Equipment in The dry excavation is done by steam-shovel and the wet by dredges of various types. When dry excavation was at its highest point, in 1910, 560 drills were used in drilling the material for blasting, 100 steam-shovels dug the earth and rock and loaded it upon cars, 3,600 cars carried it to the dumps, and 158 modern locomotives hauled trains. In addition to these there were 700 cars in general service, and 1,470 freight cars on the Panama Railroad, 112 old French locomotives, 32 narrow-gage locomotives, and 12 electric locomotives in use. Miscellaneous equipment for the dry excavation consists of 25 machines for spreading spoil on the dumps, 10 machines for shifting track, 30 for unloading spoil from the large flat cars, 57 locomotive cranes, and 20 pile drivers. In the wet excavation there are in use 7 ladder or elevator-dredges left by the French, one modern ladder-dredge, 3 dipper-dredges, 2 sea-going suction-dredges, and 1 clamshell dredge, 1 subaqueous rock-breaker, 11 self-propelling barges (clapets) left by the French, 2 drilling barges, 1 piledriver, 14 launches; and, in the wet-excavation and rockand-sand services, 12 tugs, 1 tow-boat, 1 crane-boat. This equipment is supplemented by that used in mixing and laying concrete in the locks, which is referred to under the section on Locks. Among the manufacturers supplying materials are the following: Name Bucyrus Co.......... Materials See Page Globe-Wernicke Co........ Keystone National Powder Co... Dynamite... Trenton Iron Co.......... Office Supplies.. 288 290 Western Wheeled Scraper Co.......... Lock Gate Machines, etc.. 284-5 Commissaries and Messes. The United States Government is in the department store business on the Isthmus, runs hotels, has a cold storage and manufacturing plant, and in general carries on a great provision and clothing establishment. It does this work so much better and more economically than similar enterprises are conducted in the United States, that the time one spends in investigating this branch of the canal work will be profitable as well as interesting. The men who manage this branch are Lieut.-Col. E. T. Wilson, Chief Subsistence Officer; Capt. F. O. Whitlock, Assistant Subsistence Officer; Mr. John Burke, Manager of Commissaries, and Mr. W. F. Shipley, Chief Clerk. The subsistence branch has the work of feeding all the employes not living in family quarters. There are three classes of such employes and a separate system Mess Halls. of messes is maintained for each-(1) hotels for white Americans; (2) mess halls for European laborers; (3) kitchens for negro laborers. The hotels are really mess halls, because no sleeping accommodations may be obtained by transients. They consist of a large room set with tables, a balcony arranged in the same way, and a kitchen and ice box. The meals cost 30 cents each to employes and 50 cents to transients. They are good meals for the price and the service is good, considering that most people want their food in a hurry and must be accommodated. The messes for Spanish laborers are conducted in halls, and the laborers sit down at long tables upon which the food is placed with a great clatter. Meals cost 40 cents for three, and they are usually good. Negro laborers get their food in pans or pails at the mess kitchens, and three meals or rations cost 27 cents. There are 19 hotels, 16 messes, and 14 laborers' kitchens. About 3,000 employes eat at the hotels, 3,000 at the messes, and 6,000 get food from the kitchens. The negro laborers do not patronize the kitchens regularly because no provision is made for service, the food being dished out to be eaten elsewhere. The Spanish laborers who do not eat at the mess halls patronize some cantina run by one of their own people, where they can get wine, and take as much time as they please for their meals. The subsistence branch maintains itself and pays a small profit. See also “A Canal Builder's Village" and "Social Conditions and Forces." The present commissary system is an outgrowth of the old railroad commissary store. It maintains an ice plant where 100 tons of ice are made daily, a bakery Commissary. which produces six million pounds of bread a year, an ice cream factory, a cold storage plant, meat cutting shop, soup factory, corned beef plant, coffee roaster, butter printery, and laundry. There are 18 retail stores, of the character of a country general store, situated in various Canal Zone villages, and they are supplied with stocks of food and clothing from the warehouses at Cristobal. The total annual business amounts to about six million dollars, and 90 per cent of this money is spent in the United States, 5 per cent in Panama, and 5 per cent in Europe. For five years the Commissary has succeeded to the extent that it has paid an annual dividend, paid living wages to its employes, and sold meat, bread, butter, ice, coffee, sugar, shoes, underwear, and other necessaries at a lower price than they could be bought at retail in the United States. It handles no "cheap" stuff, works off no bad foods or shoddy clothing, strives always to "give the money's worth," and it usually succeeds. It is the most striking instance in history of the economy of collective effort in meeting the common problem of "how to live." 愁 Terminal, Repair, and Supply Facilities. The terminal facilities now under construction provide for a system of piers at both entrances of the Canal, with appliances for rapid handling of cargo. It should be remembered that a large amount of the trade by way of the Canal will not be through traffic; that is, ships from New York, New Orleans, Liverpool, and other ports, will touch at Colon, unload part of their cargo, and then sail to other ports on the Atlantic seaboard. Ships for the west coast of the Americas and for the Orient will stop at the docks, pick up this freight, and carry it to its destination. At the Atlantic entrance a mole has been constructed from the village of Cristobal, at right angles to the Canal Atlantic Entrance. channel for a distance of 3,500 feet. Projecting from this mole inland, almost parallel to the Canal, will be the terminal docks. A quay-wall and two piers are under construction; the layout is such that, as soon as the trade demands it, three more piers can be built. The piers are 1,000 feet long and the slips between them 300 feet wide, so that two 1,000 foot ships may dock at one time without entering the Canal itself. The direction of the mole is such, with relation to the Canal entrance and the breakwater which juts out from Toro Point, that it will aid materially in breaking the force of the heavy seas which the violent northers of November, December, and January, pile up in Colon harbor. It is believed that this method of constructing the docks will make unnecessary the construction of the east breakwater, contemplated in the original plans of the Canal. At the Atlantic entrance in close proximity to the docks will be a coaling plant, from which the Government will Supply supply coal to its own vessels and to such commercial vessels as may require it. It is proposed to maintain the present commissary plant at Cristobal as a base of supplies for the Army and Navy, and it may be necessary even to enlarge this supply depot. At the Pacific entrance the terminal decks will be at Balboa, about five miles inland from the beginning of the Pacific Entrance Canal. A quay-wall 2,000 feet long has been constructed along the edge of the ship basin, and it will be supplied with machinery for the rapid handling of lumber and materials of this class. Here, also, ships will tie up while minor repairs are in progress at the marine shops. North of the quay-wall will be a series of piers, similar to those at the Atlantic entrance, jutting out from the mainland as the fingers stick out from the hand. Each of these will be 1,000 feet long, and the slips between will be 300 feet, thus allowing two 1,000-foot ships to use each dock at one time. The piers will be equipped with cranes especially adapted to the rise and fall of the tide, for the variation between high and low tide at the Pacific entrance is as high as twenty feet. Any ship that can use the Canal can likewise use the docks at the Pacific entrance. Alongside the terminal quay and piers will be a dry dock capable of taking any ship that can use the Canal. It will be situated behind Sosa Hill in a position Dry Dock where the fire from an enemy's guns can not and Shops. reach it. Between the dry dock and the wharves will be marine shops in which repairs to Government vessels, and to such commercial ships as may require them, will be made by the Government. It is the avowed intention of the Government to place its terminal, coaling, and repair facilities at the disposal of commercial vessels, because it is believed that in no other way can a monopoly of the use of the Canal by powerful interests in the United States and elsewhere be prevented. For instance, if any private interest controlled the coaling facilities or the repair shops, commercial vessels competing with the vessels of "the interests" would be under a serious handicap. On the other hand, it is not the policy of the Government to prevent private companies from maintaining coaling places or marine shops at either entrance of the Canal, provided they wish to do so, and there are evidences that such facilities will be maintained by private companies. The Cost. It is estimated that the cost of the Canal ready for use will be $375,20,000. This estimate was made in October, 1908, and is the only one based on actual experience in the developed work. In 1906 the minority of the Board of Consulting Engineers, who advised the construction of a lock canal, placed the cost of construction, engineering, and administration, at $139,705,200, and the same items |