The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-07-21

New York and Delaware the best and finest grapes were brought.
 The department store is under the com missary of the canal. It's head is Col. Eugene T. Wilson and it's business is as carefully conducted as that of any great factory or trust company in the United States The purchases are made in bulk and the prices are cut to the minimum. Competitive bids are gotten as to every thing the government buys.
 The greatest care is exercised in send ing supplies to the isthmus. most Of It being shipped In cold storage so that
 beef for instance from Chicago, prime beeves are received at Christobal or Pan- anna in as good condition as they are
 received in either New York and Bos-
 ton and sell at prices considerably lower
 Tn fact, all meat is so carefully shipped and packed that of the 100000 pounds
 received last year on the isthmus, not twenty pounds spoiled.
 After supplies are received, the pur-
 chases are tested by experts in the chem
 ical labratory. Everything is carefully
 gone over to see whether or not the bulk
 is up to the standard of the sample.
 Supplies not meeting the standard are
 promptly returned at the shippers cost. The commissary weighs everything re- ceived. It has weights and measures sent down by the bureau of standard in this city. Some of the scales used are so delicate and of such fine balance that the
 weight of a pencil mark or hair can be recorded.
 1 At Cristobal the cold storage plant con- nected with Uncle Sans department store 1 covers 25 acres. The building is made of I cement and is so arranged that supplies can be carted from the ships direct into I the building on one side and from the
 other distributed to the railroads which
 carry the supplies to various points on l the isthmus. It keeps everything from
 fresh vegetables, eggs, butter and milk,
 to turkeys. squabs, milk fed chickens canvas back and teal ducks to sweet bread and salmon.
 | A bakery that turns out 72 loaves of bread a minute is another adjunct of the department store. It is reputed to l be the largest bakery in the work. A ] batch of dough Is sunfficient to make
 1900 loaves. half of which can be baked 1 into 900 one pound loaves. in one of the l usual output is 25,000 loaves day.
 The laundry another department is filled with Jamaica negresses who laun- der the employees clothes, about four mil lion pieces being sent to the establish
 ment in the course of year. The institu-
 tion clears about 10000 g year. s'p The department store is really cut up iiilo ItLdll SlOICS, lOCdlcu III NdTlOuS points along the isthmus. The system is arranged on the coupon basis. Nothing
 can be purchased with money. Deliveries
 are made as in other stores with the
 added convenience to purchase of having
 messengers call every morning to take the order, This obviates the necessity of shopping by the housewife. The stores also conduct large mail order business. The manager of the store as well as the
 clerks are white. generally American citi-
 zens. though in number of cases there are quite few Europeans employed. The
 messengers and porters are either Ja-
 maica negroes or West Indians.
 The government owned department store
 was made necessary by the conditions of affairs on the isthmus until the time of American occupation. Panama was as a pestilentlal wilderness only nhabitable during the part of the year when the rainy season was over. Consequently when the United States determined to build the canal. 1t made provision to take care of it's employees in the best possible
 manper With this idea in mind it built new country 2000 miles removed from
 its center of supply. but acceptable to and convenient to live in as New York city.