and 55,000 British subjects from Caribbean islands. The cities of Panama and Colon in 1917 contained 61,369 and 26,076 inhab- itants respectively; the estimated total pop. then being 401,554. A general census taken in 1920 gave a total pop. of 434,015.
Vital statistics for 1916, 1917 and 1918 showed respectively 11,593, 10,898, and 11,283 births, of which in each year respectively 7,827, 7,511 and 7,700 were illegitimate. Deaths in the same years num- bered 6,218, 6,107 and 5,649 respectively. There are eight provinces, Herrera having been added in 1915. The area as determined by the White boundary award is 87,480 sq. km. (33,776 sq. miles).
In 1917 there were 398 Government-supported schools with an enrolment of 22,000, besides 1,721 pupils in Canal Zone schools. The Instituto Nacional, dedicated in 1911 with handsome buildings at Panama costing $1,500,000, gives instruction in high-school subjects, commerce and languages. A school of Law and Political Science offers a three-year course to graduates of the Instituto. Travelling scholarships to Europe and the United States are provided by the Government.
Finance and Economics. Panama receives all the import duties collected, but the United States imports all canal materials and supplies for Government use duty free. Panama's revenues and expenditures 1915-20 were as follows:
 | A table should appear at this position in the text. See Help:Table for formatting instructions. |
Revenues
Expenditures
1915
1916
1917 1918 1919-20
675,057 729,802 793,882 646,752 1,490,385
635,820 1,164,600
732, i-t 707,464 1,490,385 (estimated)
Public finance is managed by a fiscal agent appointed with the approval ot the United States. For nine months ending in March 1921, revenues received were $4,012,023, and expenditures $2,767,- 146; balance $1,244,877; of this sum $739,349 was set aside for road construction. The debt, begiw early in 1915 with a loan of $3,000,000 from the United States, chiefly for railway construction, amounted in 1919 to $7,101,000.
Commerce is chiefly with the United States; but that with the United Kingdom, France, and Spain is important.
The totals for the years 1910-20 were:
Imports
Exports
Kgm.
Balboas *
Kgm.
Balboas*
1910
128,647,313
'0,043,395.11
126,333,609
1,769,330.15
1911
128,331,874
9,896,987.85
165,180,189
2,863,425.30
1912
"5,822,532
9,871,653.73
166,232,433
2,064,647.55
1913
153,057,605
11,060,088.24
187,330,063
5,101,960.45
1914
140,472,718
9,891,552.78
182,625,216
3,800,517.18
1915
126,244,629
9,032,977-I7
152,594.343
3,422,455-10
1916
107,191,027
9,397,596-27
137,438,898
5,706,724.38
1917
82,798,113
9,223,170.00
177,484,046
5,624,176.00
1918
45.085,659
7,821,660.00
150,497,870
2,909,557-00
1919
48,960,768
11,406,880.15
162,476,039
3,757,028.24
1920
59,678,802
17,092,270.35
150,3/0,225
3,640,453.15
- A balboa is worth a dollar.
About 80% of the exports go to the United States. The chief articles are bananas, coconuts, hides, tortoise shell, cacao and lagua (vegetable ivory). All international commerce moves through Cris- tobal and Balboa, Bocas del Toro being reserved for local business. The Panama railway across the Isthmus, 47 m. long, is U.S. property. The United Fruit Co. has 150 m. of banana railway in Bocas del Toro province, running to Limon in Costa Rica. Only a small part of the territory is occupied, and little is under cultivation. The only highly organized industry is the banana business of the United Fruit Co., which exports over $2,000,000 worth of bananas yearly. In 1906 cattle numbered 65,000; in 1916, 200,000; there were then also 15,000 horses, 2,000 mules, 30,000 hogs, and 5,000 goats. Coffee grows in Chiriqui province, and in Code province a concern of Ger- man origin has raised cacao, coffee and rubber since 1895. Tobacco and sugar are increasing; the first sugar exported to the United States was in 1920. Other crops are corn, rice, yams and ivory nuts. The tropical woods of the forests are exported, as are medicinal plants. The pearl fisheries are famous. Metals are scantily repre- sented. The Sinclair Oil Corp. of New York has concessions on Columbus I., and has drilled wells at Bocas del Toro.
History. The successful candidate of 1908 for the four-year presidential term, Domingo de Obaldia, died in 1910, and Pablo Arosemena completed his term. In 1912 Belisario Porras, a Liberal, was elected. Ramon M. Valdez was elected in June 1916 amid riots and intervention by the United States. He died in 1918, and Giro L. Urriola completed his term. Ernesto Lefevre was inaugurated Jan. 30 1920, but Belisario Porras soon succeeded him, being elected in Aug. of the same year, and inaugurated Nov. i for a four-year term. There are three vice-presidents (designados) , and a Cabinet of five members. The constitution
was amended Dec. 26 1918 so as to provide for a Chamber of 33 members, one for each 10,000 inhabitants. The president is chosen by direct vote, and is ineligible to succeed himself. Be- ginning in 1924 deputies of the Chamber are to be chosen by direct vote. Provincial governors became elective in 1920. Capital punishment is prohibited. Foreigners may not mingle in politics, and may be ejected for criticizing public officers or institutions. The independence of the republic was recognized by Colombia April 6 1914 by a treaty between the latter and the United States, ratified by Colombia in the same year and by the U.S. Senate April 20 1921. Panama ratified the Treaty of Versailles Jan. 8 1920, and is an original member of the League of Nations.
Boundary Dispute. The constitution of Colombia of 1886 declared that its boundary with Costa Rica should be that which had existed between the viceroyalty of Nueva Granada and the captaincy-general of Guatemala in 1810, but that boundary lines might be located by treaties which might be negotiated without reference to the uti possidetis of that year. Colombia and Costa Rica endeavoured, by treaties negotiated in 1825, 1856, 1865 and 1876, to fix the line without success. In 1876 arbitration was agreed on, and Alfonso XII., King of Spain, was asked in 1880 to make an award, but he died before doing so. It was agreed in a treaty of Dec. 25 1880 that the arbitral award must lie within the specified limits of the conflicting claims. This provision was included in a treaty made at Paris dated Jan. 20 1886, and in another made at Bogota on Nov. 4 1896. Under the last-named instrument, President Loubet of France rendered on Sept. n 1900 an arbitral award which was accepted by Colombia and Costa Rica as final. Its demarcations were in general terms.
The state of Panama, which had been created by Nueva Granada in 1855 and made a department of Colombia in 1886, became independent on Nov. 3 1904, at which time it inherited the boundary controversy with Costa Rica. The Loubet line had not been made effective because of Colombian revolutions. On March 7 1905 Costa Rica and Panama by convention adopted a line interpretative of the Loubet award, but Costa Rica still considered the award unfair to her in respect of the valleys of the tributaries of the Sixaola river above the Yorquin. In fact, the treaty gave to each republic de facto right over territory belong- ing dejure to the other. Costa Rica considered, because of inter- pretations of the Loubet award by Panama, that the treaty of 1905 had lapsed, Panama not having ratified it. Through the good offices of the United States, which was interested in Ameri- can land claims in the Sixaola region, the two republics agreed in 1910 to submit the Loubet award, which both had accepted, to the interpretation of Chief Justice White of the U.S. Supreme Court. In 1914 he rendered a decision adverse to Panama, and the latter refused to accept it, claiming that it went beyond inter- pretation, and gave territory not asked for to Costa Rica.
On Feb. 21 1921 Costa Rica forces seized Goto, in ChiriquI province, for the purpose of enforcing the White award, which favoured her there. Panama forces composed of volunteers and police at once moved to recover the territory invaded. Panama on Feb. 24 asked the good offices of the United States to prevent bloodshed. During late Feb. and early March the invasion, moving toward Bocas del Toro, was marked by light engage- ments and there were anti-American disorders in Panama. On March 5 President Harding requested both nations to cease hostilities and provide for an agreement based on the White award. They acceded, and on March 9 an armistice was an- nounced. Panama had reiterated her dissatisfaction with the White award, and had made representations to the League of Nations denouncing the invasion of her territory by a fellow-mem- ber of the League. While withdrawing her military forces from Goto, as Costa Rica had done, Panama announced that she was leaving civil and police forces, and would demand reparation from Costa Rica. The U.S. Government insisted that Panama should acquiesce to the terms of the White award. (H. I. P.)
PANAMA CANAL (see 20.666). The construction period of the Panama Canal covered about 10 years, but the actual work of
