Prowling about PanamaMiller, George A. (George Amos)
Philosophy
Prowling about Panama
Miller, George A. (George Amos)
Panama -- Description and travel
Administrative problems are not especially acute on the Zone, but the
completed task gives room for a world of appreciation of the general
efficiency with which the whole work was carried out, and the
smooth-running machinery of the executive to-day attests the thoroughness
with which the departmental system was organized and initiated by the men
whose names will always be associated with the work. The task of operating
the Canal to-day would not be very great, nor would it require a very
large army of employees, but without any preconceived plan various related
industries to the number of six or seven have grown up about the Canal
administration and operation, and the Canal Zone government to-day is
doing a number of things never contemplated in the original plans. The
routing of ships is directly connected with the coal supply, and a great
coaling plant stands at Cristobal. A large cold storage plant makes
possible the supplying of refrigerated goods to shipping countries. While
the trans-shipping business at Colon is yet in its infancy, the docks
there are already a very considerable factor in Canal activities.
Sanitation and public health, of course, require a trained force of
specialists. The Canal employees must eat, and the commissary hotel and
restaurant are a very important branch of the service. The quartermaster
looks after the housing problem, and where there are five thousand
Americans, most of them living with families, the educational problem
necessitates a department by itself. The Balboa Docks employ hundreds of
men at high wages.
In connection with the food problem come the large farming operations
conducted on the Canal Zone. An army of laborers is employed, and the
proceeds of the plantations and poultry yards is sold through the
commissary's stores.
From the beginning much attention has been paid to the social life and
recreation needs of these exiles from home. A chain of government
clubhouses runs across the Isthmus, one in each town, where reading rooms,
games, gymnasiums, refreshment counters, discussion clubs, concerts,
dances, cigar stores, and motion-picture programs are provided for young
and old. During the dry season baseball is widely indulged in and plays an
important part in the social and recreational life of the Zone.
[Illustration: CRISTOBAL STREETS]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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