BoletiÌn mercantil de Puerto Rico. (San Juan, P.R.) 18??-1918, 1904-06-25
THE PANAMA CANAL
A SlaugterHouse for Porto
rican Workingmen
AT FIRST there were hints.

paration of great enterprise. Then
we heard talk about Panama, repre-
senting that place of horrors as the
best refuge for the Portoricans from
the hardships and cruelties they have
suffered because of the present econo-
mical crisis.
Panama was to make all good. The
long hours of an enervating fast, the
anguish of misery without end, the
bitterness of hunger-all were to find
a splendid recompence in the lsthmus.
i The work, it could not be denied.
was hard and exhausting, the work OF
beasts of burden; but in return the
gold which possesses restorative pro-
perties would run faster than the
waters through the canal.
Such delightful vision such allus-
ing perspective. it was believed,
would prove irresistible to fascinate
the Portorican workingmen.
= Those making such hints say frank
ly: Don't we hear constantly that
there are one hundred thousand men
without work in the fields of Porto
Rico? Then many of them could find
. lUCIdLlVC anu 6t1bdOAC OtN0RatAOA Al
the work of constructing the canal.
It is not to be expected that Ame-
ricans will go to work in that slaugh-
ter house; for the men of the North,
as one Of the news papers of the Uni
ted States observes, are aware Of the
danger in the atmosphere of the
Isthme infected with ever. and as no
man can be asked to risk his life for
matter of dollars and cents, it may,
therefor, be difficult to find laborers to
construct the canal. This is true,
naturally. There are dangers without
number, risks and exposures to which
the workmen of the United States will
Tnot expose his life.
No man having work, no man who
is not oppressed by misery can be ex-
pected to go to the lsthmus of Panama
for matter of dollars and cents.
So much is evident. The contractors
for the work of building the canal viii
not be able to recruit in the United
States the men needed even for the
preliminary and less difficult parts of
the work of construction. For it is
well known that the artisan. provided
he has employment at home. never
leaves his country for distant lands
infected with fever. which offer no
sdelightful perspectives.
Seldom, if ever, do such countries
attract the lowly laborerS who toll for
the wage of the day.
And our unhappy peasants know
also the danger Of the fever-infected
air of the Isthmus. but not withstand
ing many Of them will go to die poiso-
ned by the exhalations of the marhes,
since. indeed, the boon of such a
delicious climate as ours is not enough
to satisfy the necessities indispensable
to sustain the life Of man.
knowing this they go to death,
perhaps; without stopping they go to
the Isthmus to devour with the frenzy
Of the famished the hard bread of the
emigrant knowing what awaits them,
better, it may be, than The sons of the
North, they will betake themselves to
the Isthmus IN the hope OF escaping
the fevers since it is almost impossible
to escape hunger here. Some dollars
and cents, rather pennies than dollars
that is not enough for the fortunate
workingmen of country swimming
In abundance to leave their homes to
run every kind Of risk and danger.
But according to the newspaper refe-
rred to we have one hundred thousand
men who are without work. THREE
kundysd thousand they are, according
tomore exact and yeracicus accounts;
but accepting the number cited by
our American colleague it must be
admitted that it is appalling, horrible.
One hundred thousant men who
have no work!
And this immense perturbation OF
our life, this lack of work which ex-
presses SO clearly the present state OF
our agriculture, the prcstTation OF our
industries and the crisis which invol-
YES all classes, call forth not one word
ii lamentation from our colleague.
On the contrary, it claims that the
climate and insalubrity Of the Isthmus
cannot be harmful to the Portoricans.
Of course not. for they are acoustic
mM to the heat of the tropics and
moreover they have the right to call
themselves citizens Of the United
Stasel.
NVhw ehns,1d thew he pitiedl Citi-