Shoshone journal. [volume] (Shoshone, Idaho) 1884-1931, 1906-12-21
Preliminary Work Being Done.

The wisdom of the canal management
has been shown in nothing more clearly
than in the way in which the founda-
tons of the work have been laid To
have yielded to the natural impatience
of ill-informed outsiders and begun all
kinds of experiments IN work prior to a
thorough sanitation of the isthmus, and
to a fairly satisfactory working out Of
1.-THE problem of getting and keeping d
sufficient labor supply, would have been
disastrous The various preliminary
measures had to be taken first; and
these could not be taken so as TO allow
us to begin the real work of construc-
ton prior to January / of the present
year. 1t then became necessary to have
the type of the canal decided, and the
only delay has been the necessary delay
unsl- tue 18th day of June, the date
when the congress definitely and wisely
settled that we should have S5-foot
level canal Immediately after that the
work began in hard earnest and has
been continued with increasing vigor
ever since; and it will continue to
tracts are let the conditions will be such
as to insure constantly increasing
amount of performance.
Successful Sanitation.
The first great problem to be solved,
upon the solution of which the success of
the rest of the work depended was the
problem of sanitation. This was from
the outset under the direction of DR.
w. C. Gorgas, who is to be made n fun
member of the commission. 1t must be
sanitation as the term is understood in
our ordinary municipal work Through
out the zone and in the two cities of
Panama and Colon, in addition to the
sanitation work proper. he has had to
do all the work that the Marine hospital
service does as regards the nation, that
various states and cities. and that Col.
IWaring did in New York when he
CLEANED its streets. The results have
been astounding. The isthmus had been
"a byword for deadly unhealthfulness.
Now, after two years OF our occupation
the conditions as regards sickness and
reasonably healthy localities in the
United States Especial care has been
devoted to minimizing the risk due to the
presence of those species of mosquitoes
malarial and yellow fevers. In all the
settlements, the little temporary towns
or cities composed of the white and black
employees, which grow up here and
there in the tropic jungle the needs
of the work dictate, the utmost care is
exercised to keep the conditions healthy.
Everywhere are to be seen the drainage |
bitches which in removing the water |
have removed the breeding places of the |
mosquitoes, while the whole jungle is
cut away for considerable space around !
the habitations, thus destroying the |
places in which the mosquitoes take shell /
ter. These drainage bitches and clearings /
are in evidence in every settlement, and
together with the invariabls presence of |
mosquito screens around the piazzas, and |
or mosquito doors 10 the houses, not to /
speak of the careful fumigation that has
gone on in all infected houses. doubtless
explain the extraordinary absence OF |
AS a matter of fact, but
a single mosquito, and this not OF the
dangerous species, seen by any |
member OF our party during my three
AK by the inspectors OF the health de-
oartment to secure cleanliness in the
houses and proper hygienic conditions OF
very kind. | Inspected between 20 and
xvut er both fhOSS the |
white employees and those used by the
.olored lahorers In almost every case l