To Panama and back

by Henry T. Byford

In the evening the opening exercises of the congress were held in the theater. We put on our swallowtails and chapeau-claques and sauntered around the corner to the gaily decorated and illuminated theater building to which the band lured us, and where the dignitaries of the republic and Canal Zone awaited us. And they gave us a welcome commensurate with their dignity and the importance of the aims of the congress. Nothing was lacking but numbers to render the event one of historical grandeur. However, if the Congresistas were not numerous, a large audience rendered the defect unnoticeable.

The Eastern contingent was still on the ocean and was missing it all. But they were good sailors and didn’t mind it. They were cracking jokes and breaking bottles over their misfortune, and expecting to get in on the last day, just in time for a “home run.” Easterners are rich. They have plenty of opportunities at home to wear swallowtails and listen to music and drink champagne. But we poor Westerners were having the time of our lives. We and a few Central Americans were having it all. We and the $25,000 barrel were there. Twenty-five of us were to be entertained for four days with it; $250 a day each. Panama, the poorest of republics, is the most hospitable of nations. Her liberality is without precedent. I thought of the Persian proverb, “It does not thunder until the lightning has struck.” The lightning had struck. We were waiting for the thunder.

On the stage were President Amador, President Icaza, Secretary Calvo, Chief Engineer Wallace, Mr. Robinson, Colonel Gorgas, Major La Garde, Captain Carter and the members of the congress.

President Amador opened the congress by welcoming us in the name of the Republic of Panama.

The Panama band of thirty pieces then played the National air.

Mr. Wallace gave a résumé of the work accomplished on the canal. So far it had been necessarily preparatory and consisted mainly of an examination and study of the French work and plans, the clearing away of debris, repair of the old machinery, an examination of the ground, calculation of difficulties, estimation of the working capacity of new machinery, and the determination of the cost and time required to build a canal at sea level, and one with locks. The excavation of the 100,000,000 cubic feet of dirt and stone at the Culebra cut, and its transportation ten miles away where floods could not bring it back, was the dominant feature of the work. It would take nearly three times as long to accomplish this as to construct the other portions of the canal. Mr. Wallace thought that with the improved machinery of to-day the construction of a sea-level canal was feasible. However, a canal with locks could be constructed in a much shorter time and could be deepened while being used, and the sea-level canal could be left as a problem for the next century. This last suggestion about the next century, however, was not made by Mr. Wallace. It is my bright idea.

When the speaker sat down the Panama band again filled the building with stirring strains of music, resting our minds and preparing us for the appreciation of the other addresses. As at the opening of the third Pan-American Medical Congress at Havana three years before, music constituted a liberal part of the program and relieved it of the monotony of continuous speech-making.

Then Mr. Robinson, who had lived in Panama forty years, and during quite a large part of that time had witnessed about a revolution a year, spoke of the primitive conditions before the railroad was built. It was built under great difficulties and with scarcely any money. It was opened Jan. 31, 1855, and had earned $4,000,000 a year, a pretty good percentage on scarcely anything. Its opening constituted the greatest revolution the country had ever experienced.

Apropos of this railroad, Ex-Senator Bill Nye is reported in the Chicago Daily News of April 20, 1905, to have said, “That Panama railway is a cinch. They have one train, which they run over and back daily, and a few cars, the daily operating expense footing up to $39, and one day’s income that I was down there, for freight and passengers, was $9,000. It beats any railroad on the globe for profit, according to its equipment and trackage.” The inference is that about $9,000 was earned daily with a daily outlay of about $39 and an original investment of almost nothing. If the word Panama means good fishing, this story is appropriately told about Panama. Nevertheless the railroad stock must be good, and Uncle Sam owns the stock.

Mr. Robinson stated that the canal had been first planned by an American, but had proved a failure before it was begun. It was then planned by the French and had proved a failure after it was begun. The first American attempt showed how not to begin it, the French attempt showed how not to do it, and it was now for the Americans to show how not to fail.