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gress to enact the Panama Canal Act (37 Sta. 560, 569), which was approved August 24, 1912. This act, in addition to placing the operation, maintenance, and control on the Canal Zone entirely in the hands of the President, contains the following:

All other persons necessary for the completion, care, management, maintenance, sanitation, government, operation, and protection of the Panama Canal and Canal Zone shall be appointed by the President, or by his authority, removable at his pleasure, and the compensation of such persons shall be fixed by the President, or by his authority, until such time as Congress may by law regulate the same, but salaries or compensation fixed hereunder by the President shall in no instance exceed by more than 25 per centum the salary or compensation paid for the same or similar services to persons employed by the Government in continental United States.

The effect of this act, now section 81, chapter 6, title 2, of the Canal Zone Code, remained unchanged until June 29, 1948, when Public Law 808, Eightieth Congress, was approved.

Public Law 808, Eightieth Congress, transferred a number of employees from section 81, title 2, to a new section, section 248, title 2, and I quote the new section 245:

CREATION, PURPOSE, OFFICES, AND RESIDENCE OF PANAMA RAILROAD COMPANY.— For the purpose of conducting business operations incident to the care, maintenance, sanitation, operation, improvement, government, and protection of the Panama Canal and the Canal Zone, there is hereby created, as an agency and instrumentality of the United States

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That transferred some of these employees who were under section 81 to the corporation.

These business operations are defined in the new section 249 (c) and I quote:

May construct or acquire, establish, maintain, and operate docks, wharves, piers, harbor terminal facilities, shops, yards, marine railways, salvage and towing facilities, fuel-handling facilities, motor-transportation facilities, power systems, water systems, a telephone system, construction facilities, living quarters and other buildings, warehouses, hotels, a printing plant, commissaries and manufacturing, processing or service facilities in connection therewith, laundries, dairy facilities, restaurants, amusement and recreational facilities, and other business enterprises, facilities, and appurtenances necessary or appropriate for the accomplishment of the purposes of this article.

Part of the employees, working in these services, has been transferred, by these sections, from section 81, title 2, to a new section, section 248 (e), title 2, and again I quote:

May appoint such officers, agents, attorneys, and employees as may be necessary for the conduct of the business of the corporation, define their authority and duties, fix their compensation, delegate to them such of the powers of the corporation as may be necessary, require that such of them as it may designate be bonded, and fix the penalties and pay the premiums of such bonds.

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Section 15 of H. R. 8677, the bill under discussion, changes section 81, title 2, to read:

81. CONDITIONS OF EMPLOYMENT IN SERVICE OF CANAL ZONE GOVERNMENT.—All persons, other than the Governor of the Canal Zone, necessary for the civil government of the Canal Zone shall- * * *

It omits all of those other people.

Section 17 of this bill changes section 245, title 2, to read:

245. CREATION, PURPOSES, OFFICES, AND RESIDENCE OF PANAMA CANAL COMPANY. For the purposes of maintaining and operating the Panama Canal

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Section 21 of this bill adds to section 249 of title 2 a new section: (a) May maintain and operate the Panama Canal.

Sections 15, 17, and 21 of this bill transfer another group of employees from section 81 to section 248 of title 2 of the Canal Zone Code. The transfer of employees proposed by this bill and the transfer made by Public Law 808, Eightieth Congress, will place by far the greater number of employees under section 248 of title 2.

Although the towns on the Canal Zone are now well sanitated, the Zone is far from being a health resort and residents are officially warned to remain within sanitated areas after nightfall.

Under all Presidents and Governors it has been the policy to pay the full 25 percent above States' rates of pay without question as it is realized that the Tropics are not the natural habitat of the white Without frequent vacations, in a temperate climate, those of the white race deteriorate physically and mentally.

The Public Health Service, the Army, and the Navy all recognize the deleterious effects of the Tropics on the white race and, therefore, limit the tour of duty of military and naval personnel there.

Many conditions have been changed since the approval of the Panama Canal Act of 1912. There is even one air-conditioned office building, the new Civil Affairs Building, in use. Some new houses have been built and more planned. But with all the changes made, the Canal Zone is still in the Tropics. To better understand what the Tropics means to the United States citizen working on the Canal Zone I submit two articles. Appendix A-Temperature Dominance Over Human Life, by Clarence A. Mills, of the Laboratory for Experimental Medicine, University of Cincinnati; and Appendix Ba copy of a newspaper clipping from the Panama American dated March 29, 1950, White Man Against Tropics Gets Balboa PTA Dis

cussion.

They are too long to bother the committee with at this time, and are submitted at the end of the brief for future study.

The cost of necessary vacations in a temperate climate for employees and members of their families more than offsets the additional 25 percent paid for services on the Zone.

While conditions on the Canal Zone as far as housing is concerned have improved, it is also true that the employee now has to pay rent for the house, rent for the furniture, electricity, and other services which used to be furnished free or at a slight charge.

When the conditions first arose and the 25 percent was originally given, the employee received numerous benefits as part of his salary, such as free rent, a nominal charge for health service, and products sold by the commissaries were transported at cost or below. This has been changed as time has passed, by this committee or by the Congress. Now all of the expenses of the Commissary Division and all of these extra charges that have been put on the employees on the Canal Zone have, in fact, been a reduction in pay.

In order to offset these rising charges and compensate the United States citizen for working in the Tropics it would be appreciated if your committee would consider adding a section to this bill which would provide compensation at least 25 percent above similar positions in Government service in the United States for all United States citizens on the Canal Zone

In regard to these other charges that the employee has been made to pay, at the present time there is under consideration a bill to apply income tax to the American citizen employed on the Canal Zone, and it is anticipated if that bill becomes law there will be another reduction to the employee who has to pay this income tax. The suggestion made in some of the testimony given the day before yesterday and yesterday in regard to the civil government expenses being charged to the Commissary Division and the Public Utility Divisions will in fact be another reduction in pay, as the employees are the only customers of these divisions. In other words, any civil government expense charged to the Commissary and Public Utility Divisions will be passed on to the employee as an increase in price. We believe that these extra charges will be a serious reduction in our pay.

Gentlemen, I want to thank you for giving me this opportunity to appear before you at this time, and I want to assure you that careful consideration of this matter will be appreciated by all United States citizens employed on the Canal Zone.

Mr. O'TOOLE. The appendix to Mr. Munro's statement will be placed in the record at this point.

(The matter referred to is as follows:)

APPENDIX A

TEMPERATURE DOMINANCE OVER HUMAN LIFE, BY CLARENCE A. MILLS-LABORATORY FOR EXPERIMENTAL MEDICINE, UNIVERSITY OF CINCINNATI

Temperature bears an importance to man far beyond the mere matter of his hour-to-hour comfort. In some places it lays a heavy, stagnating hand over his life and holds him to a vegetative existence; in others, it generates an energy and progressiveness which drives him forward with irresistable impetus. Its effects begin even before he is conceived, for the metabolic vigor of parental germ cells at the time of their union exerts a potent influence over the entire course of the new life. Without favorable temperatures, neither individual nor nation can develop innate potentialities to the full.

The hand of temperature is being felt over the world today, much as Ellsworth Huntington so ably pictured its course through past centuries. We are now caught in one of the long cycles of climatic change that alter the courses of nations and of world trends. Man thus has urgent need to understand the mechanism of this temperature dominance over him as an individual and over mankind as a whole. The answer lies in a close study of human dynamics.

The human body is essetnially a combustion machine that functions only as its cells release energy by burning the foodstuffs taken in. True, this combustion in the cells is a very complicated affair, carried on at low temperatures and in numerous independent steps through the aid of special catalysts. Although it is far less violent than the gasoline explosions in an automobile motor, its over-all efficiency is no greater, and it is even more dependent upon rapid dissipation of its waste heat. The working efficiency of men, horses, and dogs ranges between 20 and 25 percent, but the Diesel engine designed by present-day engineers performs at over 40-percent efficiency.

For every unit of combustion energy transformed into work output by our bodies, three or four similar uits must be dissipated as waste heat. Failure of such dissipation to keep pace with heat production in the body may mean heatstroke and death within a few hours. The waste heat of combustion thus becomes one of the body's most important excretory products.

Sudden changes in external temperatures, or in the rate of heat production within the body, are quickly countered by the movement of more blood into, or away from, the skin and by the activity of the sweat glands. The body can thus meet short-term emergencies with only slight changes in its internal temperature or behavior characteristics. External heat or cold, prolonged through many weeks or months, however, induces basic and important changes in the body economy.

Following several weeks of difficulty in dissipating waste heat, physical and mental activity declines, and there is a drop in the combustion rate. Some of the glands of internal secretion, which so largely influence combustion rate, go into a less active, or resting, state. This is particularly true with the thyroid, adrenal, and sex glands, probably also the pituitary. A lowered total combustion rate means less enery for thought and action, as well as less waste heat to be dissipated. Physical and mental characteristics thus change, from the dynamic and pushing, to a more passive, let-George-do-it type. Personal initiative gives way to a desire for security.

That these are basic changes in the individual's metabolic make-up is evidenced by equally profound alterations in such body functions as growth, rate of development, resistance to infection, and thought capacity. When difficult heat loss induces a lowered combustion rate in the cells, growth slows down and may be completely halted, even though an ample food supply be available; onset of puberty and maturity is progressively delayed, and ability to reproduce is reduced or completely obliterated, although matings go on freely; resistance to bacterial invasion is impaired, especially for those respiratory infections in which the white blood cells (phagocytes) provide the first and main line of the body's defense system; and, finally, ability to solve problems is greatly impaired. Proper ease of body heat loss means just the opposite-a fast-growing, earlymaturing, highly fertile individual, with a keen mentality and good ability to fight infectious disease. These statements are by no means hypothetical but are based upon well-authenticated statistical findings on man and on experimental animals under controlled conditions. They show up in the laboratory, under natural climatic differences, and during the wide seasonal swings in middle temperate latitudes.

Half of the earth's population lives year after year under a depressive blanket of moist heat that makes impossible an active life of high vitality. There children grow slowly, mature late, and are, in main, of inferior stature. Although the birth rate is high because of lack of restraint, high stillbirth and infant mortality rates cut heavily into the ranks of those who might live on to adulthood. Infectious diseases are the chief causes of death at all ages. The menses come 1-2 years later than among girls of cooler climates, and reproductive fertility shows even a greater lag. The age-old fallacy of early tropical maturity should be abandoned-it probably represents a carry-over from the ice age of 20,000 years ago, when optimal temperatures for man were to be found only in what are now the tropical regions. Even two milleniums ago, Hippocrates was stressing the fallacy of early tropical maturity, although the girls of ancient Greece were beginning their menses at the same early age as in middle American latitudes today. With the subsequent rise in earth temperatures, the girls of Greece today begin their menses 2 years later than in Hippocrates' day.

Domestic livestock show a comparable retardation where heat loss is difficult. To bring a steer to the choice 1,000-pound slaughter size takes 12-15 months in Iowa or Illinois, 2-3 years in Louisiana, and 4-5 years in Cuba, Panama, or Colombia. This represents maximum adult size in the tropical heat, whereas in Iowa or Illinois the steer will grow to almost double this weight. Hogs show the same contrast, taking 15 months in Panama to reach the 200-pound slaughter size achieved by Iowa shoats in 6-7 months.

In spite of the lack of sexual restraint and our Mother India ideas of early tropical maturity, evidence indicates that functional fertility is attained several years later, on the average, among tropical girls than among the more lusty progeny of cooler climates. Laboratory findings under controlled temperature conditions provide complete confirmation of human statistics. Difficulty in heat loss can so reduce animal fertility that conceptions become impossible, even with oft-repeated matings. Human conceptions resulting in live births are also sharply reduced during prolonged periods of severe heat among people of the temperate regions. The whole State of Florida suffers a 30 (plus or minus) percent decline in conceptions during the long summer heat, whereas in Maine conception rates then are highest.

The body's ability to resist or survive infectious attacks goes down with all other vital indexes in tropical heat or in long subtropical summers. The number of deaths per 100 acute appendicitis cases hospitalized in Gulf States is twice as high as in the Upper Plains States; and at Cincinnat migrants from the South last just half as long with tuberculosis as do the northern-born, considering only those who die, from first symptoms to death. Those adapted to heat also succumb more readily to pneumonia-a Dakota winter would produce a holocaust of pneumonia deaths in Panama or the Philippines.

Loss of mental acuity constitutes perhaps the most disturbing phase of heat effects, when viewed from the standpoint of the general welfare of mankind. Some years ago Ellsworth Huntington collected statistics showing best mental function at 38-40° F., whereas 64° F. seemed optimal for physical performance. Today we know that college students given the standard aptitude or intelligence tests at Cincinnati latitudes across the country achieve ratings only 60 percent as high in summer heat as in winter cold. No such seasonal contrast in ratings occurs in the northern tier of States, where there is no prolonged depressive summer heat.

White rats have further confirmed the folly of summer sessions in colleges at lower latitudes unless the buildings be air-conditioned. With three groups of male rats from divided litters, kept on uniform diet and three different environmental temperatures, it was found that ability to solve maze tests was sharply retarded with increasing difficulty of heat loss. The rats kept for 4 months at 55° F. required only 12 trials before finding the correct maze pathway to the food dish; and, once they found the proper turns, no further errors were made on later testings. Those kept at 75° F. made on the average, 28 wrong turns before discovering the proper pathway, and even then their learning was far from complete; for the rats kept at 90° F., food seemed not worth the effort; those that did get through to the food took an average of 51 wrong turns and still could not repeat on successive days.

The rats' memory, or retention of learning, was tested by bringing them back to the maze after a month's absence. Those from the 55° F. room showed perfect retention of their previous learning, those from the 75° F. warmth had to learn about half, but those from 90° F. heat seemed to retain no memory of their former efforts.

These basic observations on temperature dominance over mental ability and physical development are indeed of great significance to mankind as it faces existence problems in many regions of the earth. Should the more favored portions of our country give aid to those peoples whose living conditions are more adverse? Should such aid take the form of educational funds or of nutritional upbuilding? Fortunately, nutritional studies on animals have demonstrated that most of the repressive heat effects can be overcome by proper attention to vitamin and protein intake. Certain of the B vitamins are needed in extra amounts, and hot-weather diets should be richer-not poorer-in protein, if we would avoid metabolic let-down. Actually, our protein requirements remain the same (in grams per pound of body weight) in heat and cold, but a lowered calorie intake in hot weather makes it necessary that the smaller amount of food eaten be richer in protein.

Difficulty in body heat loss begins its dominance over any person's life even before he is conceived. The metalobic vigor of parental germ cells at the time of their union exerts a considerable influence over the whole life course of the new individual. Those children at Cincinnati latitudes whose parents have been depressed by July and August heat before conception have just half the likelihood of entering college that is enjoyed by those conceived in winter cold. Those conceived in summer heat also grow more slowly, develop later, and live a shorter life span (over 4 years less, according to Huntington's findings).

Further handicaps of hot-weather conception include a low likelihood of inclusion in Who's Who volumes and of being President of the United States of America. Eleven of our Presidents were conceived in the first quarter of the year, 10 in the second, 4 in the third, and 7 in the fourth. Until the present incumbent entered the White House, there had never been an August conception at the head of our Government. In any field of accomplishment one investigates. the advantages of cold-weather conception stand forth in bold relief. Perhaps these facts will find expression in high-school or college eugenics courses, and in planned parenthood through coming years. If so, the country's obstetrician will be able to plan a long vacation for each year.

Climatic temperature differences, whether brought about by latitude or alti tude, are potent factors in human life, and so also are the wide seasonal tempera ture swings on the earth's middle latitudes. The fortunate nations of the earth are those located where the body's waste heat can be lost readily. Many other factors of life are also of great importance of course, but this article is devoted to the basic role of temperature. Due recognition must be given to the part that improved nutrition may play in minimizing the depressive effects of external heat. Natural resources may thus exert a marked and beneficial effect on a given population group by making possible a better dietary intake, but dietary improvement will still be conditioned on the exercise of mass intelligence in food selec

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