As bearing on all this let us refer to Dr. Lloyd Noland, of Alabama, who appeared at the hearings on the proposed legislation. He is the senior living man of the medical force which participated in the construction of the Canal. He says:

It will be difficult to paint the picture of conditions at Panama when I first saw them. There had been no work done on the Canal at all when I first went there, and we were, in a way, the advance force for the workers. It was a jungle, with the two towns of Panama and Colon at opposite ends and the antiquated Panama Railroad. They were not only dens of iniquity, but they were places of crawling and sudden death of every kind.

The first chief engineer, John Wallace, resigned because of health conditions. His own nephew died of yellow fever, and he left.

As stated by my predecessor, the entire force up to the advent of General Goethals in 1907 was a civilian force. That force suffered, and suffered hard. I might say that a preliminary survey of the inhabitants of the Canal Zone, in the cities of Panama and Colon, made by the Health Department, showed certainly 70 percent of the population was home-bred to malaria, and at least 90 percent were carriers of intestinal parasites of various sorts.

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The early days were extremely tough. We lived out of tin cans; we had no cold-storage facilities, and ice was hard to get. Living conditions were certainly bad, certainly for the first 5 months. We had no screens. And the first commissions were very very difficult to convince that an expenditure was necessary to build up the health and to make the place safe for people to come into. We finally began to get supplies and we did do a good job, but we never got rid of the malaria problem.

In 1905 the peak of the yellow fever hit us, about June or July 1905, and the exodus of Americans was huge. I am not exaggerating, I think, when I say that 70 percent of the American forces deserted and went back to the States.

Witness after witness told the same story, supplemented by testimony as to large mortality after the return to the States.

The evidence shows that many of these men who did a Herculean task, and built for themselves and their country the greatest monument in existence, are now in needy circumstances, and with some in

want.

Benefits under this bill will go to those (yet surviving) who stuck to their jobs on the Isthmus during the construction years, and did not, for any cause, "desert."

Aside from the inestimable value of the Panama Canal to the United States and the world at large in times of peace, and to the United States and the other nations allied with her in any fight for freedom, as is now the case, it is well to recall that from a commercial standpoint the Canal has proven itself to be an excellent investment for our country; and the cost which would arise under the pending bill would constitute but a small charge against the net revenues of the great waterway. It has always been the policy of our Government-from the time of the making of military grants to the soldiers of the Revolution, down to the present day-to accord to its citizens reward for outstanding and distinguished services. That policy was recog nized and followed in the act of 1915, granting substantial rewards and distinguished recognition to those of the Army, Navy, and Public Health Services who took part in the construction of the Canal. By the same token, the pending measure should be enacted, and something of reward and recognition granted to these American civilians who performed such splendid service in the greatest industrial and national defense enterprise of all time, and this in a foreign and

difficult clime. As these civilians were not in the permanent service of the Government and, therefore, could not be advanced by grade or rank, with right of retirement at increased pay, the "annunity" form of benefit to them, provided by the bill, constitutes the only method whereby they may be rewarded.

The principal revenue of the Panama Canal is from tolls, which amounted to $7,368,680.74 in the fiscal year 1943. Due to the war, the tolls-paying traffic has fallen to the levels prevailing during the period 1917-19, the first few years the Panama Canal was open to ocean traffic. However, in 1943, there was an increased number of free transits of public vessels of the United States and Panama, war vessels of Colombia and vessels for repairs which do not pay tolls. When the war shall end and the Panama Canal shall be restored to its maximum use it will constitute one of, if not the most, profitable investments of the United States.

The proposed legislation was embodied in similar bills introduced, in the House and Senate in the Seventy-fifth, Seventy-sixth, and Seventy-seventh Congresses, and received favorable committee reports in those bodies, but was not voted on in the two Houses. Reference is made to the several House and Senate committee reports just named, including that of the Senate on the measure (S. 1481), Senate Report No. 574, and that of the House on the measure (S. 1481), Report No. 2135.

CONCLUSION

Your committee is not unmindful of the heavy burdens upon our Government at this time, but the committee feels that it cannot afford to permit these magnificent heroes and contributors to their country's greatness to pass out, one by one, without their being given, after such long delay, a recognition of their services, accorded in a practical way, in the days of their need. The moneys paid will mean only that the interest which the Government is receiving from the investment in the Canal will be slightly reduced for a few years; whereas the work they did there on the Isthmus created an instrument which has undoubtedly contributed greatly to the progress of the Allies toward victory and will undoubtedly constitute one of the most important factors in bringing victory to the United States and its Allies in the present global struggle for freedom. After victory shall have been achieved, the Canal will constitute a factor of immeasurable value in promoting and developing the foreign commerce of the United States. Without the Canal during the First and Second World Wars the task of the United States and of the Allies would have been so much greater that it is impossible to estimate what we would have done without it. Conscious of the heavy burdens already resting upon the Nation, we should yet remember those who toiled so arduously and risked so much to make victory possible for us now. Your committee therefore respectfully recommends and urges the enactment of this measure.

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78TH CONGRESS HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 2d Session

REPORT

{No. 1333

CONSIDERATION OF HOUSE RESOLUTION 221

APRIL 1, 1944.-Referred to the House Calendar and ordered to be printed

Mr. SABATH, from the Committee on Rules, submitted the following

REPORT

[To accompany H. Res. 495]

The Committee on Rules, having had under consideration House Resolution 495, report the same to the House with the recommendation that the resolution do pass.