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tion and on the willingness to work for the better food, no matter how great the natural resources. We thus come back to energy as the mainspring of life, with all its potentialities and handicaps.

Proper ease of body heat loss may be essential to progressiveness and accomplishment, but its advantages are by no means free of hazards. Evidences of mental and physical breakdown are today most alarming in those regions of the earth where temperatures are most energizing. Arteriosclerosis and heart failure, diabetes, cancer, and many other breakdown diseases are there claiming far more victims than in tropical warmth, where infectious diseases run rampant. Northern rates of mental instability and breakdown, for instance, more than offset the decrease in tuberculosis deaths. Perhaps some day artificial conditioning will provide us with the golden means.

Up through the millenniums since the last ice age, the crest of human civilization has shifted farther and farther poleward, with irregularly rising earth temperatures and melting ice caps. Improved housing and greater protection against winter cold have been considerable factors in this poleward shift, but probably of greater importance has been the expanding region of tropical heat. Volumes of arguments pro and con would add little to that statement about the distant past, so let us move to more recent times.

Through the last 10,000 years of the earth's history, cyclic changes in temperatures have left fairly clear records. A millennium of rapidly receding glaciers and polar ice caps was succeeded by one of stability of advance. Five such cycles are in evidence over the last 10,000 years of rapid ice age aggression. The next-to-last cold millennium fell in the days of early Greek and Roman glory and was followed by the thousand years of Dark Age warmth, when cereal grains could be ripened in Iceland and grapes in England.

The peak of Dark Age warmth occurred about A. D. 850, when optimal temperatures in far northern Scandinavia activated the Norsemen and Vikings into a century of exploration and settlement. The gradual return of benumbing cold to their homeland and to the Greenland and Iceland settlements from the tenth to the fourteenth centuries dimmed their glory. Central Europe was at the same time relieved of her enervating warmth and entered the Renaissance and the period of industrialization. The miracles of this western mechanistic civilization have reached a peak in America during the century just passed.

Once again earth temperatures are surging irregularly upward, reaching levels in 1930 about as high as prevailed a thousand years earlier. During the warmth of the early thirties soil thawing in Greenland allowed excavation of Viking bodies that had lain in solidly frozen earth for a thousand years. All records available indicate that earth temperatures have been rising for a full century, bringing definitely milder winters and the long summers of depressive heat that sap human energy and change the course of nations.

The same semi tropical lethargy which earlier engulfed the Mediterranean countries of Europe is today creeping northward over the United States and central Europe. Later onset of the menses in girls and smaller adult stature in American college youth have replaced the trend of recent centuries toward earlier maturity and even-better physique. In the Carolinas the reversal came with children born in 1918, at Cincinnati latitudes a little later, and in Wisconsin it still remains only an indefinite hint. It is especally significant that this physical downturn should have occurred at a time when the production and distribution of foodstuffs were at all-time peaks and when greatest emphasis was being laid on child care and nutrition. Children now have fewer illnesses and grow faster in their early years than ever before; yet the adult stature is showing definite evidence of decline.

The northward shift of world power was emphasized by Germany's bid for a "place-in-the-sun" in World War I. Only the superior ingenuity and resources of Britain and America kept her from her goal, for Russia was then only in the early throes of her awakening, and France was quite incapable of coping with her more vigorous neighbor. When World War II came a quartercentury later, America was pushed to new peaks of industrial productivity and scientific advances that contributed substantially to victory, but the war's most significant outcome was the bid for world power by a new far-northern nation— Russia.

Retarded by the benumbing winter cold of past centuries, much of Russia today enjoys temperatures which are near the optimal for human endeavor. Freer flow of her energies and the heady successes of war and postwar years have given her a self-confidence that considers nothing impossible. Hers is now the early American frontier reaction of bubbling enthusiasm and high irresistible

impetuosity. In the warm centuries ahead she may gain the sought-for-place-inthe-sun, along with the lesser northern nations of Scandinavia and Canada. To appreciate that Russia is really a far-northern nation, one should bear in mind that the city of Stalingrad lies close to the latitude of Winnipeg.

The effects of temperatures will go far beyond their present influence over individual life and national trends. The present millennium of warmth may witness complete melting of the polar icecaps and consequent profound changes in the climates of present polar and temperate zones. The earth has experienced long eons of freedom from polar cold during past periods of interglacial warmth, and Brooks, in his book, Climate Through the Ages, pictures the present icecaps as being down to the critically small diameter that makes them susceptible to rapid disappearance. Anyone desiring to make use of this information for long-term investment in northern real estate should buy high land, however, for the ocean level will rise roughly 150 feet as the icecaps disappear.

Present-day international interest in the mineral and fuel deposits of Antarctica may prove to be well based, in view of these temperature trends. Also, the broad, fertile, but still frozen reaches of northern Siberia and Canada may someday support the earth's most energetic populations, if the present outward expansion of semitropical lethargy continues. It takes only a few degrees of change in mean annual temperature to produce striking climatic alterations. Dark Age temperatures of Scandinavia, Britain, Iceland, and Greenland, for instance, were probably only 4-5 degrees higher than those prevailing through the colder centuries since the time of the Renaissance.

Much study and speculation have centered around the possible causes of these shifts in earth temperatures. The regular seasonal cycles are, of course, known to be based upon the changing inclination of the earth's axis with respect to the sun. Variations in sunspot activity and in the intensity of solar radiation to the earth have also been correlated with periods of unseasonal cold or warmth. Sudden outbursts of sunspot activity are accompanied by increased heat and magnetic radiation to the earth but are soon followed by greater storminess and low temperatures in temperate latitudes. During the declining or low phases of sunspot activity in the major 11-year cycles of the last two centuries, two thirds of the months have shown inseasonal warmth, while unseasonal cold has accompanied rising or high sunspot activity two thirds of the remaining time. We may tentatively accept the sunspots and the changes in solar radiation as a direct cause of weather shifts and of periods of unseasonal warmth and cold through the years. Whether the same influence lies behind the 2,000-year cycles, and the Ice Ages and alternating interglacial stages, still remains a matter of conjecture.

Sunspots are thus a matter of profound concern and have prompted investigations into the causes lying behind climatic fluctuations. As a result, we now know that each of the major planets of the solar system tends to depress sunspot activity on that part of the sun's surface exposed to a given planet. Observations have shown that sunspot activity decreases on any segment of the sun's face exposed to the earth during half of the sun's 28-day rotational period and increases on the opposite side during the other 2 weeks. Tides in the sun's gaseous mass have been believed to result from the varying planetary pulls, but there is also a possibility that other heavenly bodies may also exert potent influences.

Our personal fortunes through the years, as well as our health, and energy, are thus linked to the sun and, through it, to the planets of our solar system, and perhaps, to the nearer stars!

Today we pride ourselves upon our scientific achievements and the conquest of disease by men of medicine; yet months or years of unseasonable warmth bring devastating economic downturns against which we have found no defense, and at such times sickness and death rates decline, even while our physicians are least busy. Statistically, one might say that people are better off the less they see of a doctor, but in reality, it is the lessened storminess and reduction in bodily stress that account for the health betterment in hard times.

Man is in reality a pawn of the environmental forces encompassing him, being pushed forward to a vantage point at one time or held in lethargic bondage at another. Here is a challenge of the first magnitude—can human intelligence find an effective answer? If not an answer, then it should at least comprehend the forces at work and the major significance of their effects.

APPENDIX B

WHITE MAN AGAINST TROPICS GETS BALBOA PTA DISCUSSION

Whether or not the Tropics are a fit place for white men of northern European extraction remained a moot question last night although the subject was discussed pro and con by a panel at the Balboa Senior-Junior High School PTA.

Dr. Dennis Reeder, of Panama Hospital, who came here 44 years ago to spend 6 months, was most outspoken of the professional and laymen who made up the six-man panel.

He "doubted if anyone has any business in the Tropics," and advised parents to "get the children back to the States when they are in their teens-and leave them there."

In opening the discussion Col. William Elton, PTA president and head of the Gorgas Hospital laboratory, pointed out that the Canal Zone is the only large settlement of white northern Europeans between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn. He also commented on the increased premiums required by some insurance companies of North American residents in the Tropics.

William Brown, of the Panama Canal Health Department, told the audience of about 60 that professional men and women have complained that they have lost contacts here to enable to keep themselves up with their professions. On the other hand, he said the skilled labor groups have become career employees and some of these families of construction day workers are going into their fourth generation on the Isthmus.

Charles Hollander, a municipal engineering division worker and a resident here for many years, declared that some white-collar groups join the skilled workmen as career employees, but commented on the cost of vacations, the extra cost of insurance and a report that life expectancy in the tropics is 56 years as against 66 in the United States.

Dr. Reeder declared that "those who move fast wear out quickly in the Tropics," a question of body heat dissipation, and added that while Col. William Gorgas had declared that the Tropics could be made habitable and be the center of civilization-in 500 years-Gorgas himself had contracted a serious eye ailment in the Tropics because of a dietary deficiency.

The main hazards to northern Europeans in the Tropics, it is said, are climate and disease and although malaria and yellow fever have been controlled other serious tropical ailments are still prevalent.

Col. Clifford Blitch, Gorgas Hospital superintendent, though not a member of the panel, read a report that mental acuity and physical stamina were destroyed in continued tropical heat.

Mr. O'TOOLE. Do you have any questions, Mr. Weichel?

Mr. WEICHEL. There is not any difficulty about getting people to go down there; it is all voluntary, is it not?

Mr. MUNRO. The people are hired through the Washington office, and they are sent down there. Quite a few of the people after arriving have found out that the conditions are not as satisfactory as they believed they would be, and numerous people only spend part of a year there, and a lot of the people just spend their year so that they may get their free transportation, and may return under Public Law 600.

Mr. WEICHEL. How many years have you been down there?
Mr. MUNRO. I have been down there 7 years.

Mr. WEICHEL. Then it must be all right, if you have been down there 7 years.

Mr. MUNRO. I am very doubtful about the next 7 years. If these charges are continually added on to the personnel there is no advantage nor an even break for the American citizen to work on the Canal.

Mr. WEICHEL. Well, when that time comes, if it is found less advantageous to be down there than it is to be up here, they probably will do something about it. The fact that you have been there for 7 years shows conditions must be pretty good.

Mr. MUNRO. Yes, but the condition is arising at the present time whereby you can offset this migration of workers away from the Canal Zone by a careful study of the situation.

Mr. WEICHEL. Well, the fact of it is that they go down there and they want to stay there, and, in fact, you cannot pull them away. When there is no available housing for them to stay in there, they go to Costa Rica and other places, is not that a fact?

Mr. MUNRO. A small percentage of them do; yes.

Mr. WEICHEL. And so, it cannot be as bad as you say it is if they want to stay down there.

Mr. MUNRO. There is a very small percentage of people who do that, and when they do there are personal reasons which enter into those conditions.

Mr. WEICHEL. That is all.

Mr. O'TOOLE. Mr. Thompson.

Mr. THOMPSON. I have no questions.

Mr. O'TOOLE. Mr. Fugate?

Mr. FUGATE. I have no questions, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. O'TOOLE. Mr. Allen.

Mr. ALLEN. I have no questions, thank you.

Mr. O'TOOLE. Thank you very much, Mr. Munro.

STATEMENT OF PAUL A. AMUNDSEN, SECRETARY-TREASURER, THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF PORT AUTHORITIES

Mr. O'TOOLE. Mr. Paul A. Amundsen, secretary treasurer of the American Association of Port Authorities.

Mr. AMUNDSEN. Yes, sir.

Mr. O'TOOLE. Will you state for the record what organization you represent?

Mr. AMUNDSEN. Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, my rame is Paul A. Amundsen and I am secretary treasurer of the American Association of Port Authorities.

As secretary of the association, I represent here an organization made up of State and municipal governing boards and bodies having jurisdiction over the various ports of the United States. There are more than 50 corporate member ports of the American Association of Port Authorities, including among others such ports as Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Norfolk, Charleston, Savannah, Miami, Mobile, New Orleans, Galveston, Houston, Long Beach, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Oakland, Seattle, Portland, Milwaukee, Toledo, and many more. These are merely cited to indicate the character of our membership.

The American Association of Port Authorities at its last annual convention in October 1949 enacted a resolution bearing on Panama Canal tolls by unanimous vote of its United States corporate members. I am appearing before you to request that that resolution may be made a part of the record of these hearings, and have also been delegated by the North Atlantic Ports Association, that is a regional port association representing Atlantic coast ports from the port of Norfolk north; South Atlantic and Florida Ports Conference, representing the South Atlantic and Florida ports; the Gulf Ports Association, including public and private terminal operators of the Gulf of Mexico, United States ports; and 47 Pacific coast ports, port associations,

trade associations, commerce, and industry groups and organizations to lodge their official resolutions bearing upon Panama Canal tolls. It is the consensus of each and every one of these resolutions that commercial shipping should pay only its own way, and that tolls charged to commercial shipping reflect only the true cost of providing such transit through the Canal.

To save the committee's valuable time, I simply wish to file all of these resolutions for the record. They will speak for themselves. However, I would like to call to the attention of the committee briefly the basic economic factors which have united every port and terminal entity in the United States on this particular subject.

Ports and port areas have a tremendous impact on local and national economies. As one example, Houston, Tex., was a relatively small city of 44,000 inhabitants 45 years ago when Congress authorized the construction of a channel from the Gulf to Houston to accommodate water traffic. By 1948 Houston's population had grown to 650,000. In 1930 bank deposits were about $140,000,000. In 1948 they were nearly $900,000,000.

Thirty years ago Los Angeles was a charming winter resort. The city annexed all the lands between itself and the Pacific Ocean and proceeded to develop a port. Today it is a city of 3,000,000 people and one of the primary industrial and commercial centers of the country.

Both the industries and the populations of these port centers depend upon ships and shipping. Industry locates at a port center to take advantage of low-cost deep-water transportation. Population locates there for the job opportunties offered.

Of direct concern to the public, the port of Baltimore in early 1948 released a survey stating that the average cargo ship visiting the port disburses over $57,000 each time she calls. These disbursements are direct, being wages, food, stores, maintenance, fuel, stevedoring, and the like. Earlier this year, the port of Mobile, Ala., revealed that over $23,000,000 was spent in Mobile during 1949 by steamships serving that port, while large sums were also expended by passengers and crewmen in port. Twenty-three million dollars represents a lot of jobs traceable to the ships, aside from the jobs indirectly traceable through the location of industry at the port center.

The port authorities of the Nation, those responsible for port development, are hotly competitive for cargo, but they present à unanimous united front on matters affecting the development of shipping and the resulting benefits of the port area.

The question of commercial shipping paying only its fair share of Panama Canal tolls has been thoroughly analyzed by all of the port and industrial organizations whose resolutions I present, and it is basically regarded in the over-all as a question of whether a certain number of ships stay on or are removed from the high seas, and whether more ships can be added to the United States-flag fleet in domestic waters.

The shipping industry itself has released some very compelling research on this subject, but it is not necessary to take the shipping in dustry's word alone on the importance of Canal tolls as a factor in intercoastal shipping economics.

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