File:Panama and the canal in picture and prose (1913) (14596816529).jpg

Identifier: panamacanalinpic01abbo (find matches)
Title: Panama and the canal in picture and prose ..
Year: 1913 (1910s)
Authors: Abbot, Willis John, 1863-1934. (from old catalog)
Subjects:
Publisher: New York (etc.) Pub. in English and Spanish by Syndicate publishing company
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: The Library of Congress

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e for them-selves and their families. The government alsoowns and conducts th-e Panama Railroad, whichcrosses in less than three hours from the Atlanticto the Pacific, while the privately owned railroads 328 PANAMA AND THE CANAL of the United States take about seven days to passfrom one ocean to the other. This sounds hke amighty good argument for government ownershipand it is not much more fallacious than some othersdrawn from Isthmian conditions. The Presidentof the Panama Railroad is Col. George W. Goethals.The government caught him young, educated himat its excellent West Point school, paying him asalary while he was learning to be useful, and hasbeen employing and paying him ever since. Likea citizen of the ideal Co-operative Commonwealth; he has never had to worry about a job. The Statehas always employed him and paid him. While hehas done his work better than others of equal rank,he has only recently begun to draw any more paythan other colonels. Sounds very socialistic, doesnt
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ORCHIDS ON GOV. THATCHER S PORCH it? And he seems to make a very good railroadpresident too, though the shuffling of shares in WallStreet had nothing to do with his appointment, andhe hasnt got a director on his board interlockedwith J. P. Morgan & Co., or the City NationalBank. The government which runs this railroad andsteamship line doesnt confine its activity to bigthings. It will wash a shirt for one of its Canalemployees at about half the price that John China-man doing business nearby would charge, press hisclothing, or it will send a man into your home—if you live in the Zone—to chloroform any straymosquitoes lurking there and convey them awayin a bottle. It will house in an electric-lighted,wire-screened tenement, a Jamaica negro who athome lived in a basket-work shack,plastered with mud and thatchedwith palmetto leaves. It is verydemocratic too, this government, forit wont issue to Mrs. Highflyer morethan three wicker arm-chairs, evenif she does entertain every day,

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