Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1906-12-26
Preliminary Work Being Done.

WOTH. 0SIHS OOHCs
The wisdom of the canal management
has been shown in nothing more clearly
than in the way in which the founda-
lions of the work have been laid To
have yielded to the natural Impotence
OF iil-informed outsiders and begun all
kinds OF experiments in work prior to a
thorough sanitation of the isthmus, and
70 fairly satisfactory working out of
The problem of getting and keeping a
euficient labor supply, would have been
S oisastroIs- The various preliminary
these could not be taken so as to allow
US to begin the real work of construc-
ton prior TO January 1 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
until the 18th day of June, the date
settled that we should have an S5-foot
level canal. Immediately after that the
work began in hard earnest. and has
ever since; and it will continue so to
progress in the future. When the con-
tracts are let the conditions will be such
as to insure Il 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
w. G. Gorgas, who is to be made a full
member of the commission. 1t must be
remembered that his work was not mere
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.
Warning did in New York when he
cleaned its streets 81 The results have
& byword for deadly unhealthfulness
Now, after two years of our occupation
the conditions as regards sickness and
the death rate compare faVorablX with
reasonably healthy localities in the
United States. Especial care has been
devoted to minimizing tire risk due to the
presence of those species of mosquitoes
which have been found to PROPAGATE
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 as the needs
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 i.ngie is
cut away for considerable spa e around
the habitations. thus destl ,ying the
places in which the mosquitoC take shell
ter. These drainage bitches id clearngs
are In evidence in every settlement, and.
together with the iRvariable presence of
mosquito screens around the piazzas, and
of mosquito doors to the houses, not TO
speak OF the careful fumigatiOn that has
gone on in all infected houses, doubtless
explain the extraordinary absence of
mosquitoes. AS matter of fact, but
. single mosquito, and this not of the
dangerous species, was seen by any
member of our party during my three
days on the isthmus. Equal care is
partment to secure cleanliness in the
houses and proper hygienic conditions of
syery kind. l Inspected between 70 and
white employees and those used by the
colored laborers. In almost every case
found the conditions perfect. In but one
case did find them really bad. In this
case, affecting settlement of unmar-
fled white employees, found them very
Inherited from the French company and
were being used temporarily while other
buildings were in the course of construc
ton: and right pear the defective water
closet new and excellent closet with a
good sewer pipe was in process of con-
etruction and nearly finished. Neverthe-
less this did not excuse the fact that the
bad condition had been allowed to pre-
vail. Temporary accommodations, even
In the field. should have been provided.
Orders to this effect were issued. APP
pend the report of Or. Gorgas on the in
cident 1 was struck. however, by the
fact that in this instance, as in almost
every other where a complaint was made
which proved to have any Justification
Whatever. it appeared that steps had al
ready been taken to remedy the evil
complained of, and that the trouble was
often impossiblity. of providing in every
place for the constant increase in the
numbers of employees. Generally the pro-
vision is made in advance, but it is not
possible that this should always be the
ease: when it is not there ensues a
period of time during which the condi-
Hons are unsatisfactory. until a remedy
can be provided; but 1 never found a
case where the remedy was not being
provided as speedily as possible
improvements in Cities.
The sanitation work in the cities OF
Panama and Colon has been just as
important as in the zone itself. and in
many respects much more difficult be-
cause Il was necessary to. deal with
the already existing population. which
naturally had scant sympathy with
revolutionary changes. the. value OF
which they were for a long time net
able to perceive. In Colon the popula-
eion consists largely of coloreds labor.
,srs who. having come over from the
West Indies to work on the canal
cbsndon the work and either take t
the brush or lie idle in Colon itself
eirabfe among the imported iaborers