Chapter XIX: Fortifications; Tolls; Commerce and Quarantine (2)

==========+=====+=============================+=======================
| | FROM NEW YORK |
TO |Dis- | Days saved for vessels of | REMARKS
|tance+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+
|saved| 9 | 10 | 12 | 14 | 16 |
| |knots|knots|knots|knots|knots|
----------+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----------------------
|Miles| | | | | |
Adelaide |1,746| 7.5 | 6.7 | 5.6 | 4.6 | 4.0 |Difference between
| | | | | | |routes via Panama,
| | | | | | |Tahiti, Sydney, and
| | | | | | |Melbourne, and via St.
| | | | | | |Vincent and Cape of
| | | | | | |Good Hope.
Melbourne |2,770|12.3 |11.0 | 9.1 | 7.7 | 6.7 |Difference between
| | | | | | |routes via Panama,
| | | | | | |Tahiti, and Sydney and
| | | | | | |via St. Vincent, Cape
| | | | | | |of Good Hope, and
| | | | | | |Adelaide.
Sydney |3,932|17.7 |15.8 |13.1 |11.2 | 9.7 |Difference between
| | | | | | |routes via Panama and
| | | | | | |Tahiti, and via St.
| | | | | | |Vincent, Cape of Good
| | | | | | |Hope, Adelaide, and
| | | | | | |Melbourne.
Wellington|2,493|11.0 | 9.9 | 8.1 | 6.9 | 6.0 |Difference between
| | | | | | |routes via Panama and
| | | | | | |Tahiti and via Straits
| | | | | | |of Magellan.
----------+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----------------------

==========+=====+=============================+=======================
| | FROM NEW ORLEANS |
TO |Dis- | Days saved for vessels of | REMARKS
|tance+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+
|saved| 9 | 10 | 12 | 14 | 16 |
| |knots|knots|knots|knots|knots|
----------+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----------------------
|Miles| | | | | |
Adelaide |3,258|14.6 |13.1 |10.8 | 9.2 | 8.0 |Difference between
| | | | | | |routes via Panama,
| | | | | | |Tahiti, Sydney, and
| | | | | | |Melbourne, and via St.
| | | | | | |Vincent and Cape of
| | | | | | |Good Hope.
Melbourne |4,282|19.3 |17.3 |14.3 |12.2 |10.7 |Difference between
| | | | | | |routes via Panama,
| | | | | | |Tahiti, and Sydney and
| | | | | | |via St. Vincent, Cape
| | | | | | |of Good Hope, and
| | | | | | |Adelaide.
Sydney |5,444|24.6 |22.2 |18.4 |15.7 |13.7 |Difference between
| | | | | | |routes via Panama and
| | | | | | |Tahiti, and via St.
| | | | | | |Vincent, Cape of Good
| | | | | | |Hope, Adelaide, and
| | | | | | |Melbourne.
Wellington|3,488|15.6 |14.0 |11.6 | 9.9 | 8.6 |Difference between
| | | | | | |routes via Panama and
| | | | | | |Tahiti and via Straits
| | | | | | |of Magellan.
----------+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----------------------

TABLE II.--DISTANCES AND DAYS SAVED BY THE PANAMA OR THE SUEZ CANAL BETWEEN THE ATLANTIC GULF SEABOARD OF THE UNITED STATES AND JAPAN, CHINA, THE PHILIPPINES, AND SINGAPORE

=========+=======+===================================+================
| | FROM NEW YORK |
| +-----+-----------------------------+
TO | VIA | | Days saved for vessels of | REMARKS
| | Dis-+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+
| |tance| 9 | 10 | 12 | 14 | 16 |
| |saved|knots|knots|knots|knots|knots|
---------+-------+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+----------------
| |Miles| | | | | |
Yokohama |{Panama|3,768|16.9 |15.2 |12.6 |10.7 | 9.3 |Via San
|{ | | | | | | |Francisco.
|{Suez | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... |Via Colombo,
|{ | | | | | | |Singapore,
|{ | | | | | | |Hongkong and
|{ | | | | | | |Shanghai.
| | | | | | | |
Shanghai |{Panama|1,876| 8.1 | 7.3 | 6.0 | 5.1 | 4.4 |Via San
|{ | | | | | | |Francisco and
|{ | | | | | | |Yokohama.
|{Suez | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... |Via Colombo,
|{ | | | | | | |Singapore and
|{ | | | | | | |Hongkong.
| | | | | | | |
Hongkong |{Panama| ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... |Via San
|{ | | | | | | |Francisco,
|{ | | | | | | |Yokohama and
|{ | | | | | | |Shanghai.
|{Suez | 18| ... | ... | ... | ... | ... |Via Colombo and
|{ | | | | | | |Singapore.
| | | | | | | |
Manila. |{Panama| 41| ... | ... | ... | ... | ... |Via San
|{ | | | | | | |Francisco and
|{ | | | | | | |Yokohama.
|{Suez | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... |Via Colombo and
|{ | | | | | | |Singapore.
| | | | | | | |
Singapore|{Panama| ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... |Via San
|{ | | | | | | |Francisco and
|{ | | | | | | |Yokohama.
|{Suez |2,484|11.0 | 9.8 | 8.4 | 6.9 | 5.9 |Via Colombo.
---------+-------+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+----------------

=========+=======+===================================+================
| | FROM NEW ORLEANS |
| +-----+-----------------------------+
TO | VIA | | Days saved for vessels of | REMARKS
| | Dis-+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+
| |tance| 9 | 10 | 12 | 14 | 16 |
| |saved|knots|knots|knots|knots|knots|
---------+-------+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+----------------
| |Miles| | | | | |
Yokohama |{Panama|5,705|25.9 |23.3 |19.3 |16.5 |14.4 |Via San
|{ | | | | | | |Francisco.
|{Suez | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... |Via Colombo,
|{ | | | | | | |Singapore,
|{ | | | | | | |Hongkong and
|{ | | | | | | |Shanghai.
| | | | | | | |
Shanghai |{Panama|3,813|17.1 |15.4 |12.7 |10.8 | 9.4 |Via San
|{ | | | | | | |Francisco and
|{ | | | | | | |Yokohama.
|{Suez | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... |Via Colombo,
|{ | | | | | | |Singapore and
|{ | | | | | | |Hongkong.
| | | | | | | |
Hongkong |{Panama|1,919| 8.4 | 7.5 | 6.2 | 5.2 | 4.5 |Via San
|{ | | | | | | |Francisco,
|{ | | | | | | |Yokohama and
|{ | | | | | | |Shanghai.
|{Suez | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... |Via Colombo and
|{ | | | | | | |Singapore.
| | | | | | | |
Manila. |{Panama|1,978| 8.6 | 7.7 | 6.4 | 5.4 | 4.7 |Via San
|{ | | | | | | |Francisco and
|{ | | | | | | |Yokohama.
|{Suez | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... |Via Colombo and
|{ | | | | | | |Singapore.
| | | | | | | |
Singapore|{Panama| ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... |Via San
|{ | | | | | | |Francisco and
|{ | | | | | | |Yokohama.
|{Suez | 547| 2.0 | 1.7 | 1.4 | 1.1 | 0.9 |Via Colombo.
---------+-------+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+----------------

So far as Asiatic traffic is concerned, there is almost sure to be some overlapping of routes. Conditions other than those of time and space will occasionally control shipmasters in the choice of a route. But so far as the trade of our Atlantic ports with Hongkong, the Philippines and points north and east thereof is concerned it will all go through Panama. So, too, with the vessels from English, French or German ports. If the contemplated economies offered by the price of coal and fuel oil at Balboa are effected, the inducements of this route will divert from Suez all European shipping bound for Asiatic ports north of India. A careful study of the Suez Canal shows that the trade of the United States with all foreign countries made up 33 per cent of the total traffic, and the commerce of Europe with the west coast of South America comprised 38 per cent. Col. Johnson compiled for the benefit of the Commission a table which showed the vessels which might advantageously have used the Canal in 1909 and 1910, and accompanied it with another giving his estimate of the amount of shipping that actually will use the Canal in 1915 and thereafter. As the expression of official opinion based upon the most careful research, these tables are here republished.

CLASSIFICATION OF ESTIMATED NET TONNAGE OF SHIPPING USING THE PANAMA CANAL IN 1915, 1920 AND 1925

----------------------------------+----------+----------+----------
| Average | |
| per annum| |
| during | |
| 1915 and | |
| 1916 | 1920 | 1925
----------------------------------+----------+----------+----------
Coast-to-coast American shipping | 1,000,000| 1,414,000| 2,000,000
American shipping carrying foreign| | |
commerce of the United States | 720,000| 910,000 | 1,500,000
Foreign shipping carrying commerce| | |
of the United States and foreign | | |
countries | 8,780,000|11,020,000|13,850,000
+----------+----------+----------
Total |10,500,000|13,344,000|17,000,000
----------------------------------+----------+----------+----------

NET TONNAGE OF VESSELS THAT MIGHT HAVE ADVANTAGEOUSLY USED A PANAMA CANAL IN 1909-10.

-------------------------------------+----------+----------+----------
| | | Total
| Total | Total | Entrances
| Entrances|Clearances| and
| | |Clearances
-------------------------------------+----------+----------+----------
Europe with: | | |
Western South America | 1,553,887| 1,594,513| 3,148,400
Western Central America and Pacific| | |
Mexico | 80,788| 118,714| 199,502
Pacific United States, British | | |
Columbia, and Hawaii | 419,865| 269,853| 689,718
Pacific United States via Suez | | |
Canal | (1) | (1) |(1)158,000
Oriental countries east of | | |
Singapore and Oceania | 618,704| 555,881| 1,174,585
| | |
Eastern United States coast with: | | |
Western South America, Pacific | | |
Mexico, and Hawaii | 309,909| 166,686| 467,595
Pacific Coast of United States (via| | |
Cape Horn) | 117,147| 55,508| 172,655
Pacific Coast of United States and | | |
Hawaii (via American-Hawaiian S.S. | | |
Co.) | 181,713| 181,713| 363,426
Oriental countries east of | | |
Singapore and Oceania | 600,000| 900,000| 1,500,000
| | |
Pacific traffic: | | |
Pacific Coast | 158,558| 259,932| 418,490
Atlantic Coast | --| --| --
| | |
Eastern Canada with Alaska, | | |
Chile and Australia | 13,410| 22,248| 35,658
-------------------------------------+----------+----------+----------
Total | 4,044,981| 4,125,048| 8,328,029
-------------------------------------+----------+----------+----------

NOTE.--(1) Reported by Suez Canal Company; hence the total is not
separable into entrances and clearances at American ports.

After all, however, the most patient investigation of the past and the most careful and scientific calculations of the probabilities of the future may produce a wholly inaccurate result. The real effect of the Canal on the world’s commerce may be something wholly different from what the experts expect. But we may proceed upon the well-established fact that no new route of swifter and cheaper transportation ever failed to create a great business, and to develop thriving communities along its route. This fact finds illustration in the building up of the suburbs and back country by the development of trolley lines, and, on a larger scale, the prodigious growth of our Pacific coast after the transcontinental railroads had fought their way to every corner of that empire still in the making. Much is uncertain about what the Panama Canal will do for the expansion of our trade and influence, but the one thing that is certain is that no sane man is likely to put the figures of increase and extension too high.

BIRD’S-EYE VIEW OF MIRAFLORES LOCK

At the upper end of the lock the guide wall extends into Miraflores lake; the lower end opens into the tide-water Canal.]

More and more the exports of the United States are taking the form of manufactured goods. The old times when we were the granary of the world are passing away and the moment is not far distant when we shall produce barely enough for our rapidly increasing population. British Columbia is taking up the task of feeding the world where we are dropping it. On the other hand, our manufacturing industry is progressing with giant strides and, while a few years ago our manufacturers were content with their rigidly protected home market, they are now reaching out for the markets of foreign lands. Figures just issued show that in 10 years our exports of manufactured goods have increased 70 per cent. The possibilities of the Asiatic market, which the Canal brings so much more closely to our doors, are almost incalculable. For cotton goods alone China and India will afford a market vastly exceeding any which is now open to our cotton mills, and if, as many hold, the Chinese shall themselves take up the manufacture of the fleecy staple they will have to turn to New England and Pennsylvania for their machinery and to our cotton belt of states for the material. The ships from Charleston, Savannah, New Orleans and Galveston, which so long steamed eastward with their cargoes of cotton, will in a few years turn their prows toward the setting sun. Indeed these southern ports should be among the first to feel the stimulating effect of the new markets. Southern tobacco, lumber, iron and coal will find a new outlet, and freight which has been going to Atlantic ports will go to the Gulf--the front door to the Canal.

LOCK CONSTRUCTION SHOWING CONDUITS]

How swiftly and efficiently American manufacturers and jobbers will seize upon the new conditions and avail themselves of this opening of new fields is yet to be determined. The enemies of a protective tariff are not the only ones who hold that it has had the result of dulling the keen spirit of adventurous enterprise for which our people were once noted. The absolute possession of a home market ever growing in size and into which no foreigner could enter with any hope of successful competition has naturally engaged at home the attention of our captains of industry. Bold and dashing spirits of the sort that one hundred years ago were covering the seas with Baltimore clippers and the output of the New England shipyards turned their attention half a century ago to the building of railroads and the development of our western frontier. When the middle-aged men of today were boys, the heroes of their story books ran away to sea and after incredible adventures came home in command of clipper ships trading to China. Today the same class of fiction starts the aspiring boy in as a brakeman or a mill hand and he emerges as a railroad president or the head of a great manufacturing industry.

These cranes are the striking feature of the Canal landscape, handling thousands of tons of concrete daily]

Whether the earlier spirit of world conquest will again spring up in the American mind so long content with the profits of its own national preserves is yet to be demonstrated. To what extent it has vanished any thoughtful traveler in foreign lands observes with a sigh. One sees evidences of its weakness at every foreign international exhibition, for the American section is generally the least impressive there. The opinion of our manufacturers is often that to show their products abroad is folly because foreign manufacturers will imitate them with cheaper materials and labor. In most foreign markets, in the cities of Europe, South America and the Orient the chief American products you see displayed are those manufactured by one of those combinations of capital we call a trust, and they are usually sold abroad at lower prices than at home. Typewriters, adding machines, sewing machines, shoes and the divers products of the protean Standard Oil Company seem to be the most vigorous representatives of American industrial activity abroad. Nevertheless the recent statistics show that our experts are on the up-grade, and evidences of growing interest in our export trade multiply daily.

That the Canal of itself will not make amends for indifference or lethargy on the part of our manufacturers goes without saying. The nation may supply them with the waterway, but it cannot compel them to use it, or even teach them how. Every American traveler in South America has groaned over the reports that come from every side concerning the fatuity with which our manufacturers permit themselves to be distanced in the race for the trade of those republics. Our consular reports are filled with suggestions from consuls, but the various associations of exporters are so busy passing platitudinous resolutions about the need of taking the consular service out of politics that they have no time to heed the really valuable suggestions offered. Our methods of packing goods, and our systems of credits, are repugnant to the South American needs and customs and the fact has been set forth in detail in innumerable consular reports without any response on the part of our exporters. The American attitude is “what is good enough at home is good enough abroad”--which is patriotic but not a good rule on which to attempt building up foreign trade. Incidentally sometimes what is good enough for a home market is often too good for a Latin-American one. The English and the Germans recognize this and govern themselves accordingly.

It is a far cry from digging a canal to the system of educating young men to represent a firm in foreign lands. Yet one finds in visiting South America, or for that matter Oriental cities, that a great deal of the rapid expansion of German trade is due to the systematic education of boys for business in foreign lands. The weakest part of the educational system of the United States is its indifference to foreign tongues, an indifference possibly quite natural because but few Americans have really any need for any language except their own. But the German representatives sent to South America are at home in the Spanish tongue, and carefully schooled in the commercial needs and customs of the Latin-American countries before they reach them. They are backed, too, by a strong semi-official organization in their own country. They have in most of the principal South American towns German banks quite as interested as the salesmen themselves in the extension of German trade. It is reported that whenever paper involved in an American transaction with a South American buyer passes through a German bank in South America a report of the transaction is sent to some central German agency which tries to divert the next business of the same sort into German hands. I have no personal knowledge of such transactions, but the story is current in South America and it is quite in accord with the German’s infinite capacity for taking pains with little things.

SANTA ANA PLAZA, PANAMA

This plaza was built up largely during the French régime and the open air cafés are relics of that period of pleasure. It is the gayest of the town’s rallying places.]

Foreign ships, no less than foreign banks and the excellence of foreign commercial schools, are and will continue to be a factor in the building up of foreign trade via the Canal. Just as the German banks report to their home commercial organizations the transactions of other countries in lands whose trade is sought, so foreign ships naturally work for the advantage of the country whose flag they fly. Surprising as it may seem to many, and disappointing as it must be to all, it is the unfortunate fact that within a year of the time set for opening the Panama Canal to commerce there is not the slightest evidence that that great work is going to have any influence whatsoever toward the creation of a United States fleet in foreign trade. England, Germany, Italy and Japan are all establishing new lines, the last three with the aid of heavy subsidies. But in April, 1913, a recognized authority on the American merchant marine published this statement: “So far as international commerce via Panama is concerned not one new keel is being laid in the United States and not one new ship has even been projected. The Panama Canal act of last August reversed our former policy and granted free American registry to foreign-built ships for international commerce through the Panama Canal or elsewhere. But this ‘free-ship’ policy has utterly failed. Not one foreign ship has hoisted the American flag, not one request for the flag has reached the Bureau of Navigation”.

The reason for this is the archaic condition of our navigation laws. The first cost of a ship, even though somewhat greater when built in American yards, becomes a negligible factor in comparison with a law which makes every expense incurred in operating it 10 to 20 per cent higher than like charges on foreign vessels. James J. Hill, the great railroad builder, who planned a line of steamships to the Orient and built the two greatest ships that ever came from an American yard, said once to the writer, “I can build ships in the United States as advantageously as on the Clyde and operate them without a subsidy. But neither I nor any other man can maintain a line of American ships at a profit while the navigation laws put us at a disadvantage in competition with those of every other nation”. Those mainly responsible for the enactment and maintenance of the navigation laws declare them to be essential to secure proper wages and treatment of the American sailor, but the effect has been to deprive the sailor of the ships necessary to earn his livelihood.

PILE-DRIVER AND DREDGE AT BALBOA DOCK]

However, coastwise shipping will be greatly stimulated by the Canal. In the midst of the lamentation about the disappearance of the American flag from the high seas it is gratifying to reflect that the merchant marine of the United States is really the second in the world, though our share in international shipping is almost negligible. That we rank second as a whole is due to the phenomenal development of our shipping on the great lakes where with a season barely eight months long a shipping business is done that dwarfs the Mediterranean or the German Ocean into insignificance. This has built up a great shipbuilding business on the lakes, and steel ships are even now being built on the Detroit River to engage in Panama trade. There are not wanting those who hold that if the money which has been spent at Panama for the good of the whole world, had been expended in making a thirty-foot ship canal from Lake Erie to tide-water on the Hudson, the benefit to the people of the United States, and to American shipping would have been vastly greater.

GIANT CEMENT CARRIERS AT WORK

Placed in pairs on either side of a piece of work requiring concrete, these frames support cables in which swing cars carrying concrete and controlled by a workman in the elevated house shown]

Indeed one of the pathetic things in the history of commerce is the persistence with which enterprising Chicagoans, and other mid-westerners, have tried to establish all-water routes to the European markets. All such endeavors have failed, costing their projectors heavily. It will aid, however, if the success of the Panama Canal shall not reanimate the effort to secure deep-water channels from the Lakes to the Gulf and from the Lakes to the Atlantic. After Panama the nation is unlikely to be daunted by any canal-digging project. Having improved the ocean highway, the people will demand easier access to it. Already there is discussion of whether the railroads will help or hamstring the Canal. Cargoes for the ships have to be gathered in the interior. When delivered at the seaport of their destination they have to be distributed to interior markets. It is in the power of the railroads to make such charges for this service as would seriously impede the economic use of the Canal.

Among the great canals of the world that at Panama ranks easily first in point of cost, though in length it is outdone by many, and its place as a carrier of traffic is yet to be determined. There are now in operation nine artificial waterways which may properly be called ship canals, namely:

1.--The Suez Canal, begun in 1859 and completed in 1869.

2.--The Cronstadt and St. Petersburg Canal, begun in 1877 and completed in 1890.

3.--The Corinth Canal, begun in 1884 and completed in 1893.

4.--The Manchester Ship Canal, completed in 1893.

5.--The Kaiser Wilhelm Canal, connecting the Baltic and North Seas, completed in 1895.

6.--The Elbe and Trave Canal, connecting the North Sea and Baltic, opened in 1900.

7.--The Welland Canal, connecting Lake Erie with Lake Ontario.

8 and 9.--The two canals, United States and Canadian, respectively, connecting Lake Superior with Lake Huron.

The Suez Canal naturally suggests itself for comparison, though it falls far short in volume of traffic of either of the two canals at Sault Ste. Marie, between Lake Superior and Lake Huron. It is ninety miles long, or just about twice the length of the Panama, and about two-thirds of its length is dredged through shallow lakes. It is 31 feet deep as against Panama’s 45, with a surface width of 420 feet, while the Panama Canal is from 300 to 1000 feet. The Suez Canal cost slightly under $100,000,000 and pays dividends at the rate of 12 per cent. Lord Beaconsfield, who bought control of it for England in face of fierce opposition and was savagely denounced for wild-cat financiering, secured for the Empire not merely its strongest bond, but a highly profitable investment as well. The tolls now charged are about $2 a ton according to the United States net measurement.

Doors giving access to service tunnels are shown at either side of the central ascent]

Of the other canals enumerated some, like the Manchester and the Elbe and Trave Canals, are of purely local importance, while others, like the Kaiser Wilhelm (better known as the Kiel) Canal, are mainly for naval and military purposes. In volume of traffic the first of all canals in the world is the American canal at the “Soo”, with the Canadian canal paralleling it a fair second. The volume of traffic passing through these waterways during the eight or nine months they are free from ice is incredible. In 1911 it approximated 40,000,000 tons and exceeded in volume Suez and all the other ship canals heretofore enumerated together. To the facilities for water carriage afforded by this and the neighboring Canadian canal is due much of the rapid growth and development of the country about the western end of Lake Superior. What countries will profit in the same way by the work at Panama? The Pacific coast, both of North and South America. Perhaps South America even more than our own land, for its present state admits of such development.

One problem opened by the Panama Canal which seldom suggests itself to the merely casual mind is the one involved in keeping it clear of the infectious and epidemic diseases for which Asiatic and tropical ports have a sinister reputation. The opening of the Suez Canal was followed by new danger from plague, cholera and yellow fever in Mediterranean countries. A like situation may arise at Panama. It is proposed, though I think not yet officially, to have passing vessels from infected ports inspected at the entrance to the Canal. If infection exists the ship can be fumigated during the passage through the Canal, which will take from ten to twelve hours, while the subsequent voyage to her home port, whether on our Atlantic coast or in Europe, will make any subsequent delay in quarantine needless. The plague is the disease most dreaded in civilized communities, which it only enters by being brought by ship from some Asiatic port in which it is prevalent. Its germs can be carried by rats as well as by human beings, and for this reason in some ports vessels from suspected ports are not allowed to come up to a dock lest the rodents slip ashore carrying the pestilence. Sometimes in such ports you will see a vessel’s hawsers obstructed by large metal disks, past which no rat may slip if he tries the tight-rope route to the shore. The new contracts for wharves, docks and piers at all our Zone ports prescribe that they shall be rat-proof. Indeed the rodents are very much under the ban in Panama, and the annual slaughter by the Sanitary Department exceeds 12,000.

COL. GOETHALS’ HOUSE AT CULEBRA

As is fitting, “The Colonel’s” house tops the highest hill in Culebra, looking down the cut]

Preparations are being made to make Balboa a quarantine station of world-wide importance. The mere proximity of the date for opening the Canal has caused discussion of its effect upon the health of civilized nations. At Suez an International Board exists for the purpose of so guarding that gateway from the East that none of the pestilences for which the Orient has an ill-fame can slip through. No suggestion has been made of international control at Panama. In fact such of the foreign articles as have come under my eye have been flattering to us as a nation, asserting, as they all do, that in sanitary science the United States is so far ahead that the quarantine service may be safely entrusted to this nation alone. Despite this cheerful optimism of Europe, there has not yet been a very prompt acquiescence by Congress in the estimates presented by Col. Gorgas for the permanent housing and maintenance of the quarantine service. Since the United States is to give the Canal to the world, it should so equip the gift that it will not be a menace to the world’s health.