The Montgomery advertiser. [volume] (Montgomery, Ala.) 1885-1982, 1904-06-26


makes me shudder to think of the hu-
man suffering implied by ten years of
lapor here on the part of 5000 men.
But only at the price of all this toll
can stately vessels steam through the
Cuiebra."
The French Canal Company has re-
moved much earth here. but vastly
more remains to be taken out. With
arc lights strung along the cutting. the
men OF the night shift would have by
Iar the easier days work; for then the
terrible sun rays would be absent and
the cooler night wind would be blow
ing through the trench. Indeed, If but
one shift of men were employed, he
thinks 1t would be better, after the
light plant was installed. to work them
only by night, and have them sleep in
day time.
The Sanitary Problem.
His account of the sanitary problem
is even more impressive: The French
exercised little or no sanitary control
over their canal laborers. They built
little villages of wood and galvanized
iron for the men to live in but in
most cases provided neither water nor
drains. II they fell i'll in camp and
did not die at once, they were trans
ported after a day or two to the hos
pitfalls at Colon or Panama. That was
about as far as the French medical care
or control extended from 1880 onward.
As a result they lost a great number
OF employes-some say $4,000. The
construction gangs were often crippled
and ineffective. Excavators. locomo-
tives, and other machines stood idle for
weeks. because the men or the foremen
were Ill or dead. The losses of time
and money from. this cause was enor-
nous. Work was stopped from time to
time. and often did not begin again for
month. pay being drawn all the while
for the entire gang! The direct loss
from this cause alone is believed to
have exceeded 100000 francs! The
indirect loss from delay and demorali-
cation can never be determined.
Labor unions in the United St,-es
have already debated the regulate of
wages and working hours at Panama,
and have announced an intention to or
ganiZe the laborers there to this end
But no sensible person can spend an
hour in thee heat of the Culebra cut
without coming to the conclusion that
this is not a white mans job. The
French Canal Company is now paying
it's laborers $1.0S a day, Colombian
silver, worth about A cents in United
States currency"
DIR. Stephens says that it is an error
to speak of any locality as in itself
"unhealthful." If disease is present it
has been brought there by men
imals which have become infected
elsewhere No locality breeds new dis
ease. He wants the government to
establish a school of tropical diseases
at Colon. The greatest variety of
clinical material would be abundant.
Canal laborers arriving from various
points in the tropics will afford ex-
cellent material for study. with the
added advantages of observing the
course of the diseases in a, tropical eli
mate.
DIR. ST. hens also favors a camp of
detention and observation for incom-
ing laborers In no other way can dis
ease be prtvs nted from gaining access |
to the labor camps along the line of |
the canal Nor when forwarded from !
the camp OF observation to the labor |
ca;rps should the executive guardian |
ship over the laborer cease or be re- !
Taxed for a moment. A single hole in ,
ones mosquito net let's in the mosqui- |
to that will inoculate him with yell
low fever or malaria; so with a sys-
tenn of health protection for 10000 la
l ores. At a single weak point of the |
system an epidemic may enter; the |
system must be precise efficient at all
points and constantly operative II
tanned, the labor camps must be en-
closed, policed, and regulated as if UNI
der military discipline. He thinks it
VIC uld be found expedient to have a
canteen at every camp where tobacco.
mist beverages, and a limited quanti-
ty of distilled liquors of standard
quality could be purchased by -.le la
bon ers.
iood Words for the Chagres River.
This Observers account of the
Chagres River is interesting. The
whole world has heard of the Chagrcs
River, but has heard no good of 1t. In
deed. the English. French and Spanish
languages have been ransacked for
terms with which to stigmatize. 1t is
the "torrentiaI" Chargers, the deadly
Chagres. the "miasmatic" Chagres, the
'uncontrollable, ungovernable" Cha
gres, the "accursed" Chagres. that in
fernal river" 1t has even had a fever
of lethal character named after it.
when the French Canal officials |
wished to find a scapegoat." says DIR,
Stephens for their malfeasance in
spending. or stealing, S2GO,000,000, and
not digging a canal with it, they Sc
lected the Chagres River and attributed !
everything bad to that. 1t washed |
back all the earth which they dug out: |
1t rendered a tide water canal impos-
sible, it brought malaria and death to
their laborers in fine. they would have
the Panama Canal by 1899, |
but for that awful Chagres River!
Il really expected to see a moral
of a river there. l was look
Ing for something like the Styx, as de-
scribed by the classic poets. 1t would
not have surprised me greatly to see
stream of miasmatic, green slime,
haunted by Chagres foyer ghosts, In
stead. what one sees is a pretty little
river of azure water, purling gently
over sandy bars-quite an ideal stream,
with lovely gravels and pools beneath
green banks the bare sight OF which
makes one think of his fishhook and
line
But this was the dry season. I be-
gan making careful inquiries as to the
vet season. Once, seventeen years
lgo, IT did rise pretty high At
place where the channel is much COM
pressed. at Las Cascades, IT rose be-
ween thirty and forty feet that year
or a few hours. found that at
its neighbors, so to
'pcak--the Chagres bore good
'nough reputation as rivers go In
he matter of floods. the Chagres is not
worse than the Big Sandy the French
Broad, or the Androscoggin in our own
But for the Chagr.s an in
lext quarter of a century, would be
physical impossibility. A tidewater
anal at Panama is Impossible except
It such cost as to be practi ally use
ess to the American peopl-. 1t Is just
-.