Men are depicted in various places around the Gatun Dam. A reporter writes on a paper: “I regret to report that the hill is about to fall into the. . .” Two men look at a small split in the canyon. One says, “A ship couldn’t get through there, could it?” The other replies, “Funny we didn’t see that before! We will have to widen it.” Another two men watch as portions of rock fall. One says, “It’s falling into the underground lake.” The other replies, “Gee! Somebody will be angry.” Another man runs away from the breaking dam as yet another points to the “Gatun Dam” sign and says, “It ought to be spelled with an ‘n.'” Two men try to jump over a crevice, and they say, “A crevasse! All the water will run out!” and “It’ll cost mebbe nine million dollars to fill it up!” In the bottom right corner, one man says to another man, “Another cave-in? This will delay us 14 years.” The man replies, “Yep.” Finally, in the left center, a man watches other person dumping pieces of rock into a crevice and says, “Hey, you! Whatcha mean by dumping that down there?” Caption: Conditions on the Panama Canal as depicted in several recent dispatches.
comments and context
Comments and Context
This cartoon by Ralph Wilder, an elaborate bird’s-eye view of the Panama Canal under construction, peopled with workers and officials assessing damage, fearing damage, and ignoring damage is not related to the controversy raging at the time about corruption and “inside” profiteering when Panama became a country.
