit to the Canal Zone. It is truly one of the engineering HBrrels of our nation.

During the past year the Government entity responsible

for the oneration of the Canal and the Government of the Caie.1 Zone has undergone a fundamental alteration. The very nature

of this change requires that plans be developed with care and

- deliberation. The adjustments required are still in progress,

and during this period of adjustment I want to assure all employees that their welfare has been and will continue to be constantly borne in mind

.

Despite its relative youth, the Canal organization

has a great tradition of accomplishjnsnt. Its future, I am

sure, will be a continuation of that tradition and all of the employees of the enterpri.'ie can take Just pride in their part in its success,

I am very glad to have the opportunity to extend ny

compliments to all employees of the Panama Canal Company and

the Canal Zone Government for a work which is being well done.

FRANK PACE, JR, ^

Saeretary of the Army
THE PANAMA CANAL REVIEW April 4, 1952

Electric Brain, Mechanical Termites

Join Forces To Punch Out Paychecks

Men and machines are getting together

these days at Diablo Heights to turn out paychecks for men and women of the Panama Canal Company and Canal Zone

Ciovernment.

The results of some of their labors look

like Swiss cheeses gone modern; some of the others look as if oblong termites have

taken a bite or two. The heart of the new system of mechanized paychecks— if machines can be said

to ha\-e a heart— is a battery of 24 Inter- national Business machines, 22 of them

concentrated in a smallish room on the ground floor of the Payroll Division build- ing at Diablo Heights.

There ai'e some things, of course, which

will still have to be done by human brains. But of the 52 steps which h&xe been

worked out for processing Company-Government payrolls, the machines— or the

section where the machines are located—

can handle 38.

.\nd, in addition, the machines are

able, at the push of a switch to turn out

in a fantastically short time, just about

any sort of resume which is wanted.

Suppose the Treasurer, as he needs to every quarter, wants to find out just how

much withholding tax has been deducted

from employee's salaries. A stack of cards, one for each employee, is fed into a machine. In almost no time at all, from

little holes in these individual cards, an

"electric brain" figures the total, checks

it, and prints it.

Holes Are the Cue

The holes are the cue to the entire procedure, which is known in accountant's

pai'lance as punched card accounting. The

holes give all kinds of information; they

further show the "bites" which are taken

out of each employee's salary foi- rent, or income tax, or water, or light, or what

haven't you. Take the first check which was issued by machine, for instance. It went to William H. Dunlop, Finance Director. His IC number—15—happened to be the

lowest on the first gang to be processed

by the machines early last month.

Sometime earlier, from information supplied by Personnel, Finance, etc., a master

card had been prepared for him. It tells everything machines or people need to know about him for payi'oll purposes. The card, perhaps significantly, is just the size of an old-fashioned $1 bill. Held .so that light shines through its perforations, its 69 holes mean nothing to anyone but the experts. But the holes say

this to the IBM machines:

His roll, 4; his gang, 1 ; his IC number,

15; his name, which becomes in figures0-6, 12-9, x-3, .X-:?, 12-9, 12-1, x-4 (that's William), 12-8 (that's H.), 12-4, 0-4, x-5,

x-3, x-6, x-7 (that's Dunlop).

Punches Tell Status A little farther over on the card a punch

through a number 7 indicates that he is a classified employee. Another punch

shows the number of his tax exemptions.

A hole through a zero shows that he is a

full-time employee, subject to retirement

and withholding tax.

(If he were a temporary employee, subject to withholding tax and social se- curity—but not retirement -the figure

punched would have been a 1. There are other code figures for other types of employees.)

Still further toward the right side of the plastic-impregnated oblong of stiff paper, punches indicate that he is paid

bi-weekly and give the amount of his gross bi-weekly pay. More punches tell the machines that

his unit rate is by the hour and that his

official rate is by the year. Another

punched hole indicates his GS grade.

The last six punches show his personnel

status and are used to make up force and

budget reports. To make these Swiss cheese effects is the principal job of two machines known

as keypunches, informally called "mechanical termites." They transcribe printed infoi-mation into punched numbers, a great deal like coding machines.

To get the figures which stand for

I\TRIC.\CIES of the "Electric Brain" which adds, subtracts, multiplies, and divides, checks its own

work and punches the answers into cards are examined by Charles H. McKeon, left, and \'ictor Herr. The

"brain" is an important step in the business of handling Company-Government payrolls by machine.

William H. Dunlop, an operator like Florence Scott or Shirley McNall types

the name on a keyboard lettered like a

typewriter. Instead of printing letters, however, the machine reproduces the name in figures which are punched on

the card.Cards and Cards and Cards

This dossier in inhuman form, the master card, is only one of several punched

cards from which the machines get the information which eventually becomes a paycheck.

Information on payroll deductionsthere are 80 possible ones for CompanyGovernment employees is transcribed onto other cards in the form of the little oblong holes. A $20 bi-weekly rent rate, for instance, shows up as 02000 on the punched card. A hospital bill of $35 be- comes 03500 by holes. There is a separate card for each deduction. Those which are standard, like rent, telephone, furniture rental, electric range

charges, can be used over and over again.

All the other cards are used only once and

discarded.

J. 0. Barnes, Chief of the Payroll Division, estimates that 50,000 separate de- duction cards will be used to process a

payroll. Each of these cards is punched

with the employee's roll, gang, IC number, name, etc. Eventually they are sorted together by

one of the three machines whose operation is the most fascinating to watch of any in the machine room. (Some of the

others are far more complex but the aver- age observer can't understand them.)

The uncanny sorters see to it that all of Mr. Dunlop's deduction cards— or those of any other employee—are placed

together so that they can be summarized

for the final processes by which they are

(1) totaled and printed on the deduction

slip which will accompany each pay check

and (2) subtracted from the amount of money earned to give the amount of the check itself. Works on Credit Side, Too

But that's all on the debit side. On the

credit side, men and machines also work

together to see how much Mr. Dunlop

has earned.

First step in this process is a time card

which, as the rolls become entirely mechanized, will replace the old-fashioned time

book. Onto each time card a machine has

printed and punched an employee's roll, gang, IC number, etc., from information on the key master card. In Mr. Dunlop's case, this printed card went with others on his roll to Kathleen

McGuigan, who has worked in the Fi- nance Bureau for 17 years and who is timekeeper for this roll. She enters, by

hand, the total number of hours he has worked and what leave, if any, has been

taken. Back at Diablo, the time card goes to William Thornton, one of six rollkeepers

in his .section. He checks Miss McGuigan's figures to make sure that the timing was legal. He handles four rolls, two of which are mechanized and two still under the old- fashioned manual system. It is his job

to see that neither employee nor company
April 4, 1952 THE PANAMA CANAL REVIEW

"Mechanical; TERMITES" is the nickname for these keypunch machines. They "chew" little holes into cards to guide the calculating, accounting, and sorting machines. Their operators, lefl to right, are: Rosalie Smith, Florence Scott, Mrs. Katbryn .\mmirati, and Shirley McXall.

loses any money through the figuring on

the time card.

It is also his job to furnish the machine

section with a total of hours worked at

basic, overtime, and holiday rates. These

totals are the controls which the machines

must later reach. If the machine totals do not agree with the manual totals, something is wrong somewhere.

Before the machine process starts, Mr. Thornton turns Mr. Dunlop's card and

the others on his rolls over to Edward A. Durham, whose 1.5 years of Canal service stand him in good stead in his job as control clerk. He heads the U. S.-rate rolls, which are the first being mechanized.

When he has made a check, the machine process of computing the paychecks

is ready to begin.

Computation Starts The time cards are bundled up and sent downstairs to Charles H. McKeon, head

of the machine section. Mr. McKeon, a proud Texan who is a Certified Public Accountant and who worked for IBM

before he came here last September, turns

the cards over to Don Herr, who has ten years of government service in payroll

work, or to John A. Morales, whose serv- ice—all with payrolls—dates back to

19.31. They pack the cards into sorting machines, three of which line a wall at one end of the room. So fast that they look

like a steady stream, the cards flow across a brush which separates them into two heaps—classified and wage board. Over by the windows overlooking the Diablo Clubhouse, Miss McNall and Miss

Scott are waiting to punch into the time

cards the number of hours worked. From

these punches, the computing machines

will later figure out just how much Mr. Dunlop and the rest of us have earned. The classified cards ai-e turned over to Miss Scott, the wage board cards to Miss

McNall. Both girls are comparative newcomers to the Canal organization but both have had machine experience. They have

had special keypunch training and Miss

Scott, in addition, has done similar work

in the United States. From the stacked time cards the>- punch into new computation cards the

holes which indicate the number of hours worked and the rate at which the employee is paid.

As fast as they ha\'e completed this

process, two other operators take over They are Rosalie Smith, who has worked

for several years in the machine accounting section at the Administration Building, and Mrs. Kathryn Ammirati, who

did keypunch work in the United States. They operate verifiers. These machines

look almost exactly like the keypunches.

Miss Smith and Mrs. Ammirati have a stack of time cards on one hand, and a

stack of the already-punched computation

cards on the other. From information on

the time cards they go through the same

process which Miss Scott and Miss McNall have already completed. If the cards were punched correctly in the first place, the verifier runs without interruption.

Otherwise it flashes a red "error" light. The punched computation cards have

up to now, been handled by rolls and in sequence according to IC number, lowest

first. That's how Mr. Dunlop happened

to be low man on his totem pole. In this order the punched and verified cards are

fed into an accounting machine which

totals and tabulates the number of hours

classified and wage board employees have

worked, by rolls. The totals are compared with those sent from the control

section upstairs. In the next step, the punched computation cards are turned over to the cal- culating punch, the most amazing—if not

visibly impressive (until you see its mazelike insides) —of the 22 machines.

This electrical wizard is operated by a

control board which is wired for the particular job it is to perform. A complicated

control board will take 10 to 12 hours to

wire. Mr. McKeon has wired most of the boards so far, and Mr. Morales and Mr.

Herr are learning.

There are two of these calculating

punches in the payroll office. They can

add, subtract, multiply, and divide at an amazing speed. They can even figure

income tax—unfortunately. At the rate of one card each five seconds, the machine performs the processes necessary to find out what anyone

has earned in a certain number of hours

at his fixed rates. The results are punched

into the cards, for more Swiss checso

effects. By this time the machines have totaled and chewed out of various cards Mr. Dunlop's gross earnings and have also totaled and indicated by holes, just what deductions are to be taken out. Now the payroll people are ready to move on to the last of the machine calculations. A collator matches current pay

cards, which show the amount taken. Any of the operators can run this machine.

(In addition to Mr. Herr and Mr. Morales, Carl Pajak is learning machine operation, dividing his time between his regular job as head of the deduction section and the machine room.)

To "Electric Brain"

Back to the "electric brain" the cards now go. The proper panel is set in place—

changing a panel takes only a matter of seconds -and the calculating punch goes

to work. Into the card it computes and

punches taxes, retirement, and net pay, and indicates those cards on which deductions exceed earnings. (Cards like the

latter call for special and complicated

handling.)

From the resulting pay cards the checks

themselves are printed and sent to the

Treasurer's office for signature. Even this

is mechanized.

The signature of the Company's Treasurer, J. W. Greene, has been reproduced

onto a metal plate which, for obvious

reasons, is kept under lock and key. The

plate is inserted into a check-signing machine which can sign and date 2.50 checks

a minute.

There are further steps, (.See page lo)

F.\STER THAN an eye can follow, the three sorting machines ai im- 1 ayroll Division deposit punched cards into their proper places, one of the many steps in getting out paychecks. Carl Pajak, left, and John A. Morales work with these and others of the 22 machines which are installed at Diablo Heights.
10 THE PANAMA CANAL REVIEW April 4, 1952

2,500 Men Being Employed

For Canal Building Program

{Continued fram page 1 1 work to be done by

Canal forces on the housing program will require 200 or more additional employees.

Direct Income for Panama

The monthly payrolls of Canal contractors will be, practically speaking, a

direct flow into the Republic of Panama

since such employees are not granted

commissary privileges unless residing in the Canal Zone. This influx of more than

$200,000 a month in payrolls will aid in the stimulation of economy principally in the two cities of Panama and Colon,

where unemployment ranks are thickest, since the money will be spent for rent, food, clothing, and other necessities. The monthly payrolls directly resulting

from the Panama Canal Company's $80,-

000,000 housing program will be greatly

augmented over the ne.xt three or four years by the acceleration of the program

which has been planned.

Although still in its early stages, the

building program is placing a checkrein on unemployment figures which have been

high locally for the past four years. While

the number to be used on quarters con-

.struction this fiscal year will by no means

absorb th(^ bulk of the unemployed in the Republic of Panama, it will make a size- able dent in unemployment figures and

will go far to relieving the present eco- nomic strain. At the present time the Canal's local- rate force is about 3,500 less than the immediate post-war level of 1948. By the end of May, however, it is expected that

the force, plus those to be employed by

Canal contractors, will bring the total number employed on local-rate rolls to within about 1 ,000 of the July 1948 figures

when 17,700 were working.

Many Benefit Indirectly

These figures relate only to the work to be done in the Canal Zone proper. Hundreds of others will be given employment

in the Republic of Panama indirectly as a result of the rapidly expanding building

program which entails the purchase of great quantities of construction material

in the local markets. An instance of these

indirect benefits is the purchase of up- wards of $750,000 worth of native lumber

for which contracts were recently awarded

The furnishing of this lumber will require a major expansion of milling facilities, principally in the Province of Chiriqui.

The number of new employees to be

recruited locally for work in the Canal Zone will be divided about equally be- tween the Atlantic and Pacific sides. Contractors on the Atlantic side have

furnished the Canal with estimates of 1,300 workers needed by the middle of next month. The number to be used by

contractors on the Pacific side is consid- erably less, but the Atlantic and Pacific

side figures probably will be nearly

equalled by the extra men needed by

the Maintenance Division. Most Labor at Margarita

The bulk of the labor on the Atlantic

side will be used at Margarita where the Macco-Panpacific Company has contracts

for nearly $3,400,000 worth of work.

They estimate they will require a local- rate force of 900 men by the middle of June when their work is in full swing.

The work to be done by Isthmian Constructors, Inc. on contract work in Silver City and quarters construction at Gatun

will require about 300 men, most of whom

THE LIST OF JOBH available are pusted daily on the bulletin boards of the Central Labor Office

in Balboa and Cristobal. During the past few years there have generally been more applicants than

jobs in all categories. The list is compiled from requests of all employing agencies in the Canal Zone,

including contractors. n r

I'.EAUV I'Oli \\(J|;K if^ this t^iuup of men in the Central Labor Office in Balboa. The men rep- resent several different types of workers. They are being given instructions on where and when to report

to work by John Eastmond, Clerk in the Central Labor Office. Men seeking employment must have

valid eligibility cards before they are accepted.

are already at work. In addition to these, Manuel Calderon, contractor for the construction of a new Commissary Division

building at Mount Hope, expects to have

a force of 100 engaged by the middle of

this month.

The largest single force on contract work on the Pacific side will be used by

Tucker McClure on his work at Paraiso. His force estimates furnished the Canal

indicate that he will employ 450 men at the peak of the work which will be in May. The number to be employed on

other Pacific side contract work includes 250 men by Framorco on its million-dollar building contract in Ancon; ISO by Macco-Panpacific for the Cardenas townsite

grading; and 60 by the Republic Construction & Maintenance Company for the construction work at Diablo Heights.

The Maintenance Division will employ

well over 100 extra men for its work in the construction of the concrete tanks and

sewage system at Paraiso and the house

building program in Balboa. There is presently no estimate of the extra labor

force which may be required in other work under the 1952 fiscal year program

because of the alteration in plans for the new town of Summit.

Central Labor Office Busy

Work in the Central Labor offices on

both sides of the Isthmus has been greatly increased lately by the building program. The increase was noted beginning at the

first of March after all construction contracts were awarded. More new local-rate employees were hired by the Canal during the first two weeks in March than the

entire total in February.

The labor pool now available through

the Central Labor Office is ample to supply a labor force many times the size re- quired. There are presently approximately 14,000 eligibility cards outstanding. 'The only holders of eligibility cards

are those who have been hired by some

employing agency in the Canal Zone since January 1, 1946, although a few others with special qualifications are processed

monthly.

The establishment of a centralized agency for the processing and clearance

of local-rate labor took place before the beginning of the World War II by agree- ment among the major employing agencies in the Canal Zone. Although modified from time to time in adjustment to changing conditions, the system then es- tablished has been used now for more

than 12 years and has proved to be highly

satisfactory in the handling of labor prob- lems entailed in the great upswing and

down-swing of employment which has taken place during that time.
April 4, 1952 THE PANAMA CANAL REVIEW 11 NEW ARTIFICAL RESPIRATION METHOD

l''IR.ST8TliPinthe new back-pressure arm-lift : or (HolgerNielson) method

of artificial respiration is demonstrated by Kenneth R. Coleman of the Balboa

Station, kneeling. He is instructing in the new method which has been adopted

officially here. The "victim" is Frank R. Constanzo, also of the Balboa Fire

Station.

ARMS ARE lifted toward the operator when pressure on the "victim's" back is released. The accompanying article explains details of the back-pressui'e

arm-lift resuscitation method.

{Condensation of a release by Department

of Defense, Office of Public Information,

Washington, D. C.) Many of you will at some time have to administer artificial respiration to an ac- cident victim. Be it a victim of drowning, electric shock, or asphyxiation for other reasons, artificial respiration must

be started by the first person on the scene and that may be you. Most of us are at least on speaking terms with the Schafer prone pressure method where the victim is placed face down, the operator straddles him and

rhythmically applies pressure to the chest. This forces air out of the lungs, but there

is no active manipulative phase to draw new air into the lungs. It has recently been proven by researchers that the Schafer method is only about one-half as effi- cient as most of the other known methods.

It has therefore been recommended that another be adopted as a standard method.

Thii new method is called the back-pressure arm-lift (or Holger Nielson) method.

The arm-lift provides a phase of active intake of air. In any method of artificial respiration

remember these general rules:

(1) Seconds count, start at once. Don't try to move the victim to a more

favorable location and don't wait for help.

(2) Use the method with which you

are familiar until you learn a better one. Many lives have been saved by the fa- miliar Schafer method.

(3) Any method is useless unless the

air can get in and out of the lungs so make sure the passages are open. Clean

out the throat and mouth and slide the

t(jngue and jaw forward.

(4) Keep it going, especially in electrical shock victims, until recovery or

until pronounced dead by a physician. Don't abandon hope too soon. The back-pressure arm-lift method may

be performed by a small person upon a

larger one for an extended period of time

and without undue fatigue. The tech- nique is simple and easily mastered. The

victim is placed in the prone or face-down

position and if readily available on an incline so the head is lower than the feet to promote drainage from the nose and

mouth. The elbows are bent, the hands

placed one on the other and the head

placed so that one cheek rests on the hands. The victim's neck is extended (pulled

backwards) to provide a more open air passageway. The operator then kneels at the victim's head and faces his feet. With

the forefinger sweep the back of the throat and mouth clean of debris and pull the tongue forward. The operator's hands

are then placed on the victim's back on

a line drawn across just below his armpits, the fingers are spread out and thumb

point toward each other. Then with your elbows straight, slowly rock forward, gradually applying pressure, gently release, and as you rock back- wards grasp the victim's arms just above

the elbows and draw them upward and

toward you until you begin to feel resist- ance and tension at the victim's shoulders. Then gently drop the arms to the ground

and repeat the whole cycle at the rate of 12 to 15 per minute. It is as simple as that and you may save a life. Forty Years Ago

In March

It was a month of records, with Steamshovel 124 leading the pack. On March 1 this 70-ton Bucyrus shovel with its three- yard dipper loaded 2,830 yards of earth

into 283 dump cars in a working day of eight hours. It was the greatest amount

of material excavated by a shovel of that type in one day since work began. Fourteen days later 124 broke its own

record by 70 yards. In eight hours 124 loaded 290 dump cars with 2,900 cubic yards of material. And as a mass effort, on March 6, 26

shovels working in Culebra Cut exca- vated a total of 41,254 cubic yards, car measurement, in an eight-hour day.

This was a record for a single day's ex- cavation in the Culebra district.

After a 12,000-mile voyage from Fal- mouth, England, the twin-screw ladder dredge Corozal reached Balboa on March 2T. The dredge had left Falmouth December

29 and was 88 days in making its long voyage across the Atlantic and around

South America. It was subseqiiently used

for underivater excavation at the Pacific entrance of the Canal.

New vehicular speed limits, replacing those which had been set in 1908, were

established by executive order. Motorists, bicyclists, and motorcyclists could burn up the road at all of 15 miles an hour, providing the highway was

straight.

On curves, at road forks and crossroads and within town limits, the speed had to be cut to eight miles an hour.

Gatun lake was sloivly rising. On March

2, the surface elevation was 16.2 feet and

the height of the Chagres River at Bohio was

the same. Over 82 percent of the concrete for the

locks was in place as of March 23. At

the close of work on that day 3,448,881 cubic yards had been poured.

Of the three flights of locks, Gatun was

92 percent finished as far as the concrete was concerned; Pedro Miguel locks had

98 percent of its concrete in place; and

Miraflores was moving along with 55 per- cent of concrete laid.

Canal Zone visitors included Joseph Pennell who spent some time here obtaining

material for pictures of Canal work to be

xlsed in Century Magazine.

Some of the lithographs which resulted

: from the artist's visit hang in the Board

R<)om and several offices at the Balboa

Heights Administration Building.

. A working model of a section of the

locks was built in the Gorgona shops by

modelmaker Taylor T. Curran. The

model, six feet four inches long and eight

and a half feet wide, included one lock chamber and enough of the center wall to show the relationship of the twin chambers
12 THE PANAMA CANAL REVIEW April 4, 1952

SCOUT PRESIDENT

WILLIAM JUMP President of the International Boy Scout Council of the Canal Zone, will as<iist in the voting for the official name for Silver City.

Model Railroading Is Great Fun For Group At Corozal

{Continued from page 4) Army; Joseph W.

Coffin, Gatun Fireman ; and D. H. Searle, Policeman at Gatun. The three Junior members, Richard

Abbott, David Otten, and Stuart Bush,

are all Balboa High School students. The society holds weekly meetings on Thursday nights and the three Gatun

members usually come over on the lat<> afternoon train, spend a few hours at

their hobby and return on the night train. New Members Wanted

The club is presently looking for additional members who must be U. S. citizens and entitled to commissary privileges. There are no initiation fees and the dues are three dollars a month for the first year and two dollars a month thereafter. Membership in the club entitles a member

to use the track layout but the rolling stock

is individually owned, the amount being

governed by enthusiasm and affluence. The monthly dues also go to pay the

rent, water and light, and the dues to the national organization. Membership

in the Zone Club carries with it the

privilege of buying model railroad equipment from manufacturers at a considerable discount. Although the club meetings are every Thursday night, many members spend

To Movie Goers—

Ju our work wc see a great many iiioving pic- tures—some so-so, some good, and just a few

exceptionally fine.

A really excellent picture is as much a treat

to us as to you, and we have just seen one we

consider excellent in every detail. The name of

this motion picture is With a Song in Ah' Heart.

We cojisider ourselves fortunate to have secured it for Clubhouse theater patrons, a}ul it opens in the

Balboa Theater on Saturday, April I'K Done oitirely in Technicolor, With a Song in

My Heart is based on the life of Jane Froman.

Miss Froman, as you may remember, was very

seriously injured in a plane crash while flying to entertain troops during World War II. Doctors

prophesied that she woidd never be able to resume

her successful singing career. By her pluck, per- severance, and determination, hoivcver, she was

able to resume her place as a star in the enter- tainment u'orld. Susan Ilayivard plays the part of Miss Fronuin

in the picture, but the singing voice that you hear

is that of Miss Froman.

The story is ivarni enough, appealing, moving,

and song-laden enough to capture your interest

and emotions, those of your family, a)id of the

millions of perso)is throughout the world who will

even'ually see this great musical production.

We urge you to see it! IIV knoic you will find

With a Song in My Heart as oilcrtaijiing and

as impressive as zw did.

The Clubhouse Management

many additional hours at the headquarters. This is specially true when the

club has some particular project in progress. Mrs. Fuller, the only woman

member, is one of the chief decorators and scenery shifters. One of her most

recent and best creations is a tiny \'illage

located along one section of main track which is complete to a housewife hanging

out the weekly wash. Other members devote most of their time to their pai'ticular specialty, such

as the intricate wiring system, laying

track, or installing switches.

'TT^nraTT—?^

FROM BOTH SIDES of the Isthmus and from widely different jobs come

the members of the Canal Zone Society of Model Railroad Engineers to work

on their layout at the Corozal railroad station. Left to right, in the front row

are Byron M. DufT, who works for the Army, and Mrs. Ida H. Fuller, a Payroll Division employee. In the back row are: left In right: J. .1. Wood of the

Finance Bureau; Stuart Bush, a student at Balboa High School; C. F. Van

Steenberg, Jr., an electrical engineer for the .Xavy and president of the local Society; A. G. Baggott, a tunnel opcratrr at Gatun Lix-ks; Joseph W. Coffin, a fireman from Gatun, and .'\(lrian M. Boiicho, signalman at Flamenco Island, who is a former member.
April 4, 1952 THE PANAMA CANAL REVIEW 13

OUR OUT-OF-DOORS

ROOSEVELT AVENUE, which could be called Banyan Boulevard, runs under an arch of spreading Chinese Banyan trees.

The Chinese Banyan trees (Ficus

retusa) along that section of Roosevelt Avenue between the Railroad station and

the Balboa Commissary Annex form an

arch of beauty.

The trees were planted in 1916, soon

after Balboa was first laid out. The

Banyans on Roosevelt Avenue were pro- pagated from layings made on the trees

in Cathedral Plaza in Panama City.

It has become necessary to remove

almost half of the trees to save the rest. Contrary to popular belief, the orangecolored lichen (mold) is not causing

serious damage and is not the cause of their being thinned. At the present time the trees are so

close together that there is not sufficient room for root expansion.

Several trees had died before it was

decided to thin out the remaming trees

in an effort to save the beautiful shady

arch. A project is now under way to remove

approximately every other tree. The

street will, of course, look bare for some

time, but the remaining trees have

responded so well to the additional light

and sun that within a short time the

trees which have been removed will scarcely be missed. The Chinese Banyan is a native of Asia and was brought to the Americas

many years ago. Very old trees are found in almost

every park in Central and South America, where they are called "Laurel de

India."

ROTC To Hold Spring Camp

At Empire April 5-10

Approximately 180 cadets from the Junior ROTC units at Balboa and Cris- tobal High Schools will spend five days

at Empire in this year's Spring Camp.

The cadets will fire the M-1 rifle, carbine, light machine gun, and Browning

automatic rifle and will also run a platoon

in an attack problem.

There's a time to |buyJBro\vnies in'Jthe special pastry sections of 12 Your Canal commissaries. The same

Pastry is true of 31 other bakery items Schedule that are sold only on certain days of the week, in addition to 37 breads and pastries in the stores all the time. The schedule for the specialties is: Tuesday: Princess pats; cinnamon

bread; date nut cookies; applesauce la\-

ers; coconut drops; and salt rising bread. Wednesday: Jelly strips; ice cream

siiuares; lemon meringue pie; tropical

ring; pineapple upside down cake; pineapple cake; and chocolate chip cookies. Thursday: Brownies; oatmeal cookies;

devil's food cups; coconut strips; coconut

drops; and salt rising bread. Friday: Lady fingers; lemon cones; ginger cookies; snowballs; tropical ring; pineapple upside down cake; and chocolate chip cookies. Saturday: Chiffon cakes; crumb coffee- cake; chocolate filled roll; cheesecake;

jelly buns; and pineapple cake.

.Small fry Easter paraders will be cute

as their Easter bunnies in pastel organdy

dress and bonnet sets now in the conmiissaries. For really small small fr>', there's a new

all-in-one baby bath and beauty treatment

called "Tod'l." It is a liquid that forms

a lather that is soap, oil, cream, and lotion

all in one.

New Westinghouse refrigerators, with automatic defrosting and all New the newest developments, will Refrigerators be ready for delivery to purchasers' homes about the

first of IVIay. Prices and other details

will be in the commissar\' bulletin before they go on sale.

Fresh frozen cherries —the kind that make good pies —are new in the quick

frozen food sections. A 20-ounce tin costs 38 cents. For pies that look as luscious as they

taste, the houseware sections have lattice pie cutters that take the work out of pastry lattice work.

New eye and beau catchers now in the

stores are , mask veils, which

And, Now, look so much like hats they

Mask Veils are sold in the millinery sections. They have a pretty peek-a-boo of veil in front and a bit of a

velvet bow behind and glamour girls wear them for—hats!

"Miracle cleaning aids" are the current crush of the people at Mount Hope who

handle housewares for the commissaries. The cleaning "cloths" look like a latticed cross between a chainois and a sponge and

that's just the way they work.

.Sponges have other competition for the favor of housewives on cleanup details. There are now plastic "sponges" of ivalon that are softer and wear longer than the

plain old marine variety.

It's apple-picking time in Chile and the Commissary Division has picked up a solid price advantage in buying the current supply of apples, grapes, plums, honeydew

melons, and onions there. The retail price on Chilean apples now in the stores, for instance, is substantially lower than it would have to be for apples of similar type

and quality from the States.

There are new "Honeydebs" in the

stores now. Commissary

The Family people call them "casuals." Shoe Women who see them will Situation probably call them good look- ing low heeled shoes. There

are wedgie pumps and sandals in nice

colors. .Some are elk; some are linen with nylon mesh; and some are raffia —

and that ain't hay—it's straw from

Switzerland. There are even bags to match the linen and rafifia shoes. Children will get a lot of kicks out of cushion-crepe soled shoes now in the

stores. The soles feel verv light and

wear \er\' hard.

E.xtra wide shoes for women who

don't like squeeze plays are new in the shoe sections. They are inexpensive white sandals in sizes 4 to 11 and w-i-d-e.

Can-opener cooks can buy tomatoes

already stewed, potatoes pre-cooked, beets already "Harvarded," and hamburgers

already broiled. They're all in cans in the grocery sections. White crinoline half slips, now in the

stores, make a pretty dress a standout. They're now on the "haff-to-have " list of fashion-minded misses.

Mr. and Mrs. Fi.xit can fix up ugly chinks

with Plastic Wood; now in the stores in handy tubes. It handles like putty and

hardens into wood.

Tomatoes in the stores from early March

to late April taste especially good because

they are ripened on the vine. They come

from Panama and don't have to be picked

green to withstand a trip from a United

States garden to a Canal Zone commissary.

Hydromatic action costs $3.35 if you buy it on sponge mops, new

Hydromatic in the housewares sections. A

Action In wringing lever at waist height

Mops takes the stoop out of scrubbing. The Commissary promises replacement sponges.

There are sport shirts and sport shirts and sport shirts in the stores now. Among

them are two by Arrow, one a long-sleeved washable rayon in patterns and solid colors; the other, a short-sleeved cotton skipdent broadcloth in solid colors.

Dietetic meats and jellies are new in the health food sections. Meat eaters can have beef hash, beef stew, chili con carne, and meat sauce. Sweet-tooth satisfiers are cherry, raspberry, grape, and strawberry

jelly.

Redhead shampoo by Helena Rubenstein

is new in the stores. Not only for the

carrot top crowd, it reddens red tinges in blonde and brown hair too.

Sweet talk says there's a lot of candy

in the stores —now and for Easter Easter and then on. For sound

Parade Of as well as savor, consider: Sweets Starlight kisses, anise scotties, old-fashioned and salt-water

taffy, peppermint sunbeams, spice strings, chicken bones, boston baked beans, butter balls, and almost ad infiniliim.

Chocolate sundaes now come in pint

packages in the frozen food sections. A

special chocolate mix melts faster than the

\anilla ice cream in the package and overflows to make a sundae.

If all this bores you, try "No-Doz"

awakeners. You can buy them in the commissaries, too.
14 THE PANAMA CANAL REVIEW April 4, 1952

THIS MONTH'S CALENDAR ANNIVERSARIES

APRIL

4th —American Legion Post No. 6, Gainboa, 7:.?0 p. m. 5lh—Track Foreman No. 2741, Balboa B & B Shops.

6th —Veterans of Foreign Wars Post No.

3857, X'etcrans' Club, Cristobal, 9 a. 111. 7th—Cristobal-Margarita Civic Council, Margarita Clubhouse, 7:30

p. 111. PedroMiguelCivicCouncil, Union

Church, 7 p. ni. Postal Employees No. 23160, Bal- boa Locl^e Hall, 7:30 p. m. Veterans of Foreign Wars Post No.

727, Fort Claylcm, 7:.«)p. m. Veterans of Foreign Wars Post No.

3822, Ciiriiiulu Road, 7:30 p. m. 8th- Electrical Workers No. 397, Wirz

Memorial, 7:30 p. in. Veterans of Foreign Wars Post No.

100, Old Boy Scout Building, Cristobal, 7:30 p. ni. American Legion Post No. 7, Fort

Cla\ton, 7:,W p. m. American Legion Auxiliary No. 1, Balboa, 7:30 p. m.

9th

Carpenters No. 913, Balboa Lodge

Hall, 7:30 p. m.

Pacific Civic Council, Board Room,

.Administration Building, 7:30 p.m. American Legion Post No. 2, Cristobal, 7:30 p. m. lllh-Good Friday.

13th —Pipefitters, Margarita Clubhouse,

9:30 a. ni. Slieetmetal Workers No. 157, Bal- boa Clubhouse, 9:30 a. m. Plumbers .No. 606, Balboa Lodge

Hall, 9:.50 a. m. 14th—Machinists No. 699, Margarita K.

of C. Hall, 7:,W p. m. American Legion Post No. 1, Bal- boa, 7:30 p. 111. 15lli

Machinists No. 811, Balboa Lodge

Hall, 7:,30 p. m. Operating Engineers No. 595, Margarita K. of C. Hall, 7 p. in. 16th—Veterans of Foreign Wars Post No.

40, Balboa K. of C. Hall, 7:30 p.m. American Federation of Government Employees No. 14, Balboa

Clubhouse, 7:30 p. m.

American Legion Auxiliary No. 3, Gatun, 7:30 p. m.

17thAmerican Legion Auxiliary No. 6, Ganiboa, 7:30 p. m.

20thCentral Labor Union - Metal

Trades Council, Balboa Lodge

Hall, 8:30 a. m.

21st

Electrical Workers No. 677, Galuii Masonic Temple, 7:30 p. m. Truckdrivers, Balboa Lodge Hall,

7 p. 111. 22d— Operating Engineers No. 595, Bal- boa Lodge Hall, 7 p. in. Veterans of Foreign Wars Post No.

100, Old Boy Scout Building, Cristobal, 7:30 p. m.

23d— Anjerican Federation of Government Employees No. 88, Margarita Clubhouse, 7:30 p. m. American Legion Auxiliary No. 2, Cristobal, 7:30 p. in. 24th

Governor-Employee Conference

Board Room,.\diiiiiiistration Building, 2 p. m.

28thMachinists No. 699, Margarita K.

of C. Hall, 7:30 p. m. Veterans of Foreign Wars Auxiliary Post 3822 Post Home, 7:30

p. in. MAY

1stCarpenters No. 667, Margarita Clubhouse. 7:30 p. in.

April Sailings

From Cristobal

S. S. Ancon April 4

S. S. Panama April 11 S. S. Cristobal April IS

S. S. Ancon April 2.5 From New York

S.S.Panama April 2

S. S. Cristobal April 9

S. S. Ancon April 16

S. S. Panama April 23

S. S. Cristobal April 30

PROMOTIONS AND TRANSFERS

February 15 Through March 15

The following list contains the names of those U. .S.-rate employees who were transferred from one division to another or from one type of work to another. It does

not C()iitaiii within-grade promotions and

regradiiigs. ADMINISTRATIVE BRANCH

William S. Wigg, from Clerk-typist, Records Section, to Correspondence Clerk, Correspondence Section. CIVIL AFFAIRS BUREAU

Mrs. Elizabeth Luhr, Mrs. Bessie G. Herring, and Mrs. Marjorie H. Mullaly,

from Substitute Teacher to Elementary

School Teacher, Schools Division. Mrs. Evelyn D. Engelke, from Personnel Clerk (typist). Personnel Bureau, to Clerk-Stenographer, Police Division. CIVIL INTELLIGENCE BRANCH

Earl J. Williamson, from Investigator

to Chief. COMMUNITY SERVICES BUREAU

Wendell G. Cotton, from Manager, Gatun Housing Office, to Administrative

Assistant, Housing Division. Mrs. Marion E. Middlebrook, from

Clerk-typist, Terminals Division, to Clerktypist, Grounds Maintenance Division. ENGINEERING AND CONSTRUCTION

BUREAU

Mrs. Frances A. Hunter, from Mail

Clerk, office of Director, Personnel Bureau,

to Clerk-typist, Contract and Inspection

Division.

Ernest P. Muzzio, from Plumber,

Maintenance I)i\isioii. to Plumbing In- spector, Contract antl Inspection Division. John W. Whipple, from Ironworker Foreman, Maintenance Division, to Construction Inspector, Contract and Inspection Division. Curtis H. George, from Wireinan to Wirenian Leadingman, Klectrical Di\isioii. James C. Sisson, from Construction

.Supervisor, Maintenance Division, to Construction Inspector, Contract and Inspection Division. John E. Davis, from Principal Foreman

to Pumpman, Maintenance Division. Murray Klipper, from Wiremaii, Klectrical Di\isioii, to Klectrical Construction

Inspector, Contract and Inspection Division. HEALTH BUREAU

Mary E. Willis, from Nurse, Gorgas

Hospital, to Public Health Nurse, Panama

Health Office. Mary L. Azcarraga, from Clerk-Sten- ographer, Division of Schools, to ClerkTranslator, Panama Health (Jffice. INDUSTRIAL BUREAU

Robert M. Blakely, from Machinist and Inspector to Machinist Leadingman,

Production Division. MARINE BUREAU

Graydon W. Brown, from Lock Operator VVireman Leader to Control House

Operator, Pacific Locks.

PZmpIoyees who observed Important anniversaries during the month of March are

listed alphabetically below. The number of years includes all Government service with

the Canal or other agencies. Those with

continuous Canal or Railroad service are

indicated with {if).

.15 YEARS

John B. Corliss, Chief Towboat Engineer, Dredging Division.

30 YEARS

Harold V. Goddard, Craneman and Operator, Motor Transportation Division. Clarence Sibus, .Assistant Superintendent, Pacific Branch, Locks Division.

25 YEARS

Henry P. Butcher, Lock Operator, Machinist Leader, Locks Division. Julian P. Hackett, Telephone Maintainer. Communications Branch. Frederick W. Hensler, Dock Foreman,

Navigation Division. Dr. Ezra Hurwitz, Superintendent, Palo

.Seco. Edwin F. Rigby, Storekeeper, Division

of Storehouses. Edna C. Whitver, Government .Accountant, Finance Bureau.

20 YEARS

Murphy B. Alexander, Principal Construction and Maintenance Foreman, Maintenance Division. Violet M. Courville, School Nurse, BalLioa

.

Charles F. Delaney, Postal Clerk. George M. Lowe, Administrative .Assist- ant, Locks Division. ^Alfred E. Osborne, Supervisor of lustructicjn. Canal Zone Colored Schools.

15 YEARS

Kenneth A. Brown, Clerk-Typist, Division ol Storehouses. James H. Burns, Chief Towboat Engineer, Navigation Division. •Webster G. Farrell, Pilot, Navigation

Division. Milton J. Halley, Postal Clerk. Thomas T. Jordan, Machinist, Indii.strial Bureau. Hayward H. Shacklett, Safety Engineer, .Saletv' Branch. Joseph J. Svihra, Fireman.

A-Daniel C. Zitzman, .Supply Clerk, Housing Division.

RETIREMENTS IN MARCH

Employees who retired at the end of March, their birthplaces, titles, length ot service at retirement, and their future addresses are: Leonard C. Lauterbach, Pennsylvania;

Electrical Machinist, Balboa Field Office, Electrical Division; 28 years, 10 months,

and 29 days; 'Tampa, Fla. Mrs. Gabriela R. Lopp, Puerto Rico;

Cashier, La Boca Commissary; 24 years and

20 days; .Atlanta, Ga.

Harry J. Linker, from Leadingman

Machinist, Industrial Bureau to Machinist,

Dredging Division. Sydney T. Lindh, from Machinist

Leader, Industrial Bureau, to Lock Operator Machinist, Pacific Locks. Morris R. Collins, from Engineer,

Pipeline Suction Dredge, to First .Assistant Engineer, Pipeline -Suction Dredge, Dredging Division. Edward H. Dietrich, from Steam

Kngineer, Floating Crane, to Engineer,

Pipeline .Suction Dredge, Dredging Division. A. Paul Jones, from Steam Engineer,

Floating Crane, to Dipper Dredge Engineer,

Dredging Division. Charles J. Connor, from Foreman,

Pipeline Suction Dredge, to Drill Barge

Blaster, Dredging Division. Charles S. Joyner, from Foreman.

Ferry Service, to Drill Barge Blaster, Dredging Division. Edward O. Pike, from Junior Foreman,

Ferry Service, to Drill Runner, Dredging

Division. {See page /j)
April 4, 1952 THE PANAMA CANAL REVIEW 15

Old DQM Office Disappears LOCKS SECURITY CHIEF

j*'^.

_j

ONE OF THE oldest buildings in Balboa, thi; Housing Uttice or old Uistnct Quartermaster Building, was demolished last month. The two-story frame structure was built soon ofter the to«Ti of Balboa was

occupied.

1953 Building Program Calls

For $31,750,000 Expenditure

(Continued from page 1) will also See the

first of the new-type bachelor apartment

buildings constructed for U. S.-rate employees. These will be 17-unit, masonry

buildings. Tentative plans call for the

location of one of these in Ancon; two in Diablo Heights; and eight bachelor apartment buildings in Margarita.

A total of 153 family apartments are

to be built in the new residential area being developed this year at Margarita.

Other work there next year includes the

construction of a swimming pool, 100 feet wide and 50 meters long. Present plans

call for the construction of appro.ximately

230 family apartments in the area selected

for the new townsite development on the

Pacific side. An elementary school is also to be constructed in this area. Construction will begin during the coming year on practically all of the com- munity facilities planned for the new

town of Cardenas, and a total of $2,683,-

900 will be apportioned for this. The

program calls for the construction of the

following: A swimming pool, 100 feet by

50 meters; an elementary school; a juniorClaud M. Kreger, from Pump Operator

to Junior Foreman, Dredging Division. PERSONNEL BUREAU

Joanne Steiner, from Clerk-Typist, Personnel Records Division, to Mail Clerk,

Office of the Director. Mrs. Elsa L. Bailey, from Clerk-Sten- ographer to Personnel Clerk (Typist),

Employment and Utilization Division. RAILROADS AND TERMINALS

BUREAU

Hubert W. Jarman, from Stevedore Foreman to Head Stevedore Foreman,

Terminals Division. SUPPLY AND SERVICE BUREAU

Jasper W. Burton, from Clerk, Hotel Washington, to Clerk, Hotel Tivoli. Mrs. Jessie E. Albright, from Cash

Accounting Clerk to Commissary Assistant,

Commissary Division. Frederick B. Hill, Jr., from Commissary i'\ssistant to Property and Supply

Clerk, Commissary Division.

senior high school; a Commissary building; theater; Clubhouse (including a li- brary); post office; police and fire stations; a medical-dental clinic; and an office for the Housing Manager and Grounds Maintenance Division. All of these facilities, with the exception of the two schools and

the swimming pool, will be located in a

central community center area. In addition to the house-building pro- gram at Chagres and in the Camp Bierd

and Old Cristobal areas on the Atlantic

side, a new elementary and junior high

school building is to be built at Silver City. No new quarters are scheduled for construction in the Silver City-Camp

Coiner area during the coming year.

Electric Brain, Mechanical Termites

Join Forces To Punch Out Paychecks

{Continued from page 9) of COUrSe, but most of them have to do with posting,

auditing, and accounting, so that at any

time the division can tell in a matter of minutes just how much has been spent

so far this year for what type of work and

to whom.

At the present time, there are 72 U. S.- rate and 18 local-rate employees in the Payroll Division. When the system is completely mechanized there will be some

reduction of force. All employees who

have been hired for the division since last September are considered temporary.

Payroll Comparatively New

As a division, Payroll is comparatively

new. Its functions were formerly scat- tered through the individual divisions and

it was not until November 1950 that Payroll was set up as a division of the Fi- nance Bureau.

Its head is Mr. Barnes who did his first pa3Toll work in the Navy just after World

War I. He went to work for the Canal

in 1925, worked in the Accoimting and

Supply Departments and has headed the Payroll Division since its formation. His

assistant is Howard Turner, to whom goes much of the credit for setting up the

Edward H. Halsall, below, has been

appointed Chief of the new Locks

Security Force. His appointment was

effective last Monday. With his new

position he assumed the title of Captain.

Captain Halsall has been employed by

The Panama Canal and Panama Canal

Company for almost 24 years, 15 of them

on the Canal Zone Police force. A

native of Stamford, Connecticut, he came to the Canal Zone on July 4, 1928,

from Jamaica where he had been working

as an overseer on a coffee and banana

plantation.

EDW.\RD H. HALSALL

Before going to Jamaica, he had

served for almost 8 years in the Army,

21 months of this time being spent

overseas. As head of the new Locks Security

Force, he will be in charge of 55 IT. S.-rate and 12 local-rate locks guards. The

U. S.-rate guards will be armed and will have full authority to apprehend sus- picious persons and to gather and safe- guard evidence. This organization is now being formed, with the present

force of 32 U. S.-rate and 7 local-rate^ men as its nucleus During his 15 years on the Police

Force, Captain Halsall was stationed at Ancon, Balboa, Gatun, and Pedro Miguel

and was sub-station commander at Chiva-Chiva when he transferred to the

District Quartermaster's office at Cocoli

in 1943. He comes to the Locks Secizrity Force from the Balboa Housing Office.

mechanized payroll system. He was sent

to the States about a year ago to study

mechanized procedure in New Orleans and Texas. On his retiu-n he worked out some of the code and helped set up the problems for which the control boards of the electric brains are wired. What the men and machines are doing

at Diablo is perfectly clear to a handful

of people. But it isn't to everyone. The day the first checks were run off. Governor Newcomer, Lieutenant Governor Vogel, and the Governor's Executive

Assistant, Forrest G. Dunsmoor, came to watch. There was a whir and a buzz and

the printed paychecks, Mr. Dunlop's first of all, came zipping out of the machines.

The Governor shook his head. "Amazing," he said, "Very amazing and very

confusing too."
16 THE PANAMA CANAL REVIEW April 4,1952 _^

Scrap—It's EveryAvhere

AN ABANDONED DUMP of old railroad equipment near the Cucaracha signal station will yield an estimated 50 tons of scrap for the current drive for old metal. J. F. Prager, Superintendent of the Storehouse Division, above, ploughed through grass and underbrush to evaluate the find.

Scrap, the people at the Panama Canal

Company's Division of Storehouses are

finding, is everywhere.

Scrap from old machinery which has been declared obsolete or surplus, from

old railroad rails, from old pipe, and

screening and metal fittings from razed

quarters, is old stuff. But now the Division has gone further afield in its hunt for scrap- and afield is the proper word. From old dumps, from fields overgrown

with grass, from the Canal banks, and

from encroaching jungle, the scrap hunters are bringing back old metal to be cut up and sold for scrap which, eventually,

will find its way into steel mills and other

places where scrap is vitally needed. Some of the material which is now- being i-ecovered for scrap was abandoned

when the Canal was completed, because

it was easier to leave it where it was than

to move it. "Scrap" was practically un- heard of and in many cases the expenses

of moving old equipment would have been more than it was worth. For instance, when Gatun Dam was

finished 16 dump cars were isolated on

the west bank of the Canal. For close to 40 years they stood on an old railroad

siding. They could not be brought across the locks as they were. Today the Storehouse Division is dis- mantling these old dump cars and bringing them across the lock gates in pieces

by truck. The 500 or so tons from the

old dump cars will be added to the scrap

piles in Balboa. Found Old Dump

Opposite Cucaracha Slide on the west bank of the Canal, not far from the Cucaracha signal station, scrap hunters found an abandoned dump of old railroad equipment.

Preparations are now under way to ex- cavate this dump and recover all of the estimated .50 tons of usable scrap. Then, too, old boilers were found along

the banks of the Canal. They have been

removed to Gamboa by the Dredging

Division and are being cut to pieces for scrap. From this find alone, approximately 150 tons of metal scrap are antici- pated.

Even Fence Posts Salvaged

Even fence posts, long abandoned, will go to swell the scrap pile. From old pastures which were used between 1917 and

1934 for the Canal's cattle industry, the Storehouse Division is salvaging an esti- mated 3,000 metal fence posts. The posts were made from T-rails which

themselves were salvage. After the balls

of the rails were removed to make rein- forcing bars, the rest of the rails were cut

into lengths for posts to fence in pastures

at Summit and Caimito.

Altogether, from dump cars, the abandoned dump near Cucaracha, the Canal

banks, and the old pastures, the Store- house Division expects to salvage close to 900 tons of scrap. Since the scrap salvage program was

started last July 1, a total of 4,212 tons have been collected. Of this some 4,000 tons were classified as ferrous (or with an

iron base) and 212 tons were non-ferrous. On April 14, bids to purchase close to 2,200 net tons of ferrous scrap will be opened at the Storehouse ofiice in Balboa

and two days later bids on about 150 tons

of non-ferrous scrap will be considered.

Library Of Congress Books

Available To Local Readers

Canal Zone book-lovers henceforth

will have an even wider range in the

selection of their reading material. The Canal Zone Library has just

announced that the Library is now

authorized to borrow books for interested patrons from the Library of Congress.

This privilege, which for many years was limited to libraries within the United States, has recently been ex- tended to include libraries outside the

continental United States. Readers who wish to borrow any title which is available in the Library of Congress on a loan basis will give the Library Assistant on duty at the Circulation Desk the author, title, the publisher and date of publication, if possible, for the book desired. Readers will be

notified of the arrival of the books they

Atlantic Side Plans

Rousing July Fourth

Plans for a rousing Fourth of July

celebration for the Atlantic side are already under way with a bang—and a pun is intended. So far on the Pacific

side no July 4 Committee has been

formed.

Atlantic side co-chairman John S. Rice and Herbert Engelke are confident that they and their committees will provide residents of New and Old Cristobal, Gatun, and Margarita with one of the best celebrations in many years. The July 4 program is sponsored by the Cristobal-Margarita Civic Council. In- vitations to participate have been ex- tended to the Gatun council and to about 15 different organizations, among

them the Army, Navy, Knights of Columbus, Elks, and veterans' groups. Present plans call for a celebration which will last from eight o'clock in the morning to ten o'clock at night and which

will include a parade, athletic events, games, a community luncheon, a swimming meet at Gatun, and, of course, evening fireworks. Part of the day's

activities will take place in Gatun and

part in Margarita.

Rifle Champion

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RICH.\RDDILL.MA.\, Balboa High School senior, holds the three targets on which he made a score of 296 out of a possible 300 last month to set a new Isth- mian record, lie fired from the three standard positions, prone, sitting, and standing, scoring 100 on the

first two and 96 on the third. The new record was set

in an Isthmian Gallery League match at the Balboa ROTC range. The new champion has been shooting

since he was 12 vears old.

have requested.

Conditions of the inter-library loan provide that the material lent cannot

ordinarly include those books which

should be in a local library, books which

are procurable through ordinary trade

channels, books for the general reader, textbooks or popular manuals, books in the Rare Book Collection, or volumes

in poor physical condition.