It is certain that the United States made a good investment at Panama. Assuming that the coastwise traffic is worth to the Government the amount of the tolls it is exempted from paying, the canal becomes a self-supporting institution from the day of its opening, leaving all the military and trade advantages it affords the United States as clear profit.
CHAPTER XXVI
THE OPERATING FORCE
It will require a force of about 2,700 persons to operate the Panama Canal. The major portion of this force will be engaged on the port works at the two ends of the waterway. With a large mechanical plant at Balboa, with large docks for the transhipment of cargo, and with other facilities required for making the canal the best equipped waterway in the world for handling marine business, more men will be needed for the conduct of the auxiliary works than for actually putting ships through the locks.
The force required at the locks will be comparatively small. It will consist of men in general charge of the lock operations, men in charge of the towing operations, men who handle the various mechanism and operate the several types of valves for the regulation of the water in the locks; and the general labor force consisting of a few hundred operatives at each end of the canal. A force will be required to operate the big hydro-electric station at Gatun Spillway, where the electricity for the operation of the locks and for the lighting of the canal will be generated. Another force will be required at the auxiliary power plant at Miraflores which will be operated by steam. Fewer than a thousand men will be required in putting ships through the canal.
When the question of placing the canal on a permanent operating basis arose one of the first considerations was the scale of salaries to be fixed. Having in mind the fact that salaries paid during the construction period (which were 50 per cent above the standard in the United States) were based upon conditions existing in the early days of the American occupation, it was decided that this was an unfair basis for the permanent organization. The salaries for the construction period were made high because they had to be. It was more a question of reducing men to risk their lives than of fixing fair rates of compensation. The conclusion reached was that there was no longer any reason why the Government should pay salaries so much higher than obtained in the States, especially in view of the fact that all positions under the permanent organization would carry with them free quarters, free medical attendance, free fuel, free light, free hospital service and the like. It was finally determined that it would be fair to both the employee and the employer to establish as a basis of compensation for services in the permanent organization a scale of salaries not to exceed 25 per cent higher than obtained for similar positions in the United States. This decision was made on the basis that it would be fair to the employee and at the same time would allow the canal to be operated at a cost which would impose no undue burden on shipping.
When Congress took up the matter in the enactment of the permanent canal law, it reflected the recommendations of the chairman and chief engineer of the Canal Commission in almost every particular. With reference to the canal employees, that body provided that they should be appointed by the President or by his authorities, and that they should be removable at his pleasure; also, that their compensation should be fixed by him until such time as Congress should regulate it by law.
The head of the permanent force on the Canal Zone will be known as the Governor of the Panama Canal. He is to be appointed by the President with the advice and consent of the Senate, for a four-year term, or until his successor shall be appointed and qualified. He will receive a salary of $10,000 a year, and will be the personal representative of the President on the Isthmus. Indeed, the permanent organic act provides that the President himself is authorized, after the disbanding of the Isthmian Canal Commission—which is to take place whenever the President thinks the work has approached a sufficient degree of completion to warrant it—to complete, govern, and operate the Panama Canal, and to govern the Canal Zone, if he desires to do it himself; or "cause it to be completed, governed, and operated through a governor of the canal." Of course, the President will prefer to "cause it to be completed, governed, and operated" through such a governor. As a matter of fact, when the question of selecting a governor comes before the President it may be expected that he will choose a man in whom he has every confidence to carry out the organic law on the Canal Zone, and to place the canal in operation. This man will be as much of an autocrat on the Zone under the permanent organization as the chairman and chief engineer was during the construction.