Arizona republican., 1903-12-16
PHoENIx. ARIZONA. DEC. 16, 1903
American Laborers on the Canal.

The zeal of John Mitchell for the welfare of the workingmen of the Un- ited States cannot be questioned; nor can it be doubted, either that, some times Mir Mitchell permits this zeal to run away with his Judgment. For example. in addressing the Federation of Labor in Boston. recently. he intro duced Q resolution requesting congress to restrict work on the Panama canal to American citizens. The proposition is absurd on its face. And it grows more absurd the more the facts are examined. MT. Mitchell seems to real ize that native Americans could not be induced under any circumstances to work on the canal, for he lays par ticular stress upon his supposition that the Italians who have become citi- zens of this country would be just the material for the exacting labor or the isthmus. He thought that Italians, since they came from warm country would find the canal wO,k congenial No doubt. every Italian in this coun :. U canal can get it, but is safe to say that preciously few of them cen be induced 10 accept the employment
 Digging the isthmian canal is not and cannot be, white mans job. It is an old saying that every tie on the Panama railroad represented . dead Chinaman, and it is hardly an exagger- ation to say that every cubic yard of earth excayated in the canal work by the French company has stood for dead negro. The United States, when actual construction under the new re- glme begins, vii establish better sani- tary conditions, of course; but at best the mortality will be frightful. It will not be Q question Of obliging Ameri- can citizens-it will be d question of obtaining laborers from anywhere. If the supply of Jamaica negroes shall prove inadequate the problem will prove serious, indeed.
 As showing something of the labor conditions in Panama, it will be inter esting to note what a Kansas man, Dr. H. sociated with a fruit company on the isthmus. has to say about the native. In a letter to the Minneapolis Messen- ger. Dr. Martin says:
 The greatest trouble here is labor. A nigger will not work while he has q cent. He will not work until he is starved to it, and as soon as he gets his first pay he quits until starved again. Plantations are rich but men take big chances in putting out crops, because of the uncertainty of getting labor for harvesting. The banana plan tations import negroes from Jamaica. and this variety of black man is good for about two years, before he gets in- to the lazy ha bits of the country The Chinese lotteries are their great temp tation. Their ambition is to save enough money to buy lumber for shanty and set up for themselves. They don't have to buy land, or, rather, they cant buy it. Then they plant few plantas. and, with bananas. cocoanuta and such things as grow without work. they are independent"
 Another Kansas man who has had much experience In the isthmian coun- try, and who is now with fruit com rany in Spanish Honduras, writes, ac- cording to the Kansas City Journal, that the despair of the canal contrac- tors will commence when they begin to look around for workers" It will be found he says. that all of the laborers will have to be imported from Jamaica. Hayti or some of the other southern countries, where toll is not yet alto gether a lost art" and that the figur- ing on results should be based on the knowledge that five of such laborers as are available, will not produce as much as one husky son of Erin working in the States" All of which is true enough, doubtless. but Americans can not work there, and if they could, Mir Mitchell could serve our citizen labor CTS no worse turn than to induce them to go to Panama.