The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1901-10-31
FROM THE SUNNY SOUTH
Eli. Jekym Is 4 Railroad Contractor
OF Guatemala.

OF Guatemala.
Mr.. A. B. Jelcyu Of Guatemala was in
the city yesterday. Mr.. Jekylrs home is
near Clearwater but he has lived in the
Central American country for the past
eight years. He is in the stock raising
industry there and is also a member of
the firm of May & Jekyn, railroad con
tractors. He helped build IA miles Of the
| Guatemala & Northern railway.
A reporter for the Eagle talked with
Mr.. JekyH yesterday afternoon He said
Mr.. May. a member of the firm to which
Dir. Jelyll belongs, was the operator of
the Guatemala & Northern railway and
the firm received the receipts of the road
and also a subsidy from the government
for keeping the road running. The gov
eminent thought he was having too good
a thing. so they took the operation of
the road away from him and also with
out paying him over half a million dol
lars for construction work. lie made a
claim against the government, but they
refused to pay it. Then Mr. May took
the matter 10 the United States gov
eminent and they took it up, as he was
an American citizen. The two govern
ments haggled over the matter for a
while and then It was left to the British
minister for arbitration. The affair was
settled by the Guatemala government
paying Mr.. May $4,000.
Ny brother and T." said Mr. Jekyll.
Were working with him at that time
but not in partnership. so the whole
Our firm now has q contract for the
construction of a line in Cuba The Gu
bans started on the line but they found
that they did not know how to build
railroad and had spent a good deal Of
money SO they gave US the contract and
we begin work in two weeks. Mr.. May
is there now. It might not be healthy
for him to return to Guatemala, for some
fellow might stick q knife into his back
for beating the government out Of the
money they owed him.
Guatemala is a great country. It is
Of course a rough country and not much
account for farming. but for stock rails
ing it is all right. There are a great
nanny banana plantations along the
line Of the Guatemala & Northern rail-
way. The government gave the land
along the road to the people for a term of
ten years If they woul6 improve it. At
the end Of that time they have the op-
ton TO buy Sc. This is doing a great deal
for the development Of the country, as
it is bringing in q great many northern
people The natives are TOO lazy TO work
much, SO they have done nothing for the
country. The country is healthy. because
it is so high
That country IS great on timber It
has all kinds but of course II is prin-
eipslly mahogany ny youngest brother
IS IN the timber cutting business now
and is making good money at it.
'Guatemala's money IS greatly depreci-
ated- One dollar Of gold VIII buy seven
dollars Of their money. I pay my men
three dollars a Cay and my brother paws
them five dollars q day. but YOU see that's
uot very high wages. There is q tariff
on everything not raised in the country
but ths railroad contractors set q rebate
on some articles ana on the material nee
essary IL the construction OF the line 1t
is very hard 10 set regular work out Of
the natives; In fact they VIII not work
a. all il they are not compelled TO-
When we need lahOTcrs we make q reou--
sition on the government and they com
PEI men 10 work fer US Cor certain time
and then we have regular work. we are
compelled 70 import men from the states
to set work, and these are nos always
The best
ar. JeRylI had some fire views Of the
country and IS EoinS 10 stay there.