While a freight-carrying steamer will make its stay as short as possible, the probabilities are that the passenger-carrying steamer will require at least 48 hours to make its calls at the two terminal cities and pass through the canal. They will probably handle the major portion of the package cargo, leaving the bulk cargo business entirely for freighters. When going through the canal from the Atlantic to the Pacific they probably will have cargo bound for a large number of Pacific ports on diverse routes. This would be discharged at Balboa and there be put into other ships to be carried to its destination. During the time the shipping and unshipping of cargo, replenishing stores, taking on coal and like operations are being performed, the traveler will be afforded opportunity to get acquainted with dry land again, and to enjoy for a day or two a respite from his long sea journey. The plan advocated on the Isthmus for perfecting the permanent organization was as follows: The chairman and chief engineer would call upon each of the departments to furnish a list with the ratings of the best men. The man having the best record would be offered a position under the permanent organization similar to the one held by him under the construction organization. If he chose to accept this position under the wage standard laid out he could do so; if he did not, the next man would be given the opportunity, and so on down. In this way it was expected that the entire force would be chosen because of records made in the service. CHAPTER XXVII HANDLING THE TRAFFIC Four or five years before the earliest probable opening date, shipping interests began to arrange their future schedules with respect to the Panama Canal. One can scarcely realize how rapidly the facilities of the canal will be utilized. At the rate of expansion witnessed in the world's marine traffic during the past two or three decades, 17,000,000 tons of shipping will be handled through the canal in 1925, 27,000,000 tons in 1935, and 44,000,000 tons in 1945. The maximum capacity of 80,000,000 tons assumes a passage of 48 vessels a day through the canal, or one for every half hour of the twenty-four. Two vessels a day of 4,000 tons each, at the present charge, will render the canal self-supporting.