Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1904-08-12
THE PANAMA CANAL.
SOME ACCOUNT OF THE STU
PENDOUS UNDERTAKING.

It Will Employ Thousands Of Men but the
Climate Will Not Suit Our Own People
The Malarial Conditions Resulting From
Rapid Vegetable Growth and Consequent
Decay Are Simply Marvellous - Impossible
to Get Jamaica Negroes, for Their Wants
Are Few and Their Habits Characterized by
Sloth and Indifference - The Scheme Is q
Grand One. Involving All the Resources Of
Engineering Skill.
| Toledo Blade
Thousands of Northern men are
awaiting employment on the Panama
canal and l have received dozens of
letters myself asking about conditions
there and prospects for work and
wages when construction work is re-
sumed." said J. j. Millroy, former
United States government engineer
who is in Toledo on u business mission
this week.
az regret" continued Mr.. Millroy,
that cannot advise anyone to seek
work on the Isthmus. One of the
great problems which the government
must face is that OF procuring 5O,CN
laborers whose services will be required
for several years.
Another difficulty-an engineering
problem-is that of controlling the
waters of the torrential Chagres river.
DeLesseps failed in the undertaking
and the combined skill of the worlds
most eminent engineers will be re
quired to do it.
Undoubtedly the government will
try the experiment Of sending laborers
from the north to the Isthmus, but,
in my judgment it will cost many
lives and eventually fail. A govern.
ment commission 10 now on the 18TH
mus doing sanitary work, improving
the sewer systems of Panama and Col.
on, as we'll as points along the line OF
the canal, where the laborers will be
housed, but notwithstanding this, l
am quite sure that q northern man
cannot remain in that country three
months, performing manual labor. and
live. And, no matter how temperate
their habits may be after arriving
there. if they have been drinking men,
they will surely contract some perni-
cious, fatal fever.
"In country like this, with per-
petual summer climate, the average
temperature being nearly so degrees
and the average humidity nearly as
great, vegetation is OF very rapid
growth. There are places on the up
per level OF the Isthmus where nightly
the humidity is 100 degrees, the point
OF saturation. Cleared ground will be
covered with vegetation in a night and
in forty.eight hours the growth will
become rank, but the conditions de-
scribed make decomposition as rapid
as growth. The result is intense mi.
asmatic poison. People living on the
Isthmus are all malarious. A few
escape while resident there, but they
no sooner reach q temperate climate
than the disease develops. The sallow
faces of great many tell Of paludal
poison. Malaria, intermittent and re.
mittent fevers, smallpox, yellow fever,
catarrhal dysentery and leprosy and
elephantiasis occur with frequency in
the order named.
1t is common saying throughout
Central America that the building OF
the Panama railroad, AZ miles long,
cost life for every tie beneath the
rails. These are some of the delight.
full things which the northern work.
man in Panama has 10 contemplate,
but possibly there may be consolation
in knowledge Of the fact that the most
completely equipped hospital in the
world is located at Panama.
"The DeLesseps company employed
Jamaica negroes, but it will be impos-
sible to get nearly enough of them.
There are plenty Of men in adjoining
Central and South American countries
who might work, but there is no incen.
tive for them to do so. They require
almost no clothing and subsist upon
bananas, nuts and other articles of
food which may be had for the taking.
The larger the wage OF laborers OF this
class. the worse off becomes the EN-.
ployer, for in q short time the work.
ingman earns enough to supply his
wants for long period, and ceases to
be industrious"
1t has been said-perhaps irrever.
ently-that the government will do
what God forgot, in joining the two
oceans. Mr.. Millroy finds, however,
that geologists have discovered indis.
putable evidence that the oceans were
once connected very near the line of
the canal. The entire isthmus is OF
volcanic formation and within the last
fifty years earthquakes have occurred
there which would have DESTROYED all
the dams and other engineering works
OF the canal had they been in exist.
ence. The iron railroad bridge at Bar.
bacOas was shifted out of position,
Colon was rent with seam across the
town and Panama was damaged to the
extent OF 100000.
"The idea of cutting a canal across
the isthmus dates as far back az the
fifteenth century," says Mr.. Millroy.