77^ /- 7ia ^>

Gift ofthe Panama Canal Museum THt

Vol. 2, No. 8 BALBOA HEIGHTS, CANAL ZONE, MARCH 7, 1952 5 cents AWARD $8,500,000 IN CONSTRUCTION CONTRACTS

FOR CANAL COMPANY'S 1952 HOUSING PROGRAM

TROPICAL TOBOGGANING 1^^^^^h- ji^H v^ *d

r K HHH1

Iwfc-" r^T^WflW^Pf^ TPB^p^W|^BI Wyi| " ¥f

' bl^

f /.,'• *. "' '**

N HP

flflHi^^HI^SHi^BHHBBH

«*!

GRASSY SLOPES in the dry season provide ideal toboggan slides for the younger set. Ready-made

toboggans are provided by the numerous big royal palm trees wh?n they shed their fronds. The slope around the Administration Building at Balboa Heights is one of the most popular of the sledding runs on the Pacific side. The palm fronds carry one, two, or sometimes as many as four customers on a trip. The group above is composed of Mary Smith, Suzy Hele, and Don Grant (left "to right), on a downhill slide, and Ellen Anne Rennie with young Steve Grant at the right on their way uphill for another tnrilling ride. The principal spectator and helper at the extreme left ij "Ditto," one of the better-known canine residents

of the Pacific side, who makes his home at the Rennies.

Canal's Purchase Of Supplies In Panama

Increased $250,000 In Six-Month Period

Farmers, merchants, and manufacturers in the Republic of Panama sold $250,000 more of their supplies to the Panama Canal organization during the

last six months of 1951 than during the corresponding period of 1950. Purchases made in Panama from June

through December of last year amounted

to $905,000, as compared with $654,000

during the last half of 1950, an increase

of nearly 40 percent. These figures are exclusive of purchases made by the armed forces and other Government

agencies in the Canal Zone, nor do they

include materials bought by local contractors incidental to their construction

contracts with the Panama Canal Company and Canal Zone Government,

amounting to several millions of dollars. The tremendous increase in local purchases by the Canal Company units—

the Commissary, Clubhouse, and Store- house Divisions—was sufficient in volume

and dollar value to have a beneficial

effect on Panama's economy. The Canal's long-established policy of buying locally when supplies are available

at competitive price and quality has been

greatly strengthened within recent months

by cooperative efforts of Panama pro- ducers and Panama Canal (See page w i

Specials For March

#Palo Seco and its residents are Introduced

to you in a completely different fashion on pages 8 and 9. # I 'he Central Labor Union and Metal

Trades Council, representing one-third

of U. S.-rate employees, are featured

in this issue on page 2. #One of the last French Canal Company

employees retires. See page 12. # Your airmail letter —how It is handled

along with millions of other pieces of airmail in the Balboa office. See page 4

Maintenance Division

Will Handle Projects

Costing Over Million

Contracts totaling $8,500,000

have been awarded since December in the Canal's 1952

quarters construction program.

In addition, building and site

work scheduled to be done by

the Maintenance Division will

cost nearly $1,200,000.

This year's program provides

for 243 new family apartments

for U. S.-rate employees and 422 family

apartments for local-rate employees, as

well as the preparation of sites for several hundred new buildings to be erected during the coming year. The work will be centered mainly in the Atlantic side towns of Margarita and

Silver City, and in Ancon and the new

Pacific side townsites of Cardenas and

Summit. Other work includes the construction of small groups of houses in Gatun, Diablo Heights, and Balboa.

In scale, the quarters construction program this year is the largest under- taken by the Canal organization since the Canal construction period. Contracts awarded this year total the largest

amount in any year since the Third

Locks construction was in progress 11 years ago.All Contracts Awarded

The last group of contracts were awarded late last month for work in Cardenas, Gatun, and Margarita. In- cluded in this group was extensive grading and municipal work to be done at the new town of Summit. This and the construction of 15 houses in Balboa, which

will be done by the Maintenance Division. The following briefly summarizes the

entire quarters construction program for

this fiscal year at the various townsites: MARGARITA: The contract for all of the work at Margarita has been

awarded to Macco-Panpacific, Inc., a

joint venture of the Macco Corp. of California and the Panpacific Construction Corp., the latter a local contracting

firm. The work is divided into three contracts as follows: Construction of 131 masonry quarters, 148 units, at a cost

of $2,491,500; grading and site preparation for the 1953 construction program,

$716,747; and rough grading on an extension of the townsite for future building,

$186,820. The rough (See page 13)
THE PANAMA CANAL REVIEW March 7, 1952

Central Labor Union-Metal Trades Council

Represent One-Third Of U. S.-Rate Workers

REPRESENTATIVES of organized labor in the Canal Zone met with

Secretary of War Newton D. BaKer during the Secretary'3 visit here in December 1919. Mr. Baker, wearing rimmed glasses and with his hat in his hand,

is in the center of the front row. In uniform beside him is Governor Chester

Harding, whose term extended from January 1917 to February 1921. On Governor Harding's other side is William C. Hushing, now chairman of the Legislative Committee of the American Federation of Labor. Third

from the left in the front row is the late Dr. George Eugene. At the right end of the front row is George F. Wright, who provided this photograph for The Panama Canal Review. Mr. Wright, one-time president of the Blacksmith's Union, installed the

first officers for the Metal Trades Council and for the Central Labor [Tnibn. He has continued as installing officer for many years.

With a total membership of about

1 ,400 men and women in 24 local unions,

the Central Labor Union-Metal Trades

Council serves as liaison with the American Federation of Labor for roughly onethird of the U. S.-rate employees of the Panama Canal Company and the Canal Zone Government.

Today most Canal Zone bachelors have

comfortable beds and hot water for shaving because of these two interlocking labor groups—but more of that later. This month the Metal Trades Council

is celebrating its 38th anniversary; the Central Labor Union is four year younger. What are these two groups; what is the

difference in their functions and how do

they operate? Not even a good many of their members understand. Here is how

the officers of the CLU-MTC explain

them:

The Metal Trades Council, which was

organized in March 1914 in the old construction day town of Empire, is primarily an affiliation of local unions whose

members work in such crafts as are employed in Naval Shipyards. They are the

boilermakers, shipfitters, riggers, sheet- metal workers, etc. The first meeting of the Metal Trades

Council was held on a Sunday, March 22, and Sunday has ever since been its traditional meeting day. A week after this

first meeting, on March 29, the provisional council which had been formed on March 22 was dissolved and a Metal

Trades Council was organized. Seven

Metal Trades organizations, all of them of the so-called "blue-collar" workers, were

affiliated with this original council. MTC Deals With Wages, Not Laws

As it is set up, the Metal Trades Council for the Canal Zone, like similar Metal

Trades Councils all over the United

States, is interested primarily in two

questions: Wages and working conditions. The Metal Trades Council does not deal

directly with legislation. That is the province of the Central Labor Union.

Here in the Canal Zone most of the

skilled trades are affiliated with the Metal Trades although some crafts, such

as the carpenters, hold a second AFL

charter with the Building and Construction Trades Department. This charter was obtained in 1942 during the local building boom.

This charter, however, is not used and

for purposes of convenience these building

and construction crafts operate through

the AFL's Metal Trades Department

charter. "The unions are affiliated into a council because labor feels that a union working

by itself is like a man working by himself," labor officials explain. And they put

it more formally so: "The AFL advocates

that all local units of the national or

international labor unions affiliated with

it become members of the central body."

In the United States, the various Metal

Trades Councils have a committee which

negotiates with Commandants of the Naval Districts on wages and working

conditions. CLU: A Union of Unions

The Central Labor Union, in labor parlance, is a "city-central" body, whose

purpose is to maintain overall relations among all AFL unions. It is, in effect, a union of unions. The Canal Zone Central Labor Union,

like Central Labor Unions in every city

and State in the United States, is charged

with the responsibility of organizing its territory. That is, it is supposed to see that all AFL unions are organized to the

limit and that everyone who is eligible for membership in a union is signed into his proper group.

In the Canal Zone, one CLU man ex- plained, there is need for a union of technical engineers and draftsmen. Plans

for such a union here are now being made.

The Central Labor Union has no juris- diction over any one union; it is primarily a clearing house for all AFL unions.

Where Central Labor Unions are established, the Metal Trades Department

authorizes the MTC to operate as a unit

of this CLU.

The CLU's principal function, besids being a union of unions, is legislation. In the United States, the city groups deal with municipal bodies on municipal labor

laws. The state bodies deal with state

legislatures and the national body deals with Congress, through the Legislative

Committee of the AFL.

Since there are no city or state legisla- tive bodies here, the CLU handles its legislative problems directly with the National Committee, the chairman of which is William C. Hushing. Mr. Hushing

is a former Canal employee—he was a patternmaker in the old Mechanical Division from 1916 to 1921 —and is the brother

of John Hushing, United States Marshal

for the Canal Zone. Voting Procedure Differs Another major difference between the two groups is in voting procedure. The

Metal Trades Council votes by crafts; each craft has six votes, regardless of the

size of its membership or the number of

locals in that craft. The Central Labor Union votes by

unions on a proportional basis. The votes

are cast by delegates. In that sense, the CLU is similar to any legislative body

where delegates represent population, in this case, membership.

The activities of the CLU-MTC are. financed by a monthly per capita payment

of 50 cents for each member of the affili- ated unions. Additional money to finance the legislative program is obtained by

voluntary contributions of $10, from

union and non-union members.

The president of the CLU-MTC is an

electrician, Walter Wagner. He has been

in the Canal Zone since 1937 and works

as a power dispatcher with the Electrical Division. The first vice president, also an

electrician, is James S« page .ii
March 7,1952 THE PANAMA CANAL REVIEW

SHIP FARES AND VEGETABLE BUYING HEAB

AGENDA DISCUSSED AT MONTHLY CONFERENCE

Council President

Persistent and widespread rumors that

fares for employees on the Panama Line

ships would be increased drastically were

killed last week by Lieutenant Governor

Herbert D. Vogel in the monthly Gover- nor-Employee Conference. Colonel Vogel presided over the confer- ence between administration and employee

representatives in the absence of Governor

F. K. Newcomer.

Except for knowledge that there were rumors to the effect that the steamship

fares would be upped, Colonel Vogel told the Conference that he had no knowledge

of any such change.

He said he believed that the rumors

might have originated in the "bookkeeping transactions" in which the Panama

Canal Company is paying the difference between the fare paid by the employees

and the actual cost of the transportation.

Minimum fare, one way, is $40; the actual

cost of transporting a passenger one way

is about $120.

Rufus Lovelady, president of AFGE

Lodge No. 14, reported at some length on a talk earlier in the month with John

Barton, who handles the purchase of fresh

fruits and vegetables for the Commissaries in the New York office of the Company.

Mr. Barton, according to Mr. Lovelady,

explained the difficulty of anticipating

sales and markets. He visited several

retail commissaries and found some merchandise in unusable condition. He would recommend, he told Mr.

Lovelady, that such merchandise either be removed from the sales counters or

sold as damaged merchandise at reduced

costs. Colonel Vogel said that substantially the same conversation had been held with Mr. Barton in the Governor's office.

Local Purchases Made

Some foodstuffs of this type are now

being purchased in Boquete and other

fruit and vegetable items are being obtained from southern California and

Arizona. This merchandise is being

shipped to New Orleans by special train and from New Orleans to the Canal Zone by ship. Colonel Vogel commented that he

considered Mr. Barton's (See page 15)

(Continued from page 2) Trimble. He has been employed by the Electrical Division

since 1940. The second vice president, traditionally an Atlantic Sider, is Eugene Breakfield. He is a postal clerk at Cristobal and

is a comparative newcomer to the Isth- mus, having been here only since 1948. Both the secretary, E. W. Hatchett,

who has held that job for 14 years, and

the treasurer, Walter Fischer, are on the

faculty of Balboa High School. Howard E. Munro, another electrician,

is the Labor member on the CompanyGovernment Wage Board. He is ap- pointed by the Governor and reports

directly to the Governor. Another important post is that of legis- lative representative, who, currently is William M. Price. He left the Canal Zone

late in December to be in Washington

during the present session of Congress.

Fight Against Rent

From the time of its organization, the

CLU-MTC has held a reputation as a

fighting crew. One of the unions' earliest campaigns was for the betterment of bachelor quarters. The bachelors wanted

decent furniture, comfortable beds, single rooms and hot water, although an official comment of the period was to the effect that "few men experience difficulty

shaving with cold water in this climate."

In 1921, the CLU-MTC began a long

and costly, if unsuccessul, fight to prevent

employees from having to pay rent for their quarters. The fight went all the way to the United States Supreme Court and in three years cost over $25,000.

A similar campaign was undertaken more recently when rents on Canal

quarters were increased, but this never

got beyond the early legal stages. Other matters in which the CLU-MTC

has been active include: Restoration, in 1935, of a 15 percent pay cut; extension of the 40-hour week to the Canal Zone; imFIRST WOMAN to be elected president of a Canal Zone Civic Council is Margaret Rennie of Ancon. She heads the Pacific Civic Council. A

resident of the Canal Zone since 1937, Mrs. Rennie

has served on the council for 4 years. She is an

interior decorator by profession and is particularly interested in housing. Several years ago, she

served on the committee which mane a survey of the Canal Zone to determine types of housing desired by the employees.

provements in retirement law and incor- poration of Canal Zone retirement with

the Civil Service system; and, more

recently, cancellation of the retroactive phase of income tax; and pay raises legis- latively for policemen, firemen and teachers, and administratively for other employees.

Until the early 1930's the CLU-MTC

had no permanent legislative representation, although on several occasions

selected members made trips to Washington to appear before committees of Congress on one matter or another. For several years after 1922 when Mr. Hushing left his Panama Canal job, he

represented the CLU-MTC in Washington. In 1925 he suggested that a local representative be maintained in Washington during Congressional sessions. It was several years, however, before such a

representative was elected and in the meantime Mr. Hushing, who by that time was a member of the AFL legislative committee, continued to represent Canal Zone

interests.

CENTRAL LABOR UNION-METAL TRADES COUNCIL officers meet regularly to discuss business of their joint organization. Left to right are: George O. Lee and F. M. Baumbach, both trustees; Walter Wagner, president;

E. W. Hatchett, secretary; Walter Fischer, treasurer; and Howard Munro, Wage Board member.
THE PANAMA CANAL REVIEW March 7, 1952

Over 30,000 Pieces of Airmail Daily

Handled By Zone's Busy Postal Clerks

All the love letters, business correspondence, family communiques, mail orders, and miscellaneous notes and cards that

fly by regular airmail between Canal

Zonians and correspondents all over che world go through the Airmail Field—or Airmail Section -of the Canal Zone

Postal System.

And most of the correspondence to and

from the Canal Zone does fly. Last year 91 percent of the paid first class mail forwarded was dispatched by

air—a proportion that has climbed

steadily year after year since the first regular airmail service was established between France Field and Miami in 1929. In weight the airmail to and from the Canal Zone amounts to about 500 to 700 pounds every day, roughly 28,000 to 38,000 pieces' of mail.

All of it is handled by nine postal clerks, headed by Julius M. Culpepper, Clerk-in- Charge at the Airmail Section, in the

Civil Affairs Building in Ancon and at Tocumen Airport.

Together they comprise the local "Air- mail Field." the term, as used in the

Ignited States postal service, means a unit

of the Post Office Department at desig- nated air terminals where mail is received and "worked out" to a certain area of the country.

Most Goes To U. S. About 78 percent of the airmail dis- patched from the Canal Zone goes to the United States. All of it—except on two

direct flights to Los Angeles— is unloaded

at Miami. From there, it is sent on the quickest direct flight to one of eight designated Air Mail Fields. Mail for Texas, Arizona, New Mexico,

Oklahoma, or Kansas, for instance, is dis- patched to the Air Mail Field at Houston. That to Georgia, Alabama, South Carolina, Missouri, Michigan, or Ohio goes to the Air Mail Field at Atlanta. Airmail to California, on the other hand, goes first one way and then another. On Sunday and Thursday, when

there are direct flights to Los Angeles, it

is dispatched to that Air Mail Field. On

THIS MODIFIED Bob Feller pitching technique is used by Julius M, Culpepper, clerk in charge of the Airmail Section, to put outgoing mail into the right airmail sacks bound for the United States.

other days, it goes to the Chicago Air Mail Field, which also handles mail for Alaska, Colorado, Idaho, Illinois (except

Chicago), Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota,

Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota,

Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, Washington

State, Wisconsin, Wyoming, and Western

Canada.

Most of the airmail from the Canal Zone goes to the Atlanta and Chicago

Air Mail Fields, according to the clerks

of the Air Mail Section. Then there are a few addressees who

receive so much Canal Zone airmail that they rate individual pigeonholes in the

cases at the Airmail Section in which the mail is sorted for destinations in the United States. Some Have Special Sacks

Among them are Sears, Roebuck and

Company, Kodak, for which there are so many films that the company has a

special airmail sack among the group

bound for various Air Mail Fields, the Government Employees Finance Company in Fort Worth, Texas and Life Study Fellowship in Noroton, Conn.

Transatlantic mail—for Europe, Asia,

and Africa—goes to the Air Mail Field at Washington, D. C. That for the Philippine Islands, New Zealand, Australia,

Japan, and Hong Kong is dispatched on

direct flights to Los Angeles on Sunday

and Thursday. On other days, that also goes to the Air Mail Field at Chicago,

from which it is sent to West Coast Air Mail Field enroute to its final destination. Canal Zone airmail for South America

is dispatched direct—on one flight down

the East Coast and another down the West Coast. Mail for Jamaica is also dispatched direct twice a week, with that

for the other islands in the West Indies going to Port-of-Spain or Miami for handling.A day in the life of a (See page 6)

AIRM AIL FROM the Canal Zone bound for the United States is "worked out" into pigeonholed cases for various cities. Shown here at this sorting and

shuffling operation are R. W. Wandelt, W. S. Ireland, H. W. Blaney, D. W. Secrest, postal clerks, and J. M. Culpepper in charge of the Airmail Section.
March 7,1952 THE PANAMA CANAL REVIEW

FOR YOUR

A

INTEREST AND GUIDANCE

* i \*m PREVENTION

SAFETY ON THE RAILROAD

The Panama Railroad strives to maintain maximum safety throughout its entire or- ganization. The Railroad won the Division Honor Roll award for NO DISABLING

INJURIES five times during 1951, and was

tied for second place with three other divisions. Though this is an impressive record

there can be no letup in our safety program

if we expect to maintain or improve this performance. In addition to the safety of our employees, no less important is the

safety of nonrailroad employees working on

or near Panama Railroad facilities, and the

safety of the general public.

Cooperation with the Railroad is essential

for the safety of all these employees. The

railroad tracks are constructed and maintained primarily for the purpose of operating

trains in accordance with certain rules and

regulations. While the Railroad will comply

with reasonable requests for specific protective safety measures, gang foremen and

others should plan their work to fit the operating requirements of the Railroad. There are several basic rules which should be

observed at all times if accidents are to be

prevented.

Track speeder operators must pass an

examination on the Panama Railroad Operating Rules and Regulations before being

permitted to operate speeders over the

tracks of the Railroad. They and others working on or along the right of way should be conversant with and observe these rules and regulations together with the Panama

Railroad Safety Rule Book. They should

carry an accurate timepiece and a copy of

HONOR ROLL

Bureau Award For BEST RECORD

January

COMMUNITY SERVICES

BUREAU

INDUSTRIAL BUREAU

AWARDS THIS CALENDAR YEAR

Community Services 1 Industrial 1 Civil Affairs Engineering and Construction

Health

Marine 9 Railroad and Terminals

Supply and Service

Division Awards For NO DISABLING INJURIES

January

CLUBHOUSE DIVISION

ELECTRICAL DIVISION

DIVISION OF STOREHOUSES

GROUNDS MAINTENANCE DIVISION

AWARDS THIS CALENDAR YEAR

Clubhouses 1 Electrical 1 Grounds Maintenance 1 Storehouses 1 Commissary

Dredging

Hospitalization and Clinics. —

Locks

Maintenance

Motor Transportation

Navigation

Railroad

Sanitation

Terminals

the current time-table. They must be

familiar with the schedules of all regular

trains and secure information on extra trains from the Train Dispatcher as often as safety

requires.

The gang foremen should see that their men are vigilant and alert, and impress upon them constantly that trains may run at any

time and in either direction. No employee

should rely on others to give warning of an

approaching train, even though a watchman

has been posted for that specific purpose. For added safety, their work should be con- centrated in the smallest possible area so they can know that all their men are taking proper precautions to avoid injury. Tools are not to be left between the rails, nor resting on the rails when not in use. Equipment, temporary structures, and materials must not be placed within six feet of the nearest rail to allow proper and safe clearance for passing trains. Safety for the general public is a more

difficult problem because individuals act in- dependently and sometimes without apparent reason. The Railroad endeavors to eliminate known hazards promptly. However, there are many precautions the public can take and many unsafe practices they can learn to avoid which would greatly

improve their safety. The railroad track is not a playground,

sidewalk or trail. Playing on the tracks,

sitting on the rails, or lying on the crossties

is pure folly. The engineer of an approaching

train may not see you in time to bring his train to a stop. You may not hear or see the

train in time to move clear of the track. If the engineer has seen you in time to stop

his train, he may misinterpret your actions

to indicate you are aware of the train's approach. Always be on the lookout for trains in both directions, and get off the tracks as quickly as possible for your own

protection. It should therefore be clear that

if you are on the track and do not move off when a train approaches, the chances are you will be run over and killed. Safety lines painted on station platforms

are there for your protection. If you insist on standing, or running on the track side of these lines, you are placing yourself in a posi- tion where you can be struck by a passing

train. The practice of running, roller skating, or riding a bicycle beside a moving train

is very hazardous. Should you stumble, or

C. B. McILVAINE

Conductor and Safety Assistant, Panama Railroad

be accidently pushed, chances are you will

fall under the wheels. Parents should never permit their children to roller skate, or ride bicycles on a station platform at any time. When boarding a train stay well back of the safety line until the train has stopped, then take all the time necessary to climb

aboard. When riding on the train, remain

seated until the train has stopped. If you

have many packages, baggage, or children, ask for help to get on or off the train. The

desire to be first on, or off, the train may

result in injury to yourself and others. Engaging in horseplay, walking from

coach to coach while the train is in motion

is dangerous. All coaches have open plat- forms and a person on the platform can

lose his balance, or stumble, when the brakes

are applied, or when the train rounds a

curve. Standing or sitting on the platform

and getting on or off the train while it is in motion is prohibited by law. Safety is not a one-sided affair. All of us must take normal precautions to avoid in- jury to ourselves and others. None of us should minimize its importance in our daily

lives.

JANUARY 1952

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

(Frequency Rale)

Community Services Bureau

Industrial Bureau

Engineering and Construction Bureau 8

Marine Bureau 10

Civil Affairs Bureau 10

Panama Canal Co. C. Z.Gov't (Best Year) 15

Supply and Service Bureau 15

Panama Canal Co. C. Z. Gov '1(1952 to Date) 16

Panama Canal Co. C. Z. Gov't (This month) 16

Health Bureau 24

Railroad and Terminals Bureau 44

Number of Disabling Injuries 50 Man-Hours Worked 3,077,255

LEGEND

3 Amount Better Than Panama Canal Company—Canal Zone Government Best Year 9 Amount Worse Than Panama Canal Company—Canal Zone Government Beet Year
THE PANAMA CANAL REVIEW March 7,1952

New District Attorney

ROWLAND K. HAZARD was confirmed by the Senate last month as the new District Attorney for the Canal Zone. A graduate of Holy Cross and

Georgetown Universities, he came to the Isthmus

in February 194S as Assistant District Attorney. He succeeds Daniel E. McGrath, District Attorney

since 1910.

Over 30,000 Pieces of Airmail Daily Handled By Zone's Busy Postal Clerks

(Continued from page 4) postal clerk at the Airmail Section at the Civil Affairs Building begins at 11:30 o'clock in the morning and ends—barring an extra large

volume of mail—at 8:30 o'clock at night.

When there is a lot of mail, the clerks stay until it is all worked—and that meant 7 o'clock in the morning for some

of them during the past Christmas season. The clerks at Tocumen Airport go to work at 8:30 o'clock at night and close up shop at 4:30 o'clock in the morning.

Schedule Set By Flights

The working schedule of the Airmail

Section is arranged to fit the airmail

flights. Those on which mail may be

carried are designated by the Postmaster

General in Washington. If an airmail

flight is delayed, however, the Airmail

Field is authorized to dispatch the mail on

the m-xt available flight and by the most

direct route to its destination. The normal schedule flights on which

mail from the Canal Zone is dispatched

leave at 1:45 and 2:20 o'clock in the morning.

Outgoing airmail starts coming into the Airmail Section at Ancon at noon—from

the Pacific side postoffices and off the noon train from the Atlantic side. A letter mailed at the Balboa Heights

Postoffice, for instance, between 7 o'clock

at night and about noon the next day, is picked up there at noon, after having

been worked into airmail "cases" and tied out in packages addressed to the appropriate Airmail Fields. Other pickups for the Airmail Section are made at 1, 2, 3:30, and 4 o'clock in the afternoon and at 6 and 7 o'clock at night.

At the "line" postoffices, the mail is picked up once in the morning and once

in the afternoon.

All afternoon and until the last airmail pickup at the Civil Affairs Building letter drop at 7:45 o'clock at night, the Airmail

Section postal clerks work it out into the pigeonholed cases for various cities and

then into big bags for various Airmail

Fields and foreign destinations.

Mistakes Not Allowed

Postal clerks just aren't supposed to make mistakes in getting the right piece

of mail in the right pigeonhole or bag, in

listing registered mail, or in any one of a thousand other details that go into the dispatch of mail. And if they do, the

large volume of paper work that accompanies each dispatch shows up the error and the clerk who did the deed with all the exacting detail and super sleuthing of a vast and farflung system set up to get

mail to its proper destination—and no

place else.

Postal clerks in the Airmail Section bear no special allegiance to that branch

of the postal service, but are transferred

freely from one postoffice to another, just as all Canal Zone postal clerks. They all seem to develop a sixth sense which tells them where a piece of mail should be sent, sometimes in spite of rather than because of, the address. Sometimes with the help of a large

"Dictionnaire des Bureaux de Poste"

published by the Union Postale Universalle, the "Bible" for postal personnel the world around, they learn to decipher—and

send to the right place—letters addressed

in many strange manners. For instance, there was one not too long ago that came through the Airmail Section addressed "MFS IOC." Only a longtime postal clerk could have figured out

that it was intended for Memphis, Tenn.,

but that was where it was sent—and

rightly so. Incoming airmail for the Canal Zone is worked by the postal clerks at Tocumen

Airport for various towns. When the

clerks leave the Civil Affairs Building

about 5 o'clock in the morning, they drop

the airmail for Ancon at that postoffice. All the rest of the airmail goes to the Balboa Postoffice. That for the Atlantic

side leaves on the morning train. The

mail for Pacific side postoffices is delivered by truck, getting to Howard

Field—or Fort Kobbe—about 9 o'clock in the morning.

Building and demolition of buildings went on 40 years ago, just as it does today. In preparation for the rise of Gatun

Lake, buildings in the villages of Bohio,

Frijoles, San Pablo, and Tabernilla had

practically all been sold, destroyed, or moved elsewhere for reconstruction. At the Hotel Tivoli a large addition was

nearing completion. It was expected that

the two upper floors would be ready for occupancy before the end of the month.

Little League Park Built By Volunteers

^vt~ -

AN OUTSTANDING EXAMPLE of what community spirit and civic endeavor can accomplish is the Little League baseball park in Balboa. Starting from s-ratch, except for the ground provided in the big play area along

Gaillard Highway, this complete layout was made available to the Pacific

Little League this season through the cooperative efforts of about 50 residents

of the Pacific side. The group donated their time and effort during the last 3 months of last year in building the fence complete with a flagpole and scoreboard, laying out the miniature baseball diamond and readying it for play and installing the grandstand and bbachers. The group wbo aided in making this available

to the young Babe Ruths was composed of League officials, parents of tne boys, bachelors and others interested in promoting baseball among the younger

boys, and the players themselves. The grandstand and bleachers provide

seats for 700 spectators.

Little League baseball is a new sport for the Isthmus but it already has caught the fancy of players and spectators. There are now four leagues in

the Cana! Zone, the Pacific, Atlantic, Armed Forces and Local-Rate Leagues. The Pacific and Armed Forces Leagues are composed of six teams each, and

the other two have four teams each. Although the other leagues do not have such pretentious grounds and

equipment as the Pacific Little League, the volunteers in the various communities have banded together to provide adequate ball parks. The park at Margarita is fitted with a movable fence and bleac her3. Although Little League Baseball in the civilian communities of the Canal Zone is conducted with the full cooperation of the Physical Education and

Recreation Branch of the Schools Division, the sport is almost entirely due

to the civic spirit of individual 'esidents. All of the work in connection with

the sport has been done by volunteers. Plans are being made to send a Little League team to the United States again this year to participate in the national competition. Funds for this purpose will be raised principally by volunteer contributions. No admission

is charged for the games at Balboa, but the "hat is passed" at all games.
March 7, 1952 THE PANAMA CANAL REVIEW

•^ i-ibj.

Official Panama Canal Company Publication

Published Monthly at BALBOA HEIGHTS, CANAL ZONE

Prinltd by the Panama Canal Prtii Mount Hope, Canal Zone

F. K. Newcomer, Governor-President

H. D. Vogel, Lieutenant Governor

E. C. Lombard, Executive Secretary

J. Rufus Hardy, Editor

Eleanor H. McIlhenny

Oleva Hastings

Editorial Assistants LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Letters containing inquiries, suggestions,

criticisms, or opinions of a general nature

will be 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 MAIL—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

Panama Canal Review, Balboa Heights, C. Z.

Special Notice

To Readers:

Letters of inquiry to THE PANAMA CANAL REVIEW will be

cheerfully answered when it is apparent that the writers are seeking

information not easily obtainable

elsewhere. Letters of sufficient general interest, together with replies,

will be published unless otherwise

requested.

A personal reply will be mailed

to your post office address to

questions which are not of general

interest.

To Subscribers

Please notify us promptly of any

change in your mailing address.

Post offices everywhere have pre- pared postal card forms for notices

of changes of address.

EVER-LENGTHENING LINES at the Income Tax Office in Balboa Clubhouse tignalized the approach

of March 15, deadline for filing final 1951 income tax returns and estimated tax declarations foi 1952. Despite much urging on the part of Internal Revenue officials for residents to file then- final returns early, many delay

the sao. duty until the last and find themselves in a long line of customers. The group above photographed recently show the average looks of the puzzled, resigned, irritated, or apprehensive citizen on his approach to the tax office.

NEW RULE ON QUARTERS

Residents of Pedro Miguel will be permitted to apply for and receive assignments

to quarters in the Balboa-Ancon-Diablo

Heights area after the first of next month.

The change in the rules for quarters' assignments was made in conformity with

the Housing Division's overall policy to remove undesirable or inequitable restric- tions on employee residence in all possible

instances. Pedro Miguel residents have

requested the change in the housing assign- ment rule on numerous occasions and their requests have been backed by the Chief

of the Locks Division whose employees are mostly assigned there. The change will become effective after the present "freeze" on assignments in the terminal towns of the Pacific side is lifted. The restrictions on quarters' assignments were placed in effect after an agreement was reached for the transfer of Cocoli

to the Navy. They were to have been removed at the end of February but were

extended for one month.

Contractors and the value of the lumber

to be furnished by each are: Aserradero Cerro Punta, of El Volcan, $228,815;

Osmond L. Maduro. of Panama City,

$87,000; and Aserradero Arco Iris, of Chiriqui. S64.675. The contracts were negoti- ated after the bids, opened early last month,

were all rejected.

OLD-TIMERS' ANNUITIES

No further court action is to be taken

by the Internal Revenue Bureau on the

payment of income tax on annuities of Canal construction employees, according to information from Maurice H. Thatcher, attorney in the Dewling

case. It was this case in which the

Court of Claims rendered a decision that the annuities were not subject to income tax. Mr. Thatcher has been informed that

the Commissioner of Internal Revenue

will acquiesce in the decision. This means that the old-timers' annuities

should not be included in the gross income tax statements for 1951. Annuitants who have paid taxes for the past three years may make claims for refunds, using Form 848, Mr. Thatcher

has informed the "CANAL REVIEW."

The limitation for such claims, he said,

is three years.

PRICE INCREASES

Rate revisions to place the Commercial Activities group of the Panama

Canal Company on a break-even basis were made effective at the first of this month.

Three price changes were made which

directly affect retail customers. Gasoline prices were increased two cents a

gallon, cigarettes were advanced two

cents a package or lOcents when bought

by the carton, and telephone rates for private users were raised 50 cents a month.

The rate changes affecting general

services include those for stevedoring,

marine bunkering, and the handling

and transfer of cargo over the piers.

Room rates at the Tivoli Guest House

were also increased about 10 percent.

The price increases affecting employees were alleviated by the concurrent announcement that the care of grounds

around employees' quarters will be

free.

LUMBER CONTRACTS

Contracts have been awarded for $371,- 590 of native lumber to be used in the Canal's building program for the coming

fiscal year. This is the largest order ever

placed by the Canal for native lumber at one time. The big order was divided among three

suppliers. It calls for the delivery of 2,775,000 board feet of sigua, bambito,

cedro macho, and cedro granadino. The

lumber must be air-dried or kiln-dried with

deliveries to be made between 8 and 18 months.

STUDY OF OPERATIONS

The management consulting firm of Booz,

Allen and Hamilton, of Washington, D. C., has been employed to make a survey of the organization and procurement procedures of the Washington and New Vork offices of the Panama Canal Company.

The study was authorized by the Board

of Directors at the January meeting held on

the Isthmus for the purpose of determining

what economies may be affected in the

operation of the two offices. The study was instituted about three weeks ago and the consultants have notified the Canal Company that a report on their findings will be made by the end of this month. The major part of the study will be concerned with procurement problems

of the two offices.

Gatun Locks, including the approach

walls, are 1-1/5 miles long.

Pedro Miguel Locks have a length of 5/6 of a mile.

Miraflores Locks are slightly over one

mile in length.
THE PANAMA CANAL REVIEW March 7, 1952

THIS YOUNG PATIENT makes and sell.' fishing nets like the one shown here. Other3 work for the Palo Seco Colony, raise chickens, fruits and vegetables which they sell the Colony Commissary or hunt and

fish and sell their catch.

Beautiful Surroundings, New Treatment

Brighten Life For Palo Seco Patients

Dr. and Mrs. Hurwitz

Are Mentors, Friends

To 118 In CZ Colony

The Palo Seco Leper Colony has the same scenic- charm which probably in- fluenced Col. William C. Gorgas when he

chose the site in 1907 but the outlook of patients has brightened beyond the wildest hopes of that day.

In 1907, the plight of lepers had changed

very little since Biblical days when the cry of "unclean" voiced all the fear and

loathing with which the world viewed

their disease. "Death before death," it was commonly called. The colony, which cares for all the leprosy cases discovered in Panama and

the Canal Zone, sits on a promontory into Panama Bay and looks out at the entrance

to the Panama Canal. Center of its 340 acres is a windswept

quadrangle of buildings, enclosed on three

sides by a tropical forest that slopes

downhill to a cove in the Bay.

The scenery, which makes Palo Seco

a paradise among leprosariums, had

clinical as well as aesthetic importance

when the colony was founded. Without

real hope of effective treatment, patients then could expect to look at the same sur- roundings day after day and year after year and so live out their lives. Leprosariums at that time were primarily

places of asylum shielding the public from

sight and contact with the disease and its victims. Palo Seco's unique currency, which is now dwindling and will not be coined

again, was a manifestation of the per- vading fear of infection. So was the rule against dogs and cats—another regulation

which has been abandoned.

The pierced aluminum and brass coins used at the colony are gradually being lost or carried away as souvenirs and Pana- manian and United States money are also used there now. Known as Hansen's Disease

The leprosy bacillus was discovered in 1871 by Gerhard Armauer Hansen, whose name was later given to the disease in an

attempt to diminish the implications of the more common name. But up to 1941 there was no real medical hope for victims. Before that time

the treatment was empiric, ineffectual, and vile tasting—chaulmoogra oil from

the Burmese chaulmoogra tree, which had

been used since pre-Biblical days.

Many patients preferred the disease at

its worst to the nausea, fever, and fainting caused by the treatment. The fund of knowledge about leprosy

if not the real nature or cause of the dis- ease—continued to grow from the time of Hansen's discovery. Studies showed it to be much less communicable than had been supposed—less so than tuberculosis, a disease with which

it has many medical points in common,

including the appearance of the bacilli. The medical profession gradually abandoned belief in the necessity for isolating victims in separate colonies but continued

the practice as a psychological concession

to persistent public fear of the disease. In 1941 Dr. G. H. Faget at the Leprosarium at Carville, La., the only one in the United States, first used sulphone

drugs to treat leprosy.

His work utilized findings of researchers

at the Mayo Clinic whose original work

with sulphone was done in connection

with tuberculosis. Sulphone Arrests Leprosy

It was not and is not known how the sulphone drugs work on the leprosy bacilli or on the body but they did work wonders

for the patients.

Experimental possibilities are limited because, to present knowledge, the bacilli exists only in the human body and cannot

be cultivated in the laboratory.

Many heroic volunteers have attempted

to contract leprosy—but without success. "Cure" is a word that is not used in connection with the disease but sulphone

treatments have resulted in a revolution- ary number of arrested cases in which the victims returned to normal life outside leprosariums.

At Palo Seco six such cases have been

discharged from the colony during the past year. Only one or two left the colony each year before sulphone was first used

there in 1945. Those who are released are regularly

supplied with sulphone tablets so that they may continue treatment at home to assure against recurrence of the disease. Arrangements are also being made for intravenous administration of promin to out-patients at the Panama Health Office. Even more dramatic than the working

of sulphone in arresting leprosy is its action in erasing the offensive outer marks

of the disease. In as short a time as six months the

facial nodules, the enlarged flabby

ears and thickened skin which leprologists describe as a "leonine countenance," the

skin ulcers, and other symptoms of the

disease lose much of their ugliness.

When there are no ulcers that make the victim repugnant in appearance and

microscopic smears show no leprosy

bacilli, patients are permitted to visit outside the colony frequently, and almost as they choose. Adults may visit Palo Seco any time during the day.

There are two types of leprosy which

often combine to form a third or mixed

type. The nodular or skin type progresses from pinkish spots or papules on the skin

to nodules and finally, the lionlike appear- ance of the advanced stages. In the anaesthetic or nerve type, the

peripheral nerves are attacked, causing

neuralgic pains and loss of feeling, trophic

ulcers, and eventual contraction of the

fingers and toes. The disease is often discovered when victims burn or cut themselves and cannot feel it.

Palo Seco Is Home

Several patients at Palo Seco whose

cases are arrested apparently do not want

to leave the colony. Some of them, for whom sulphone came too late, bear the marks of their disease in deformities which

make them reluctant to leave. To others, Palo Seco is both home and home town

where they want to stay with their friends or families. In any case, life at the colony

is the one the patients know and, generally, like, with work and play and worship, even politics and Carnival, very much like other communities.

Dr. Ezra Hurwitz is mayor, mentor,

doctor, and friend to the patients. He

was the first resident doctor at the colony

and has been there 25 years. Mrs. Hurwitz has been described as "minister without portfolio in charge of

social service"—a term which does not

describe the smiles she engenders as she moves about the colony and the Isthmus

on numberless errands for the patients.

She was a bride when she came to the colony from her home in Panama. That

was in 1928 when the only contact with

other parts of the Isthmus washy launch.
March 7, 1952 THE PANAMA CANAL REVIEW

The road was not built until 1932. Mrs. Hurwitz mothers a brood of about

20 children who were born to patients in the colony and now live in orphanages or with families on the outside. Aside from

the practical arrangements for their care, that may mean an afternoon shopping

trip and an ice cream soda for one youngster in an orphanage, stitching up a pretty

red polleia for another, or a talk with another about his school work. There have been about 30 births to Palo Seco patients since Doctor and Mrs. Hurwitz have been there and the number has increased since the sulphone

treatments. Nine Babies In Ten Years One patient has had four sets of twins

and one single birth in the last 10 years. The babies are born at Gorgas Hospital

and Mrs. Hurwitz is usually there soon

after the event—doing all the motherly

things a new or expectant mother wants. Mrs. Hurwitz shops for the patients; she deals with organizations and individuals who visit and contribute to the

colony; and she carries messages and advice, flavored with her own sparkling

personality, between patients and families and friends outside the colony.

There are 118 patients at Palo Seco, 14

of whom are charges of the Canal Zone as former Canal employees or dependents of employees. The rest are from the Republic of Panama, which pays the Canal

a per diem rate for their care in accord- ance with an agreement between the two

countries. The rate, which is based on

actual operating cost, was $2.38 last December.

First at Marafion Beach

When United States assumed control of the Canal Zone in 1904, four or five lep- rous families were segregated on Maranon

Beach. At that time some of these were moved to Empire where they were isolated

in a section of the old Empire Hospital. Seven patients were transferred to Palo Seco when the leper colony was founded. The average age of the patients at Palo Seco is about 45. There are twice as many

men as women—a pattern common to leprosy everywhere.

The patients receive sulphone treat- ments -promin, diasone, and promectin

every morning for two weeks. A recess from treatment on the third week gives the body a chance to recuperate.

The colony has single rooms for bachelors and apartments for married couples.

The patients eat either in the colony

dining hall or prepare their own food if they choose. Supplies are available at a

small commissary in the colony.

The colony was entirely rebuilt between

1938 and 1945 and the rebuilding, reSULPHONE TREATMENTS are given every morning for two weeks, then a week elapses before the

treatments are resumed. Dr. Ezra Hurwitz, in charge of Palo Seco (right) is shown here administering one

of the wonder-working drugs. On the left is Cuthbert 0. Ramsey, foreman, who has been at Palo S?co

almost 40 years.

pairing and expansion of facilities is a continuous process. In the period in which Maj. Gen. George W. Rice—who

has maintained special interest in the colony—has served as Health Director, new furniture has been added to the dining hall and the quarters, including

inner spring mattresses, and a well- equipped occupational-therapy and hobby

shop has been set up for the patients. The

carpentry shop, where patients make fur- niture for sale, is one of the newest

additions. There is a Catholic and Protestant

chapel where services are conducted regularly. The Maryknoll sisters are frequent

visitors to the colony.

About 40 patients work for the colony,

as orderlies, waiters, carpenters or general

maintenance men. Twenty others raise chickens, fruits and vegetables which they

sell to the colony commissary. Others

hunt and fish and sell their catch. Everyone receives a "clothing allow- ance" of $1.50 a month which serves as pin

money since most clothes are donations. Movies, Dances and Sports For entertainment, there are movies,

dances, baseball, hunting, and fishing.

John Thompson is clerk for the colony.

Miss Marie Weber is the nurse. Cuthbert

O. Ramsey, local-rate foreman, has worked in the colony almost 40 years and

has at some time performed every function of the institution. There are 15 other

local-rate employees.

Some of the most common questions

about leprosy have been answered in the

following manner by the Leonard Wood

Memorial, an international organization

devoted to scientific study of the disease: How many lepers are there in the world? The generally accepted round number is three millions. Where are the lepers found? The heaviest

areas are in the East and South Asia, particularly China and India, the Malayan

countries, Africa, and parts of South

America.

h there any leprosy in the United States? Some is found in the extreme South. The

occasional case in the North is usually an

import.

Is it true that many years may elapse between infeetion and the development of

clinical manifestations? Yes.

Is it fatal? Not as a rule. The patient

usually succumbs to some other cause.

7s it painful? As a rule the patient

suffers little from the disease itself. Certain conditions of neural leprosy, however, may be marked by excessive pain.

Applications For Vacation

Travel Are Being Received

PALO SE30 PATIENTS mike furniture and other one of the newest additions to the Colony.things in this occupational therapy and hobby shop,

Although the school vacation period

in the Canal Zone is still three months

away, many applications have already

been received for transportation to the

States on the Panama liners next May

and June. Almost enough applications have been

received already to fill the Panama liner sailing May 16. This is the last one

before the five sailings on which school teachers and families with children of school age are given preference for passage. There is still plenty of space avail- able on ships of later sailings. Employees may file application for transportation three months in advance of their expected sailing, and those planning

to go to the States from May 23 through June 20 are urged to file applications

early since this is usually the busy

period on northbound sailings. Employees who do not have children

of school age should arrange their vacations to sail either before or after the five-week period when preference is given in assignments to teachers and

families with children in school.
10 THE PANAMA CANAL REVIEW March 7, 1952

CANAL'S PURCHASE OF SUPPLIES Civil Service Officials Meet

{Continued from page 1) purchasing

agents to improve local marketing

conditions. More Fruits and Vegetables

These efforts have resulted in heavier buying of fresh fruits and vegetables in the local markets. These purchases are being steadily increased and during the

last half of 1951 the Commissary Division

bought $53,000 of Panama's fruits and

ables, as compared with $46,000 in the last half of 1950. The following figures show, in round

numbers, the amount of purchases made

during the two comparative 6-month

periods:

July-Dec. July-Dec. J95° '95'

Meat products—. $180,000 $344,000

Fruits and vegetables 46,000 53,000

Other agricultural products... 23,000 26,000

Other food produ its 9 , 000 13 , 000

Beverages 49,000 70,000

Sugar and alcohol 30,000 5,000

Forest products _. 4,000 92,000

Industrial products... 146,000 123,000

Miscellaneous supplies 167,000 179,000

Totals $654,000 $905,000

Substantial increases were shown in all categories with the exception of sugar and alcohol, and industrial products.

Only small lots of sugar were bought

from Panama producers during the past

six months since no bids were entered by

local producers for the Commissary

Division's requirements for that period

of last year. The decrease in amount of

industrial products bought was primarily

due to an exceptionally large order of

steel pipe placed locally during the latter part of 1950. Meat Purchases Nearly Doubled

Meat purchases in the Republic of Panama by the Commissary Division during the last half of 1951 were nearly

twice the value of those in the last half

of 1950. At present practically all beef

sold in the Commissary retail stores is bought locally. During the war Panama's

cattle raisers were able to supply only a

small part of the beef required by the Commissary Division and local beef was

bought only in quantities available to supplement the supply bought in South

America. With the increase in local herds, however, beef is available in Panama to meet requirements and no

beef, with the exception of a small supply

from the United States, has been im- ported by the Commissary Division'for more than a year. Although beef constitutes the principal

meat purchases in the Republic, other meat products are bought in substantial

quantities; these include (seafoods and

poultry.

The heavy increase in forest products

bought locally is a direct reflection of the present $80,000,000 quarters construction program of the Panama Canal Company.

Lumber purchases will be increased

several times over during the coming

year and contracts have already been awarded for local lumber by the Store- house Division which amount to well over $350,000.

The increase of more than 40 percent

in the amount of beverages bought from Panama's manufacturers was principally

due to heavier purchases of bottled beer. The amount and dollar value of Panama's

bottled beer were practically doubled,

CIVIL SERVICE PROBLEMS pertaining to the Canal organization a3 well as other Government agencies

here were extensively explored last month during a three-week visit to th? Isthmus of A. J. Leach, Director of the 10th U. S. Civil Service Region. Above, Mr. Leach, at the extreme right, is shown in one of his many conferences with E. A. Doolan,

Personnel Director of the Panama Canal Company (center) and James Yates, Chief of the U. S.-rate Employ- ment Branch of the Canal organization. Mr. Doolan is Chairman and Mr. Yates is Secretary of the Board

of U. S. Civil Service Examiners for the Canal Zone. This was Mr. Leach's second visit to the Canal Zone since this area was made a part of the 10th Region, He spent a short time here in 1947 soon after the change was made. His headquarters are in New Orleans.

while substantial increases were shown

in soft-drink purchases.

Change In Purchasing Policy'

A recent change in the purchasing

policy of the Canal organization has had

a substantial effect on the amount of both industrial products and miscellane- ous supplies bought. Until recently the Canal bought most of these supplies,

in relatively small amounts, by competitive bidding. These restrictions have now been relaxed, and more purchases

are being made "over-the-counter" from Panama's merchants. One of the chief difficulties in the past

in making local purchases has been the

lack of regular or guaranteed deliveries

of produce of uniform grades. This has

especially hampered the purchase of

locally-grown fruit and vegetables by

the Commissary Division which must

anticipate its requirements well in advance

of deliveries. The same has been true, to an extent, on lumber caused by the

lack of proper facilities for drying lumber. A number of trips to the interior of the Republic have been made during the past two years by representatives of the

three principal Canal purchasing units to stimulate local markets. These repre- sentatives have largely concentrated their

efforts on the quality of produce desired

for resale and the importance of prompt

and regular deliveries. It is believed that these cooperative efforts between

buyers and producers is beginning to show satisfactory results as evidenced by

the increasing supplies of agricultural

products being bought in the Republic.

im m.

V

&

RED CROSS FUND

GOAL

$25,000

MARCH 1-31

"By historic achievement in the field of service to humanity the American Red

Cross has won a unique place in the hearts of all our people. To those of us in

uniform it has always been a warm and steadfast friend.

"Material support of the American Red Cross not only makes possible the

continuity of its great work, but offers a way for each of us to demonstrate per.

sonal endorsement of a greater concept—that the united efforts of a free people

will always prevail against adversity and disaster."

D WIGHT D. EISENHOWER
March 7, 1952 THE PANAMA CANAL REVIEW 11

THE GUAYACAN flaunts its golden glory in the dry season.

The most outstandingly beautiful tree

in the local forests, in bloom in March and

April, is the guayacan, Tabebuia guayacan. The large, showy yellow flowers are borne

in terminal clusters when the trees are

leafless, presenting a splash of gold in the

forest. Several of these handsome trees are located on Ancon Hill and across from the Governor's residence. Many more may be

seen on the hills east of Gamboa.

The wood is olive-brown, very dense and hard, fine-grained, very durable, and

takes a high polish. It is considered one of the best woods of Panama, and makes

beautiful salad or nut bowls. Many people have thought they had

spotted an early flowering guayacan tree, only to find that the flowers were smaller and more like yellow poinciana flowers. This was undoubtedly the Schizolobium

covilleanum, a tall, striking pale yellow,

flowering jungle tree which is in its glory

about two months earlier than the guayacans. Specimens of these trees may be spotted

along the trans-Isthmian highway, Madden Road and on the hills east of Gamboa.

The roble, Tabebuia pentaphylla, is a

close relative of the guayacan and is almost as beautiful. During the end of the dry season, these trees are so densely covered with flowers—nearly white to rose-colored—that they form giant bouquets. In their tints the flowers recall Japanese cherries and are equally beautiful. Several of these trees are located in Ancon; a large tree is in the Old Corral

area in Ancon. Other conspicious flowering trees of the dry season are two species of jacaranda,

laurel, the various species of cassias, royal

poinciana, and the African fountain tree. The jacarandas are handsome, large

trees with large blue, violet or purple

flowers in showy panicles, or clusters. A

good specimen of Jacaranda ficifolia is growing in Balboa Heights, near the Balboa fire station at the intersection of Prospect Street and Heights Road.

Towards the end of the dry season, in April, the laurel (Cordia alliodora), with

its fragrant white flowers may be seen almost everywhere. The flowers turn brown and remain on the trees for several weeks, presenting a dirty appearance. The

yellow wood is coarse and {See page 15)

Now is the time for Commissary customers to look to their year-round wardrobes.

Dresses from the spring lines of United

States manufacturers arrive in Dresses t ne stores in February and

for the March. They are shown and

Tropics delivered to wholesalers in December, January, and February.

The much larger supply of dresses from

the summer lines arrive in the commissaries in April, May, and June after having

been shown by the manufacturers in March,

April, and May.

Few dresses suitable for tropical wear

can be purchased from the manufacturer any other time of year. As for men's clothing, the supply of suits for the entire year is purchased in January,

February, and March and are then shipped

to the stores as needed. The suits now ar- riving in the stores bear the Robert Hall

label, marking them good goods in a popular price line. Palm Beach and other popular lines are also carried regularly. The Manager of the Wholesale Drygoods

Section is in New York now on his semi- annual expedition to the market. He does

little actual buying while he is there, but

he does feel out current fads and fancies. There is no pat procedure in buying women's clothes, he explains, but it usually in- volves the Drygpods Section on the Isthmus,

buyers in the New York office of the Pan- ama Canal Company, and the Associated Merchandise Company in New York.

A. M. C, one of the largest cooperative

buying agencies, has 22 member stores, in- cluding Hutzler's in Baltimore, Bloomingdale's in New York, Filene's in Boston,

Bullock's in Los Angeles, Rich's in Atlanta,

and others of comparable size and quality.

The Commissary Division is not a member of A. M. C. but is included by special

arrangement, paying for its buying service on a percentage of actual purchases. A. M. C. buyers, who are in the market

all the time select many of the women's

ready-to-wear accessory items and, act as

advisors for the Canal Company buyers in New York who place or confirm the orders

for the Commissary Division. The Commissary Division buying machinery worked something like this in the case

of one "for instance" requisition for some

of the dresses which are now being sold on

the Isthmus. This "for instance" requisition from the Commissary Division was dated Dress October 30, 1951, for compara- Buying tively inexpensive dresses from Procedures s Pr ' n S lines shown in December, to be delivered on the Isthmus "in January or February 1952 or sooner if available."

It read something like this: ". . . 408 cot- ton dresses, assorted styles and materials,

short sleeves, solid colors and prints, approximately 50 percent pastels, 35 percent medium colors, 15 percent dark colors. Cottons must be guaranteed fast color and sanforized."

". . . 12 of a style in assorted colors; 72

size 9, 90 size 11, 90 size 13, and 72 size 15

at $4.08 and $5.75."

The number of dresses of any one style decreases as the dresses become more expensive, ranging from six of one style in a medium price line to only one of a style in the most expensive dresses purchased. Manufacturers generally make one style

at a time, finish that one, and then manufacture another. Therefore it took many

forays into the market and, finally, 20 dif- ferent orders to fill the entire requisition.

Some dresses are also bought for the Commissaries in other ways. The Drygoods Section at Mount Hope

receives, in some cases, advance information about dresses from well known firms that

are to be advertised in national fashion magazines at a specified future date. On the

basis of this information, the Drygoods Section frequently requests the New York office purchase a few of the style shown.

Lenten menu makers should know about

these things in the Commissaries: Your Brook trout from Denmark, fresh Lenten and fast-frozen sell for 65 cents a Menus pound compared to about $65 for the catch of do-it-the-hard-way family

trout fishermen. The corbina and red snapper that are asking to be caught this time of year in cooler-than-usual Isthmian waters are, of course, available in the commissaries. They

come from local fishermen via the same

supplier who has been buying them in the market and selling them to the Commissary

Division for about 35 years. Packaged frosted fish now in the stores which are sometimes available and sometimes not, include: Crab legs, crab and lobster meat, lobster tails, scallops, shrimp,

smelt, and swordfish steaks.

The handling of fresh fruits and vege-

. tables from the United States

Fruits was studied on the Isthmus re- and cently by John Barton, who

Vegetables makes these purchases for the Commissaries in the New York

office of the Panama Canal Company.

Studies to improve the quality of these items from the United States were coupled with a recent review of the local fruit and

vegetable market in the Commissary Division's continuing attempts to purchase more and better food items in their own

Isthmian back vard. ttiHtnvict MUi»

«2»Ki -

MODERNIZED MEAT COUNTERS have been installed at Balboa Commissary and the picture above shows the convenience of the new self-service refrigerating units for display and customer service. The installation is a part of a general modernization plan of the Commissary Division wnich has been

in progress for 'everal months. Similar counters were installed late last month in the Ancon store.
12 THE PANAMA CANAL REVIEW March 7, 1952

Veteran Of Two Canal Companies

Retires After 44 Years' Service

THAT STAIRWAY went to Empire, Esteban Vialette says, as he looks over the Pennell lithograph of Culebra Cut at Las Cascada.-). Vialetta who has just retired after 44 years of service, was

employed by both French and American Canal Companies.

Esteban Raul Vialette is a tourist these

days, he says. From now on, he will have

plenty of time to hunt deer or wild turkeys up the Pequeni River or in other of his

favorite haunts.

For, after 44 years of service with the United States Government, this 68-yearold veteran of two Panama Canal Companies—the first was the French Compagnie Nouvelle du Canal de Panamahas just retired. He makes his home with one of his two sons at Vista Hermosa, a Panama City suburb.

Forty-four years at work brings plenty

of memories for anyone and Vialette has

many outstanding recollections. He has

talked with two President Roosevelts, al- though the first time he did not know who

the "stout man with the glasses" was. That was in 1907 when he was working in the Gorgona shops as a drill press operator

and President Theodore Roosevelt was on

the Isthmus looking over the Canal work.

They met twice that day in the shops

and the President asked Vialette, who had

been busy repairing clutches, what his job was. He commented that it was hard

work for 25 cents an hour and, Vialette

believes (his English was not good then) that he was told he'd soon earn a larger

salary. Vialette did not find out until

later that the stout man with the glasses was the President. A little later he had a chance to return

the President's courtesy when a little shop

runabout in which the Presidential party was riding failed to start. Vialette was

able to crank it and get it going—"I was

young and strong, then." For this he got

a hearty Roosevelt pat on the back.

Meets Second President

Vialette's encounter with President Franklin Roosevelt came during one of the late President's visits here in the late 1930's or in 1940—Vialette isn't sure of the date. He was heaving a messenger

line from the wall of Miraflores lock aboard the President's cruiser. From its deck the President called to him.

"Is it going to rain today?" Vialette remembers the President as asking.

"No, you bring us fair weather,"

Vialette answered.

Vialette also recalls the day, some 40

years ago, when an explosion in the Cut

took a heavy death toll. He was working

nearby and went to the aid of the injured.

"First," he says, "we had to shovel the dead aside." And he remembers, vividly, the week or

so early in World War II when along with

other Lock employees he worked day and

night to put through to the Pacific a great

flotilla of Uncle Sam's men-of-war. Although he comments wryly that this work was done without overtime pay, he

is still fiercely proud of the part that he and his Panamanian countrymen played

here during the war. "We are loyal, loyal!" he says. Born in Panama City of French parents,

Vialette spent his early boyhood in the

capital where his family owned much of the land near the present J Street-Tivoli Avenue intersection. Most of this land was sold a few years after Vialette was

born and he moved to Gorgona.

Worked For French Company

Near there, at Baja Matachin, he was

first employed by the French Company as

office boy when he was 12 years old. He

has a paper from the Personnel Bureau of the French Company, designating him as an "agent" of the company on November

13, 1899, when he was only 16 years old. Much of his work at this time was preser- vation of machinery which was being covered with grease and set aside, in preparation for the transfer of French

property to a new Canal Company,

eventually the Americans. For a year after March 1904 he worked

with a group of engineers as a survey chainman on the upper Chagres River. From 1905 to 1908 he was a drill press operator in the Gorgona shops and then worked for a few months in the Cut, part

of the time running a jackhammer.

Then Vialette broke his government

service to become, for a little over two

years, a warden for the Panama Govern- ment at the Colon jail. He returned to the Canal organization in the latter part

Ten Years Ago

In February

War was beginning to play a larger part

in the day-to-day lives of the people who

lived in the Canal Zone. Although there were no Canal employees involved, the Zone was saddened by

the first large-scale local tragedy.

On February 8 memorial services were

held in Panama Bay for the 33 men inho

lost their lives when the submarine S-26 sank in 301 feet of water after a night colli- sion with an escort vessel 10 days earlier. Because of wartime security, the neics of the accident was not released until all hope had

been abandoned. Of the four men, including the craft's commander, who were on the submarine's

bridge at the time of the crash, three were

saved and assisted in the search for the sunken sub. Six divers were flown from

Washington to attempt to free the trapped men hit the most skilled attempts were

unsuccessful.

A Governor's circular required that all employees, except San Bias and Darien

Indians, submit proof of citizenship.

Departure control offices were set up in Balboa and Cristobal and all steamship

and airlines offices were notified that

tickets might not be sold until the departure clearances had been submitted.

Priorities on plane travel were enforced

locally.

On the lighter side of the war: Three

local rate workers who had taken over an

air raid shelter at Camp Bierd as their private domicile were sentenced to 10 days

each for loitering. Light posts were fast becoming casualties. At least a dozen had been damaged between January 26, when the intensified blackout

started, and February 4- A defendant who stole 344 sandbags and

another who stole 76, for resale in Panama,

drew fines and maximum jail sentences.

Again on the serious side, local authorities took a grim view of attacks made by

German submarines on the island of Aruba, less than four hours by air from

the Canal Zone. It was thought likely that this attack might be a feint to draw

forces from the Canal Zone itself.

of 1912, to work for nine years at the Balboa shops as an artisan and helper.

This was followed by two years of farming on family lands at Arraijan, but in 1923 he went to work for the Pacific Locks as a foreman, a job he held for 29 years.

Vialette cherishes a number of old papers, letters or recommendations from

former bosses—among them R. H. Anderson, an early-day engineer, William H.

Bates, who in 1909 was superintendent of steamshovel repairs at Empire, and H. H.

Evans, Assistant Superintendent of the Mechanical Division. He has just added

another letter, the last, to this pile. It is from Roy Stockham, Chief of the Locks

Division, and it says, in part: "Your long period of faithful service is worthy of recommendation and I wish to express my appreciation of this record of service with the Locks Division."
March 7, 1952 THE PANAMA CANAL REVIEW 13

Award $8,500,000 In Construction Contracts

For Canal Company 1952 Housing Program

TYPE 532 2 BEDROOM HOUSE

INCNtlBI-O £ CONlI«UCT.eM WWW I

ANOTHER NEW type house which is included in this year's building program is illustrated above. Nine of these houses will be built in Ancon and 37 in Margarita.

Distinctive features of this smaller, two-bedroom house are the long, narrow kitchens which permit ampte

space for a breakfast or luncheon table and new-type aluminum casement windows with aluminum screens. Tne floors will be cement tile, except in the kitchen and bathroom where ceramic tile will be used. A glazed

tile wainscoting will be set around the bathtub.

In addition to closet space, with sliding doors, in the two bedrooms, there is open shelving in one bedroom,

off the hallway and in the bathroom. Tnat in the bathroom has space above for storage and below for a laundry hamper.

(Continued fom page l

)

grading is scheduled for completion by next June, while

the other work is to be completed by

June of next year. SILVER CITY: The first contract in

this year's program was awarded to the Isthmian Constructors, Inc., a local contracting firm, for 96 masonry buildings, 192 apartments, at a total cost of $645,-

730. The contract provides for the

installation of municipal facilities for the

buildings and the completion date is next September.

GATUN: Isthmian Constructors was

awarded the contract to build 10 masonry

one-family buildings on Jadwin Road at a cost of $159,717. The completion date

for this work is next November.

CARDENAS: The work at the new

lccal-rate townsite north of Corozal is one of the largest projects in this year's program. It provides for the clearing

and grading of a large area for the erec- tion of quarters next year. Included in the work there is the installation of a water supply system and the construction

of an access road. The work was divided

into two contracts, both awarded to Macco-Panpacific. The grading work

will cost $1,117,630 and is scheduled for completion in May of next year. The

erection of water tanks and the installa- tion of the road and other facilities at a cost of $109,000 is scheduled for completion next October. PARAISO: The second largest contract

in this year's program was awarded to Tucker McClure for the construction of 230 masonry quarters. The contract for this work is $1,664,866 and calls for the

completion of the buildings by May of next year. ANCON: The work in Ancon involves the development of the largest area

cleared of buildings and graded during

the last fiscal year. The contract for the

building of streets, installation of municipal facilities, and the construction of 56 family apartments at a cost of $1,096,- 652 was awarded to Framorco, a Panama

City contracting firm which won the

building contract for the work in Silver City last year. The work is scheduled

for completion in March 1953. DIABLO HEIGHTS: Fourteen masonry units are to be built this year in Diablo Heights on the high ground

along Diablo Road. The contract for

this construction was awarded to the Republic Construction and Maintenance

Co., at a total cost of $273,000, with the work scheduled to be finished by next November.

SUMMIT: The extensive grading and

site preparation, together with the in- stallation of water tanks and a sewage

plant, will be done by the Maintenance

Division. The work at Summit will cost an estimated $913,450 and is scheduled

for completion next December.

All bids on this work were twice

rejected. Advertised in December, the

bids were rejected for the first time on January 28. Readvertised and reopened on February 18 the bids were again re- jected because the government estimate was much lower than any bids received. BALBOA: The construction of 11 composite houses with 15 apartments as

well as the installation of streets and other

Forty Years Ago

In February

On the afternoon of February 10, 1912,

a portion of the bank of Culebra Cut, on

the east side, opposite the village of Culebra and about 500 yards north of Gold Hill, broke off, carrying away the

95-foot berm.

At the same time an old slide on the west bank at Culebra, which had been

quiescent for over two years, renewed its activity. Together, engineers estimated, some 750,000 cubic yards of material was

in motion, advancing toward the prism at the rate of 18 to 24 inches a day.

However, a week later the official Canal Record estimated that the slides would not affect the time of completion

for the Cut excavation because efficiency

had improved to such a great degree since the estimate had been made.

The tug Reliance and three 600-yard

barges left Cristobal for a 10,000 mile trip—

to Balboa. The voyage was to be made by

sea, via the Straits of Magellan.

The barges were to take the place of three old French clapets which were so worn that they had to be retired. Just 126 days later

the tug and barges arrived in Balboa, 50

land miles from their starting point. They

were in good condition, despite moderate to heavy seas en route. The actual sailing time for the epic trip was 86 days.

Col. George W. Goethals, Chairman of the Isthmian Canal Commission, who had

been in the United States on official business, was directed to go on to Europe to investigate matters relating to Canal

terminals. During his absence, Col. H. H. Hodges

acted as Chief Engineer and Chairman.

At the first of the month, the force at worktotalled 37,J,S8. Of these. 30,114 were employed on the Panama Canal force and

7,324 on the railroad force. Three weeks earlier the combined Canal

and Railroad force had mimbered 38,505,

the second largest since the beginning of

the Canal umk. The largest force from

1904 to 1912 was reported as 38,676

employees on March 10, 1910.

Some of the 1912-employees must have

been intrepid souls, too. At any rate, there were some brave enough to put on a baby show. Forty babies between the ages of six months and two years, according to the Canal Record, "were exhibited at the Commission Chapel at Gatun, under the

auspices of the Gatun Sunshine Society." Votes were sold and prizes awarded in three classes. The prize winners were

William Wells, William Rogers, and

Charlie Decker. The entertainment netted nearly $50

for a national blind babies' fund.

municipal facilities will be done by the Maintenance Division. It is estimated

that this work will cost $280,000. It is scheduled for completion next November.

The work at several of the sites is already well advanced. The erection of quarters at Silver City has been started by Isthmian Constructors and the finish grading and installation of streets in the Ancon and Balboa areas is well underway.

The heavy grading at Paraiso where the town is to be extended to Gaillard Highway is already nearing completion.
14 THE PANAMA CANAL REVIEW March 7, 1952

ANNIVERSARIES

Employees who observed important anniversaries during the month of February are

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

the Canal or other agencies. Those with continuous Canal or Railroad service are

indicated with (*).

47 YEARS

*William Jump, Timekeeper, Industrial Bureau.

42 YEARS

W. P. Quinn, Assistant Chief, Aids to Navigation.

41 YEARS

*Ernest C. Cotton, Printer, Panama

Canal Press.

35 YEARS

William Coffy, Signalman, Navigation

Division,

Harry W. Peterson, Custodian, Cristobal Post Office. 30 YEARS

Francis J. Krause, Lockmaster, Pacific Locks. Ethel M. Pitman, Clerk-Typist, Hospital and Clinics Division. Ralph F. Schnell, Organization and

Methods Examiner, Management Division.

25 YEARS

Frederick C. Atkinson, Shops Superintendent, Dredging Division. William D. Hardie, Records Administrator, Administrative Branch. Alton E. Jones, Chief Towboat Engineer,

Navigation Division. Gordon F. Kariger, Pilot, Navigation

I livision. Rudolph D. Melanson, Manager, Gamboa Commissary.

*Earl E. Trout, Safety Inspector, Commissary Division. John C. Wallace, Manager, Silver City

Commissarv.

20 YEARS

*Edward E. Bernsee, Jr., Clerk-Typist,

Commissary Division. John I. Frank, Fleet Machinist, Dredging Division,

Dorothy W. Montayne, Clerk-Stenographer, Industrial Bureau.

15 YEARS

Henry J. Clancy, Wireman, Electrical Division. *Conrad G. Didrickson, Pilot, Navigation Division. Harold W. Griffin, Clerk, Gorgas

Hospital.

George R. Howard, Policeman, Police- Division. Thomas B. Idol, Physical Science Aid,

Engineering Division. F. R. Johnson, Assistant Director. Supply and Service Bureau.

Earl M. Seagrave, Generation and

Transmission Supervisor, Electrical Division. William J. Tuttle, Auto Repair Machinist, Motor Transportation Division. Walter Wagner, Power Dispatcher,

Electrical Division.

RETIREMENTS IN FEBRUARY

Employees who retired at the end of February, their birthplaces, titles, length of ser- vice at retirement, and their future addresses

are:Raymond O. Hanner, Pennsylvania;

Wood and steel carman, Railroad Division;

16 years, 9 months, and 19 days; Canal /.one

for the present. George E. Matthew, Ohio; Chief, Hydrographic and Meteorological Branch; 37

5 months, and 25 days; Canal Zone

until June, then, probably, Marietta, Ohio. Mrs. Margaret G. Perry, Texas; Office Appliance operator, Audit Division; 9 years,

1 month, 22 days; Canal Zone. Lloyd I. Ritchie, Virginia; General

jer, Northern District, Housing I 'vision; 34 years, 2 months, 3 days; plans

uncertain. Robert N. Ruley, Indiana; Supervisor, Public Motor Transportation, Cristobal; 30

years, \'/i days; plans uncertain. Mrs. Helen M. White, Pennsylvania;

Accounting Clerk, Accounting Division; 16

years, 2 months, 5 days; Balboa.

THIS MONTH'S CALENDAR

MARCH

7th—VFW, No. 3857, New Cristobal, 7:30 p. m. American Legion, No. 6, Gamboa, 7:30

p. m. 9th- Pipefitters, Margarita Clubhouse,

9:30 a. m. Sheetmetal Workers, Balboa Clubhouse, 9:30 a. m. Plumbers, No. 606, Margarita K. of C.

Hall, 9:30 a. m. 10th—Machinists No. 699, Margarita K.

of C. Hall, 7:30 p. m. American Legion No. 1, Balboa, 7:30

p. m. 11th—Electrical Workers, No. 397, Wirz

Memorial, 7:30 p. m. VFW, No. 100, Old Boy Scout Built I in l;. Cristobal, 7:30 p. m. American Legion No. 7, Fort Clayton,

7:30 p. m. American Legion Auxiliary, No. 1, Bal- boa, 7:30 p. m. 12th—Carpenters, No. 913, Balboa Lodge

Hall, 7:30 p. m.

Pacific Civic Council, Board Room,

Administration Building, 7:30 p. m. American Legion, No. 2, Cristobal, 7:30

p. m.

14th Blacksmiths, No. 400 (with Boiler- makers 463 and 471) Margarita K. ol C. Hall, 7:30 p. m. 16th—CLU-MTC, Margarita Clubhouse

8:30 a. m.

17th Electrical Workers, No. 677, Gatun

Masonic Temple, 7:30 p. m. 18th—Operating Engineers, No. 595, Margarita K. of C. Hall, 7 p. m. 19th—AFGE, No. 14, Balboa Clubhouse, 7:30 p. m. VFW, No. 40, Balboa K. of C. Hall, 7:30 p. m. American Legion Auxiliary, No. 3, Gatun, 7:30 p. m. 20th—American Legion Auxiliary, No. 6, Gamboa, 7:30 p. m. 21st—VFW, No. 3857, New Cristobal, 7:30 p. m. 24th— Machinists, No. 699, Margarita K.

of C. Hall, 7:30 p. m.

VFW Auxiliary, Post 3833 Post Home,

7:30 p. m.

25th Operating Engineers, No. 595, Balboa Lodge Hall, 7 p. m. VFW, No. 100, Old Boy Scout Building,

Cristobal, 7:30 p. m. American Legion No. 7, Fort Clayton,

7:30 p. m. 26th—AFGE, No. 88, Margarita Clubhouse, 7:30 p. m. American Legion Auxiliary, No. 2, Cristobal, 7:30 p. m. 27th—Governor-Employee Conference,

Board Room, Administration Building,

2 p. m. APRIL

1st—Gamboa Civic Council, Community Center, 7:30 p. m. Gatun Civic Council, Gatun Clubhouse, 7:30 p. m. 2d—VFW, No. 40, Balboa K. of C. Hall, 7:30 p. m.

Machinists, No. 811, Balboa Lodge Hall, 7:30 p. m. Isthmian Nurses Association, Diablo Clubhouse, 7:30 p. m. 3d—Carpenters, No. 677, Margarita

Clubhouse, 7:30 p. m.

March Sailings

From Cristobal

Cristobal. Ancon

March 7

. March 14 Panama^.. _. Cristobal -

March 21 March 28

Ancon

From New York

March 5 Panama _. Cristobal. Ancon

March 12 March 19

_ _ March 26

PROMOTIONS AND TRANSFERS

January 15 Through February 15

The following list contains the names of those U. S.-rate employees who were trans- ferred from one division to another or from one type of work to another. It does not

contain within-grade promotions and

regradings.CIVIL AFFAIRS BUREAU

Gaddis Wall, from Police Lieutenant to Police Captain.

Walter H. Alves, from Policeman to Police Sergeant.

Richard G. Nichols, from Police Ser- geant to Police Lieutenant. Hiram J. Robison, from Guard, Atlantic- Locks to Fireman, Fire Division.

ENGINEERING AND CONSTRUCTION

BUREAU

Kenneth C. Heliums, from Chief, Southern District, Maintenance Division,

to Supervising Construction Inspector, Contracts and Inspection Division. Warren J. Wathen, from Lock Operator,

Wireman, Atlantic Locks, to Wireman,

Electrical Division. William L. Moyer, from Wireman to Distribution Foreman, Electrical Division. Earl B. Power, from Powerhouse Operator to Senior Powerhouse Operator, Electrical Division. Manuel Quintero R.. from Engineering

1 (raftsman to Civil Engineer, Engineering

Division. Harry F. Butz, from Superintendent,

Miraflores Filtration Plant, to Superin- tendent Atlantic Area Water and Laboratories Branch. Maintenance Division. Sheldon A. Salisbury, from Chemist to Superintendent, Miraflores Filtration Plant, Maintenance Division.

Robert J. Risberg, from Superintendent,

Atlantic Area Water and Laboratories Branch to Assistant Chief, Water and

Laboratories Branch, Maintenance Division. Clinton N. Bohannon, from Wireman

Leadingman to Foreman, Electrical Division. Benjamin Suisman, from Carpenter

Foreman, Maintenance Division, to Construction Inspector, Contracts and Inspection Division. Walter E. Marek, from Plumber, Maintenance Division, to Plumbing Inspector, Contracts and Inspection Division. FINANCE BUREAU

Malcolm R. Wheeler, from Accounting

Clerk, Commissary Division, to Accounting

Clerk, Accounting Division. Leroy B. Magnuson and Warren

Pitman, from Governmental Accountants

to Budget Specialists. INDUSTRIAL BUREAU

Anthony G. Lynn, from Toolmaker to Plant Maintenance Supervisor.

MARINE BUREAU

Henry R. Chenevert, from Motor Bo.it Maintenance Mechanic to Fleet Machinist,

Navigation Division. Lawrence W. Chambers, from Lock

Operator, Machinist, Atlantic Locks to Safety Inspector, Office of Chief, Locks

Division. Spencer M. Anderson, from Wireman,

Electrical Division, to Electrician, Pipeline Suction Dredge, Dredging Division. Godfrey B. Pacetti, from Fleet Machinist to Chief Drill Barge Engineer, Dredging

Division. Ernest M. Kieswetter, from Senior Construction and (Sec next page)
March 7,1952 THE PANAMA CANAL REVIEW 15

OUR OUT-OF-DOORS

[Continued from page 11) strong and is highly esteemed for construction and for furniture. Over 25 species of Cassias are being

grown in the Canal Zone. Most of these have large, showy flowers. The most con- spicuous species are the golden shower,

C. fistula, which line the Prado in Balboa;

the pink-and-white shower, C. nodosa,

which has masses of pink and white blos- soms along the branches; the bronze

shower, C. moschata, with pendulant,

grape-like clusters of bronze flowers; canafistula, C. grandis, which has delicate pink

blossoms giving the tree a striking resemblance to apple trees. The royal poinciana, or flametree,

Delonix regia, a native of Madagascar, is extensively planted as an ornamental

tree. It is large and spreading and not

attractive except when in flower, when it becomes a mass of flame-colored blossoms. An exceptionally handsome poinciana grows near the Balboa Heights Baptist

Church.

The African fountain tree, also known

as a tulip tree, is the Spathodea campanulata of tropical Africa. Specimens may be found along Barneby Street in Balboa

and near the Cristobal Administration

Building. The tree is tall, with a narrow crown and the large, dark-red flowers are borne in short terminal racemes (clusters

like the common lily of the valley).

PROMOTIONS AND TRANSFERS

Pitcairn Radio Is Repaired

(Continuedfrom page 14) Maintenance Foreman

to Drill Barge Master, Dredging Division. Edward W. MacKenzie, from Dipper

Dredge Engineer, Dredging Division, to

Chief, Towboat Engineer, Navigation Division. George M. Sylvester, from Chief Towboat Engineer to Senior Chief Towboat

Engineer, Navigation Division. Allen G. Tuttle, from Auto Repair

Machinist, Motor Transportation Division,

to Motorboat Maintenance Mechanic, Navigation Division. Percy A. Lawrence, from Lock Operator,

Wireman, to Lock Operator, Wireman

Leader, Atlantic Locks. Roy A. Hall, Jr., from Building and

Equipment Supervisor, Clubhouse Division,

to Drill Barge Engineer, Dredging Division. John H. Droste, from Restaurant Service Supervisor, Clubhouse Division to Guard, Atlantic Locks. David E. Dickson, from Control House

Operator to Lockmaster, Pacific Locks. John E. Schmidt, from Lock Operator

Wireman Leader to Control House Operator,

Pacific Locks. William M. Martin, from Lock Operator Wireman to Lock Operator, Wireman

Leader, Pacific Locks. Wallace E. Rushing, from Plant Electrician, Commissary Division, to Lock

Operator Wireman, Atlantic Locks. Homer A. Sneckenberger, from Lock

Operator, Machinist Leader to Lockmaster,

Pacific Locks. James A. Mable, from Lock Operator

Machinist to Lock Operator Machinist

Leader, Pacific Locks. RAILROAD AND TERMINALS BUREAU

Theodore A. Albritton, from Locomotive Machinist, Industrial Bureau, to Assistant Roundhouse Foreman, Balboa. Frank X. Boland, from Assistant Roundhouse Foreman, Balboa, to Roundhouses and Equipment Foreman. SUPPLY AND SERVICE BUREAU

Mrs. Mary E. Evans, from Telephone

Operator, to Accounting Clerk, Commissary Division. Fred N. Dahl, from Commissary Assist- ant to Assistant Commissarv Manager.

Mrs. Carol R. Wright, from ClerkTypist, Terminals Division, to Accounting

Clerk, Commissary Division. Gilbert A. Sollas, from Cash Accounting Clerk to Storekeeper, Commissary

1 Hvision

PITCAIRN ISLANDERS will soon have a radio again, thanks to the work of the two local "hams" above, Herbert A. Greene, Jr., left, and Prentiss C. Combs. The radio and an appeal for help in repairing it "because radio is very important as we have no change here but listen to the radio in the stillness of the evening," arrived February 12 aboard the Rangitiki. Its owne- is Floyd McCoy, a descendent of one of the original "Mutiny on the Bounty" men wno settled the little island which is just a speok on a map of the wide Pacific. He consigned the radio to Robert \V0r3ley of Balboa who has been personal shopper for the

islanders for a dozen or so years. In the past few months he has bought lace, lamp chimneys, oilcloth, clothes, and dress patterns for them. Mr. Worsley turned it over to the two "hams," who, working in their spare time, replaced 25

condensers on the battery-operated receiving set and obtained for it a brand new speaker. The set and speaker were to leave Balboa yesterday aboard the Ruahine for the tiny island, just the size and shape of Taboga.

RATES ON STEAMSHIPS

(Continued from page 3) visit here an

excellent thing for both commissaries

and commissary customers. Considerable time during the confer- ence was devoted to the local hospital

situation. Colonel Vogel reported that during the first week of its operation,

from February 18-26, the consolidated

out-patient service at Gorgas Hospital

(which combines the operations of the former Ancon and Balboa dispensaries)

had handled 907 patient visits. Of these 413 were for U. S.-rate employees or

their families and 484 for local-rate workers or dependents.

Another subject which came up for some discussion was that of maintenance

of old houses which are scheduled to be

torn down in the housing replacement

program. Bronson Powell, representing the Pedro

Miguel Civic Council, asked if some minimum standard cannot be set up for maintenance of these old houses which

have long since been depreciated out. Colonel Vogel pointed out that money

for maintainence is simply not sufficient to maintain the old houses which are to be demolished in a short time. The only answer, Colonel Vogel continued, is to get residents of the old houses into "respectable new houses" as

fast as possible.

He pointed out that the situation as regards the residents of Pedro Miguel

had just been eased somewhat by a change

in housing rules whereby people from

Pedro Miguel may be considered for assignments in Ancon, Balboa, and

Diablo Heights.

Ask For Check Cashing

William Ward, of the Gamboa Civic

Council, asked that something be done

so that the postoffice and commissary at Gamboa could have enough cash on hand to cash bi-weekly pay checks now

that the paymaster is no longer making

regular visits to the Dredging Division town.

J. J. Tobin of the Central Labor Union

asked Colonel Vogel if he could use the "good offices" of the Governor's office to ask that a representative of the Internal Revenue office be in Cristobal more than one day a week, especially during the

first three months of the year. Other items discussed during the February conference included: A report that all operations of the License Section

are now being reviewed—this in answer

to a previous request from representatives

of the Atlantic side for a permanent

license section there; improvements for the night-lighting poles at the Balboa

stadium for the safety of men working

on the standards; free swimming for children during the Summer Recreational Program; a brief discussion of a bill which

would repay to the Treasury—for use

in the Canal Zone—an amount equal

to taxes collected in the Canal Zone; another brief discussion of some tax exemption for Government employees

living outside the continental United

States; and the matter of the new Locks

Security force. Attending the conference were: The

Lieutenant Governor, E. A. Doolan,

Director of Personnel, and F. G. Dunsmoor, Executive Assistant to the Governor, for the Administration; Margaret

Rennie, Pacific Civic Council; Bronson

B. Powell, Pedro Miguel Civic Council; C. W. Hammond, General Committee of Civic Councils; William H. Ward, Gamboa; Raymond F. Ralph, Gatun, and

R. E. Hileman, Cristobal-Margarita;

Robert C. Daniels, Railway Conductors;

Daniel P. Kiley, Pacific Lock Employees

Association; Andrew Lieberman, Marine

Engineers; Rufus Lovelady and H. J. Chase, AFGE; and Walter Wagner,

Carl W. Hoffmeyer, J. J. Tobin, A. A.

Saarinen, and 0. J. Corrigan, all from

the Centra] Labor Union-Metal Trades

Council.
16 THE PANAMA CANAL REVIEW March 7,1952

LEARNERS' PERMITS come first. Leona Hart, Balboa High School senior, who posed for this series, gets her test from Police Officer John F. McDowell.

Paul Stewart is license examiner in Cristobal.

HERE'S A GEAR, Instructor Paul Kuyoth tells Leona in a class session. Noel (Hbson does the teaching for CristobarHigh School. Class periods are divided between instruction and discussion.

Young Zone Drivers

Learn How—And Why

Two hundred and fifty-three young Canal Zone people, boys

slightly in the majority, are qualified to drive automobiles today

through a course of training which would benefit some of their

elders. And 61 others, 18 of them in Cristobal High School and

43 at Balboa, are in the process of learning.

The first local drivers' class was started at Balboa High

School in November 1949. Cristobal began its course a year

later. Since the schools have no dual control automobiles like those used in many U. S. schools, the course is based on lessons prepared by the American Automobile Association. The stu- dents have classes at school; road practice is done under the

direction of a parent or other adult sponsor, working from home

lesson sheets coordinated with the class work. At first the students had to be at least 18 years old. In 1950

traffic regulations were changed and 17-year-olds may now be

licensed if they have completed the drivers' training program

successfully.

The parent sponsors are required to attend the class's first meeting and also are usually present at the stopping demonstration given to each group by the C. Z. Police. The course consists of 10 weekly class and driving lessons, plus a visit to the Magistrate's court, a bumper-detonator

(stopping) test and other demonstrations. The student first learns to identify various parts of the car while lessons in backing, parking, driving in traffic, etc., come later. By the end of the course the student has learned not only the hows but also the whys of car operation.

The Canal Zone police believe that the drivers' courses have

had a healthy effect on the driving habits of this young group. A survey is now being made to verify or disprove this belief.

N=

to =

COe OS

THAT'S RUBBER, Sgt. E. C. Fishbough shows Leona. The police car laid down 69 feet of skid marks when it was stopped suddenly at 40 miles an hour.

THE ENGINE, as it looks really and not in a diagram, is explained to Leona by her father, Max Hart of the Storehouse Division. Mr. Hart was teacher for Leona's road practice.

SHE'S OFF! Ten weeks of class and road work behind her, her driver's license

in her wallet, Leona joins thousands of others—most of them not as well trained

as she—on the Canal Zone roads.