Panama fever (89 page)

303     “We felt like an army deserted by its general”
Maltby, “In at the Start at Panama,”
Civil Engineering
, July 1945, p. 322.

303     “the effect [of Wallace's resignation] upon the workers at the Isthmus”
Gorgas and Hendrick,
William Crawford Gorgas
, p. 174.

Chapter Eighteen: Restart

304    ”Then I was asked to meet … Cromwell”
Stevens, “An Engineer's Recollections,”
Engineering News-Record
, September 5, 1935, p. 332.

305    shocked at discovering that there were more canal employees
Pepperman,
Who Built the Panama Canal?
, p. 130.

305     “The condition of affairs on the Isthmus”
Stevens, “A Momentous Hour at Panama,”
Journal of the Franklin Institute
, July 1930.

305     “scared out of their boots”
Stevens’ statement, January 16, 1906,
Hearings No. 18
, 59th Cong., 2d Sess., vol. 1, p. 38.

305     “no organization worthy of the name”
Stevens, “An Engineer's Recollections,”
Engineering News-Record
, September 5, 1935, p. 256.

305     “the idiotic howl”
Stevens, “The Truth of History,” in Bennett,
History of the
Panama Canal
, p. 218.

305    ”I believe I faced about as discouraging a proposition”
Stevens, “The Truth of History,” in Bennett,
History of the Panama Canal
, p. 210.

306    ”keep his eye on the ball”
Pepperman,
Who Built the Panama Canal?
, p. 135.

306     “There are three diseases in Panama”
Bishop,
Goethals: Genius of the Panama Canal
, p. 133.

306    ”I have had as much or more actual personal experience in manual labor”
Maltby, “In at the Start at Panama,”
Civil Engineering
, July 1945, p. 324.

307    ”Come to Panama on the first train, Stevens.”
Ibid., p. 322

307     “I cannot conceive how they did the work they did”
Stevens's statement, January 16, 1906,
Hearings No. 18
, 59th Cong., 2d Sess., vol. 1.

307    ”I determined from the start”
Stevens, “The Truth of History,” in Bennett,
History of the Panama Canal
, p. 212.

308    ”a machine in every way superior to any in existence”
Sibert and Stevens,
The Construction of the Panama Canal
, p. 88.

308     “The problem was simply one of transportation.”
Ibid., p. 76.

308     “two streaks of rust and a right of way”
Maltby, “In at the Start at Panama,
Civil
Engineering
, July 1945, p. 324.

308     “thirty years behind the times”
Mallet to Foreign Office, August 30, 1905, FO881/8765.

308     no sidings
Sibert and Stevens,
The Construction of the Panama Canal
, p. 41.

308    ”A collision has its good points as well as its bad ones”
Stevens, “The Truth of History,” in Bennett,
History of the Panama Canal
, p. 121.

309    ”crank” for Chinese labour
Karner,
More Recollections
, p. 131.

309     “two colored men stepped from a rowboat to the landing”
Ibid., p. 114.

309     Arthur Bullard
Edwards,
Panama, the Canal, the Country, the People
, p. 29ff.

309    Benjamin Jordan
Diggers
, documentary produced and directed by Roman Foster.

310    ”one of the greatest engineering feats the world has ever undertaken”
John Bowen in
Diggers
documentary.

310    ”Why you don't hit de manager in de head”
Richardson,
Panama Money in Barbados
, p. 106.

311    ”Everything looked so strange, so different to home”
Egbert Leslie, in
Diggers
documentary.

312    Harrigan Austin
“Competition for the Best True Stories.”

313    John Butcher
Ibid.

314    ”One could scarcely breathe God's free air”
Colón Independent
, April 20, 1906.

315    the “serious disturbance”
Mallet to Foreign Office, May 6, 1905, FO881/8765.

315     “In Jamaica a constable is a peacemaker”
Slosson and Richardson, “An Isthmian Carpenter's Story: A Jamaican Negro,”
The Independent
, April 19, 1906.

315    ”Instead of the canal bringing with it those good old times”
Colón Independent
, December 6, 1904.

316    On a wage of seldom more than a dollar a day
Major,
Prize Possession
, p. 101.

316     Coffee and bread brought to the works by West Indian women
Amos Clarke in “Competition for the Best True Stories.”

316     “Things were very different in those days”
Slosson and Richardson, “An Isthmian Carpenter's Story: A Jamaican Negro,”
The Independent
, April 19, 1906.

316    ”In their anxiety to save money”
Karner,
More Recollections
, p. 142.

317    ”I have looked into hundreds of their pots”
John Foster Carr, “The Silver Men,”
The Outlook
, May 19, 1906.

317     in October 1905, there were twenty-six, all West Indians
United States Isthmian Canal Commission,
Population and Deaths from Various Diseases
, 1907.

317    In November 1905, journalist Poultney Bigelow
Bigelow, “Our Mismanagement at Panama,”
The Independent
, January 4, 1906.

318    ”Notwithstanding nearly six thousand new laborers were brought in”
Stevens to Shonts, December 14, 1905, RG 185 2-B-1.

319    frail “disposition to labor”
United States Isthmian Canal Commission,
Annual Report
, 1906.

319     “The West Indian's every movement is slow and bungling”
Carr, “The Silver Men,”
The Outlook
, May 19, 1906.

319    ”They were not getting proper food in sufficient and regular amounts”
Sib-ert and Stevens,
The Construction of the Panama Canal
, p. 133.

320    By February 1906, there were over fifty in operation
Stevens to Shonts, February 16, 1906, RG 185 2-E-1.

320     “the leavings from the hotels”
Chatfield,
Light on Dark Places
, p. 148.

320    LeCurrieux's family
“Competition for the Best True Stories.”

321    Henry de Lisser visited one of the barracks
Lisser,
Jamaicans in Colon and the Canal Zone
, quoted in Newton,
The Silver Men
, p. 149.

322    ”The discipline maintained in the labour camps is severe”
Mallet letter to Governor of Jamaica, November 30, 1906, FO 371/300.

322    ”This rule worked well”
Sibert and Stevens,
The Construction of the Panama Canal
, p. 97.

322    ”At midnight when everyone is asleep”
Colón Independent
, September 12, 1906.

323    ”deep foreboding”
Hardeveld,
Make the Dirt Fly
, p. 18ff.

327     “Special inducements were added”
Sibert and Stevens,
The Construction of the Panama Canal
, p. 119.

Chapter Nineteen: The Railroad Era

328     “the great waste of money”
Stevens, “A Momentous Hour at
Panama
,”
Journal of the Franklin Institute
, July 1930.

329    ”that there was a big, thick white cloud of smoke”
Alfonso Suazo in “Competition for the Best True Stories.”

330    ”We became so clean, orderly, and ‘dried out’ “
Maltby, “In at the Start at Panama,”
Civil Engineering
, August 1945, p. 360.

331    ”the strong smell of decomposed fish has gone”
Mallet private letter, September 5, 1906.

332    ”the day of the good-for-nothing tropical tramp”
Carr, “The Panama Canal,”
The Outlook
, May 5, 1906.

332     “weeding out the faint-hearted and incompetent”
Pepperman,
Who Built the Panama Canal?
pp. 11–12.

332    ”The men themselves, have distinctive virtues”
Carr, “The Panama Canal,”
The Outlook, May
5, 1906.

333    ”Normal family life is becoming established”
Slosson and Richardson, “Life on the Canal Zone,”
The Independent
, March 22, 1906.

333    ”Most of the young men on the Isthmus have absolutely no places of amusement”
John Barrett in
Star and Herald
, February 27, 1905.

334    ”positive forces for evil”
Quoted in Mack,
The Land Divided
, p. 549.

334    ”use money appropriated for the construction of the Canal”
Karner,
More Recollections
, p. 22.

335    ”Stevens lives on the line”
Mallet private letter, September 5, 1905.

335    ”Stevens’ sturdy, competent presence”
Sands,
Our Jungle Diplomacy
, p. 40.

336    ”I am not running things”
Chatfield,
Light on Dark Places
, p. 64.

336     “So many men sent down here drink to excess”
Ibid., p. 51.

336    ”Like many other people here in positions of authority”
Ibid., p. 67.

337    clerk starting work on a salary of $2500
Carr, “The Panama Canal,”
The Outlook
, May 5, 1906.

337     could now report more regular wages
Mallet to Sir Edward Grey, January 31, 1906. FO881/8892

337     “have returned [from Panama] with money”
Barbados Agricultural Reporter
, March 3, 1906, quoted in Richardson,
Panama Money in Barbados
, p. 116.

337     “innate respect for authority”
Sibert and Stevens,
The Construction of the Panama
Canal
, p. 125.

337    described conditions as “unsatisfactory”
Mallet to Foreign Office, August 14, 1905, FO881/8765

338    “a capacity to develop into subforemen”
Stevens to Shonts, December 14, 1905, RG185 2-B-1.

338    ”No one will ever know, no one can realize”
Stevens, “The Truth of History,” in Bennett,
History of the Panama Canal
, p. 211.

339    ”Stock Gambler's Plan to Make Millions!”
New York World
, January 17, 1904.

339    ”a group of canal promoters and speculators and lobbyists”
New York Times
, December 29, 1903.

340    ”I do not think there is a place on the face of the globe”
Pepperman,
Who Built the Panama Canal?
, p. 279.

340     “I have heard all those things and many more”
Chatfield,
Light on Dark Places
, p. 189.

341    ”Many of the prominent American newspapers”
Townley Report, May 3, 1906, FO881/8892.

342    ”I had been told to build a house”
McCullough,
The Path between the Seas
, p. 481.

Chapter Twenty: The Digging Machine

343    ”Such a canal would undoubtedly be the best in the end if feasible”
Engineering Record
, February 24, 1906.

344    ”One genius proposed to wash the entire cut”
Sibert and Stevens,
The Construction of the Panama Canal
, p. 76.

344     “discovered an unknown way through this mysterious labyrinth”
Bigelow,
The Panama Canal and the Daughters of Danaus
, p. 40.

344    ”Mr. Randolph … advises M. P. Buneau Varilla”
Note of November 7, 1905, Bigelow Papers, New York Public Library, Box 24.