Goodwin's weekly : a thinking paper for thinking people. [volume], March 25, 1911, Image 1

About Goodwin's weekly : a thinking paper for thinking people. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1902-1919

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Goodwin's WeiJkly 1
1 VOL. XVIII SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH, MARCH 25, 191 1 No. 23 91
I PUBLISHED EVERY SATURDAY.
I NINTH YEAR
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U 915-916 Boston Block. Salt Lake City, Utah.
J. T. Goodwin, Mgr. L. S. Glllham, Bus. Mgr.
B C. C. GOODWIN .... Editor
The Panama Canal
rr-iHE United States is building a great monu-
II ment on the Isthmus of Darius. An artificial
river 500 feet in width and 40 or 45 feet
in depth through that mountainous isthmus, will,
when completed, make all the other great works
cf men seem small by comparison. And see how
j events have adjusted themselves. The French
! tried to do the work and failed, and so would
our country have failed except for something not
dreamed of when the work was first projected.
It became necessary to make war upon Spain
, in order to arrest and stamp out the wrongs of
) centuries. When the United States obtained pos-
! session of Cuba, our army was confronted there
by a pestilence which had never been driven
' away in a full hundred years. Then a greater
i conquest was attempted than the subduing of
the island.
Our Government sent a board of medical men
to Ilavana to try to search out the cause and
find a remedy for yellow fever. Twenty-five
3 ears before a Spanish physician had expressed
the belief that the disease was transmitted on
he sting of a mosquito that was prevalent there.
From the fact that a frost sufficiently severe to
kill the mosquito, arrested at once the pestilence,
' ' this board thought the matter worth investigat-
! ing. A number of these mosquitos were caught
and then, the matter being explained, volunteers
were called for to submit themselves to the
stings of these mosquitos. A number at once re
sponded. Of the number, if we remember cor
rectly, four, one physician, one devoted female
nurse and two male nurses, died and all were
!very 111. It was clear then that the disease came
from the mosquito, but it was unreasonable to
think those insects could transmit the fever un
til they were themselves tainted. So more vol-
' unteers were called upon to sleep in the clothing
of yellow fever patients and in rooms where they
had been 111, and not one was infected.
Then it was clear that the insects, in ordor
to transmit the fever, must first feast upon pa
1 tionts, ill or dead, of the fever. The remedy was
then readily suggested. It was to isolate all the
sick and destroy the insects. So soon as this
was done, there were no more cases the pesti
m lence was killed, and there has been no yellow
fever epidemic since. It was one of the most
uperb triumphs over wrought by science. Then
search was made for the cause of the Chagres, or
Panama fever. The yellow fever mosquito was a
monster with two bills, and it was found that only
I
the female mosquito carried the poison. It
would light upon a person, proceed to make a
breakfast by drawing the blood through one bill,
and at the same moment inject into the victim
its poison through the other bill, and when satur
ated, sail away singing the only time she ever
sang.
The same species of mosquito was not found
at Pana a but another species with one long,
flat bil' fell under suspicion and investigation
soon established that the suspicion was well
founded. When it was exterminated the disease
disappeared from the Isthmus. Except for this,
the canal would never have been completed.
When the building of the Panama railroad was
commenced, the company imported several ship
loads of laborers- from Ireland. In grading the
road out over the swampy lands twenty miles
out from Aspinwall 20,000 of these pooi men
died of the fever. Then Jamaica negroes were
substituted and many of those died. The road
was finally completed by Maine lumbermen.
Had nothing been found to drive out the fever
the canal would never have been completed. The
sacrifice would have been so terrible that the
world would have called a halt. How many died
when France made the attempt, no one knows
except the members of the company, but we
suspect that the appalling losses was really the
main reason why the work was abandoned.
The triumph had to be made over the disease
before the second great achievement was at
tempted. But now the work is taking form, and with
Its completion we doubt not but the gathered
nations that came to the opening ceremonies,
with uncovered heads, will joyfully volunteer
their evidence that among all the masterful works
of men, nothing else compares with the comple
tion of that canal, and for all time to some as
succeeding generations of men look upon it, they
will, referring to the builders, declare that
"There were giants in those days."
David H. Moffat
A WEEK ago one of the foremost citizens of
Colorado passed away. The mourning for
him in that state is most sincere and pro
found. With the news of his death in the same
moment there flashed upon the consciousness of
thousands, that, he in life, was the most public
spirited man among all that group of men who
half a century ago determined that Colorado
should be a commanding state and Denver the
loveliest city that over took form on a not very
propitious mountain side.
From an humble station D. H. Moffat advanced
on merit alone to the position of president of a
great bank. He has held that place for many
years, and through those years that bank has
been a center from which enterprises have radi
ated to every corner of Colorado. Other names
have led enterprise, but the anchor has more
often been in that bank than anywhere else. He
had traits in common with the great Ralston of
San Francisco.
When the Brown Palace of Denver was com
pleted and before it reached a paying basis, the
panic of '93 came on and it could not sustain
Itself. Mr. Moffat said: "The panic cannot last
always. Congress can wound but it cannot kill
Colorado or Denver. Run the hotel and make
your accounting to me to so long as I can I
will back you." He carried it through. Of course 'flfl
he got his money and his interest back, but how Ifl
many men in his position would have done it? fll
More than once he nearly broke himself in keep- -2H
ing railroad work in Colorado going on. With M
him it was always "What will help Colorado M
and Denver?" 'H
His last great individual work was the start- M
ing to build the railroad from Denver to this 'M
city. He put $6,000,000 into the scheme in its JH
inception. He doubtless believed that with that
much expended on a short line of less than 600 i I
miles, traversing the finest anthracite coal meas- H
ures in the west and making possible the prof- ,1
itable cultivation of thousands of the richest H
lands In the west, that capitalists would be eager H
to buy the bonds of the road. But there were jl
roads north and south of it that had millions of 'H
dollars in bonds, and the men who hold those i H
bonds, looking out only for their own interests H
and not grasping the truth that this road com- H
pleted would be a feeder, not a drain upon the H
parallel roads, have stood in Mr. Moffat's way. H
We do not believe that, under the constitu- H
tion of Utah, this state can help in the comple- H
tion of this great road, but there are enough H
men of great fortunes here, who could build this H
end of the road to the Colorado line and not feel H
it; that if this were undertaken, the men of Colo- H
rado would meet the road there, and then all 'M
that would beJeft to complete would be the great j
tunnel and the profits of the road for a year JH
would meet that cost and then the road would j
be worth an empire. That invincible public vM
spirit of Denver has brought triumph after vtri- H
umph. The band of some twenty or thirty men, )M
of whom Mr. Moffat has always been a most con- M
spicuous factor, created on an unnatural spot the M
great city of Denver, and they and their success- M
ors are crowding its growth and embellishment M
Had the same spirit ruled here on this natu- M
ral site for a city with all its magnificent sur- M
roundings, what might have been Salt Lake to- M
day? Could that same spirit come, and brood M
over the city now what might It not be twenty- M
five years hence? M
An Invalid Act H
WE do not like to venture an opinion upon a M
case which may finally reach the courts;
we do not like to impeach in print the ma- M
hired opinion of eminent attorneys, but we do M
not believe that the act creating a commission M
form of government for this and other cities of M
Utah will bear the test of a judicial review. M
We understand that the positions of the fram- M
ers of the act is that, as Salt Lake City has no M
charter; that as its government was framed by M
a legislature, another legislature may alter the M
form and In doing so may Ignore certain pro- M
visions which, under a different creation, might M
be beyond the power of the legislature to change. M
We do not believe that reasoning is sound. M
Congress and the President may give a terri- M
tory statehood. That is a power vested in them M
by the Constitution, but once given and accepted M
by the people of that territory is there any au- M
thority, anywhere, through which they can re- H
voke or change the form of the constitution of H
that state or withdraw a right acquired by the H
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