The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1909-06-03
MORE ABOUT BANANA CANAL.
Congress Jameson Writes Again of
His Trip to Panama.

Congress Jameson Writes Again Of
His Trip to Panama.
WASHINGTON, ID. c., May p, 1909.
EDITOR REPoRTER:-A short time ago
wrote you something about the PAN
anna canal, telling about it's being of the
lock type, telling something about these
locks, and indicating that three-fourths
of this canal and more, counting from
shore to shore, was IS feet above the
sea level, away up in the hills. The
greater portion of this part of the canal
that is up this high is through the lake
that is formed up there by building the
big dam at Gatum at one end, and the
smaller dam at Pedro Miguel, at the
other end. This artificial lake is sup
piled by the rivers that flow in from
each side, both from the north and from
the south. AS this lake has III square
miles in it, one would naturally question
whether any of the rivers would be able
to get enough water into the lake. But
there seems to be no uncertainty on
this point. The Chagres river is the
biggest river in the canal zone, and you
can get some idea of it's supplying ca
pacity when you realize that sometimes
it will raise as high as 80 feet within "a
hours. In making their estimates, they
took the record for the amount of water
these rivers have supplied during the
rainy season when the least water fell
since they began keeping the records,
a number of years ago, and then they
estimated the amount of water they
would use during the longest dry sea-
son they have had during that time, and
found that they had more water than
they needed to supply the locks, to
run the railroad, to supply the cities of
Panama and Colon and the other towns
in the zone, and to light the entire
canal. 1t takes about an hour to make
what they call a 'lockage," that is to
put boat through one of the locks, and
with the conditions as extreme as in
Dictated, they would have enough water
to make % of these lockages a day.
Then it would be a comparatively easy
matter to make reservoirs up in the
hills for emergency times.
One thing down there that seemed to
me very unusual attra cted my atten-
ton. In all of my geography | was
taught that the sun came up from over
the Atlantic and set down beyond the
Pacific. Imagine then, the first morn
ing we we're in Panama, when l looked
out on the wonderful old ocean that Bal
boa discovered when he was trying to
find passage across the ithmus, to see
the sun come smiling up out of the
river; that night the sun sank out in
the Atlantic. That sent all of my ira
di5ions flying, and | started in on a
little study Of geography right away. l
discovered that the little neck of land
connecting the two continents twisted
around just enough so this condition
was made possible. From the Atlantic
side, the canal runs southeast to the
Pacific side. Another thing that |
noticed was that the bananas seemed to
be growing upside down. AS we see
them in the stores, they always hang
from the stem down, but as we see them
on the trees, they shoot upwards in the
punches from the stem. Another pecul-
lar thing is that you can get just as
good tasting bananas in the Iowa towns
as you can down there where they are
natives. Even down there they take
them from the trees green just as they
do for shipment north. Another thing
peculiar in the cities down there is
that the teams, when meeting, always
turn to the left.
There are between 10000 and $4,000
employees on the canal now, including
those working on the railroad. About
5000 of these are Americans. They
have the higher classes of positions
are clerks, skilled artisans of all classes
and the mechanics. On the engines,
and they must have about 800 of them
for that 50-mile railroad, the engineers
are from the United States, while all of
the firemen and brakemen are negroes.
There are in the neighborhood of 10000
Spaniards and Italians, mostly the
former, and about 10000 negroes. These
negroes are almost altogether from the
West India Islands, and are wholly
different type of negro from ours of
the United States. The Americans re-
ceive from 500 to $3.50 per month, gold,
while the Spaniards receive 20 cents an
hour and the negroes 10 cents an hour.
The Americans are called the "gold"
employees, because they are paid in gold,
and the foreigners who comprise the
common laborers, are called the "silver"
employees and are paid in Panamanian
money, which is worth just half as much
as ours. If you go into one of the stores
down there and hand the merchant one
of our silver dollars for a two-bit pur-
chase, he will hand you back silver
dollar of theirs just about as big as the
one you gave him, and also fifty cent
piece and twenty cent piece and five
cent piece, each about as big as ours.
1t really makes you feel like you have
received the thing you bought in adj
dition to more mnney than you gave
him.
Col. Goethals, the engineer in charge
down there, and who is almost an abso-
Lutte car in the zone, said that the
workmen down there received from 40
to 80 per cent more money than they
did in the States. And l think they are
entitled to it, too. would not want to
20 dewn there to work unless there was
some extra compensation in it. In ad-
dition to this most of the employees are
furnished quarters by the government.
Where the employe is married he gets
nicely built house, we'll furnished.