The Savannah morning news., 1904-01-08
PANAMA'S COMMERCIAL
POSSIBILITIES.
Idleness Of the Isthmus Bar to the Countrv's
Progress.
Complete Paralysis Prevails.
By MERRILL A. LEAGUE.
Special Correspondent of the Morning News.

there is not a mandatory of any sort
on the entire isthmus.
Complete Paralysis Prevails.
The scope of this commercial and in
dustrial paralysis can hardly be an
preciated by those who have not been
witness to it. Complete is the one
word in the English vocabulary which
described it. There are a few traders
-Amerlcans-workin UP and down
the coasts in small sailing vessels. bar
terIng with the natives for cocoanuts.
ivory nuts, tortoise shell and similar
products. Near Nombre de Dios there
has been an attempt, almost abandon
ed now, to open a manganese mine.
One gold mine is in operation. its pro-
quot ($6O,OOO month"; sufficing only to
demonstrate the latest possibilities in
that direction. In Chiriqui cattle and
Irult are raised in deSultory fashion.
Inc pearl fisheries yield enormously
under the most primitive condition of
operation; but there the end is reached
In all Panama there is not a mill for
the grinding of grain, a part of the
kitchen outfit of every home being a
mortar and pestle, usually made by
hoIIoWlng out one end of a short log
and rndely fashioning a club out of
one of the hard woods. Travel over
the 10000 odd miles of this area. and
there is not to be heard the hum of a
single sawmill, although such woods
as lgnum vitae, white wood almost
as durable as iron; kokobola, a red
wood which takes a polish richer than
cherry, mahogany or rosewood, or
which, by being buried in the ooze of
swamps, quickly becomes perfectly
ebonlzed, are available in limitless
quantities.
Nor is there to be found in this land.
where travel is principally by boat
along the coasts and rivers, a single
bodybuilding establishment; cayues-
followed out of cedar logs and fitted
with small sail and a paddle-alone
are used. There is one insignificant
tannery on the isthmus but aside from
1t mechanical labor is an entire
| stranger in this section of the uni
verse.
The foregoing may be taken as a
fair index to the prospects afforded by
the future. Agricultural and mineral
| development, commercial activity, in
dustrial enterprise-each in it's numer-
GUS and variable forms-all wait the
touch of genius to be called into being.
But as a prelude to this development
there must come first the real work of
the pioneers.
Work Tor Pioneers.
The railroads monopoly of transpor-
tatlon facilities must be DESTROYED and
| wagon roads constructed, so as to make
the interior accessible. The destruction
! of the railroads transportation monop-
oily will be easy after the United States
shall have secured possession of the
property; but the building of roads will
| be a moro difficult undertaking.
In IFS nrpSpOt native cfa 70 tho land &c
most repelling, being a succession OF
swampS and jungles. Drainage quick
ly does away with the swamps, and by
| this means thousands of acres now
wholly useless can be redeemed for
purposes of cultivation with compare
| tive ease. But there remain the jun
| giles. These are nothing more thar
| dense masses of most exaggerated and
excessive vegetation, rendering survey
and construction work almost impossi-
BILE. The jungles are only penetrable
when one takes along a native. who
armed with the universal machete, cuts
path through the tangle of vines and
small shrubbery.
For actual rOadmaking the difficulties
would be infinitely greater for in fell
| ing trees it is necessary to cut them off
in sections at the bottom, the growth
| of vines through the boughs being sc
strong and so generous that it is very
nearly impossible to drop d tree by cut
ting. This pioneer work of clearing is
rot, however, impossible; all it re-
! quires is plenty of determination and
much hard labor.
The greatest difficulty about it is that
once it is done, it has to be frequently
| done over again unless, by advanced
| systems of drainage. the land is COM
! pleteIy subiugated Neglected for a
! little while, the land produces a jungle
rivaling the one removed, the quality
of the soil, the excessive rain (the aver
age fall is about 100 inches annually
and the perpetual heat from the sun