The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1912-04-03
PANAMA IN FACT
and FICTION

trfbuted largely to the human factor.
The u. s. government has found eff
ficient men to do the work, and has
succeeded in maintaining their eff
cheney. Herein lies the superiority Of
Uncle Sans method over that of the.
French administration. No welI-in-
formed person viii deny these broad
facts, and it remains only to give
credit to whom credit is due.
Before the American public has had
time or opportunity to acquaint itself
with details, however, the verdict has
been presumptuousiy forestalled by
the medical profession, and widely
and vociferously proclaimed. 1t may
come somewhat as a shock to you who
have retained the traditional ideal of
the physician as the personification of
modesty and seIf-abnegation to learn
that these gentlemen have awarded
to themselves the entire credit OF the
work. But this only goes to show
that you are behind the times and have
not yet made the acquaintance of that
product OF the twentieth century, the
political doctor.
That the Isthmian canal, the latter
affirm and reiterate, is 500 to become
a material reality is due wholly to
the sanitarian. While in a an
engineering feat the completed task
is primarily a tribute to bacterioiogy.
1t attests the fact that medicine has
a last become an exact science. The
rightful parent Of the canal is not De
Lesseps. but Pasteur.
Let us investigate this astonishing
claim.
There are about 10000 picked men
and women at work in the canal zone.
Twenty five thousand of these are
negro laborers from the adjoining
tropical countries, particularly from
the British West Indies. These labo-
ers found a climate to their liking
form the first day, and wages and
food better than most OF them had
ever before received. Good treatment
with a negro begets obedience to law
and common sense regulations. Hence
it is not surprising that these colored
employees-alI selected men and pro-
verbally healthy in their home u
try where poverty and filth is the
rule rather than the exception-should
have prospered nightly under cleaner
and happier surroundings. Indeed,
would it not have been surprising
had results been otherwise? So while
it may be hard to say just what part
well-being Of the colored class, the
fact can hardly be denied that they
have played a minor role.
The same applies, perhaps with
slight notifications, to the 5000 Span
ish and Italian laborers. To the south
ern European the tropics have never
presented any terrors and the Latin
people have always been pioneers in
tropical development. That these Ia
borers, most of whom are Spaniards,
have bettered themselves industrially
by coming to Panama is self-evident,
so that their case is practically iden-
teal with that of their colored CO.
laborers-a tribute to good pay, con-
siderate treatment and decent sur
roundings. Here again the doctor has
no logical claim to the limelight.
But the case of the Americans and
their families, who are estimated at
over 10000, requires, perhaps, a more
careful analysis, though the facts
when e1ucidated are no less damaging
to the pretensions Of the medical pro-
pagandists.
Here, say the doctors, is a good
sized army of white Americans trans
ported into an unsuitable climate, sur
rounded by deadly perils and subject
ed to more plaques than harassed
the land of Pharaoh nj yet they re-
main healthy! medicine did the
trick and we al proveNi it."
Let us see
The tropics heretofore have proved
a great magnet to gold seekers, ex-
plorers and various adventures who
have courted hardship and privation.
Is it any wonder that the death rate
was high among men w. endeavored
to traverse impenetrable jungles, who
frequently set out unprovided with
the necessary food and supplies, and
who had to learn from the cruelest
experience facts that are now placed
at the disposal of every canal en-
ploye?
1t is not at Panama s-lone that the
tropics are losing their fictitious ter
rors. The northern tourist is now
finding his way through the whole
Caribbean country, and steamship
COlIlRdllAC6 aAO AOaO1y IOS1GAlkAlUk LHO
delights of residence throughout the
West Indies and the Spanish Main.
Statistics, moreover, show that yellow
fever had been on the decline long
before the discoveries of the American
sanitarians in Cuba, and Panama,
with it's ideal conditions, is not the
only tropical city that can boast Of a
diminishing death rate.
That the economic and social condi-
ton of the worker in Panama is ideal
no n can dispute. and If this leads
to physical, mental ard moral WE'LL
being, why should the facts be denied?
Is not this experiment too valuable
during the present era Of Industrial
distress and social ~upheaval to be
subjected to the slightest m%isrepre-
sentation?
The American colony at Panama is
composed largely of men in the prime
of life who have been subjected to
the most rigid physical examination
before acceptance. Having passed this
examination and received positions
which in most cases assure a salary
much greater than the recipients
could earn in the United States, they
begin to learn how philanthropic an
employer Uncle Sam really is. The
new employees r transported free Of
charge to the scene OF their labor. on
their arrival they find themselves in a
modern town or camp. every building
of which is constructed of the best
materials and contains every modern
improvement. The newcomer in most
Eases receives free quarters, AMI
though he must pay for his meals,
fh1Co 49, 80 A. hack o.,zIfk-x -..l 80.