Panama to Patagonia

by Charles M. Pepper

Native customs and the mixed life of Canal construction are seen at the stations along the railway. Every village has its collection of parrots and monkeys. The sights differ from the scenes in other parts of the Isthmus, because of this intermingling of foreigners, largely Chinese and Jamaican. But the inhabitants are so markedly of the local type that they may be easily distinguished from the foreign mixture. The aboriginal Indian race, of which there are various branches, forms a third of the inhabitants. The Panameñan is about three-fourths Indian blood and one-fourth Spanish, although farther away from the Canal Zone a very strong negro element exists, due to the introduction of African slavery by the early Spaniards. The natives, from their familiarity with the jungles and their ability to withstand the hardships of the climate and the exposure, are useful principally to the exploring parties and the pioneering expeditions. They are too indolent for the actual work of excavation.

The Culebra Cut is not seen to full advantage from the railway, yet a fair idea may be obtained of the task involved in cutting the spine of the Cordillera or the Continental Divide at this the lowest depression, 272 feet. The excavation and removal of the material from this section is said to be the controlling factor in the Canal construction. The valley with the city of Panama huddled at the foot of Mt. Ancon, and Taboga Isle in the bay, are seen to advantage from Culebra.

There are three Panamas. One is primitive Panama, in jungle-covered ruins, a few miles from the present port. This was the city whose opulence was the envy of the world until its treasures awakened the greed of Morgan and his fellow freebooters and became their spoil. Then the new town was built and fortified. It is gloriously mediæval with all its Spanish and Moorish buildings, its cluster of emerald rocks in the bay, its high tides and its mixed nationalities, with little Italy and modernized China side by side. But the present Panama attracts only at a distance, and will be attractive only at a distance until modern sanitation can be installed and some of its picturesqueness be destroyed in the interests of public and private hygiene.

Rivalry exists between Panama and Colon over their relative climatic attractions. Panama is much drier than the Caribbean seaport, the annual rainfall usually being not more than 70 inches and the humidity of the atmosphere not so great. But 90° Fahrenheit in the shade is the average mean temperature, and the humidity is penetrating enough to serve all practical purposes of discomfort.

The new Panama is at La Boca, the Pacific mouth of the Canal. This is the railway terminus, and it is there the United States authorities created the port of Ancon and then abandoned the plan of collecting customs duties in competition with the Isthmian Republic. Wharves are located there, and for shipping the place offers some advantages over the port of Panama. The present Panama with its population of 25,000 is congested. Its old buildings are overcrowded. They are solid, substantial, and will last for centuries yet; but the natural movement of population, especially in view of the enormous rents demanded in Panama, will be to seek the new city which will grow up as a frame town with elements of stability. Much business is certain to drift to the Canal mouth, some of it in American hands. The mercantile community in the days when Colombia controlled the Isthmus was anything but Colombian. It was West Indian, Italian, Chinese, German, French, American, and English. It is the same to-day and will be the same to-morrow.

The United States is the paramount authority on the Isthmus, the control of the Canal Zone making it such, and its duty to itself and its responsibility to the world could be discharged in no other way. Yet there is also the government of the Republic of Panama,—a protected commonwealth. All that needs to be understood is Article I of the Hay-Varilla Treaty. This says that the United States guarantees and will maintain the independence of the Republic of Panama.

In its political relations the Spanish term may be adopted, and the Republic may be said to be “in function” within the sphere of the United States. I omit particulars of the governmental system in order to examine the industrial resources and prospects. Details of administration are unnecessary, because the authority exercised by the American officials in the Canal Zone, and the supervising power over sanitation in Colon and Panama, take the subject out of its local limitations. The liberality shown by President Roosevelt’s administration in adjusting the jurisdiction of the United States on the broad lines laid down by Secretary Taft, left the Panama government free to work out its commercial and industrial growth through its own measures and to the full extent of its own abilities as a commonwealth. A full account of fiscal policy may be omitted, with the general statement that international traffic in transit as taxed by port dues is not subjected to heavy burdens, while the imposts on domestic trade are not severe. While a tariff in the protective sense may not be said to exist, the system of ad valorem valuations secures a customs revenue which places all merchandise under tribute. Internal taxation has many forms, modelled, as it is, after the Spanish system. In addition the income from the $10,000,000 received from the United States assures that the government will continue to be a “going” concern, in practical operation as well as in legal phraseology.

For the student of political institutions the interest is in the moulding of the inheritance of Spanish laws and Spanish administrative system to American models and the influence of an environment so pronounced as the American control of the Canal Zone. The evolution of the civic spirit, instead of being under the shadow of an unfriendly Power, is in the sunshine of a big genial Republic.

In its soil of decayed vegetation the Isthmus, with an area equal to the State of Indiana, has natural wealth enough for the subsistence of a continent. But it is tropical natural wealth, much of which exists under conditions unfavorable for development. Timber exploitation may one day open the longitudinal path eastward from the Canal Zone through the health-destroying jungles to the Gulf of Darien. Mahogany and others of the precious hardwoods offer the temptation. But the trail will be blazed slowly, a score or so of miles each decade. The mineral deposits also lie to the east. They will aid in the conquering of this hitherto unconquered region, yet gradually.

The territory which will be developed most rapidly is that lying principally west of the Canal Zone and extending to the limits of Costa Rica. Tropical agriculture in the hands of natives of the temperate countries is entirely practicable in this region, much of which has a climate markedly superior to the belt lying between Colon and Panama in the valleys of the Chagres and the Grand Rivers. The fruit industry, and in particular banana culture, has made rapid strides, but its possibilities are only in their beginning. Coffee cultivation was becoming a profitable business until the political disturbances ruined it. The revival may be expected within the five years necessary to bring the trees to the point of commercial production. Ivory nuts, rubber, and the infinite variety of minor tropical products will be stimulated by the market that will be opened. In the extreme west along the Pacific slope, where grazing has been enough of an agricultural industry to create the flourishing town of David, an enduring basis will be given to the live-stock industry.