Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1886-04-24
POOR WORK AT PANAMA.
LAZY LABOKERS AND SHIFT
LESS FRENCH OFFICIALS.

SIX American Laborers Equal to a
Hundred of the West Indian Ne
GrOes Now i'm the Dlrch-An Entire
Change Inevitable IL tho Enterprise
IA to DO COnsummated.
New YORK, April 23-Capt. w. B.
Sherwood, who for the past seven months
has been in charge OF the American
dredger City or New York on the Caimito
section Of the Panama canal, arrived this
morning from Colon on board the steam-
ship City Of Para. He was interviewed
shortly afterwards by a representative OF
the Associated Press, and spoke very
freely OF the work being done
on the canal and the prospects
of its completion within the time SGT by
Count de Lesseps. lie is quite pronounce
ed in his condemnation of the manage
ment of the French sub-ofiicials and Of the
manner in which contracts are let and
sublet and relet. so that the responsibility
is shifted till it is impossible to remedy
the many evils which exist in the working
of the various departments.
LAzINEss OF THE LABoRERs.
The canal laborers, who are mainly
Jamaican and Martinique negroes, the
Captain says, are. as n rule, OF poor
physique and lazy aud indolent. 1t is no
intrequent spectacle, he declares, to see
from 200 to $50 of these men sit in the mud
for half day idling away time for
which they are paid at the rate
OF 81 so per diem. The French offs
cials are not equal to the
task Of getting fair DAVIS work out OF
the men comprising the laboring force, a
hundred OF whom he does not think do as
much work as any six American labor
ers. AT the same time he admits 'that
the climate is not fit for white man To
work IN"
BLAMING THE FRENCHMEN.
He complains. bitterly of the lack Oh
energy shown by the French oticiala
with whom he came in busi4
ness contact. On each side OF the
canal ditch in which ms dredgeH
was at work a fence was built, behind
which the mud eXcavated was deposited,
and this fence was supposed TO prevent
the mud from returning TO the
river, but it was 80 badly constructed
that it kept continually giving way and
work had frequently 10 be- done all OveB
again, resulting in inconvenience, delay
and extra expense. When the sub-Ofhcera
were spoken to about these matters they
seemed helpless to provide remedy, and
| the Captain says they invariably followed
| the rule of dong nothing to-day that they
| could put on tall tomorrow. on course
he wished to be understood as speaking
| only OF his own experience on the section
| in which he worked; but he has no reason
TO believe affairs in other sections ara
conducted differently.
POOR OUTLOOK.
When asked his opinion whether the
canal would be finished in the time spec-
flied by Count de Lesseps, the Captain
said that during his seven months service
he had been careful observer and had
conversed with many persons interested
in the work, and his judgment was thai
not only would the canal not be opened to
commerce at the time stated by the
French engineers, but that he did
not believe the work would
ever be done under the present regime.
He does not by any means think that the
scheme is impossible OF success, but he
does think the system now in vogue, OF
reckless expeditions coupled with lack Of
discipline ana general dilatOriness, must
be radically changed, or the desired end
will never never be attained.