Evening star., 1936-08-10
Descendants of Heroic Builders
Of Panama Canal Liue Here
First Freight Vessel Passed Through
Waterway August Is, ,l9l4-Hardships
Endured in Construction Recalled.
BY JESSIE FAINT EVANS.

Next Saturday, August Is, ccmmem-
crates the twenty-second anniversary
Of the passage of the first freight yes
sci through the Panama Canal. On
August 8, 1914, the first passenger ship
passed through this man-made water
way from ocean to ocean and opened
1t to the lanes of the worlds sea traf-
f1c.
This isthmian canal, dreamed Of by
the adventuring Spaniard Balboa,
fruitlessly attempted By private Amer
lean enterprise and by the French
under Ferdinand de Lesseps, finally
was started by the United States Gov
eminent during the administration of
President Theodore Roosevelt. It was
finished one year ahead Of the desig-
mated time, largely because Of his
personal reorganization of its build
ing commission and its transference
from civilian to military command,
as well as by his forceful recog-
milton of Col. Gorgas' health problems.
Today there are living in our midst
the families of three Of the great
Americans who made an actuality of
this century-old dream of others.
The story of the world-famous con-
quest of yellow fever which made pos
sible its completion is shortly to be
released by Warner Bros. in film
which it is said is to be called Pan
ANA"
Many names deserve to be asso-
eiated with this great achievement in
engineering, made possible because Of
the sanitation crusade that went
with 1t.
Leading Figures.
Certain ones lead all the rest.
Among these is the name Of Senator
John Tyler Morgan of Alabama,
chairman of the Senate Interoceanic
Canals and Foreign Relations Com
mittees. A tenacious proponent of
an isthmian canal for many years,
he was notably in favor of the
route across Nicaragua, but supported
the Spooner amendment to the Hep
burn bill, favoring the Panama pas
sage. with all his prestige, rather than
have this project so dear to his heart
utterly fail in Congress.
Then there are the names Of those
two Army super-engineers, George
Washington Goethals, driver of men
In pushing through the plans of his
mastery organization, and David Du
Bose Gaillard, whose enduring monu-
ment today is the Gaillard Cut. He
conquered Nature by achieving the
seemingly impossible and forfeited his
life in its accomplishment.
Not less than any of these is the
name Of William Crawford Gorgas,
Army surgeon, who by following
I'D the discovery of his fellow officer,
Walter Reed, that the tropical mos
quito was the carrier of yellow fever,
made it possible for this super human
task to be completed. In doing so,
Col. Gorgas also established for all
time that it is possible for white men
to live in the tropics.
Daughter Lives Here.
Miss Cornelia Morgan, the daugh-
ter of Senator Morgan and for many
wears his oficial hostess, lives in the
Mendoza Apartments at Twentieth
street and Kalorama road. A serene,
gracious person, her "reminiscences OF
her father and his long and successful
struggle are fascinating.
One of the writer's first recollec-
tfons of a Washington home Is that OF
Senator Morgan's on Four and a Half
street near the District Supreme Court.
A parking lot now occupies its site
and that OF many of the adjacent
homes.
With her parents she had come on
from their home in the West to visit
Miss Josephine FAINT, an elderly sister
Of her fathers, who was living at 2l2
-Four and Half street. With her
father she went one afternoon to pay
4 call on this distinguished friend OF
his boyhood days.
While Senator Morgan and her
father were deep in conversation In
the upstairs library, her wondering
eyes were attracted to the largest
globe she had ever beheld. Looking
ND suddenly, the Senator asked her,
.Do you like geography? Upon re-
eeiving the reply that she could sing
ell the States in the Union and their
capitals" he had her father hold her
up for her to see better. Then. he
pointed to the isthmian strip and
said, Here, God willing, If Congress
wees fit, there will some day be built
q canal that will change the CONNER
cial routes of the world"
Sensing that here was a life mott
vation. the little girl anMously in
quired, Don't you think they will let
you have your canal?"
To which the chairman Of the In
teroceanic Committee replied with
grim twinkle in his fine eyes, "I am
prepared to give lifetime to doing
everything that can to see that they
DO"
BY the time of his death. in 1907,
the Panama Canal was successfully on
its way toward ultimate completion
In 1914.
The only child of Surgeon General
and Mrs. Gorgas is Mrs. William D.
wrightson of Is Hesketh street, Chevy
Chase.
Recalls Experiences There.
N1lo W1l61itoOu Woo yOA4A6 6AA
during her fathers service in the
Panama Canal Zone and remembers
vividly the experiences Of that time.
With her mother she shared an inter-
est in the marvellous collection of Inca
silver her mother started during their
residence in the Canal Zone. It is
today one Of the largest and most
authentic privately owned.
Last May Mrs. Wrightson was guest
Of honor at the annual meeting of
survivors of the canal builders, who
still number 800 persons.
There are three daughters in the
Wrightson family. Marie. named for
her grandmother Gorgas, Is Mrs. Roger
Gabriel. The other two are Priscilla
and Aileen.
Priscilla has been living recently
among experiences equally as dramatic
from the standpoint of the likelihood
OF sudden death which befell her
grandmother when she followed Col.