The Fairmont West Virginian. (Fairmont, W. Va.) 1904-1914, 1904-04-28
CLEANSING
$oF&THE IsTHMUS5 OF BANANA BY:
THE5uNfTED STATES.
Great Work faust Be Undertaken Be
WI fore the Building OF the
55*335 Great Canal.

PoA
by health officers sent to the canal
zone to Investigate, the United States
government is thoroughly aroused as
to the necessity of adopting the most
extreme measures to transform our
newly acquired strip Of territory from
its present status of a hotbed of viru-
lent disease. What makes this SAM
tary campaign especially urgent is the
conclusion which has been reached
that it viii be quite useless to under
take in earnest the work of construct
ing the inter-oceanic canal until the
present wretched health conditions
are abolished.
AS a first step toward getting at the
root of the evil in short order Uncle
Sam is to send to Panama Col. w. c.
@Gorgas, the famous yellow fever ex-
pert Of the United States Army One
Of the obviously necessary precaution-
airy measures Will be to afford Drotec-
ton from yellow fever and malaria to
theslarge number of Americans who
will go to the isthmus when the work
Of construction on the big waterway
actually begins. In solving the prob
lens involved Colonel Gorgas will be
in his own element He is an immune
and has had Tie widest experience,
particularly in Cuba, where he won
fame by a great and successful battle
against the dread disease in it's tradi
tional stronghold.
Rear Admiral Rixey, the Surgeon
expert who will soon depart to direct
one; lineSo operations in the campaign
against pesti1ence. His special OBJ
ject of attention will be to ascertain
what can be done to preserve the
health of the hundreds Of United
States marines. upon whom will de-
volve the work OF policing the isthmus.s
These soldiers Of the navy" will be
stationed in camps for long periods
at a time, and in view of the general
.ly trying climate, it is highly impor-5
tant not only: that the camps be ar
ranged and conducted on the most
advanced sanitary ideas, but that the
health conditions of the whole sur
ton.
How big thing this sanitary enter
prise is to prove may be appreciated
from the fact, that the new commits
sion expects to spend more than half
n,lIlion dollars on sanitation the first
year. and rrof. w. H. Burr, who was a
member of the old commission and
will probably serve in an advisory ca
pacity in this health campaign, figures
that it will cost at least 100000 to
complete Inc main sanitary project
the construction of water, works and
a sewerage system for the cities OF
Panama and Colon and the drainage Of
the districts between these cities.
~ Yellow fever and small pox are by
no means the only terrors in this do
heusecleaning which Uncle Sam is
shortly to be in on a wholesale scale.
Leprosy exists in the city OF Panama,
and in almost every village along the
line OF the Panama ra4,road to Colon.
Some of the reasons why Panama
will be a pretty good place to keep
away from until Uncle Sam has clear
ed the atmosphere bit have been dis
closed by DR.. Claude c.. Pierce, OF the
Public Health Service, who was re-
Gently detailed for duty in the Office
of United States Consul General Gud-
ger at Panama. DR.. Il .erce declares
tnat the city of Panama is filthy in the
extreme, as a result primarily OF the
ANTICIPATED sewerage system. a dc
fectiye water supply adds to the de
plorable situation, and in the dry sea-
son when water sells for 1 cent per
gallon, baths become 81 luxury which
only the wealthy can afford. In a
trip along the forty-seven miles Of the
railroad line from Panama to Colon
the government investigator found
that all the villages were filthy, and
7fever-bearing mosquitoes We're every
Where prevalent. AT La Eoca, two
miles from Panama. the site OF til
tproposed mouth of the canal, he found
that no sanitary regulations whatever
existed.
III Bad as the outlook would seem to
be, members OF the new Panama Ca
nal Commission and other govern ent
officials are confident that the canal
zone will ultimately be made very
habitable place. Rear Admiral Walk
ser, chairman OF the new commission,
said the other day: 'Much can be
done to reduce the dangers of the eli
mi, T