This Quartermaster’s Department also has charge of the property
records, receives semiannual returns of property from all those to whom
property has been issued, and checks the returns and inventories of the
storehouses with the records compiled from the original invoices.
The Subsistence Department has charge of the commissaries and the
manufacturing plants which consist of an ice and cold-storage
establishment, a bread, pie, and cake bakery, a coffee roasting outfit,
and a laundry. These belong to the Panama Railroad Company, as, at
the time they were established, money received from sales could be
reapplied, whereas if operated by the Commission it would have reverted
to the Treasury, necessitating reappropriation before the proceeds
of the sale could be utilized. They are, however, under the management
of the subsistence officer of the Commission, who has charge of the
various hotels, kitchens and messes.
There are 16 hotels from Cristobal to Panama which serve meals to the
American, or “gold” employees at 30 cents per meal. There are 24 messes
where meals to European laborers are served, the cost per day being 40
cents; and there are 24 kitchens for meals supplied to the “silver”
laborers (men paid in Panamanian currency), the cost to the laborer
being 30 cents per day. There is no profit to the Commission. The
commissaries and manufacturing plants are operated at a profit so as
to repay the Panama Railroad Company for its outlay in six years from
January 1, 1909, at 4 per cent interest.
The Subsistence Department also has charge of a large hotel at Ancon
for the entertainment of the Commission’s employees at a comparatively
low rate, and of transient guests at rates usually charged at first
class hotels.
The Department of Civil Administration exercises supervision over the
courts, which consist of three circuit and five district: the judges
of the three former constitute the supreme court. The district courts
take cognizance of all cases where the fine does not exceed $100 or
imprisonment does not exceed 30 days. Jury trials are restricted to
crimes involving the death penalty or life imprisonment.
The Sanitation Department looks after the health interests of the
employees. It is subdivided into the health department, which has
charge of the hospitals, supervision of health matters in Panama
and Colon and of the Quarantine, and into the sanitary inspection
department, which looks after the destruction of the mosquito by
various methods, as grass and brush cutting, the draining of swamp
areas, and by oiling unavoidable pools and stagnant streams.
To this Department also belong 11 chaplains employed by the Commission
to attend the sick as well as look after the spiritual welfare of the
employees.
All moneys are handled by the Disbursement Department, which pays
accounts which have been previously passed upon by the Examiner of
Accounts.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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