Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1906-12-19

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work they did in digging has been of
direct and real benefit This country
has never made a better investment
than the $4O,0O0,O00 which it paid to
the French company for work and bet
terments, including especially the Pan
anna railroad.
An inspection on the ground at the
height of the rainy season served to
convince me of the wisdom of con-
gress in refusing to adopt either
high-level or a sea-level canal There
seems to be a universal agreement
among all people competent to Judge
that the Panama route, the one actu-
ally chosen, is much superior to both
the Nicaragua and Darien routes.
The wisdom of the canal manage
ment has been shown in nothing more
clearly than in the way in which the
foundations of the work have been
laid To have yielded to the natural
Impotence of Uniformed outsiders
! and begun all kinds of experiments
in work prior to thorough sanitation
of the isthmus, and to a fairly salts
factory working out of the problem OF
| getting and keeping a 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 construction prior
to Jan. 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
29th day of June, the date when the
congress definitely and wisely settled
that we should have an S5-foot level
canal. Immediately after that the
work began in hard earnest and has
been continued with increasing Ngor
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 a constantly increas-
ing 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
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| from the outset under the direction of
| DR.. w. c. Gorgas, who is to be made
| full member of the commission. 1t
must be remembered that his work
was not mere sanitation as the term
il understood in our ordinary munich
pal work. Throughout the zone and in
the two cities of Panama and Colon.
1 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 the health
department officers do in the various
states and cities, and that Colonel
| Warning did in New York when he
cleaned it's streets. The results have
been astounding. The isthmus had
been a byword for deadly unhealthful-
ness. Now, after two years of our
| occupation the conditions as regards
sickness and the death rate compare
favorably with reasonably healthy To-
calities in the United States. Just at
present the health showing on the
isthmus is remarkably good-so much
1
| United States that | do not believe
that 1t can possibly continue at quite
| it's present average. In October there
! were ninety-nine deaths of every kind
among the employees of the isthmus.
| There were then on the rolls $500
| whites, seven-eighths of them being
| Americans. OF these whites but two
l tod Of
neither man was an American. OF the
5000 white Americans, including some
| | 200 women and children, not single
| death has occurred in the past three
months, whereas in an average city in
the United States the number of
deaths for similar number of people
In that time would have been about
thirty from disease. In Panama and
Colon the death rate has also been
| greatly reduced, this being directly
due to the vigorous work of the spe-
cial brigade of employees who have
been inspecting houses where the
stegomyia mosqnito is to be found and
| destroying it's larvae and breeding
places, and doing similar work in ex
terminating the malarial mosquitoes
in short, in performing all kinds of
hygienic labor. 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 because 1t was neces-
sary 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 not able to perceive. Yet
astonishing progress has been made
in both cities.
Unjust Criticism.
Care and forethought have been ex-
ercised by the commission. and moth
Ing has reflected more credit upon
them than their refusal either to go
ahead too fast or to be deferred by
the fear of criticism from not going
ahead fast enough. 1t is curious to
note the fact that many of the most
severe critics Of the commission crit
icize them for precisely opposite rea-
sons, some complaining bitterly that
the work Is not In more advanced