l^i^H) Gift ofthe Panama Canal Muse

Vol 6, No. 1 BALBOA HEIGHTS, CANAL ZONE, AUGUST 5, 1955 5 cents

BIDS FOR CONVERTING ATLANTIC SIDE EQUIPMENT TO 60 CYCLES WILL BE ADVERTISED DURING AUGUST

Most Younger Zonians Look Who's Here! Contract Will Be Among Will Have Salk Shots The Largest Of Power Project Before Polio Season Specifications are now being prepared More than three-quarters of Canal Zone for one of the key contracts in the power children from 5 to 9 years old will be conversion project-the conversion of all immunized against polio by two Salk domestic, commercial and industrial vaccine inoculations by the time the equipment on the Atlantic side from 25- "polio season" normally begins on the cycle to 60-cycle frequency. Isthmus, according to the estimates of the While exact schedules are not com- Health Bureau. pleted, it is expected that the work will be It is in this age group that paralytic advertised for bids the latter part of this polio strikes hardest and nearly 30 percent month, for about 60 days, and bids then of all cases occur in children of this age. opened. This phase of the project The U. S. Public Health Service will will be divided into two parts, one limit vaccination to this age group until covering Company-Government indus- the production of vaccine and testing trial units and the other covering domestic under the strict new standards make addi- equipment and Company-Government tional vaccine available, according to Col. service units. C. 0. Bruce, Health Director. The specifications will provide that The estimates on the percentage of four areas will be available for the con- children vaccinated during the past few tractor or contractors after January weeks were prepared following the free 2, and all the remaining areas after next inoculation program for first and second May 15. It is presently expected that grade pupils on July 26-28. Health the first actual use of 60 cycle by domes- officials expected the same percentage of tic users will not be until late this fiscal participation among children in the pay year. program which was held this week. The first areas to be made available to Salk vaccine for the first and second the contractor for conversion will be grade pupils was donated by the National Margarita townsite, Coco Solo Hospital, Foundation for Infantile Paralysis. The Mindi Dairy, and the Industrial Division. program was administered by the Health Locks, Mount Hope Separate Bureau free of charge as a public health service. Orders for the purchase of vac- The contract for the conversion of cine were placed by the Canal administra- Canal equipment will cover all frequency tion soon after the announcement that sensitive units on the Atlantic side with Salk vaccine had been found to be effective the exception of those at Gatun Locks against polio and a sufficient supply was and the Filtration and Pumping Plants received for the inoculation of all eligible at Mount Hope which will be converted children under the pay program. under separate contracts. The industrial DAVY CROCKETT. Canal Zone style., wasn't born units to be grouped together under this More Vaccine Later on a mountain top in Tennessee, but his daddy. Governor Seybold has announced that Policeman Frank Tester, was. That makes the contract will include the Industrial Divi- efforts will be continued to obtain addi- coonskin cap legitimate. The real Davy didn't sion, Oil Handling Plant, Maintenance have a pipa to suck on, but he'd have liked it if tional supplies as the vaccine is retested Division shops, Motor Transportation he'd had one, especially after he'd killed him his released for use by the United States Division shops, Commissary Division and ba'r at the age of three. That's what our Davy, Public Health Service. As this is re- Frank Tester, Jr., thinks, anyway. equipment at Mount Hope, the Printing ceived it will be released for use by other Plant, and Cristobal Piers. age groups. vaccinations were given. The contract or contracts for the equip- The charge of $1.50 is made for each It is presently planned to have children ment conversion on the Atlantic side will injection given by the Health Bureau to of both groups inoculated at the same be among the largest awarded in the dependents of Company-Government em- time when the second injections are Power Conversion Project. It is esti- ployees and employees of other U. S. administered. These schedules will be mated that the cost will be in the $l-to Government agencies. A $3.50 charge announced later this month but it is $2-million class. is made for each injection of U. S. citizen expected that the second injections will The complexity of the task is indicated residents who are not sponsored by the be given during the last week in August. by the number of pieces of domestic- Company-Government or other U. S. Under this schedule children will have equipment to be converted. The survey Government agencies. the maximum immunity possible with recently completed on the Atlantic side The inoculation of the young children two injections by the middle of Septem- revealed that there are 8,100 frequency in the pay group this week was conducted ber. The greatest number of polio cases sensitive units in use in homes. They along the same general lines as the previous usually occur on the Isthmus after this include 1,900 refrigerators, 1,200 fans, week when the free vaccinations were ad- time of the year. 2,000 clocks, 715 washing machines, ministered. The process was simplified The anti-polio inoculation program was dryers and mangles, 725 record players,

by the acceptance of payments when the conducted in the civilian (See page i) 50 blowers, diffusers and (See page 16) THE PANAMA CANAL REVIEW August 5, 1955 Employee Turnover, Separation Rate NEW HEALTH OFFICER Lowest Since Start Of World War II

Separations from the service and turnover rates among full time U. S.-rate employ- ees of the Company-Government were the lowest during the past fiscal year of any since the beginning of World War II. Figures compiled by the Personnel Bureau for the fiscal year ended June 30, showed that the number of voluntary and involuntary separations from the service and the percentages in both categories were well below comparable statistics since 1950. The turnover rate was high throughout the war years and immediately afterwards because of the great expansion and later reduction in force necessitated by abnormal conditions.

The following tabulation shows the turnover rates for the past five fiscal years:

Fiscal Years 1951 1952 1953 1954 I9S5 FORCE 4,287 4,261 4,233 3,867 3,803 SEPARATIONS: Voluntary 805 466 520 437 348 Involuntary 239 238 482 254 1S8 Total 1,044 704 1,002 691 506 TURNOVER RATE: Voluntary 18.78 10.94 12.28 11.29 915 Involuntary 5-57 5-58 n-39 6-57 4-15 Total 24-35 16.52 23.67 17.86 13-30

The lowering of the turnover rate during the past two years is attributed princi- pally to a stabilization of the force with relatively few force reductions; wage increases for various groups; free home leave travel; group insurance; and other fringe benefits which have been provided within the past two years. COL. CHARLES 0. BRUCE, new Health Director, The highest turnover rates in the Canal organization for the past five years were took over his duties early last month. He was photographed at his desk, but he has spent much of shown in the fiscal years 1951 and 1953. In 1951 the rate was high because of the the past four weeks on field trips to the various units large number of voluntary separations from the service which came after tax income of the Health Bureau. His present post is his first

- was applied to Government employees in the Canal Zone. Other conditions which in thi- Canal Zone. He visited the Isthmus last influenced the rate that year included the extensive reorganization. The rate of January as a member of the group which accom- panied Secretary of the Army Robert T. Stevens. involuntary separations that year was the lowest of any in the 1950-55 period with the exception of last year. Both the voluntary and involuntary rates were high in the fiscal year 1953. The voluntary rate was influenced by the threat to the 25 percent differential, increased abnormally high because of substantial rents, and other unsettling conditions. The rate of involuntary separations was force reductions made in some units. The rate of voluntary separations from the Canal service has been increased during Comptroller Leaves This Month the past 15 years by the employment of married women who leave the service when their husbands resign, retire, or are assigned elsewhere. The wives of a com- paratively large number of Armed Forces personnel have been employed since the close of the war and these are listed with other voluntary separations when they resign because of the reassignment of their husbands.

Push-Button Traffic Light

To Be Installed In Balboa

The Canal Zone's first push-button type traffic light, or "pedestrian actuated

traffic signal" as it is known officially, is to be installed soon on Balboa Road between the Housewares Section and the Mens Wear and Shoe Section of the Balboa Commissary Annex.

Although this type of traffic light, which can be operated manually by the pedes- trian himself, is well-known in the United States, this will be the first of its type to be installed on the Isthmus. Post-mounted signals with the standard red, yellow, and green lights will be installed Mr. and Mrs. Lindsley Noble at their home at Balboa Heights pointing up and down Balboa Road. A "walk" signal for pedestrians, one on each side of the street, will point The Canal Zone will lose two of its well known and popular residents this month when Mr. and Mis. ('. across Balboa Road. In order to Lindsley H. Noble leave for Washington, I). He has accepted a re-ruth created key position in the stop Post Office Department to which he will report early in September. traffic and cross the street, a pedestrian Mr. Noble submitted his resignation as Comptroller of the Panama Canal Company in June and it must push the automatic button control was accepted at the July meeting of the Board of Directors. A statement praising Mr. Noble for his and wait until the walk signal comes on. work during the difficult reorganization period of the past three years was issued by Governor Seybold upon the acceptance of Mr. Noble's resignation. Bids for the furnishing and installing Both he Mrs. Noble have taken and a prominent part in the community and social life of the Isthmus of the two traffic signal lights and other since he joined the Canal organization in May 1052. He had many years of tup U. S. Government account- miscellaneous work are now being adver- ing work before he be-ame Comptroller. tised. They will be opened the morning He was the first to fill the office of Comptroller after the reorganization in 1951 under Public Law 841. As a general officer of the Company, his successor will be elected by the Board of Directors and a of August 10 in the Balboa Heights committee was appointed at the July meeting to recommend an appointee. Administration Building. August 5, 1955 THE PANAMA CANAL REViEW NEW STOCKHOLDER Intensive Campaign Under Way To Increase

Number, Quality Of Employee Suggestions

The opening move in an intensified sentatives. They will be kept informed campaign to increase the number and of any new developments in the awards quality of employee suggestions will be plan by means of news-letters, which they made next week when U. S.-rate em- will receive at least once a month from ployees receive, with their paychecks, the committee. invitations to take a greater part in the How To Do it Incentive Award Program. Employees The new standardized form will make on the local-rate rolls will receive similar submission of suggestions a much easier

invitations with their paychecks the process than it has been in the past and following week. also make the task of reviewing and The invitations are in the form of studying the suggestions considerably cartoon-illustrated, red-lettered cards. simpler. They show a young woman tripping over Merely by checking printed squares, an her own ideas and saying: "Can you employee can indicate whether his idea change that condition? There must be would simplify work, save material or a better way. Send in your suggestion." time, improve methods or safety or The paycheck inserts are one of several otherwise better existing conditions. innovations in the Incentive Award The new form is perforated; one portion Program. Other changes include the of it will be torn off and returned to the selection of 75 employees, strategically suggester promptly as an acknowledg- located in operating units, as Incentive ment that his suggestion has been received A CHANGE in the top command of the Panama Awards representatives and a new stand- and started on the rounds of those who Canal Company and Canal Zone Government came late last month when Wilber M. Brucker took office as ardized form which will henceforth be will study it. Any employee can ask, in Secretary of the Army succeeding Robert T. Stevens. used by all employees making suggestions. a space set aside for this purpose, that A native of Saginaw, Mich., and a former Governor "A suggestion proposes an improve- his name not appear during the review of his heme state, Secretary Brucker had been serv- ment in our operations by locating a period, and that the suggestion be num- ing as General Counsel of the Department of Defense.

problem and recommending a solution," bered until a decision is made as to He is a graduate of the University of Michigan Law School and has been prominent in legal work and according to a member of the Incentive whether it will be accepted or rejected. politics for many years. He served with the Michigan Awards Committee. "It may change If is a Canal employee's suggestion one National Guard on the Mexican Border and later as the way things are done and propose a which could be used by other Federal an Artillery Lieutenant with the Rainbow Division

new method or a new application of an agencies, it will be sent to the Civil in France during the first World War. old idea. Merely pointing out a difficulty Service Commission. A Canal employee approved, from those making $3,800 or or shortcoming, without providing an may receive from $10 to $5,000 locally less a year; 11 suggestions were received, answer, is not a suggestion. Neither is and additional amounts from any other and four approved, from those in the a proposal in routine maintenance or Federal agency which adopts his idea. $3,800-$7,000 wage bracket; and four everyday functions, such as repairing The chance for a good-sized monetary suggestions were received, and one linoleum, keeping aisles clear, cleaning return, therefore, is much greater than it approved, from employees who earned lights, ordering supplies, etc., unless it has been in the past. over $7,000. proposes a change in the operations or Started In 1946 The suggestions varied as widely as the physical facilities." An Employee Suggestion Program, the employees who suggested them. What To Suggest today known as an Incentive Award They included, among other things; an The Canal organization, he said, is Program, has been used by the Canal idea for having house plans available in especially interested in suggestions for: organization since 1946. Since the enact- the commissaries where rugs and furni- Combining materials, methods, opera- ment of the new overall Federal Program ture were sold; new safety devices for the tions, procedures, records, reports; last year, there has been a gradual in- locks; a new form for time slips in the Devising new applications of old ideas, crease in the number of worthwhile Commissary Division; mechanical im- new equipment, new machines, new employee suggestions and the intensified provements such as a guard on saws and methods, new processes, new tools; program, now getting under way, should the invention of a tool to remove lead Eliminating breakage, duplication, fire, result in a much larger number of sug- sheath from cables. health or accident hazards, operations, gestions submitted and approved. Committee In Charge waste, unnecessary work; Between last November and June 30, The Canal's Incentive Awards Program Improving employee morale, methods, 72 Canal employees had ideas which they is in charge of a committee headed by procedures, quality of product, safety, considered good enough to pass on. Henry L. Donovan, Civil Affairs Direc- tools and machines, working conditions; Sixteen of these were approved and the tor. Other members are John Hollen, and men and women behind the ideas given Chief of the Executive Planning Staff; Saving manpower, material, money, cash awards which totaled $365. Seven- Edward A. Doolan, Personnel Director; space, and time. teen other suggestions were still being and J. Bartley Smith, head of the Elec- Information such as this and other studied when the fiscal year ended. trical Division. Leonard M. Brockman news of the Incentive Award Program Of the 16 men and women who got of the Personnel Bureau is its Executive will be brought to the Canal employees cash-in-hand for their ideas, eight won Secretary. through the 75 Incentive Awards repre- $10, five between $10 and $50, and two, Acceleration of the local Incentive more than $50. The tangible savings to Awards Program is in line with President Balboa Heights Board Room the Canal organization, when suggestions Eisenhower's strong support of the overall Air Conditioning Started concerned problems where a monetary Federal program, which was strengthened benefit could be figured, amounted to by the law *passed last year. This in- Shirtsleeve conferees and others who $5,010. creased both the scope of the program meet frequently in the Board Room of the From All Grades and the monetary rewards which the Balboa Heights Administration Building Like all of those who are reading this idea man or woman could receive. may soon find coats necessary. story, the employees who submitted sug- So, if any employee has an idea for Air conditioning of the Board Room gestions came from all grades in the combining, devising, eliminating, improv- was started this week by the Panama Canal organization. Twenty-six sug- ing, and saving any of the things men- Sheet Metal Works which holds the con- gestions were received, and five approved, tioned earlier in this story, he or she tract for the project. The work is from employees in a rating of GS-6 or should: scheduled for completion by the latter below; 19 suggestions were received, and Run, not walk, to the nearest supply of part of this month. It involves installa- two approved, from employees from suggestion blanks, put his ideas down on

tion of a 10-ton, 25-cycle unit and grades 7 through 1 1 ; and three suggestions paper and send the form to: acoustical treatment of the ceiling. were received, and one approved, from Chairman, Incentive Awards Com- Similar work was completed recently employees in GS-12 or above. As far as mittee, Balboa Heights. for the Governor's suite on the second the hourly employees were concerned, Anything from $10 up to many thou- floor of the Building. 10 suggestions were received, and three sands might be his reward. THE PANAMA CANAL REVIEW August 5, 1955 BETTER LEARN THESE

RIGHT! LEFT! STOP!

Most Younger Zonians vaccinated during the summer vacation period since all children in this age group Gatun Locks Overhaul Will Have Salk Shols going to the States on vacation were eligible for inoculations. To Begin January 9, (Contlnueifrom page l) communities by The percentage for the eligible children personnel of the Health Bureau, while in the pay group was expected to be the Army, Navy, and Air Force handled about the same as in the free program. Continue Five Months the vaccinations of their dependents. The number of eligibles in the second group had been estimated at 2,100 prior A plan adopted about two years ago Most Children Inoculated to the inoculations this week. for increasing the Canal capacity during Approximately 1,000 vaccinations were Those children eligible for Salk vaccine lock-overhaul periods will be used for the administered in the free vaccination injections who failed to be vaccinated first time during the coming dry season program which was limited to children during the times scheduled may receive when work begins on the five-month between 5 and 9 years of age who were in their injections at the Outpatient Clinics overhaul of Gatun Locks. the first or second grades prior to June of Gorgas and Coco Solo Hospitals, or at Following a plan adopted by the Board 30. The Canal Zone school census dur- the dispensaries of the Armed Services, of Directors in March 1953, alterations ing the past term shows 2,587 first and upon application. The same rules of have been made in the locks so that the second grade pupils. eligibility will be required for them and wall culverts and cylindrical valves can In addition to those inoculated on no charge will be made for those eligible now be overhauled without emptying July 26-28, more than 2,000 had been for free vaccinations. either of the lock chambers. This will permit double culvert oper- ations when one set of lock chambers is unwatered and will speed up the time for filling and emptying the lock chambers which are in use. Materials are already on order and the first employees have been recruited for the overhaul, which will begin soon after the first of the year. The tentative start- ing date is January 9. The overhaul period will last until about the middle of May. During the overhaul, eight of the mitre gate leaves will be unhinged and repaired and rehabilitation work will be done on all underwater parts. During the last overhaul at Gatun, in the dry season of 1951, four mitre gate leaves were un- hinged and lifted from their pickle-steel pintles by hydraulic jacks. Each gate leaf weighs about 700 tons. The eight leaves to be ovei hauled this year are divided, four and four, between the two sides of the locks. An additional force of 678 temporary employees will be needed during the com- ing overhaul. Of these, 128 will be U. S.-rate employees, primarily skilled craftsmen and towing locomotive oper- ators. Some of the latter have already been employed and are in training. In addition to the 128 temporary U. S.-rate workers, the Locks Division will borrow the services of a few engineers, nurses, and similar personnel from other Canal units. BRAVE as a lion was Phyllis Ruth Warner, six-year-old daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Peter A. Warner of The remaining 550 employees to be Balboa when she got her Salk polio vaccine shot at the Balboa gymansium last week. The inoculation is being given by Miss Jeriline Patrick of Gorgas Hospital with the assistance of Miss Frances Thompson hired for the locks overhaul will be local- and Miss Frances Brandl, student volunteers. rate personnel. August 5, 1955 THE PANAMA CANAL REVIEW

Check Totaling $8,588 Sent To 619 Police Chief Retires Canal Employees As Uniform Allowances

A total of $8,588 was paid last month and who wear white uniforms are allowed by the Panama Canal Company-Canal $30 annually as a uniform allowance.

Zone Government organization in uniform Guards who are on duty at the Com- allowances to cover the first quarter of missary Division's Mount Hope plant and the present fiscal year. In all, 619 em- who wear khaki uniforms with sun helmets ployees who are required to wear uni- receive $26 a year as a uniform allowance. forms in the their official duties course of Customs guards and railroad conduc- received the allowances. tors are allowed $9 a year—their distinc- Payment of the uniform allowance was tive uniforms are caps—and terminals in accordance with the so-called Fringe guards have a $7 annual allowance. Benefits Act passed by the United States Temporary or substitute employees Congress last May. are also entitled to uniform allowances; in As uniform allowances are to be paid their cases the allowances for each quar- at the beginning of each quarter, the ter will be paid immediately after the estimated cost to the Canal organization first day of each quarter in which they

of these benefits will total somewhat over occupy a position for which a uniform MAJ. GEORGE HERMAN, Chief of the Police $30,000. Similar quarterly payments allowance is authorized. Division, retired the end of July after 42 years with the Zone force. A large number of his frends the in will be made in October, January, and The amounts of allowances each honored him last Saturday night at a farewell party April. case listed above are based on the esti- at the Army-Navy Club. He and Mrs. Herman are sailing August 13 on the Panama Line. They will mated annual uniform requirements and Panama Line Maximum visit their daughter in Ran Antonio, Tex., but have the current price of the uniform required. not yet decided where they will make their home. The largest uniform allowance, on. an

annual basis, is that paid to officers on the Panama Line ships. They are the Paraiso Safety Field Day only group required to have uniforms for

two seasons; their annual allowance is $100 a year, the maximum permissible.

Next highest amount is the $65 allowed annually for the ladies in white— nurses, dieticians, and physical therapists em- ployed by the Health Bureau.

Policemen, motorcyle officers and other

officers of the Police Division, together with the guards at the Gamboa penitent- iary are close behind the nurses in the amount of their annual uniform allow- ances. They will receive $62 a year. Lock guards, with their distinctive khaki uni- forms, with the black stripe down the

trouser leg, receive $61 a year. Guards at the Canal Zone police sta- tions and jails are allowed $48 a year as a uniform allowance. Their female counterparts, the matrons at the Canal Zone Prison for Women and Juveniles, will receive $30 for their khakis. Based on Current Price Firemen and firemen driver operators have been allowed $35 a year; the officers of the Fire Division receive $1 more, bringing their total to $36. The women who are employed as stewards in the Service Center Division

Coffee Prices Will Drop

In Commissaries Soon

Retail prices of roasted and ground coffee will be reduced by the Commissary Division sometime this month. The price

is the result of lower prices to be drop SAFETY AT HOME, at work, and at play was the keynote of the big Safety Field Day held all day paid for the latest purchase of bulk green Saturday, July 23, at Paraiso. The novel idea in emphasizing safety on a community basis was devel- coffees and will be made after the new oped under the sponsorship of the Safety Committee of the Paraiso Civic Council. Active participation units aided in making the demonstration an outstanding success. lower-priced green coffees are available by all the major Canal organization The program opened at 9 o'clock in the morning with exercises at the ballpark. The big storehouse for in blending. use building used by the Locks Division was used for displays which were thronged much of the day. The exact amount of the price reduc- Upper left: Fire Division personnel demonstrate to a group of interested spectators the proper tion is not known; it will be announced as resuscitation methods. Cpper right: Use of a fresh-air mask was demonstrated as a part of the Maintenance Division's soon as possible. display. The mask is used when working near toxic fumes. Commissary prices fluctuate with world Lower: Capt. Frank A. Munroe, Jr., Marine Director, is at the microphone addressing the large here prices but are frequently reflected audience in and near the ballpark grandstand. Civic Council officials, representatives from various several months late. Canal bureaus and divisions, and others who participated are seated on the speaker's platform. THE PANAMA CANAL REVIEW August 5, 1955

FOR YOUR INTERESTED GUIDANCE IN^AjCCIDENT PREVENTION SAFETY FIELD DAY

Early last dry season the Balboa Store- Paraiso Civic Council then came up with a band. The Armed Forces Radio Sta- house Safety Committee suggested that the idea that they would sponsor a big tion at Fort Clayton did a splendid job they would like to put on a safety safety field day at Paraiso to be held on of putting on a 15-minute interview with demonstration at the La Boca Ball Park July 23, at Paraiso Ball Park. Thus Harold W. Williams and Mrs. Ellis and invite all other safety committees good things are born. Fawcett telling all about the program. from other divisions to participate. Elsewhere in this issue you will find Of course the International Boy Scouts had just However at that time they pictures of the grand event which, if one and Girl Scouts were present selling soft which appointed new committeemen overlooked the weather usual at this time drinks, taking part in the Bicycle Safety delayed things somewhat until the begin- of the year, proved to be a great success. Demonstration, and doing other jobs to on ning of the rainy season put a damper A number of dignitaries were present and help put it over. Charles Bradley was proceedings. the program contained many items and good enough to let the Aids to Navigation Such was the situation when Cleveland exhibits of unusual interest to people both have his snakes as a background for their B. Stevens, safety committee chairman in and out of the Canal Zone Govern- "first aid for snake bite" demonstration. Paraiso Civic Council, called the of the ment-Panama Canal Company. Since the day as a whole proved to be Safety Branch and asked if it would be Since out of the 355 disabling injuries such a success, it is hoped the Paraiso get some safety films to show possible to experienced by the Canal Zone Govern- Civic Council can see their way to have their meetings. The next time at one of ment-Panama Canal Company during another "Safety Field Day" next year. talk the idea had grown into we had a 1954, approximately 70 percent were to showing some safe-driving films and put- local-rate employees; it is very gratifying safe-driving demonstration for ting on a to the safety people to find these em- people living in Paraiso. It was only the ployees taking such a personal interest these two ideas of the Balboa HIGHWAY ZOO a step to get in their welfare and, what's more, doing Storehouse safety committee and the something about it like their "Safety Paraiso Civic Council together. The Field Day." There is no question that with such safety consciousness and active HONOR ROLL interest as was displayed on Saturday, July 23, the frequency rate for 1955 is Bureau Award For going to be a lot less than it was in 1954. BEST RECORD Many people, in addition to those JUNE safety committees from various divisions, COMMUNITY SERVICES BUREAU are thanked for helping the Paraiso Civic HEALTH BUREAU Council and giving their active suppoit in making this Safety Field Day a suc- AWARDS THIS CALENDAR YEAR cess. Difficulties always arise in trying 3 to get the proper people lined up to put Supply The JACKASS Community Services * on a program. Such a difficulty arose Construction 2 showolf who risks his Engineering and when the Safety Field Day Committee This is the Health 2 own neck and everybody else* by found that it could not get a school band Civil Affairs speeding and weaving. O' he may Terminals... 1 or a local fife-and-drum corps. Someone Transportation and turn up as the stupid oaf who jus/ Marine " suggested that the Army might help if doesn't savvy modern driving. In Ico

asked. They were, and the 23d Infantry he is most any driver on thv highway Division Award For Division Band put on an impressive flag except you and me! NO DISABLING INJURIES raising ceremony, and, of course, no NATIONAL SAHIY CO'/NCfl JUNE parade would ever be a success without

LOCKS DIVISION Disabling Injuries per 1,000,000 Man-Hours Worked HOSPITALIZATION AND CLINICS JUNE 1955 (Frequency Rate! MAINTENANCE DIVISION SERVICE CENTER DIVISION Community Services Bureau INDUSTRIAL DIVISION

GROUNDS MAINTENANCE DIVISION Health Bureau MOTOR TRANSPORTATION DIVISION Supply Bureau RAILROAD DIVISION

STOREHOUSES DIVISION C. Z. Govt.-Panama Canal Co. I This Month I HOUSING DIVISION Marine Bureau AIDS TO NAVIGATION

SANITATION DIVISION Engineering and Construction Bureau

AWARDS THIS CALENDAR YEAR C. Z.Govl.-Panama Canal Co.( Last 3-Year Av.l Aids to Navigation. 5 Housing 5 Transportation and Terminals Bureau M ain tenance * 5 Sanitation — 5 Civil Affairs Bureau Electrical 4 Industrial 4 Transportation 4 Motor 20 30 40 50 Railroad 4 of Disabling Injuries Storehouses 4 Number . 16 Man-Hours Worked 2,251,554 Dredging 3 LEGEND Grounds Maintenance 3 Service Center -... 3 I I Am lunt Better Than Canal Zone Government— Panama Canal Company Last 3-Year Average Commissary 2

and Clinics 2 I Amount Worse Hospitalization I Than Canal Zone Government— Panama Canal Company Last 3- Year Average Locks 1

Terminals 1 : F: ::::v^ Accumulative Frequency Rate This Y'ear Navigation —

August 5, 1955 THE PANAMA CANAL REVIEW OF CURRENT INTEREST

Official Panama Canal Company Publication Shirtsleeve Conference Published Monthly at BALBOA HEIGHTS, CANAL ZONE

Printed by the Printing Plant Mount Hope, Canal Zone

John S. Seybold, Governor-President

H. W. Schull, Jr. Lieutenant-Governor

William G. Arey, Jr. Public Information Officer

J. Rufus Hardy, Editor

Eleanor H. McIlhenny Assistant Editor

SUBSCRIPTION—$1.00 a year

SINGLE COPIES— 5 cents each

On sale at all Panama Canal Service Cen- ters, Commissaries, and Hotels for 10 days

after publication date. REPRESENTATIVES of the Local Rate Civic Councils meet regularly with Governor Seybold in tl e Board Room of the Administration Building to discuss community problems. At a recent meeting the SINGLE COPIES BY MAIL— 10 cents each Council representatives were introduced to the new Lieutenant Governor, Col. H. W. Schull, Jr. Left to right around the table are: Beresford Gittens, Rainbow City General Committee; J. J. BACK COPIES— 10 cents each Joseph, Rainbow City; H. A. Josephs, Rainbow City; C. D. Atherly, Paraiso; Eric Oakley, Paraiso Gen- eral Committee; E. L. Fawcett, Paraiso; Edward A. Doolan, Personnel Director; Governor Seybold; On sale when available, from the Vault Leo B. Harrington, stenotypist; Lieutenant Governor Schull; Norman Johnson, Employee and Labor Relations Officer; G. A. Davis. Wilson, Cleveland Clerk, Third Floor, Administration Building, L. Rupert and Roberts. La Boca. Also attending this meeting but not shown in the photograph were Leon Headley and R. T. Burns Balboa Heights. of Santa Cruz, and Rexford Innis of the Santa Cruz General Committee.

A. B. Hendricks, a Rates Analyst in the No revocations will be accepted after Office of the Comptroller, Postal money orders should be made pay- returned to the August 31, the Commission emphasized. Canal Zone last month after five months of After that date normal regulations will able to the Treasurer, Panama Canal Com- advance training in Washington. D. C, again be in effect. These provide that an pany, and mailed to Editor, The Panama as one of three local participants in the employee who waives the insurance must Canal Review, Balboa Heights, C. Z. Fourth Senior Management Intern Program. wait one year before he can request cover- During this period, he studied methods age. At that time he must be under 50 used by the General Accounting Office and years of age and pass a physical examination. worked out a project with the National Park Service. He also studied public Occupants of Canal Zone quarters were APPOINTED TO HEAD administration and Federal Government advised last month that all quarters under accounting problems in night classes at the the custody of the Housing Division will COROZAL HOSPITAL American University, and worked with the henceforth be serviced by preventive main- District of Columbia on personnel problems. tenance teams. Teams of this sort have In addition he took part in weekly been working in Diablo Heights and Mar- seminars held by prominent Government garita for some time; the plan is now being officials on such subjects as management, extended to all quarters. organization and method, human factors Teams will inspect the interior and and employees, training problems, person- exterior of each quarters unit at least twice nel practices and management accounting each year. The inspection will be per- systems. formed by a U. S.-rate employee of the Maintenance Division. Necessary repairs The first U. S.-rate salary checks pre- will be made without the necessity of a pared with the new machinery which makes request from the quarters occupant. payroll procedures and bookkeeping largely In a memorandum to residents of Canal automatic were issued July 25. Stubs of Zone quarters, the Chief of the Housing the new checks contain information on Division asked cooperation in reporting the hours worked, basic pay and additional need for any repairs and in making then- compensation, deductions, net pay, and quarters accessible to the inspector and earnings for the fiscal year to the date of repair crew. the check. If residents discover a situation which Local-rate biweekly employees have been needs correction between inspection visits receiving their pay checks prepared under termite activity, especially —they are asked the new procedure since May. The new- to call the housing managers, either at type checks have been used for employees Balboa or Cristobal. Electrical or plumb- paid weekly and to disability relief annuit- ing emergencies are to be reported directly ants since the first part of February. to the Maintenance and Electrical Divisions. Checks which are sent, at the employee's request, directly to Canal Zone banks are The mechanical tabulation of statistical forwarded with the stubs attached; the data of the Canal organization was central- bank then forwards the stub to the em- ized last month in a new unit: The Statis- ployee along with the usual deposit notice. tical Tabulating Section of the Administra- tive Branch. The new section will prepare LT. COL. CHARLES H. WIGGINS, above, will Employees of the Canal Zone Govern- personnel statistics and reports, figures on become superintendent of Corozal Hospital next week •ment and Panama Canal Company who shipping and cargo, statistics on postal following the departure of Lt. Col. Richard F. Mul- waived their rights last year to coverage money orders and postal savings certificates; holland. Lt. Col. Mulholland has been assigned to under the Federal Employees Group Life and will maintain the stock records and duty at the U. S. Army Hospital at Camp Gordon, Ga. Insurance program, will have the rest of accounting statistics of the storehouses. Lt. Col. Wiggins arrived in the Canal Zone last this month to reconsider their decisions and The new unit, which has seven U. S.-rate from Chanute Air Force Base in Illinois. He month take out insurance. and 10 local-rate employees, is under the is a native of Mississippi and a graduate of the The Civil Service Commission is giving supervision of Louis C. Caldwell. He has University of Mississippi. He took his medical work employees who now want the insurance a been in charge of the stock record and at Tulane University. second chance, since it appears that they accounting tabulation work of the Store- He is now on duty at Gorgas Hospital and will had insufficient information about the house Division. Headquarters for the unit continue as psychiatrist there, in addition to his program and its benefits when they decided is on the second floor of the Storehouse duties at Corozal. against accepting the insurance last year. Division headquarters. —

THE PANAMA CANAL REVIEW August 5, 1955 Leaving The Zone? Packing And Crating Services Make Moving Almost Painless

Crooks had been given a pamphlet out- lining the provisions of Public Law 690 and he knew before he talked with Mr. Rinker that he was limited to 8,750 pounds of household goods, that he could take only such possessions as were needed for a household— had the Crooks had four dozen rocking chairs, which they didn't, the chairs would not be packed or shipped at Company expense and that shipment of his automobile would be his own responsibility.

Packing Parley Because a Review reporter was tag- ging along to get this story, Mr. Rinker cDmbined two sessions with the Crooks into one arc! met them at their house to discuss the packing and crating and ship- ping of their possessions. Ordinarily Mr. ard Mrs. Crooks would first have come to his office in the Maintenance Division shop area. One wall of the

office is hung with copies of the papers which Zonians who are leaving will need. Along another wall hangs a series of clipboards, each containing the papers of Zonian, his pack- PLANS for packing and moving are discussed by Joseph N. Rinker, Packing and Crating Foreman, with some States-bound Mr. and Mrs. Michael I. Crooks of Balboa. The Crooks are leaving the Canal Zone this month. ing and departure dates and his destina- tion. The other day these clipboards Death and taxes, they say, are inevi- the end of this month after over 33 showed that shipments were in the works table. In the Canal Zone, add Packing years in the Canal Zone. He and Mrs. for such widely separated States as and Crating, for about 99 percent of the Crooks already own a three-bedroom Virginia, Michigan, Texas, and Wash- Canal's U. S.-rate employees. ranch-type home in Whittier, Calif. They ington. Sooner or later in the life of almost do not plan to leave here until August Surrounded by these exhibits Mr. every Canal employee comes the time 20, the day after Mr. Crooks' last work- Rinker would have explained to them when he d?cides, or age and circum- ing day, but they want their furniture what he and his crew would do about the stances decide for him, to go back to the shipped ahead of them so they will be packing, would make a "packing date," United States to live. That this up- ready to settle down when they reach and would answer any questions they rooting is as painless as it is is due largely California early next month. had. Later he would have gone to the to the efforts of Joseph N. Rinker and the After Mr. Crooks discussed retirement Crooks' quarters on Akee Street in Bal- Packing and Crating Shop of the Main- details with Robert J. Kelley, in the boa. There he would make a rough tenance Division. Personnel Bureau, and transportation estimate as to whether their belongings Until Public Law 60'J became effective arrangements with James M. Thompson, would be within their weight allowance in August 1946 and until the job of pack- in the Transportation Section of the and see if they had any furniture which ing up a departing Zonian's belongings Administrative Branch, he was ready to would be a special packing problem. was taken over by the Packing and talk with Mr. Rinker, whose official title Instead, for The Review's benefit, he

Crating Shop soon thereafter, an em- is Foreman Crater and Packer and who sat down with them at home and went ployee who was leaving had to scurry lives, eats, and breathes packing and over the procedure with them there. At around and make his own arrangements. crating. the same time he estimated the number Pie had to scrounge boxes and crates, In the Transportation Section, Mr. of crates and barrels his men would need borrow a china packer from the nearest and decided on a packing date, which in large commissary, arrange for a customs their case would be August 1. inspector to came to his quarters while One-day Process the packing was going on, fill out the On that day, the Crooks were tcld, a multitude of forms needed for ocean packing crew of about five local-rate freight, sometimes hire a freight broker men, together with a U. S.-rate packing at a port of entry and, finally, pay the supervisor who is a deputy customs freight charges on his household effects inspector, would be ready to go to woik from the Canal Zone to his new front about 7:30 a. ro. Unless some unfore- door. seen problem developed, the packers As a result, few Zonians possessed more would be finished in the quarters that than their silver, china, linens and a few afternoon. pieces of furniture. When they were Not all Canal families want their pack- reestablished in the United States, they ing done as far ahead of their departure had to start again almost from scratch. as the Crooks do, Mr. Rinker said. Different Today Families with small children usually Today, things are different. An em- prefer to stay in their Zone homes until ployee's belongings are packed at his the last possible minute. They figute Zone quarters, shipped to his new home that they can stay with relatives in the in the United States, and uncrated and United States until they have a place of unpacked for him (within a certain their own and do not want the children's period of time). He is soon settled routine upset any earlier than necessaiy. again, with almost no cost to himself, The Crooks, however, preferred to do surrounded by his familiar things deliv- their camping out on this end, with ered in as good condition as when he furniture borrowed from the Housing last saw them. Let's follow one well- SHREDDED PAPER for packing is produced by Division. this machine at the Packing and ( 'rating Shop. Eric known Zonian through this process. As he went through the Crooks' house, Small in on the platform and Jeff Danvers at the bin Michael I. Crooks, of the Transporta- into which the ribboned paper Sows. At the left, Mr. Rinker told Mrs. Crooks that she tion Division's Ancjn Corral, is retiring U. Rios is weighing a package of the shreds. might pack drawers of dressers and chests —

August 5, 1955 THE PANAMA CANAL REVIEW

with household goods, if she cared to. Pillows and blankets are satisfactory items for this interior packing but sheets and linens are too much dead weight, he said, for the light construction of the ordinary drawer. Mrs. Crooks was to keep an itemized list of what went into each drawer and these would later be checked by one of the two inspectors, Frank Tuiman or James Van Dyke. No Pre-packing Needed Actually though, Mr. Rinker said, there was nothing which Mrs. Crooks needed to do ahead of packing time. The packers, like Gabriel Cordoba and And-

res Diaz, whose specialty is packing china and glassware, work more easily

if such items are left in cupboards or on shelves. They look the situation over before they begin, see how much and what is to be packed, and begin with the larger and heavier items which go into one barrel; the lighter and more fragile things such as crystal and figurines are packed together in other barrels. Other packers, like Kenneth Harris and Ashton Russell, know from years of experience CHINA and glassware are wrapped in newspaper and packed into metal barrels, with shredded paper as how many towels, pillow cases, or bed- wadding. Gabriel Cordoba and Andres Diaz, who have been packers for seven years, are doing the pack- spreads fit into standard cartons. ing while Joseph N. Rinker, Packing and Crating foreman, looks over some of the things still to be wrapped. All of the breakable things, Mr. Rinker said, would be wrapped in newspapers made their long journey in good condi- packed. Vans like these would be used and packed in shredded paper in the tion. Special celotex boxes are available later for the Crooks' household goods. barrels. Each barrel would be itemized at the shop for paintings, he said; the In days gone by some Zonians, with as to its contents and a copy of the boxed pictures would then be packed into an eye to later do-it-yourself projects, listing would be given to the Crooks. the large vans. used to have their furniture crated in packed in Nonbreakable items would be As each piece of furniture was taken mahogany boards. Today's packing and cardboard cartons which would each from the truck at the shop, Mr. Rinker crating people are as thrifty as Dutch have its separate itemized list. Moth- explained, it would be checked off by one housewives. The vans into which most balls, brought by the packers, would be of the inspectors who would remove, and departing furniture is eventually packed sprinkled into each carton. These car- put aside, one of the duplicate tags for are made from lumber which originally tons would later be packed inside big further listing on the shipping manifest had encased incoming goods; crates in wooden vans. and the itemized list, a copy of which which electric ranges had been shipped to Safe Handling would later accompany the Crooks to the Canal Zone have been remodeled into None of the furniture and the larger their new home. After all of the Crooks' vans and other cases, for instance. pieces such as lamps and radioes would household belongings had been assembled No Termites be packed at the Crooks' house, they in the shop, Mr. Rinker said, the actual Termite-eaten old lumber from demol- packing for shipment begin. learned. Such furniture would be tag- would ished quarters is never used in the Pack- ged in duplicate, swaddled in blankets, After he left the Akee Street house, Mr. ing and Crating Shop. Special plywood, and taken to the Packing and Crating Rinker, Review reporter still tagging made in Panama for the Canal Company, shop. Each item would be listed, to- along, returned to the shop in an airy makes sides for the vans. The shredded gether with a value given by either Mr. long building at the very back of the paper with which the barrels and boxes Maintenance's Division's fenced enclos- or Mrs. Crooks. are packed is cut into ribbons by the Mrs. Crooks was concerned over the ure. There the shop gang had been busy Shop's own shredding machine. The paper turning salvaged materials safe handling of several large oil paintings into the is old newspapers and magazines or clean crates— vans, are officially called but Mr. Rinker assured her that he and they waste paper; reams of it comes from the his men were equally concerned that they in which household goods are eventually Administration Building. The metal drums into which the dishes and glassware are packed were originally filled with alcohol or turpentine. They are cleaned, fitted with new wooden tops and lined with new paper.

Once a family's furniture is assembled at the shop and listed, the packers go to work. Each piece of furniture is wrapped individually in a heavy fibrous paper before it is stowed into the vans. Like items are packed together and the crevas- ses filled with small items and the smaller

boxes and cartons. The van is than packed with as much shredded paper as

necessary to fill empty spaces and provide

cushioning. This compact packing is important, Mr. Rinker says, because ocean freight rates can be as high as 70 cents a cubic foot. Much In Little Space Each van, which measures six by four by eight feet, holds an amazing amount of furniture, when properly packed as Wilford Jones and Pastor Marcelino do the job. They have been storing fur- niture away for a good many years and have no difficulty at all in fitting an aver- VANS like this one measure only six by four by eight feet but one of them will hold furniture for a bed- age bedroom suite— twin beds, springs, room. Oscar Roberts is putting the top on the van. Top and van alike are made from salvaged material; new sides are made from a plywood specially-manufactured in Panama for the vans. mattresses, chests and (See page n) .

10 THE PANAMA CANAL REVIEW August 5, 1955 Stars And Stripes Fly From 112 Staffs When Canal Zone Celebrates A Holiday

Whenever a presidential proclamation the day it is first raised to the top of its

or an order from the Governor directs staff. Flags are half-staffed from 7 a. m. that flags be displayed, or on national to noon on Memorial Day, May 30; at holidays like the Fourth of July, 112 noon they are raised to the top of their United States flags flutter from poles on standards where they remain until the Canal buildings or fly from the staffs on end of the day. the Canal's tugs and launches and dredges Flags in the Canal Zone are flown at and barges. half-staff whenever the President or the There are other United States flags in Governor directs; the periods during the Canal Zone, of course —on military which flags are half-staffed were pre- posts and naval stations, and in churches scribed in a Presidential Proclamation in and courtrooms—but the 112 are those 1954. When a President or Former which fly over Company-Government President of the United States dies, the buildings or from marine equipment. flag is half-staffed for 30 days. For a Tropical weather with its brilliant sun Vice President, Chief Justice, retired and heavy rain takes its toll of the flags; Chief Justice, or Speaker of the House,

the average life of one here is not over the period of half-staffing is 10 days. nine months when it is flown from a staff Lesser periods are in order for other and considerably less than that on the officials. marine equipment. Each year the Divi- Half-Staff For Zonians sion of Storehouses orders about 900 In the Canal Zone flags have been flags from the General Services Adminis- flown at half-staff when local officials have tration, the U. S. Army Quartermaster died. Among those so honored were Depot in Philadelphia or from a flag Roy R. Watson, then Chief Quarter- manufacturer. master, A. W. Goulet, General Manager $3,000 A Year of the Commissary Division, and George W. Green, Municipal Engineer. They range in size from those which In December 1947, Canal Zone flags are a little over a foot long and are used were half-staffed between 7:30 and 10 on the launches to the five-footers which a. m. when the bodies of 15 servicemen fly from most of the flagstaff's. The total CANAL ZONE POLICEMEN raise and tower the who had been buried here during World cost of U. S. flags for local use to amounts flags at the Administration Building and in other War II were placed aboard ship for return something over $3,000 a year. public spots like the Balboa circle where this photo- to their homelands. Most of the flags in the Canal Zone are graph of Policeman Stewart Jaddis was taken. The United States flag flew for the made of cotton bunting, but the smaller first time over an Isthmian Canal Com- flags are a mixture of nylon and wool display they are destroyed privately, as mission building in 1904, the lasts retains May when which longer here and its is done elsewhere. The usual method is United States took over the rights and colors better than the bunting. by burning; each agency handles the properties of the French Canal Company. Not all of the 112 flags fly every day. disposal of its own outworn flags. The building was the ICC headquarters Generally, most Canal Zone buildings When the flags in the Canal Zone are to in Panama City now the Panama fly their flags on workdays, school days, be half-staffed a term in flag parlance — Central Post Office. holidays, or special days required by law preferred to half-masting—or are to be When the Canal Zone was delineated or designated by the President or the displayed on some special occasion, the United States flags were supplied to the Governor. The flag at the Governor's Chief of the Administrative Branch noti- alcaldes of the little towns in the Zone. residence is flown only when he is present fies each Bureau of the Canal organiza- One early letter, dated June 30, 1904, on the Isthmus. tion. A Bureau representative in turn instructed the Alcaldes of Gatun and Wherever a flag is attended by a police- passes on the word to the units which fly Gorgona to fly the flag "over the Alcaldia man or a caretaker, as at the Administra- flags. The Marine Bureau, with its of your district during office hours of tion Building, it is flown daily. Hours for floating equipment, has the largest num- each day except in bad or storm weather." displaying the flag are 7 a. m. to 5 p. m. ber of flags, 49, and the Civil Affairs Flags for the school building would be Regardless of the day, the flag of the Bureau, which includes post offices, furnished them later, the letter said. United States is always flown on the schools, police and fire stations, has 28 On Holidays Only Canal's marine equipment whenever the flags. The flags at the Administration Early Zonians apparently were not as launches and tugs etc. aie underway in Building and in the circle opposite the careful of their flags as their present day Canal waters. Balboa clubhouse are under the control of successors. In February 1907, Chief the Civil Affairs Bureau whose police Extra For Holidays Engineer John F. Stevens complained to officers raise and lower them daily According to regulations for the display his Executive Secretary, H. D. Reed, that When a flag is flown upside down, it is and care of the flag which were issued last flags were frequently left flying all night a signal of distress. Once or twice in the November by Governor J. S. Seybold, the and were not properly cared for. Col. Canal's history a flag has been accidently flag should be flown from at least one George W. Goethals encountered a similar raised in the upside down position, a public building in each community on situation and in August 1907 ordered that record which can be considered excellent holidays and days required by law or flags would not be flown "on Commission in view of the number of flags and flag designated by the President or Governor. buildings except on public holidays or staffs in the Canal Zone. If there are facilities for flying more than when authorized by proper officials on A flag which is to be half-staffed is one flag from the building, extra flags special occasions." first hoisted to the peak of the staff and should be flown on such days. Canal files indicate that it was not until then lowered slowly to half staff. Before If a holiday falls on Sunday and the 1917 that the United States flag was dis- a half-staffed flag is lowered at the end of following day is observed as a holiday, as played daily in the Canal Zone. In June of July 4 was in 1954, the flag is flown both that year Governor Chester Harding laid Sunday and Monday. out regulations for displaying the flag One historic flag is known to few Canal Zone regulations for the treat- Canal Zonians. A United States and authorized that it "may properly be ment of the flag are, of course, those in flag which once flew from the Su- flown daily, if desired, from buildings in effect everywhere. No flag or pennant preme Court Building in Washing- the Canal Zone." ton, now hangs in a frame in the or any other object or emblem is ever Today the raising and lowering of the office of the Superintendent of the placed above it or at its right if two Terminals Division in Cristohal. flag begins or ends the day for several flags are flown at the same level. The The flag was awarded in 1945 to Canal Zone schools. At Balboa and flag must never touch the ground' nor Panama Railroad employees for Cristobal High Schools, cadets from the their outstanding purchase of U. S. must it be allowed to trail in water. Junior ROTC units perform this duty War Bonds during the Fourth War When United States flags in the Canal Loan Drive. and at other schools a formal flag raising Zone are no longer in fit condition for is a daily event. —

August 5, 1955 THE PANAMA CANAL RZVIEW 11 Visiting Oldtimer Finds Zone CANAL ZONE CLERGY Unfamiliar After Long Absence The Rev. Carl D. Christensen has spent a quarter of a century in missionary r. de on the Panama Railroad for the work, the last five and a half years of it first time since 1906 and made a transit on the Isthmus of Panama. thr. ugh the Carnl which was not much As president of the Panama Conference beyond the planning stage when he last of Seventh Day Adventist Churches, he saw it. is in charge of the work of the approxi- As an engineer with the Isthmian Canal mately 40 Adventist congregations in the Commission from 1904 to 1906, Mr. Canal Zone and Panama. His headquar- Kenly helped build the Brazos Brook ters, recently moved from Cristobal, are Reservoir which supplied water to the on Gavilan Road in Balboa, near the Atlantic side communities until the per- office of the All-America Cables Company. manent reservoir and water system was Born in Council Bluffs, Iowa, he at- constructed. tended college in Minnesota and holds a During the time he worked here, most Master's Degree in School Administra- of the streets were unpaved and the quar-

t rs were left over from the French construction period. Balboa was a marsh and the only road from the Ancon-Balboa district ran around the side of Ancon Hill. Like most oldtimers, however, Mr. Kenl; recalled that the early days were rugged but that most people had lots of fun when they weren't busy building the Panama Canal. The only real problem in those days, he said, was what to do with all that diit. A native of West Virginia, Mr. Kenly worked with the LTnited States govern- GEORGE T. KENLY; after 50 years, he came back. ment for many years before coming to the Isthmus in 1904 to help with the After an absence of nearly 50 years, Panama Canal. After leaving here in George T. Kenly, who at 87 is probably 1906 he went to California and arrived in the Canal's oldest "oldtimer," found very San Francisco just four days before the little to remind him of the old days when historic earthquake and fire which des- he visited the Canal Zone briefly last troyed the city and put an end to his month. business plans. Accompanied by Edwin Green, a He returned to the East Coast and up sprightly youth of 73, he visited the to the time of his tetirement several years Hotel Washington, which was new to him, ago, he was connected with a private THE REV. t'ARL D. CHRISTEXSEX and the Tivoli Guest House, which was engineering firm in Baltimore, where he one old landmark he remembered. He now makes his home. tion from the University of Nebraska He has been in church work almost all o. his adult life. Packing And Craling Services "satisfied customers" and by the small He is thoroughly familiar with the amount paid annually in claims for Make Moving Almost Painless problems of the Latin-American world breakage or damage. and equally at home in English or Span- (Continue! from page 9) all into one van. In one 12-month period, for instance, ish; the problems and the language he For the average Canal household the the belongings of 466 Canal Zonians were learned in the 20 years he spent as a use four of the vans and three or packed and crated by the Maintenance packers missionary in Argentine, Chile, and Peru. drums; if there is a piano or Division; these household goods were four metal About 10 years ago he returned to the other large object the number of valued at $1,166,044.95. Only 25 claims, some United States and for four years, just or their size may be increased. all of them small, were made during this vans before his assignment to the Isthmus, he Fortunately, Mr. Rinker says, the vogue period with a total dollar-wise claim of taught in an Adventist college in Walla couches has not yet reached the total value. for nine-foot $522 or .045 percent of Walla, Wash. the Canal Zone. Until recently Packing and Crating The Panama Conference is one of the As soon as the packers have finished had two shops, one in Balboa and the 364 local Conferences and missions of the with each van, Eric George takes over other in Cristobal. Now all of the prepa- Adventist Church. Its president, cur- the banding and stenciling. Then Cecil ration for shipment and the shipment rently Mr. Christensen, is elected by the Callender, head clerk in the shop who has itself is done from Balboa; one reason for member churches every two years. He been following the process from the begin- this, Mr. Rinker says, is that the trans- is serving his third term in this office. ning, begins the lengthy and necessary ports which carry the goods routed via Mr. Christensen is married; his wife has documentation. New Orleans load in Balboa and the worked with him throughout his mission- He gives each head of the house, like freight rate via the Panama Line, on ary career. Their only son is a mission- East Mr. Crooks, a complete list of everything which shipments are made to the ary in Bolivia. Two daughters live in is the from Balboa or packed, fills out the customs declarations Coast, same the LTnited States; one is a graduate nurse and helps Mr. Rinker explain how a Cristobal. in Washington, D. C, and the other is Other Customers family which is returning by one port married and lives in Los Angeles. packing crating for while the furniture is being shipped to In addition to and Mr. Christensen has little time for Canal employees, Mr. Rinker's crew of he another—as is the case of Mr. and Mrs. hobbies, he told The Review. When two U. S.-rate and 32 local-rate employees Crooks—list their household goods on has a spare moment or two he enjoys the customs declaration they will make does similar work for the United States working with carpenter tools but time Zone "or- when they enter the United States. Embassy and for the Canal is so scarce that all of his projects are nec- - - Unless a family's goods exceed the weight phans" Civil Aeronautics, Internal essarily small ones. allowance, in which case they pay freight Revenue, etc. on the extra weight, the only fee charged They also run a storage service where down, feel that these services bring them their is $1 for certification of the customs household goods may remain until the in as close touch with people as does declaration. by-then ex-Zonian has his new address primary purpose in life. Few Claims no storage is charged for two months and "After all," Joe Rinker says, "It's Mr. Rinker and his crew are justifiably shipment is free up to two years from the pretty hard for people like the Crooks to proud of the job they have done. Their time of his departure—and an unpacking leave when they've been here a good to efficiency is amply attested by the scores and uncrating service for new arrivals. many years. Anything we can do of letters they receive each year from But none of them, from Mr. Rinker heli) them is little enough." 12 THE PANAMA CANAL REVIEW August 5, 1955

Zone* s Historic Rio Grande Conversion Project Engineer

Does Sudden Disappearing Act Gets Full Colonel's Eagles

The historic Rio Grande has gone Edward B. Jennings, Project Engineer und srground. This Rio Grande isn't or the Power Conversion Project, has a hallow river bordering the southern pair of silver eagles these days, and very part of Texas; it is the Rio Grande little opportunity to wear them. Like the Spanish in explored 400 years ago by other military men on duty with the their search for an overland communica- Canal organization, he spends 99 percent tion between Atlantic and Pacific across of his time in civilian clothes. the Isthmus of Panama. Consequently, the eagles to which he The disappearance of the Isthmian Rio became entitled on his promotion July 15 Grande is connected with the work on to full colonel in the U. S. Army Corps of Contractors Hill, only a short distance Engineers stay in their box. from the old Rio Grande reservoir which Born in Westport, Conn., Colonel once supplied water for the entire Pacific Jennings is a graduate of Carson-Lorg side district between Culebra and Panama Institute in Pennsylvania, Syracuse Lni- City. versity and the Command and General Staff School. Ke holds his master's degree During the Contractors Hill project from the State University of Iowa. the main stream of the river, which drops During World War II he served as an precipitously from the old dam to the engineer battalion commander in the spillway near the Cucaracha Signal Sta- New Hebrides, Okinawa and Japan. He tion, has been partially filled with rock QUIET POOL in a wooded glade? Not at all. This came to the Canal Zone in June 1954, from Contractors Hill. The river fill is is the spot where the Rio Grande disappears under- from Nashville, Tenn., where he was designed to stabilize the slopes of adja- ground beneath a newly-constructed rock fill. Assistant District Engineer of the Nash- fills behind Contractors Hill, and has cent ville Engineer District. His first Canal feet or raised the grade of the river 20 engineers, is not unusual in limestone appointment was as Project Engineer for more for a distance of several hundred feet. country but a man-made disappearing the work on Contractors Hill. He was The Rio Grande, however, has not river, especially one created uninten- named Project Engineer for the Power Conversion Project last April. taken calmly to this man-made innova- tionally, isn't commonplace. tion and appears to prefer its original bed.

Instead of flowing quietly along in its new raised channel, it follows the winding Latin American School Enrollment course of its old channel for a few feet out Increases After Start Of Classes onto the new fill, then disappears com- pletely. It goes into no large hole or Enrollment in the Canal Zone's Latin Rainbow City Junior High School has cavern but simply disappears into the American schools, which was lower by 54 the largest enrollment of the junior high ground to re-emerge at the bottom of the students at the beginning of the present schools but La Boca is the larger of the fill through innumerable small crevices in school year than on the first day of school two Latin American high schools. the rocks. a year ago, took a sharp swing upward as According to officials of the schools, The Rio Grande of the Isthmus has the month progressed. students in the upper grades are adapting in closely with local progress been tied On July 15, 11 days after the present easily to the new system of all-Spanish since the beginning of recorded history. school session began, a total of 4,006 instruction. All classes in the Latin American schools If the Spaniards had found it more suit- students were enrolled in the Latin Amer- are being taught in Spanish this year for the first time; Span- able for water-borne traffic when they ican schools, in the grades from kinder- ish-language instruction last year ex- explored its course in 1527, it would garten through high school. This figure tended only through grade six. English undoubtedly have been the link between was an increase of 72 in the ten-day is taught as a separate subject. Walter the Chagres and the Pacific coast, rather period and brought the total enrollment H. Oliver is in charge of the conversion than the Cruces trail. higher by 60 students than the enrollment into all-Spanish instruction. $ Three hundred and twenty years later, in the schools on the similar day of the New courses in Spanish language are Railroad be- term. surveyors of the Panama preceding school being constructed for the school curricu- came convinced that construction of a The two largest of the Latin American lum under the supervision of Alfred E. railroad was possible when they found the elementary schools are Rainbow City and Osborne for the elementary schools and Rio Grande valley stretching from the Paraiso; the former has over 975 students Russell H. Johns for the secondary continental divide down the Pacific and the latter approximately 525. schools. watershed. The first tracks of the rail- road followed the river vallev to Panama City.

Later the French Canal Company laid out their canal along the route of the Rio Grande. Their plans for a lock-type canal called for the Rio Grande to be dammed near the Pacific end of the Canal. Later, during the early construction period, the Rio Grande was dammed into a great reservoir, with a capacity of 362 million gallons of water, to supply the entire Pacific side of the Canal Zone and Panama City. Before the Canal was completed, the reservoir's capacity had been increased by a third. The Rio Grande has not always been a well-behaved river. In November 1909, flood waters on the river ate away sections of the Canal banks near Corozal where TWO WELL-KNOWN Canal Zone teachers were Owen Shirley, left, is principal of the Rainbow the Rio Grande crossed the Canal prism. J. promoted this year to the principalships of the two City High School and Robert H. Beecher is principal A disappearing river, according to high schools in the Latin American Schools system. of the high school at La Boca. August 5, 1955 THE PANAMA CANAL REVIEW 13

Gigantic Stairsteps

On Contractors Hill

Now Nearly Finished

WITH school days just around the corner, the

younger fry are learning already that it will be The finishing touches are being given smart to be smart when taking a geography gigantic to tie stairsteps which have lesson from their well groomed teacher. These been carved into Contractors Hill during two young men, with an eye to durability as the past year. During that time the face well as style, have chosen genuine Levis from of the hill has completely changed appear- t'le regular commissary stock. Their shirts are ance and the danger of a rock fall into two of the smart new sports styles being placed the Canal channel has been removed. on sale this month. wearing Cinderella Shovels, trucks, and bulldozers are The young ladies are frocks which are as washable as they are presently working on 150-foot level, low- pretty. Any school girl's wardrobe should est of the berms or steps which is just 65 contain several of these as they will be on sale feet above the Canal water 1 svel. Under for about $3.50. The boys are wearing the working schedule, the last of the hard brown leather loafers made by Roberts, John- drilled, rock formation will be blasted, son and Rand, and the girls have on one-strap and removed before the end of this slippers made by Trimfoot. Teacher, not to be month. outdone by her pupils, is wearing a dress The work remaining after the last of cliosen from the large stock of misses' styles the rock is removed will include the now carried by the Commissary stores. removal of the shale access road down Left to right, Sandy Holliday, Gwyneth Richard, Mrs. M. W. Foscue, Glenn Rhyne, the slope of Project 13, and the break-up and Roger Hutchinson. and removal of a relatively small amount of rock along the Canal banks which fell during the blasting operations. This work is expected to take only a few days for HIGH marks in fashion will be given these completion. two teencgers when they wear clothes chosen from the back-to-school collection being Cascadas At Work pieced on sale this month by the Commissary While the Tecon Corporation is com- Division. The junior miss has a pastel cotton pleting the work under its contract, the dress with a crisp white collar and a fitted Dredging Division's dipper dredge Cas- midriff. It buttons up the back and has a full skirt. cadas will be busy removing the last of The high school student on the left chose a Cucaracha formation in Project 13 im- bright yellow short-sleeved sport mediately north of Contractors Hill. shirt made by Campus Spoit Shirts,- it is one of Approximately 250,000 cubic yards of this a number of handsome styles being stocked project was removed by dry excavation by the Commissary Division for high school and col- by the Tecon Corporation under a supple- mental agreement. lege students. His trousers are ncvy gar- bcrdine which has been specially treated The removal of the knuckle which juts for spot and crease resistance. also wears into the Canal channel at that point will He a pair of brown increase the channel width by 150 feet leather locfeis which have become so populcr with students in all the and will greatly improve navigation con- grades from one to twelve. The ditions through Gaillard Cut The chan- models are: Barry Davison and Jean Chambers. nel turns sharply as it prsse? Gold and Contractors Hill and much of the useful- ness of work already done on Project 13 has been nullified by the remaining tip of Cucaracha formation which juts into the channel. Project 13 has been in progress on a low priority basis by the Dredging Divi- sion for many yesrs. It provides for the widening of the entire channel section known as Culebra Reach to 500 feet. Approximately one and a half miles of the channel has been widened with only the small ssction remaining. By Contract And Canal The dipper dredge Cascadas was moved to the site early in July and will continue the work until the project is completed. The work on Project 13 was suspended soon after the big crack across the face of Contractors Hill was found to be endang- ering the Canal because of the possibility of inducing a rockfall. The contract with Tecon was extended to include the dry excavation of the remaining material in Project 13 since the additional work could be done as a part of the main contract more advanta- geously and economically than as a separ- WHAT teacher wouldn't be proud of this group of students who will soon return to classes ate projact. In addition to the 250,000 with their back-to-school clothes problems solved by the Commissary Division? All of the cubic yards removed under the contract clothes, including the shoes worn by both the grade-school and high-school student models, amendment, about 187,000 cubic yards were selected from the new shipment to go on sale this month ct Balboa and Cristobal. The young miss on the right is wearing a candy striped polished cotton frock which washes of material will be removed by wet like a dream and has a special dirt resistant quality which should go over big with the mothers of excavation to complete the project and the grade-school set. The other 1 0-year-old has a sun dress which comes with a separate jacket. Canal channel widen the to the required Models for this picture are: Mrs. M. W. Foscue, Roger Hutchinson, Sandy Halliday, depth. Barry Davison, Jean Chambers, Gwyneth Richard. August 1955 14 THE PANAMA CANAL REVIEW 5,

PROMOTIONS AND TRANSFERS JULY RETIREMENTS

Retirement certificates were presented June 15 through July 15 the end of July to the following employees who are listed alphabetically, together with (Typing), Communications Branch' their birthplaces, titles, length of Canal Empl ' were promoted or trans- Clerk service and future addresses: en June 15 and July 15 are Electrical Division. low. Within-grade promotions are HEALTH BUREAU Lester F. Bailey, Maine; Governmental Division; 29 not listed. Mrs. Lorna M. Shore, Staff Nurse, from Accountant, Industrial years, ADMINISTRATIVE BRANCH Gorgas Hospital to Coco Solo Hospital. 10 months, 6 days; Schnectady, N. V. Clerk-Typist, from Hallie Beavers, North Carolina; Teacher, Louis C. Caldwell, Tabulating Equipment Nellie T. Morgan, Health Labor- Balboa High School; 23 years, 10 months; Operation Supervisor, from Division of Gorgas Hospital to Board of North Carolina. ,- Statistii al Tabulating Sec- atory Sto , Stewart, Dr. Robert B. White, Samuel S. Blackburn, Tennessee; Police- tion. Dr. Roy B. Hospital. man, Cristobal District; 35 years, 1 month. Alfredo Lombana, Mrs. Helen M. Cicero, from Intern to Resident, Gorgas Dr. Luis A. 17 days; St. Petersburg, Fla. from Tabulating Machine Operator, Pay- Dr. Richard S. Ostenso, Picard-Ami, Intern, Gorgas Hospital, Charles H. Fairbrother, North Dakota; roll Branch, to Tabulating Equipment from Medical Clinics. Layerout Machinist, Industrial Division; Operator, Statistical Tabulating Section. to Medical Officer, Pacific 36 vears, 10 months, 17 days; Panama, Mrs. Mercedes A. Borrell, from Tabu- Dr. Wallace M. Snyder, from Intern. is to Officer, Coco R. P. lating Machine Operator. Division of Store- (.org. Hospital, Medical Roger H. Greene, Washington, D. C.j houses, to Tabulating Equipment Operator, Solo Hospital. McDade, from Staff Nurse Claims Examiner, Fiscal Division; 28 years, Statistical Tabulating Section. Mrs. Ida M. Disease Nurse, Atlantic 8 months, 7 days; Alexandria, Va. George A. Black, Jr., from Tabulation to Communicable George Herman, Illinois; Chief, Police Planner, Division of Storehouses, to Tabu- Medical Clinics. B. Dodson, from Staff Nurse Division; 40 years, 2 months, 23 days; lation Project Planner, Statistical Planning Mrs. May to Nurse, Coco Solo Hospital. Address uncertain. Sex tion. Head Ludwig A. Maurer, New York; Control Preston G. Gau, from Tabulating Ma- Dr. John W. Gales, from Medical Officer House Operator, Pedro Miguel Locks; 28 chine Operation Supervisor, Payroll Branch, (Pediatrics) to Medical Officer (Gynecology Obstetrics). Coco Solo Hospital. years, 2 months, 26 days; Address unde- to Tabulating Equipment Operation Super- and Section. Dr. William E. Prier, from Medical cided. \ isor, Statistical Tabulating Officer to Hospital Resident, Gorgas Hos- Thomas McNeill, Ireland; Carpenter Jacob Plicet, Jr., from Tabulating Ma- Foreman, Pacific Locks; 15 years, 3 months, chine Operator Supervisor, Payroll Branch, pital. Statis- Mrs. Katherine H. Hall, Staff Nurse from 6 days; Pittsford, Yt. to Tabulating Equipment Operator, Hospital to Gorgas Hospital. Ralph N. Stewart, Illinois; Supervisory tical Tabulating Section. Coco Solo Mrs. Dora Coleman, from Medical Accounting Clerk, Commissary Division; CIVIL AFFAIRS BUREAU J. Technician (General) to Medical Technician 29 years, 1 month, 27 days; Florida. Recreation Paul F. Karst, Jr., from (General-Supervisory), Coco Solo Hospital. Agnes E. Sugrue, Connecticut; Public Supervisor to Physical Education Teacher. MARINE BUREAU Health Nurse, Colon Health Office; 25 Division of Schools. vears, 4 months, 13 davs; Brooklyn, N. Y. Charles A. Parks, Emerson A. Cottrell, Mrs. Thelma N. Scott, from Clerk-Typist Schools. from Guard, Atlantic Locks, to Towing to Recreation Assistant, Division of Locomotive Operator, Locks Division ( Locks Mrs. Marcella G. Green, from Clerk- Overhaul). Stenographer to Clerical Assistant, Division Carl H. Schmidt, from Towing Locomo- ANNIVERSARIES Schools. ol tive Operator, Pacific Locks, to Guard, Thomas L. Sellers, from Relief Postmaster Locks Security Branch (Atlantic). Postmaster, Margarita. When Emmett Zemer went to work for to SUPPLY BUREAU Lealand A. Larrison, from Postmaster, the Canal organization on July 10, 1913, he Assistant to Chief, Margarita, to Relief Postmaster. Charles P. Shay, from had no more idea than most men of that to Commissary Supervisor Earl F. Unruh, from Chief, Postal Divi- Retail Stores period that he would still be a Canal Zonian (Assistant to Chief, Retail Stores Branch), sion, to Director of Posts. 42 years later. He is one of three employ- Commissary Division. COMMUNITY SERVICES BUREAU ees whose continuous service predates 1914 Roy F. Burr, from Clerical Assistant from Clerk-Typi-t and one of 13 still working who had con- Mrs. Susan H. Boles, (Typist), Colon Health Office, to Account- Center Division- struction-day service. to Clerk (Typing), Service ing Clerk, Commissary Division. Steward, Service He is now Real Property Assistant in the Paul J. Laing, from Relihan, from Supply Officer Thomas G. office of the Director of the Community tenter Division, to Supervisory Adminis- (Drygoods), to Superintendent, General Services Bureau. He began his Canal trative Assistant, Tivoli Guest House. Products Branch, Commissary Division. service at the Gorgona Commissary and Assistant OFFICE OF THE COMPTROLLER Vincent J. Huber, from Supply later worked in a number of the retail Norbert A. Jones, from Supervisory Officer to Supply Officer (Drygoods), Com- commissary stores. He had hotel experi- Accounting Clerk, Methods and Relief missary Division. ence at the Washington and the Tivoli, but Assignment Staff, to Transportation Rate Robert L. Rankin, from Commissary his longest assignment was the 26 years he Assistant Officer Auditing Clerk, Agents Accounts Branch. Supervisor to Supply spent in what used to be known as the Division. Stephen A. Bissell, from Transportation (Drygoods), Commissary District Quartermaster's Office in Balboa. Kate Auditing Clerk, Agents Accounts Elizabeth A. Allen, lrom Accounting He has been at Balboa Heights since 1953. Divi- Branch, to Supervisory Accounting Clerk, Clerk to Clerk-Typist, Commissary With 42 years of continuous Canal Methods and Relief Assignment Staff. sion. service he heads this month's list of anni- M. Pierson, from Account- TRANSPORTATION AND TERMINALS Mrs. Florence BUREAU versaries. ing Clerk to Supervisory Accounting Clerk, 35 YEARS from Accounting Division. Richard M. Conover, Supervisory Two Canal employees share honors for Helen N. Minor, from Time, Leave, and Traffic Clerk to Supervisory Freight Traffic 35 years of government service completed Division. Payroll Clerk, to Time, Leave, and Payroll Clerk (General), Terminals last month, although in both cases their from Supervisor, Payroll Branch. John W. Manush, Jr., Supervisor) Canal service is not that long. They are Stuart Wallace, from Claims Examiner, Property and Supply Clerk to Supervisory Arthur L. Endicott, Postmaster at Fort Terminals Division. Fiscal Division, to Budget Analyst, Budget Cargo Clerk, Clayton, and Warren Pitman, Supervisory Branch. Paul P. Desormeau, Victor T. McGarry Rates Analyst in the Office of the Comp- Sidney Smithson, William Gregory G. Cartotto, from Supervisory James A. Brooks, troller. Accountant, Accounting Division, to Claims B. Huff, Merlin B. Yocum, from Supervisory Mr. Endicott, a native of Oregon and a

i Supervisory Cargo Examiner, Fiscal Division. St irekeeper (Checker) to onetime Gunner's Mate in the U. S. Navy. Walter B. Wolberg, from Time, Leave. Checker, Terminals Division. was working in the San Diego, Calif., post from Supervisors- and Payroll Supervisor, Payroll Branch, to James H. Munden, office when he decided he'd like a change of Supervisory Accountant, Accounting Divi- Storekeeper ( Checker) to Supervisory Trans- scene. In an unusual exchange of jobs a Division. sion. portation Assistant, Terminals Zone post office worker transferred to San Mrs. Eva M. Grassau, from Accountant Gerald D. Stroop, from Guard to Super- Diego and Mr. Endicott came to the Canal Division. in rime. Leave, and Payroll Clerk, Payroll visory Cargo Checker, Terminals Zone. He has been assigned to several Branch. post offices and has been postmaster at ENGINEERING AND CONSTRUCTION Fort Clayton since 1952. BUREAU Mr. Pitman was born in San Francisco. William R. Carlin, Jr., from Apprentice AUGUST SAILINGS Like many Zone employees he first saw the iblesplicer, Electrical Division. Isthmus as a serviceman, liked it and stayed. George D. Gregory, from General Fore- His first Canal Zone job had to do with From Cristobal man to Chief Foreman, Dredging Division Panama Railroad accounts; he has been in Cristobal August 6 Sho] accounting and rates work ever since. I'n in: ma August 13 James M. Hunter, from Small Tug Oper- Just before he joined the Canal organiza- Ancon August 20 ator to Towboal Master, Dredging Division. tion he spent almost three months with the Cristobal August 27 Henry T. Carpenter, from Hospital Tacna-Arica Plebiscitary Commission in Maintenance Lead Foreman to Building From New York Arica, Chile, when the United States was Maintenance General Foreman, Mainte- l'a uama August 4 mediating a boundary dispute between Ancon.. . . August 11 nance 1 >i vision. Chile and Peru. Harvey W. Sauter, from Assistant Super- Cristobal August 18 30 YEARS visor Sheet metal Work to Lead Foreman, I 'a mi ma August 25 Zonians come from all over the United ital Maintenance, Maintenance Divi- (Southbound the Haiti stop is from 7 a. m. States. Look at the birthplaces of this sion. to 4 p. m. Monday; northbound ships are month's 30-year men: Virginia, Roy F. Mrs. Miriam H. Hawvichorst, from also in Port-au-Prince Monday, from about Armistead and Howarth V. Rowe; New

Supervisory Clerk (Typist) to Supervisors 1 to 6 p. m.) York, George D. Gregory and Walter H. —

August 5, 1955 THE PANAMA CANAL REVIEW 15

Kuhrt; Washington, D. C, Kurt F. Menzel VI. Travel and Transportation Expenses of Em- and Will R. Price; Michigan, Jerome F. ployees and Their immediate Families In EXECUTIVE REGULATION 19 Connection With Leave For Returning to Evans; Ohio, Philip S. Thornton; Wiscon- f Place of Residence Between Tours of Duty sin, Herbert F. Paddock. Editor's Note: A revision of Executive Sec. 6.1 Eligibility. These nine completed 30 years of Govern- Sec. 6.2 Service period for teachers. Regulation No. 19, covering travel and Sec. 6.3 Travel allowance. service in July. All but two, Mr. Armistead transportation was issued at Balboa Heights Sec. 6.4 Limitations. and Mr. Thornton, have continuous Canal recently. It will be published in install- Sec. 6.5 Creditable service with other United States service. Government agencies for leave travel ments with the index and first installment Mr. Evans Jerry to almost everyone benefits. — carried in this issue for the benefit of those Sec. 6.6 Route and mode of travel. is manager of the Balboa Commissary; Mr. who desire to clip and save the entire regu- Sec. 6.7 Departure of immediate family prior or Gregory is Chief Foreman of the Dredg- lation. subsequent to departure of employee. ing Division's shops; Captain Kuhrt and Sec. 6.8 Liability of employee. Sec. 6.9 Use of Government Transportation Re- side's CANAL ZONE GOVERNMENT Captain Rovve are two of the Atlantic quests. senior pilots; Mr. Menzel is General PANAMA CANAL COMPANY Sec. 6.10 Submission of voucher. Supervisory Medical Technican at the OFFICE OF THE Sec. 6.11 Liability of employee in instances of non- GOVERNOR-PRESIDENT compliance with terms of new agree- Board of Health Laboratory; Mr. Paddock ment. is Chief Dispatcher and also Chief of the Balboa Heights, C. Z. VII. Prior Regulations Revoked Mirallores Diesel Generation Station; Mr. June 24, Ii i \ record with the Canal organization. They II. Transportation of Household Goods and tion of the Remains, Families, and Effects of are: Personal Effects Deceased Employees, see Executive Regula- Richard Conley, a native Zonian, Loco- Sec. 2.1 Maximum allowance for transportation. tion No. 18 of August 18, 1951. Sec. 2.2 Allowances for packing, crating, unpacking motive Engineer with the Railroad Division; 1.2 Drfiiiitions. As used in these regulations: and uncrating. (a) "Place of actual residence" means, in the James A. Fraser, Dredging Supervisor with 2.3 Allowance for drayage. Sec. case of appointments made in the United SLates, the Dredging Division; Stephen C. Les- Sec. 2.4 Items not allowable and items allowable. the place at which such appointee physically Sec. 2.5 Temporary storage. sard, Accounting Clerk with the Industrial resided at time of appointment. In the case of Sec. 2.6 Means of shipment. employees who were appointed while on the Division; C. B. Mcllvaine, Senior Conductor 2.7 Origin destination of Sec. and shipment. Isthmus, actual place of residence shall be Ellen 2.8 of bill of lading. with the Railroad Division; and Sec. Use Government deemed to be such appointee's legal residence in Tiernan, a Staff Nurse at Gorgas Hospital. Sec. 2.9 Use of lift vans. the United States at the time of appointment. Sec. 2.10 Preparation of vouchers. In the case of an appointee who was born on the Other 25-year employees are: Woodford 2.11 Valuation. Sec. Isthmus or who came to the Canal Zone as a 2.12 M. Babbitt, a Rotary Drill Operator with Sec. Shipment by American vessels. minor, place of actual residence, in the absence Sec. 2.13 Itemization of charges. the Dredging Division —he was born in of subsequent acquisition of a legal residence in Sec. 2.14 Procedure for obtaining shipment of goods United States, Alaska but grew up in the Canal Zone; the shall be deemed to be the and effects. legal residence of his father in the United States. William H. Hele a Contraband Control Sec. 2.15 Customs inspection on the Isthmus. (Based on Comptroller General's Decision B/62267 2.16 Certification weights, Inspector; and Elmer B. Orr, Accounting Sec. of cubic measure- of January 15. 1947. 26 Comp. Gen. 488) ments and contents. Supervisor with the Agents Accounts (b) "Employee" means a full-time employee Sec. 2.17 Preparation and disposition of ocean bills of the Panama Canal Company or Canal Zone Branch. Mr. Hele and Mr. Orr were born of lading. Government. 2.18 Routing and consignment of shipments. in the Canal Zone. Sec. (c) "Immediate family" means any of the Sec. 2.19 Customs fees. following named members of the employee's 20 YEARS Sec. 2.20 Reimbursement of expenses not authorized. household: Spouse, children, including step- Sec. 2.21 Billing for expenses. The employees who completed 20 years children and adopted children, unmarried and III. Transfers Between Official Stations under twenty-one years of age or physically or of Government service in July are split, mentally incapable of supporting themselves half and half, between those with continu- Sec. 3.1 Payment of expenses. regardless of age, or dependent parents of the Sec. 3.2 Responsibility for costs. service employee (but not of the spouse). ous Canal service and those whose Sec. 3.3 Designation of official station. (From section 1 (d) of Executive Order 9805) was broken. Those with unbroken service "Official station" includes IV. Travel and Transportation Expenses of New (d) any point are: Appointees within the district in which he normally works, John C. Dansby, Carpenter Foreman, as defined in section 3.3 of these regulations, Sec. 4.1 Payment of expenses. from which the employee commutes daily to his Maintenance Division; George C. Dunlap, Sec. 4.2 Agreement to remain in s?rvice. official post of duty. Assistant Project Engineer for the Power Sec. 4.3 New appointees; restored veterans not (From section 8 of Executive Order 9805, as amended included. by Executive Order 10196) Conversion Project; Herman Hessell, Fire- for employees Sec. 4.4 Xew appointees; not included (e) "Temporary storage" means storage at certain conditions. man with the Balboa District; Irvin E. under point of departure, destination, or way station Krapfl, Assistant Relief Marine Bunkering Sec. 4.5 New appointees; local employments not for nor more than 60 days, except that not more included. Foreman with the Terminals Division; than 90 days may be allowed where an employee Sec. 4.6 Exceptions to general policy. pursuant to section 6.3 of these regulations, R. H. Masters, Sanitation Inspector, De- returns for leave prior to serving period V. Travel and Transportation on Termination a new partment of Zone Sanitation; Floyd A. of Employment of service outside the continental United States at a different post of duty. Robinson, Policeman at the Cristobal 5.1 Employees and ex-employees entitled to Sec. (Based on section 1 (c) of Executive Order 9805, as Station; Samuel Roe, Jr., also a police travel and transportation allowances. amended by Bureau of the Budget Circular A-4 5.2 Employees not entitled to travel and officer in the Balboa District; Luther B. Sec. of May 2. 1955) transportation. (f) "United States" means the continental Sartain, Jr., Chief of the Electrical-Mechan- Sec. 5.3 Families, household goods and personal United States, its territories and possessions, ical Branch of the Engineering Division; effects, transportation of. other than the Canal Zone. immediate family and and Herbert H. Tabert, Floating Crane Sec. 5.4 Prior return of of 1.3 Travel expenses of employees. Travel expenses household goods and personal effects. Master with the Dredging Division. of the employees shall be allowed in accordance with Sec. 5.5 Creditable service with other United States the Travel Expense Act of 1945 (63 Stat. 166). the Those 20-year employees whose Canal Government agencies for travel and Standardized Government Travel Regulations.- and transportation allowances. service is not continuous are: Ross Aldrich, Panama Canal Company regulations supplementary Sec. 5.6 Transportation benefits for ex-employees thereto and in accordance with travel orders issued Lineman - Foreman, Electrical Division; who terminated prior to August 2, 1946. in each cas?. Richard R. Brown, Merhanical-Refriger- Sec. 5.7 Application for transportation. (Based on section 2 of Executive Order 9805, as ation Engineer, Commissary Division; amended by Executive Order 10969) Richard W. Coy, Accountant, Internal 1.4 Transportation expenses of employees and their Electrical Division; Joseph H. Kueter, families. The transportation of the employee and Audit Staff; Bernard Dorfman, Supervisory Shipwright, Industrial Division; Loretta his immediate family, if any, hereunder shall be Local subject to the provisions of the Standardized Govern- Freight Traffic Officer, Panama Metivier, Accounting Clerk, Agents, Agency; Robert H. Miller, Assistant Man- J. ment Travel Regulations which relate to transporta- Accounts Branch; Catherine J. Mitchus- tion, including mileage, and shall be in accordance ager, Cristobal Housing Office; Paul W. son, Staff Nurse, Gorgas Hospital; B. M. with Sect on 4 of Travel Expense Act of 1949, and Panama Canal Company regulations supplementary Mohl, General Operator, Maintenance Parmentier, Boilermaker, Industrial Divi- Division; Henry Perry, Policeman at Bal- thereto, whether sion; Louis J. Poletti, Visa Clerk, Admin- (a) in the case of transfer, such transporta- Aloys C. Sandusky, Pharmacist, boa; istrative Branch; John C. Thompson, Gas tion originates at the employee's last official Pacific Medical Clinics; and Ray W. station or at some other point, or partially at Motor Machinist and Craneman, Aids to Wheeler, Fire Lieutenant at Gatun. both, and the point of destination is the new Navigation Branch; William H. Ward, official station or some other point selected by the 15 YEARS Senior Towboat Master, Dredging Division. employee; or (b) in the case of new appointments, such service with the Canal is Twenty-five employees completed 15 Those whose transportation originates at the employee's years of Government service in July. not continuous are: Ronald M. Brome, actual residence in the United States at the time Those with continuous Canal service are: Policeman, Gamboa Penitentiary; Zelda of his appointment or at some other point, or partially at both, and whether in the case of Bailey, E. Glassburn, Personnel Clerk (Typist), Kenneth L. Launch Inspector, terminations the point of destination is such Marine Bureau; Rayburn L. Brians, Ad- Employment and Utilization Division; actual residence of the employee at time of measurer, Navigation Division; David L. Hilton F. Hughes, Chief, Cocoli Diesel apointment or some other point selected by the employee; provided, however, That the cost to Station; W. Litton, Brown, Principal Stevedore Foreman, Term- Generation John Mach- the Government shall not exceed the cost of

inals Division ; Ronald A. Faunce, Wireman, inist, Industrial Division; Susan M. Magee, transportation by a usually traveled route be- Electrical Division; Robert T. Geddes, Clerk-Stenographer, Plant Inventory and tween the last official station and the new official station, or between the Canal Zone or Haiti and Filtration Plant Operator and Tractor- Appraisal Staff; William C. Merchant, the employee's actual residence in the United Bulldozer Operator, Maintenance Division; Pumping Plant Operator, Maintenance States at the time of appointment, as the case may be. Robert W. Lawyer, Policeman. Balboa Dis- Division; Harold J. Million, Hydraulic (Based on sections 2 and 3 of Executive Order 9805. Engineer, Meteorology and Hydrographie trict; Herbert N. Libbey, Engineering as amended by Executive Orders 10069 and 10196. Draftsman, Engineering Division; Harry J. Branch; Barton P. Scott, Lock Operator respectively) Linker, Diesel Operator Machinist, Elec- Machinist, Pacific Locks; John R. Thomson, (c) In the case of leave, such transportation trical Division; Murray Klipper, Wireman, Clerk, Pa!o Seco Hospital. (See page 16) 16 THE PANAMA CANAL REVIEW August 5, 1955

Executive Regulation 19 Makes First Canal Transit

lie pla e eraploj men! < ana] Zone oi em] lence in the al ion within tli C couni or possession In which

. m Lted; pro

in it i ti p I al m exp

i d ho& allowed

,-. ele i route bei ween the posl ol dutj

. idence and rel urn to thi erent p >sl oi dutj "inside

1

i

oi i - & utive Order 9S05, as

ol Uie Budget Cir< ulai \ \ oJ , i Bureau | i,. bj

prior to the : Ordinarilj expenses [ncurred travel ordei are not reimbursable. - n i li y fox transp irtal ion ol hi ius ;hold goods regard le whethei oi not thi employee was issued a travel foi himself. 1.5 Time limits.

Niii.it l [i I : ei e empli >j a >u shall onlj 1 regilations be mch able 1 in In these travel as is incidental to the termination of the employment, ani shall commence within a

reasonable t^me, no( I i exceed six months, after

, If employee lor voluntary n , h termination. an ,,,.»!, ,1 i,- wons doe n il tike advantage of the under these regula- repati i ition travel allowable tvithin such time limit, then none of the (except , ,,, :, ol the return of the employee as the provisions oi Section 5.6 of these regula tions may apply), his family, or his household goods oi pers inal effects, shall be payable under these regul itions. i[,i All employment, transfer or termination travel and transportation of an employee's fam- ily, household goods and personal effects, allow- ,M, under these regulations, shall begin within two years from the effective date of the em- ployee's appointment or transfer, or from the time of a terminated employee's repatriation, as the case may be, exclusive of the time spent on

grante 1 for the duration of active furlough THREE Panama Canal pilots were aboard the 28,790-ton SS Orsova when she made her maiden transit military, naval, or Coast Guard duty, and, in of the Panama Canal last month. The Orsova is 723 feet overall has a of so far as concerns travel and transportation and beam 90.65 feet; this gave cult side the United States, exclusive of any her a clearance of less than 10 feet on each side in the lock chambers. Ten towing locomotives took her which shipping restrictions make the period through the locks. The Orsova was en route from Sydney, Australia, to London with (192 passengers. travel and transportation impossible.

], ,| .,,, ction 5 ol Executive Order 9805 and

1 >ecision B 79912 of Novem- i omptrollei General's ber 3, 1948, 28 ( omp. Gen. 285) Atlantic Side Equipment Conversion ules must be developed and coordinated These regulations shall 1.6 Employees not affected. to prevent undue delays. These sched- ,. »ns whose pay and allowances are n appb to t"'!- Contract Among Largest Of Power Projects ei iblished by the Career Compensation Act of 1949 ules will be set up by the contractor with (61 St Lt. 802) >n 11 of Executive Order 9805. as amended the concurrence of Col. Hugh M. Arnold, Prom secti (CopJhviel /mm pap- 1) ventilating fans, Executive Order 10196) by Engineering and Construction Director. 1.7 Determination of transportation rights. The 450 pieces of hobby-shop equipment, and employee's immediate family and the members ol an 260 pieces of miscellaneous equipment. The conversion work will be greatly old goods and personal effects to be trans- ported at Government expense shall be determined The cast of converting all equipment simplified by the fact that double trans- date ol the transfer or leave travel as of the effective mission facilities are available to most order authorizing such transportation or, in case of will be met by Power Conversion Project date of the termination. as of the effective funds. In the case of household equip- areas in the Canal Zone. And, in many ment, the owner may choose to have an cases, duplicate equipment is available EXECUTIVE REGULATION 51 individual piece of equipment converted for Company-Government service units. to 60-cycle frequency or at his option This equipment can be converted for CANAL ZONE GOVERNMENT accept a cash settlement from the Con- 60-cycle use in advance and can be PANAMA CANAL COMPANY tractor equal to the contract bid-price placed in operation when 60-cycle cur- OFFICE OF THE GOVERNOR-PRESIDENT for converting the unit in question. This rent is available. policy, which has been approved by the Domestic Conversion Balboa Heights, C. Z. June 30, 1955. Board of Directors of the Canal Com- In the case of domestic equipment, the Regulation No. 51 Executive pany, will govern on all equipment which REGULATION OF SALE AND USE OF conversion will proceed in small groups FIREWORKS is in operating condition and is being of quarters fed by the same transformer. authority contained in Section i: virtue ol the used regularly by the owner. The householder will be notified in 521 of Title 2, of the Canal Zone Code, as added by technical difficulties are foreseen by ,h, \, i ol tune 28, 1955 (Public Law 105. 84th No advance of the date when the change will regulations are i ongress 1st Session), the following Canal engineers planning the project \, in be made from 25-cycle to 60-cycle current I Foi the s lie and us ol fireworks the Canal Zone: although a maze of intricate work sched- and all frequency sensitive equipment will -,., ( inal Zone is i rhe sale oi fireworks in the prohibited. be disconnected just prior to the switch- . "Sec. 2. The use or tiring ol fireworks in the < anal prohibited, except as hereinafter provided. over. Conversion of such essential equip- "firew irks!' shall mean and New Division Chief 3 The term ment as refrigerators will be completed include any combustible or explosive compo

i subst oi o] i >ubst; combination ol mces, as rapidly as possible. However, spare is; ol lui ing a ,,!,, i prep ired foi the purp pro of will visible "i audible effect by combustion, explosion units such essential equipment be and shall include blank defiigration or detonation, available and can be plugged in to the

I >\ cartridges, toj pistol . cannons, toy canes, oi

i toj guns in whii h expl isive ire used, he I - pe ol 60-cycle current, if the conversion time *- ulii- I inn fire underneath to propel imi specified limitations. firecrackers, torpedoes, skyrockets, Roman candle: exceeds

I "r ol like Daygo I sparklers, othei fireworks In this manner, the service interrup- construction and any firea irks containing any expl oh e oi flamm ible i omp inn I, oi anj tablets oi tion will be kept to a minimum and it is ol device i ling any expl isit e substam e iei expected that any will be ex:ept thai the term "fireworks" shall not include not consumer toj sun- or other device's in out of power for any appreciable length ih in u hi 1 1 papei i aps conl lining not more an aver- age of twents five hundredths [0.25) ol a grain ol of time. explosive composition per cap. the sale in I u which shall b - permitted at all times Turbines Reconditioned "Sec. 4. The Civil Affairs Directoi may issue permits foi supervised public display; ol fireworks The conversion of both industrial and organizations ol gro of individual-. by responsible u»- domestic equipment will be done as Co be held al such times and pla and undei such condition! as in his opinion shall not _b hazardous generating units at the Gatun Hydro- to pers property. Similar public displays on military reservations shall bs permissible when electric Plant become available for 60- by the appropriate military properlj authorized cycle power production. Contracts for ,nll h iritics. "Sec. 5. Nothing in this regulation slull be the replacement of four of the six gener- true I to prohibit the use of fireworks by transporla-

- is foi signal pui pos oi i lumin ition, oi ators there have been awarded and are

m ink carl Ig or a show or t heatei oi oi now being built in the States. ;n ,1 or ceremonial p trpo3es in athletics oi sports, oi use bj military organizations. One of the 40-year-old generators at "Sec. 6. As provide! in Section 522 of Title 2 of has already been I station h< inal / I !ode, violations of these regul itions the Gatun

bj i lui' Ol not more than S100 or b\- R. was appointed last removed by the Power Branch of the 30 days imprisonment in iail or both. DR. ERIC OSTERBERG Phi regulations prescribed herein shall week Chief of the Division of Preventive Medicine of Electrical Division, and the recondition- effective si\t> lys from the date of issu im e become d " the Health Bureau, succeeding the late Dr. Walter of this Executive Regulation ing of the turbines and accessories feeding G. Nelson. Dr. Osterberg has been with the Health J. S. SfcYBOLD this unit is being done by the Industrial Bureau sinre 194S and Health Officer for Panama and Governor of the Canal Zo u Division Panama I

August 5, 1955 THE PANAMA CANAL REVIEW 17 STATISTICS ON CANAL TRAFFIC

For the purpose of comparison between pre-war and post-war traffic through the Panama Cana 1, statistics for the fiscal year 1938 are used in this section, as being more nearly normal for peace time than those for 1939.

COMMERCIAL SHIPPING SETS RECORD FOR CANAL; TOTAL TRANSITS BELOW PREVIOUS YEARS' FIGURES

Commercial shipping lacked only three transits of reaching the 8,000-mark for Most Frequent User Of Canal ocean-going vessels during the past fiscal year, a new record in the Canal's oper- ating history for this class of traffic.

Traffic last year by U. S. Government shipping through the Canal was far below that of the previous years, with the result that transits by ships of all categories fell below the totals of either the two pre- vious years. Transits last year totaled 9,760 for vessels of all classes, while the totals for each of the fiscal years 1953 and 1954 exceeded 10,000. There were 296 transits by ocean-going Government ships last year, as compared with 800 the previous year. The 7,997 transits by ocean-going commercial ves- sels was over 200 above in the previous fiscal year, which also was a record. Cargo tonnage last year was at an all-time high with 40,646,301 tons, approx- imately 550,000 tons more than the total for the fiscal year 1954 when a new- record was established.

Tolls for the past fiscal year amounted to $35,136,529 of which $1,217,536 was for the Government ships in transit. The visitor fiscal which ended June 30 was the 3,946-ton refrig- tolls declined from the record of $37,191,- -MOST FREQUENT Canal during the year erated ship above, the Brazilian Reefer. She made 55 Canal transits in the 12-month period on her run 106 in the previous fiscal year, even between the United States East Coast and banana ports in Ecuador, carrying between 1,000 and 1,500 tolls shipping were though on commercial tons of bananas on each northbound trip. She is of Danish registry; her master for most of the year has slightly higher in 1955 than in 1954. been Captain H. J. Moeller. Continental Shipping Company is her agents. Second most frequent Canal visitor was another banana carrier, the 1,250-ton Honduran ship Vanda. The decline in the amount of Govern- She made 4S Canal transits in fiscal year 1955, carrying an average of 350 tons of fruit on each northbound began soon after the cessa- ment shipping trip. The Vanda's master is Captain Harold Rasmussen; her agents, W. Andrews & Co. tion of hostilities in Korea and continued throughout the past fiscal year. MONTHLY COMMERCIAL TRAFFIC AND TOLLS New Monthly Record Vessels of 300 tons net or over The amount of commercial traffic By fiscal years the remained high through- through Canal Tolls Transits out the year, there being only two months (In thousands of dollars) Month when there were less than 640 transits by 1955 1954 1938 ocean-going vessels. A new monthly 1955 1954 1938 record in number of ocean-going transits July 640 638 457 $2,646 $2,817 $2,030 was set last March with 709 transits. A monthly record in amount of tolls was 652 640 505 2,752 2,778 2,195 set in May with $3,072,000, this being 660 612 444 2,756 2,591 1,936 the only time in the Canal's 46 years of operating history that tolls on commer- 683 654 461 2,831 2,755 1,981 cial vessels exceeded three million dollars in one month. 636 636 435 2,630 2,668 1,893

Increased traffic was reported on five December. ... - . - - 676 690 439 2,853 2,963 1 , 845 of the eight main trade routes through the Canal last year over previous year's January 668 626 444 2,832 2,726 1,838 figures. Major increases were noted on February - ' _•_ . 637 592 436 2.721 2,491 1,787 the United States Intercoastal route and on the trade route between the West March 700 693 506 3,014 2,934 2, OK, Indies and the west coast of the United 654 487 2,938 2,838 1 ,961 States and Canada. Heavy shipments \pril 685 of oil to the West Indies were largely May 698 689 465 3,072 2,923 1,887 responsible for the increased traffic over the west coast of the United States, 653 660 445 2,804 2,764 1,801 Canada, and West Indies route. The Totals for fiscal year_ 7,997 7.7SJ 5,524 $33,849 833,248 $23,170 amount of cargo moved over this route more than doubled within the year. the States, shipping last year was that between There were 5,978,000 tons of cargo and east coast of United Australasia and the east coast of the shipped on the United States Inter- Canada and the Far East. United States and Canada. coastal route last year. This traffic The amount of shipping from the east has been well below the pre-war level coast of the United States and Canada The cargo moved through the Canal over since the close of World II and has been was under that of the previous year, with trade routes serving Europe increased last exceeded for the past two years by traffic the result that the trade routes to the year, with the largest gain being shown over the routes between the east coast of Far East and South America showed a on those to South America and to the west the United States and South America, decline. The third trade route with less coast of the United States and Canada. 18 THE PANAMA CANAL REVIEW August 5, 1955 Italian Line Ship Visits To Isthmus Predated Construction Of Panama Canal

The Italian Line which has had offices Italian ships made the Canal transit in the Canal Zone since 1916 for its between 1915 and 1921. passenger-freight trade between the Med- From that time on, however, business iterranean and the west coast of South increased and by the end of 1921 two and North America makes current use of Italian shipping companies had estab- the Panama Canal with three passenger lished regular service between Genoa and ships and five freighters which make Valparaiso. They were the Navigazione some 53 transits a year. Italiara a Vapore (La Veloce), and the The three passenger ships on the South Navigazione Generale Italiana. of America-Pacific run bear the names La Veloce Line started its sen ice with famous Italian navigators. The three a steamer sailing about every 60 days. men whose memory the Italian Line has This was an extension through the Canal chosen to honor are Marco Polo, who of the service which had been operating traveled in the Orient, Antoniotto Uso- for a number of years between Italian dimare, who explored the African Area, and Caribbean ports by way of Marseilles, and Amerigo Vespucci. The latter is Barcelona, and Teneriffe. The second probably the best known to Americans line put a freight ship over this trade since his name was given to the new route every 45 days and started a world and he made several exploration passenger service. voyages in the Western Hemisphere a Italian ships began operating from few years after Columbus. Europe to the west coast of the United The three ships belong to a series of DR. R. C. PKHNIGOTTI, Manager of the Italian States and Canada in 1925 with the Line in Cristobal, came to the isthmus in six built by the Italian Line ("ITALIA" 1920. SS Piave of the Navigazione Libera Societa di Navigazione, Cenca) for its routes but both having Colon as their Triestina. This company put new 10,- world trade, much of which has used the terminal points. 000-ton motor ships on this service, Panama Canal since the time it was among them the MS Leme and MS Fella, Therefore present services of the com- opened to traffic in 1914. which became well-known in Canal pany from the Mediterranean to Carib- They are attractive ships of modern shipping circles. bean area up to and beyond the Panama design, with comfortable staterooms, Canal go back many years. The South American service as well as swimming pools, bars, and movie lounges. the west coast service grew in the late When the Panama Canal opened for Although not comparable with the big 20's and 30's with the addition of the business, the Italian Line began service luxury liners operated by the Italian MS Orazio and the MS Virgilio, two pas- to the west coast of South America with Line on the North- and South-Atlantic senger freight vessels of 11,700 tons three passenger ships. In 1915 the routes, they are nevertheless very popu- which traveled regularly through the line obtained a lot on the water front in lar among travelers on the west coast of Canal to Valparaiso up to 1941. Cristobal for the construction of two- South America. a story office building which would also Pacific Coast Service Pre-War Days serve as quarters for the manager. The In 1930 and 1931 several large pas- During the years before World War building was constructed in 1916. The senger liners were added to the five II, the Italian Line was a steady cus- first manager to move into the building freighters already on the Pacific west tomer of the Panama Canal. A trade was Manfredo Pincherli, a well-known coast service. They included the former which grew steadily from 1921 to 1939 resident of Panama who had lived on the Cunard liner Albania which was recondi- brought from 40 to 60 passenger and Isthmus during the construction days. tioned and renamed California. The freight ships through the Canal each His assistant was the late 0. Heilbron, California, a 12,000-ton ship, was the year from Mediterranean ports en route equally well known. largest vessel to be placed in service to the west coast of South America and When Mr. Pincherli took over as between Europe and the Pacific west the Pacific coast of the United States and manager of the new office, very few coast up to that time. Canada. In addition there were a num- Italian ships were using the Panama In 1932 the South America service ber of cruise vessels which visited Canal Canal. According to statistics shown and the west coast service were merged waters but did not transit, and several in The Panama Canal Record, only 40 into only one company {See page iv) other Italian flag ships which were repre- sented here by the Italian Line. In fiscal year 1939 for instance, 59 Italian ships used the Canal, and carried 179,468 tons of cargo. That year alone, Italian ships paid $298,816 in tolls. Traffic dropped to 46 ships the year Italy entered the Second World War and then disappeared entirely following Pearl Harbor. The Italia Societa di Navigazione, commonly known as the Italian Line, belongs to a group of shipping companies called FINMARE, which includes Italia, Lloyd Triestino, Adriatica, and Tirrenia. All these companies are represented on the Isthmus by the Italian Line. Called At Colon In 1894 The company, through a merger that took place in 1932, absorbed the services previously operated by Navigazione Gen- erale Italiana—which in turn had years before succeeded its affiliated company La Veloce—and by Navigazione Libera Triestina.

The Caribbean service was first estab- lished in 1894 by La Veloce with sailings the 1st the 15th of from Genoa on and THE OFFICES of the Italian Line were built in Cristobal in 19111 The upper floor is used as quarters each month, following two different by the manager and his family. .

August 5, 1955 THE PANAMA CANAL REVIEW 19

SHIPS AND SHIPPING CANAL TRANSITS COMMERCIAL AND U. S. Transits by Ocean-Going Vessels GOVERNMENT In June Fiscal Year 1955 IV54 1955 Commercial 653 660 1954 1938 U. S. Atlantic Pacific Government.. ~~ 31 40 to to Total Total 684 700 Total Total Pacific Atlantic Tolls* Commercial $2,811,652 $2,769,789 Commercial vessels: U. S. Government.. 149,631 144,608 Ocean-going 4,002 3.995 7,997 7,784 5,524 Total ... $2,961,283 $2,914,397 Small 575 574 1,149 1,222 931 'Includes tolls on all vessels, ocean-going and small. Total commercial 4,577 4,569 9,146 Tuna boats, long a familiar sight in 9,006 6,455

Balboa Harbor, have become regular **U. S. Government vessels, ocean-

transit . customers of the Canal during going. 168 128 296 800 441 recent months following the opening of a Small 89 new tuna cannery at Ponce on the south 229 318 339 coast of Rico. Puerto About 2,500 tons Total commercial and U. S. of tuna have been shipped through the Government ...... 4,834 4,926 9,760 10,145 6,896 Canal to the new cannery since first the "Vessels under 300 net tons or 500 displacement tons. of this year. **Vessels Most of the sleek, white on which tolls are credited. Prior to July 1, 1951, Government-operated fishing craft formerly made the long haul ships transited free. to California with their catch. The run TRAFFIC MOVEMENT OVER MAIN TRADE ROUTES to Puerto Rico is made in about half the '1 he following table shows the cargo shipments in thousands of long tons segregated time required for the trip to California. into eight main trade routes:

Fiscal Year Italian Line Ship Visits To Isthmus 1955 1954 1938 Predated Construction Of Panama Canal United States Intercoastal. 5,978 5,017 6,395 {Continued from page IS) called the Societa 5,971 6,673 2,652 Italia Flotte Riunite. Almost all the fine fleet of ships was West Indies and West Coast U. S./Canada 1,186 501 669 lost during World War II. The Italian East Coast of U. S./Canada and Far East... . 8,393 8,975 Line offices in Cristobal were closed and 4,912 regular shipping business was not resumed U. S./Canada East Coast and Australasia 1,274 1,306 992 until 1947 when the MS Sebastiana Caboto Europe and West Coast of U. S./Canada arrived from Genoa en route to Valparaiso 5,094 4.379 4,237 with passengers and freight. Europe and South America . 2,527 2,037 2,974 At present only one of the pre-war

Europe and Australasia.. _ ships, the SS Conte Biancamano, is in the .. 2,328 2,303 1,251 Caribbean service. This vessel is well- All other routes 7,895 7,904 known locally since it was held in Cris- 3,304 tobal harbor for several months at the Total Traffic 40,646 39,095 27,386 beginning of the war and was later taken Canal commercial traffic by nationality over as a troop transport by the U. S. of vessels Government. At present it operates Fiscal Years between Genoa and La Guayra, Vene- 1955 1954 1938 zuela, Nationality Num- Num- during part of the year, and from Tons Tons Num- ber of Tons Genoa to New York the rest of the ber of ber of time. of cargo of cargo of cargo transits transits transits Three Volcanoes Argentine 1 1 7,555 In addition to the three new ships on Belgian . 15 8,908 10 12,733 the South American run, there are five Brazilian 10 35,191 British 1,145 other Italian Line ships which transit the 6.897,789 1,265 7.726,640 1,281 6,417,016 60 , 734 78 429,245 Canal on regular runs from Mediterra- ^ 9 28,787 38 289,543 19 130,112 2 13,113 nean ports to the Pacific west coast. Colombian. .. 198 261,249 205 240,640

They are the Vesuvio, Etna, Stromboli, Costa Rican - 31 212,055 40 259,137 Tritone, and Nereide. 2 323 1,014,334 275 935,878 223 The Andrea Doria, one of a group of 865,235 Ecuadorean 57 79.164 106 92,932 new Italian Line ships built since the 2 4,695 war for the York trade, 9 44,750 2 New visited 14,828 1 4,021 Cristobal last year on a cruise. 132 585,123 136 582,989 105 567,288 375 1 ,002,372 323 708,338 357 The present manager of the Italian 1.518,593 121 1,013,875 146 1,246,534 94 525,351 Line in Cristobal is Dr. Rosmino C. Honduran 428 384,890 347 493 , 260 22 8,478 Pernigotti. He served under both Mr. 5 24,411 Pincherli and Dr. Giovanni Bruni who 3 17,593 I srael 3 28,950 5 43,710 was Italian Consul and Italian Line agent 160 907,359 211 1,159,700 52 153,417 in Cristobal from 1932 until 1941 and Japanese 464 3,103.396 387 2,481,494 300 1,877,502 who is now Managing Director of the Korean (South) _ _ 4 13,551 8 25,125 Adriatica Line in Venice, Italy. 3 4,900 Liberian.. .. 384 2,637,568 224 1,416,303 Dr. Pernigotti first arrived on the Mexican... _ .. 6 19,499 2 2,577 Isthmus in 1926 to work for the Italian Moroccan .. . 1 14,401 Line. Except for the war years and a few Netherlands . 139 736,668 130 684,932 285 749, C42 years after the last war, he has been here Nicaraguan.. 50 60,509 25 26,469 Norwegian 904 4,162,091 831 3,484,070 667 ever since. He is assisted in Cristobal 3,433,571 Panamanian 551 2,712,127 611 3,666.133 182 415,561 by a staff of nine, two of whom, Capt. Peruvian. 18 49,702 25 54,907 5 7,151 A Zerega, Freight Traffic Manager, and Philippine. 17 88,056 27 154,356 3 8,441 L. Ippolito, Passenger Agent, are Italians Soviet 1 3,478 5 10,419 Spanish M 132.264 41 171.304 from the home office in Genoa. S. 2 15.280 Swedish . 207 829,519 230 818,911 119 763,049 Ferro of the Accounting Office has been Swiss 5 37.235 11 92.845 with the company 14 years and except Turkish 4 9,250 for Dr. Pernigotti, has the longest United States 2,102 12,949,146 2,056 11,867,848 1,780 9,892,619 Uruguay . 2 3,016 service in the local office. Venezuelan 4 3.971 The Italian Line is represented in Pana- Yugoslavian 1 9,940 3 31.586 14 73,413 ma by the firm of R. Alfaro Borgianni wiih offices in the Exposition Grounds. Total 7,997 40,646,301 7,784 39,095,067 5,524 27,385,924 .. . _

20 THE PANAMA CANAL REVIEW August 5, 1955

Shipments Of Cargo Port Captains-Arriving and Departing a

Reach Ail-Time High

In Past Fiscal Year

The amount of cargo shipped through the Panama Canal during the fiscal year 1955, ended June 30, exceeded by more than one-and-a-half million tons the record set in the previous year. Heavy shipments of oil through the Canal from the Pacific accounted for the increase since fluctuations in the amount of other commodities were generally of a minor nature. The amount of mineral oil shipped from the Atlantic to the Pacific last year was slightly under the previous year's figures, but oil shipped from the Pacific to the Atlantic increased by approximately 1,650,000 tons. The major increase in the tanker trade from the Pacific to the Atlantic was attributed to heavy shipments of fuel and diesel oil on the United States Intercoastal route and from United States ports to the CAPT. ANTHONY ROESSLER (pronounced Ressler), new Balboa Port Captain, started the orientation West Indies. These amounted to 1,250,- tour of his new domain in the Marine Traffic Comptroller's Office at Balboa where a magnetic map board 000 tons. shows the location of all transiting ships, ('apt. Horatio Lincoln, outgoing Port Captain, is explaining that Coal and coke being moved through the numbered, white tag shows that the ship which was No. 4 on the day's northbound schedule was then in Miraflores Lake. the Canal to Japan continued at a high Captain Roessler arrived July 13 from command of the fleet oil tanker Ashtabula. In addition to his ship- level during the past year, although duties at Captain of the Port of Balboa he is a member of the Board of Local Inspectors and a member of the ments were 500,000 tons under the pre- Board of Admeasurement. vious year's figures. This trade has been one of the significant factors in Canal Principal commodities shipped through the Canal traffic since the close of the war. (All figures in thousands of long tons) Pacific-Atlantic Up ATLANTIC TO PACIFIC The increase in commodity shipments last year was entirely in the Pacific-to- Fiscal Year Commodity Atlantic movement. The amount of 1955 1954 1938 commodities shipped from the Atlantic to the Pacific, totaling 18,419,000 tons, Mineral oils. 4,305 4,486 907 was slightly under the total of the Coal and coke 3.274 3,374 137 Manufactures of iron and steel 1.792 1,843 1.859 previous year. The comparative figures 1 Phosphates. , 043 813 328 in the Pacific to Atlantic trade were Soybeans and product- 557 577 3 20,892,000 in 1954, and 22,227,000 tons Sugar 520 497 57 last year. Sulphur. 463 417 297 Paper and paper products.. 377 368 423 In addition to the big increase in oil Cement- 300 283 154 shipments, gains were shown in the Ammonium compounds. 295 184 71 Pacific-to-Atlantic trade in lumber, ni- Machinery. 285 289 168 trate, bananas, metals, barley, wood Automobiles and parts 268 242 208 Chemicals, unclassified ... 233 192 109 pulp, and copra. Among the principal Raw cotton . 226 255 142 commodities, however, these were more Wheat 216 138 10 ship- than overbalanced by decreased .Ml others 1.265 3.820 3 . 653 ments of ore, wheat, sugar, canned food 18.419 products, refrigerated food products, total 18.458 9,676 coffee, and raw cotton, although none of these except wheat declined appreciably PACIFIC TO ATLANTIC in tonnage. Fiscal Year Flags Of 35 Nations Commodity Approximately one-third of the cargo 1955 1954 1938 shipped through the Canal last fiscal year was moved in vessels flying the United 1,087 5,053 2,127 3.747 3,716 2.851 States flag. An increase was shown over 1 .981 338 2,875 the previous year both in the number of Wheat 1,387 2,158 706 U. S. flag vessels and the amount of 1,281 1.404 1,487 cargo transported. Nitrate 1.271 1.187 1 ,401 Canned food products 1,221 1.226 991 Ships flying the British flag and the 939 752 53 amount of cargo carried declined slightly 789 663 698 last year from the previous year, although Refrigerated food products (except fresh fruit) 551 597 335 this group was the second largest com- Barley 387 32 237 349 235 314 posing the Canal traffic. Coffee . 280 288 175 The flags of 35 different nations were 245 2.U 164 in the stream of Canal traffic last year, 236 238 127 with Norwegian being third in number; All others 3.476 2.432 3.270 Panamanian, fourth; and Japanese, fifth. Total 22,227 20,892 17,583 Other nations with 100 or more ships in transit during the year were: Honduras, Liberia, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, were the United States, Denmark, Ger- fiscal year. These included Great Britain, Colombia, Italy, Netherlands, France, many, Honduras, Japan, Liberia and Ecuador, Panama, and Sweden. and Greece. Norway. Ten Brazilian vessels were Canal cus- Nations showing considerable increases A few nations showed decreases in the tomers during fiscal 1955, the first show this year in ships transits of the Canal number of transiting ships in the past of the flag here for some time.