The Camden chronicle. (Camden, Tenn.) 1890-current, 1904-07-15
COLORED LABOR
FOR THE CANAL
Commission Looks to the South to
Furnish Majority Of Diggers.
CHINESE COOLIES BARRED
Island of Jamaica Caa Only Furnish a
Bagatelle, SO Southern States VIII
Be Drawn Upon Heavily.

A Washington special says: Ihefa
is strong probability that the south
will be stripped of large portion OF
its labor for work on the Panama ca
nal The lsthmian canal commission
from-mores the pity - for only an
most difficult with which it has to DEAL
and as yet they have been unable 20
determine from what source the thirty
Thousand or perhaps fifty thousand
workmen needed will be drawn All
miral walker. chairman OF the com
mission. has heretofore always shoWh
objection to the plan of drawing Work
4 men from the negro population IN the
| south. but since the immigration au-
thorlties, backed by congress, nave
sbrt down on the scheme of import
ing Chinese coolies the commissioners
have now come face to face with The
fact that they will not be able to MI
rush order for labor from the sources
at present in sight. which include the
natives of Panama and the negroes Oh
Jamaica. Great hopes were staked on
this Jamaica source of supply, put by
careful investigation the commits
sion believes now that they will be
unable 10 get more than three or four
thousand from that island.
The natives resident on the strip
will. of course. furnish a working pa
sis for the start, but an estimate OF
the available men on hand does not
give more than five or six thousand
The commission must have at least M.
teen thousand more at an early date
after the canal work is fairly well un-'
der way, and there is no closer place
to draw from and no men better suited
10 the work than the large number OF
phosphate miners and turpcntine
hands of the negro population in the
south.
: nor vet been decided on, but in the
} face of :. scarcity of labor it is expect
t ed that a larger price will be given
than was anticipated to induce the ne
gro laborers of the south TO give up
/ their present positions to go to fever
e laden country 1t will not be the idle
> or worthless class. of negroes in the
1 south that the commission will draw
q from-more's the pty-fors onl van
!, able bodied and healthy lot will DE
t taken The situation as it now races
{ the south therefore, is very large
t decrease in its able bodied force OF
t. workmen and a consequent prooaDie
. rise in the price of plantation hands
W turpentine workers and miners. o
E. course, the taking away OF 10000 mer
\ amongst many thousands or more lie
o groes employed in the south might 40
Il seem at first glance to be very Sc
:; rious loss, but it is the present condl
A lions of labor in the south that vii
n make the difference. All the cottol
" fields it is said are hard pressed Z
e, get cheap labor, and should Panam
prove attractive to the class at presen
at work on the helds and in tn
r. phosphate mines, South Carolina an
as Georgia will be particularly affected.
nv Some of the engineers in Panam
ur are figuring on doing the whole wor
ld on the canal with thirty thousand mel
~, e' but most of these estimates are mel
70. guess work. Admiral Walker himse
ca has never committed himself to an G
he innate of the number needed. but he
de known to have looked rather skeptlc
ID over the small number suggested
other engineers. The admiral has co
centrated his heart on getting theNe
nal finished in eight years at the mes
It'll and if it takes fifty thousand to x
II, the trick he will not hesitate to NAL
OF the necessary requisition.
nv