PANAMA: A RACE AGAINST TIME
Rubin, Morris H.
Vermont's Republican Senator George D. Aiken, a man given to spare, simple prose, summed up the condition of the Republic of Panama in a single sentence: "Panama has about one million people who are...
...Working with the Ministry of Agriculture, Point Four technicians have roamed the countryside teaching farmers how to grow superior produce on smaller plots and at lower cost, and how to improve their marketing of perishable foodstuffs...
...We are still sitting on a powder keg, but there is no reason why, with our self-help and your assistance, we cannot embark on a massive program of social reform that will meet the people's hunger for a better life...
...Five—Expansion of the apprenticeship program for Panamanian workers...
...If we of democratic faith do not give them this opportunity, they will seek it elsewhere...
...I was enormously impressed when Point Four officials took me to a warehouse where they had just installed equipment to sort, grade, clean, wax, pack, and label fresh produce...
...Now, as a result of an intensive program of introducing better seeds and fertilizer, teaching improved methods' of cultivation, and launching a program of grading, the Canal Zone buys a wide variety of fruits and vegetables from Panamanian producers...
...Three—Unless there is action soon, time will run out for Panama —and for us—because the people will not much longer be content to live their miserable lives while Castroism and Communism dangle the hope of a more abundant life...
...I was told repeatedly by informed Americans and Panamanians that Castro and the Kremlin are lighting many new fires in the demand for reform...
...Senator Aiken then proceeded to summarize, again in a single sentence, the tension between our Canal Zone and Panama: "Panama also has the Canal Zone, with about 3,500 Americans, all of whom are rich, relative to Panamanians, and many of whom obviously feel themselves the social superiors of all Panamanians...
...Per capita income on the land is $200 a year as compared with the hardly more impressive $318 for the country as a whole...
...Agrarian reform is Panama's most compelling need...
...The results of the new program and personnel have been striking...
...Two-thirds of the people of Panama live on the land, often a pitiful plot that barely yields enough for the essentials of survival...
...Vermont's Republican Senator George D. Aiken, a man given to spare, simple prose, summed up the condition of the Republic of Panama in a single sentence: "Panama has about one million people who are very poor and about fifty families who are very rich...
...Two—The present government of Panama is deeply aware of the social pressures and the need for action, and is prepared to meet the challenge if the United States provides desperately needed capital...
...Unlike his predecessor, Farland mingles with the Panamanians, travels through the countryside inspecting distress areas, and generally, with his able wife, takes a keen interest in all Panamanian affairs...
...And one Panamanian intellectual expressed what was in the minds of many Latin Americans I met when he said: "The hour is late, but at last the United States is coming around to understanding our problems...
...The need is urgent and the hour is late...
...In the Zone, on the other hand, all is spic-and-span splendor...
...When the bloody disorders broke out last fall, U.S...
...Until Farland's arrival, this was largely the monopoly of the Cuban ambassador, who traveled widely through Panama offering encouragement to reform and revolution and holding out the promise of aid from Castro's Cuba...
...This was their first day of operation and the Point Four group, a dedicated band of earnest, hardworking officials, proudly showed me the process by which Panamanian produce now qualifies for the first time for the quality market...
...It is good news that President Kennedy has decided to retain Farland in the Panama post, for much remains to be done in the field of American-Panamanian relations, especially in rectifying the situation which finds the Canal Zone a snobbish little island of luxury in a sea of Panamanian poverty...
...The new administration of President Roberto F. Chiari seems aware of this...
...The $318 a year figure does not tell the whole story for it is inflated by the concentration of wealth in a few hands...
...Panamanians, for example, resented the fact that they were obliged to have special license plates to drive into the Zone while Americans needed no Panamanian license plates to cross into the Republic of Panama...
...The proposed five-year program is based on the hope of substantial American assistance, as is the self-help program for home building...
...Tension between the United States and Panama reached the boiling point last fall when riots broke out over the attempted raising of the Panamanian flag on the territory of the Canal Zone...
...Eisenhower appointed a new governor for the Canal Zone, a new commander-in-chief for the Caribbean command, and, most important of all, a new ambassador, Joseph S. Farland...
...taxpayers...
...Panama City has a grim, dirty, down-on-its-heel look...
...The latter developed last fall...
...The people love it when the ambassador comes visiting and shows genuine concern for their plight...
...I left Panama with three major impressions: One—Relations between the United States and Panama are decisively better than they were a year ago, but much still needs to be done...
...There has been much talk but little action on land reform legislation...
...Until recently, our government imported from home and from other Latin American countries all the high-quality fruits and vegetables required by the 3,500 American families in the Zone...
...It took a Castro to shake you out of your indifference to us...
...Panama is partly a tropical jungle punctuated by urban slums, but it has vast reserves of unused agricultural land which, if roads were built and modern methods of agriculture introduced, could provide a decent living for many of the Panamanians who now barely survive...
...Two—The elimination of the requirement that Panamanians must have special license plates to travel in the Zone...
...He proclaimed a nine-point program which provided, among other things: One—The flying of a Panamanian flag in the Canal Zone...
...Many Panamanians, including those friendly to the United States, felt their flag should fly side by side with the Stars and Stripes even though the territory of the Zone is described by treaty as being "as if sovereign...
...The streets are spotlessly clean, the lawns spacious, the roads wide and tree-lined...
...Grievances had been building up for a long time...
...officials handled the situation badly...
...Equally important, President Eisenhower shook up the American command in Panama and consolidated political decisions in the hands of the ambassador responsible to the State Department...
...There isn't too much time...
...There are beautiful schools and homes and hospitals, and there are golf courses, tennis courts, bathing beaches, and fishing facilities—all for the exclusive use of Americans living in the Zone...
...Its people are shabby, its store windows dingy, and its homes dilapidated—except for the luxurious estates of the wealthy...
...Although the painful hardships of building the Canal have long since become a part of history, the Americans in the Zone still receive a twenty-five per cent additional allowance for "hardship pay...
...Our eyes are open to the menace of Castroism and Communism...
...Only eight per cent of the farmers own the land they work...
...We have to run scared here," said one thoughtful American...
...When peace was restored, President Eisenhower acted with unaccustomed speed and vigor to institute long-needed reforms...
...The contrast between the Zone and the Republic is overpowering...
...A comprehensive measure that might go far toward alleviating rural distress was prepared earlier this year, but the legislature adjourned without action, promising to deal with the measure when it reconvenes in the fall...
...To begin with, command was divided, for American control was a three-headed monstrosity—an ambassador to Panama under the State Department, a Canal commander-in-chief responsible to the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and a Zone governor beholden to the Department of Defense...
...Three—A ten per cent increase in the wages of unskilled and semiskilled Panamanians working in the Zone...
...This is a model welfare village where everything is provided by U.S...
...None of the Zone market was open to Panamanians because of the low quality of the produce they could supply...
...Similar sheds and grading systems are going up elsewhere in Panama...
...They resented, too, the arrogance of many of the Americans living in luxury in the Zone while Panamanians working in the Zone received far lower wages and lived in substandard housing...
...We intend to move forward on every front as fast as we can," he said...
...If this is done, there would still remain the wider and deeper problem of social and economic rehabilitation of Panama itself...
...The high tide of bitterness last fall has receded greatly...
...A striking example is the case of the Canal Zone market...
...Meanwhile, on a more modest but meaningful scale, our Point Four program is doing an excellent job of educating Panamanian farmers...
...Four—The replacement of substandard housing by modern construction...
...There is an air of quiet desperation about its people as if hope had long since left them...
...The result in a crisis was either paralysis or a profusion of clashing orders...
Vol. 25 • June 1961 • No. 6
