Waterbury evening Democrat., 1905-09-23
FEEDING CANAL DIGGERS
Plans of Man Who Will Supply
Isthmians With Food.
MEALS AT REASONABLE PRICES.

Good Living In Canal Zone VIII Be
Much Cheaper, According to Omaha
Contractor = Cooked Food In Bulk
For Men with Families-HoteIs to
BE Establiahed For white Employ
ees-OnIy Fruit Diet Vow.
]. e. Markell, who has been feeding
the hungry, most of the time by the
thousands, in and out OF Omaha, Neb.,
ever since the day he stepped off the
steamer Colorado bound up river from
st. Joseph, over thirty-nine years ago,
is home from New York, where he
landed the biggest contract of his life
that Of feeding the thousands Of en-
ployees engaged at work on the Pana-
ma canal for five years to come, says
an Omaha special dispatch to the St.
Louis Dispatch. OF it he says:
'It isn't any $50,000,0o0 contract to
feed $4,000 men, as the newspapers
have indicated. The contract, as a
matter Of fact, will amount to from
$1.000,0O0 to S1,500,0oO a year for FIVE
years, and the maximum number Of
men that will ever be employed, in my
judgment, will be from $4,000 to TO-
600.
This Is all bosh about there being
any unfairness in the award Of con-
tracts The specifications for bidding
were open to the public and everybody
had the right to bid. The facts are
that not one Of the other firms bidding
had sent men to the isthmus and knew
the conditions there. I was first in
vited to go there by Mr. Wallace last
March and was studying conditions at
the time when he left I kept watch
Of things and continued my inyestiga-
tons until they got Strengthened again
and found out what they wanted.
"What the commission wanted was
and what we are going to furnish is I;
system of substantial meals at rea-
sonable price, so that the employees on
the canal can afford to buy them and
be in condition to return to the com
mission in labor the worth of their
wages. For instance, the Jamaica ne
groes-now about 1000 employed on
the canal are scattered along in camps
from one to two miles apart there be-
ing thirty along the forty-seven miles
of canal. These will have from 200 to
300 negroes to the camp. These camps
consist of houses built especially for
the purpose and thoroughly sanitated.
There are strict rules for keeping them
clean. The negroes have to have every
thing cleaned up by certain hour ev-
/ cry day. The houses are thoroughly
scrubbed once a week and fumigated
every two weeks. They have COM
Portable canvas beds
"But when it comes to the eating the
only thing that they can afford to buy
with their money, as things now are
on the isthmus, is sugar cane and ba-
nanas and such stuff, and a man can't
stand up and do hard days work on
such diet and give back to value Of
his wages. Eggs are 10 cents apiece,
salt fish 40 cents pound, fresh meat
from so cents to 81 pound and every
thing in proportion. Now we are going
to offer them three meals day, with
coffee, bread and meat for breakfast,
coffee, bread, fish, two kinds Of vege-
tables and pie or pudding for dinner
and much the same for supper at 45
cents per day, or S14 per month. In adj
! dition, we will have a place at each
camp where we will sell the cooked
foods in bulk to the men with families
who want to take them home or to the
men who live in clubs and do their own
cooking or part Of II and want to buy
some more cooked stuff. There is no
compulsion about buying from us. The
men can buy wherever they please, but
/ agree with the commission to have
the food there to offer to the men at a
reasonable price.
For the white men, of whom there
are 1000 and who will run up to 1900
later on, we will run hotels. Two are
now finished, three more are under
construction, and the number will
eventually increase to ten. We furnish
them first class board at 81 per day
and rooms at Sc per month each, max
ing the total cost of living s36 per
month each.
The Jamaica negroes get from s1.T5
to $2.25 per day each, silver. which is
equal to from 80 cents to S1.10 each,
gold, so the commission held down the
cost Of living for them to As cents.
Most Of the clerks get from $50 to
S1T5 per month, and no one gets less
than 500, so their living is made COM
paratiyely cheap.
Il shall assemble all Of my supplies
at New York for shipment to the 18TH
mus. my buying being done wherever
l can do so at the best advantage. In
fact. a large part Of II will probably
be done right here in Omaha. The
commission ships my stuff for me on
refrigerated steamers on a rate that
just covers the actual cost: II gives me
cold storage room at Colon. also at
cost. and otherwise gives me facilities
for doing business at cost or just a
little above Practically everything
win have to be shipped there is abso-
luteiy nothing that can be bought on
the isthmus. The natives are too lazy
and worthless to raise anything As
fine fish as l ever saw can be caught
on the isthmus. but the natives never
catch enough to amount 70 anything.
| OF course. they have never known
what it Is to have piece Of ice to keep
a fish. 50 that may have something to
/ do with II. As II Il nov their smear