THE CANAL ZONE GOVERNMENT
The Canal Zone is a strip of territory ten miles wide, its irregular lines following the course of the canal, which is its axis. Over this zone the United States, under its treaty with Panama, exercises jurisdiction "as if it were sovereign." The American Government was unwilling to undertake the great and expensive work of constructing the canal without having this guaranty to protect it from possible harassment at the hands of the Panaman authorities.
One of the first tasks that confronted the United States authorities when they entered upon the work of building the canal was that of providing a civil government for this territory named by law the Canal Zone. Postal facilities had to be provided; a police system had to be established; customs offices were required; fire protection was necessary; a court system was needed; a school system was demanded; and, in short, a sort of territorial government had to be put in operation before the work of building the canal could go forward satisfactorily.
This government was established in 1904 under the direction of Major General George W. Davis, the first governor of the Canal Zone. From time to time it was extended and improved. More than half of this was appropriated out of the Treasury of the United States, and the remainder collected in the operations of the government. In addition to directing the government of the Zone, the head of the department of civil administration was the titular representative of the Canal Commission in all matters in which the commission and the Republic of Panama had a mutual interest. However, in practice, the Panaman Government looked directly to the chairman and chief engineer on all important matters.
One of the earliest and most important subjects requiring their cooperation was that of sanitation in the cities of Panama and Colon. The United States agreed to advance money for building sewer and water systems, and for street improvements, in the two principal cities of the Republic, on condition that the Republic of Panama and the two cities would reimburse the United States Treasury through the water rents. The street improvements were to be paid for in 10 years, and the sewer and water systems in 50 years; in the meantime the United States was to be allowed 2 per cent interest on the money advanced. This amortization of the Republic's debt for these improvements has been going steadily forward.
In laying out the government of the Canal Zone it was thought wise to adhere as closely to Spanish laws and customs as was expedient under the new conditions. In view of this consideration the methods of taxation on the Canal Zone were allowed to remain largely the same as under the old Spanish laws of Colombia. Likewise the Spanish system of judicial procedure was adhered to during the early years of the construction period. It was not, indeed, until 1908 that the right of trial by jury was established in the Canal Zone. At that time former Senator J. C. S. Blackburn, of Kentucky, was at the head of the department of civil administration, and he regarded it as repugnant to American ideas of justice to deny to Americans on the Isthmus the right to be tried for felonious offenses by juries of their peers. Upon his representations President Roosevelt issued an executive order extending the right of trial by jury to the Canal Zone, and that order was effective after 1908.
With the early opening of the canal it became advisable for Congress to determine the future policy of the United States toward the Canal Zone, and to lay out a system of government there which would meet the needs of the future. It was determined that the Canal Zone should be used for the operation of the canal, rather than for a habitation for such settlers as might choose to go there. Hence the provision was made that the President of the United States should have the right to determine how many settlements there should be on the Canal Zone and how many people should be permitted to live there.
It will be the policy of the United States to discourage general settlement and to maintain only such towns as are necessary for the operation of the big waterway, granting only revocable leases to any outsiders when it is deemed advisable to allow them to occupy land within the Zone. There will be only five settlements in the Zone, if present plans are carried out: One at Cristobal, one at Gatun, one at Pedro Miguel, one at Corozal, and the settlement at Ancon and Balboa at the Pacific terminus of the canal. The total number of people who will reside in these settlements will probably not exceed 10,000, a material reduction from the 62,000 living on the Zone in 1912. Those who are still there, but who will not be needed in the permanent organization, will be repatriated at the expense of the United States Government. In 1912 there were approximately 31,000 British subjects on the Zone, practically all of them negroes from the British West Indian islands and British Guiana. The great majority of these will be carried back to their homes, as will all of the 4,300 Spaniards who desire to return. There were nearly 12,000 Americans on the Zone at that time, and perhaps two-thirds of them will leave before 1915. There were nearly 8,000 Panamans on the Zone and most of them will go to the cities of Panama and Colon, or upon the Government lands owned by the Panama Republic outside of the Zone.
The work of clearing the Zone of its population was begun early in 1913. A joint land commission was appointed to adjudicate the claims of those Panamans who were living within the Zone on lands that were needed for the operation of the canal. This commission consisted, under the treaty existing between the two countries, of two Americans and two Panamans. In their work they first took up the claims of the poorer classes who had nothing but a thatched hut and a small patch of ground. The commission visited the various parts of the Zone and fixed the value of such holdings. The people were given free transportation over the Panama Railroad, and usually were allowed from $50 to $100 for their homes. They preferred to move in colonies, so the Republic of Panama laid out small towns away from the Canal Zone for them. These natives, usually almost full-blooded Indians, were treated as kindly and as considerately as conditions would allow. They were willing to "fold their tents" like the Arabs, and leave their homes behind as they went out to conquer new ones in the jungles where the needs of a gigantic waterway could not encroach upon them.
The claims for lands which have to be taken from individuals by the United States will aggregate a half million dollars. As the Panaman Government allows homesteading on Government lands at a cost of about a dollar an acre, and as there are tens of thousands of acres of better land outside of the Canal Zone than inside, the policy of the United States in freeing this strip from native population will not work any great injury to the people.