The Irish standard., 1905-05-27
Wages High and Promotion Rapid, Many of
the Clerks There Now Complain That
Hours Are Too Long.
AS to Health There Are Few More Dangers
Than Here and in Some Respects
Climate is Better.

More than one thousand Americans
are already employed here and when
the construction is we'll under way we
shall need five times that number. Of
these one thousand will be technical
and clerical men, such as engineers,
draughtsmen and clerks, while four
thousand will be skilled mechanics,
says a correspondent of New York
Herald.
These must come from the United
States and they will constitute the
cream of the labor on the isthmus.
They will receive the highest wages
and will be paid from twenty-five to
fifty per cent more than similar men
working at home.
In addition there will be about fif-
teen thousand common laborers, made
up of Jamaicans, Colombians, Puerto
Ricans and possibly of Japanese, Chin
ese and East Indians. They will form
the raw muscle to be used in the canal
construction. That is bound to come
from the tropics. The brains and skill
will be furnished by the United States.
Uncle Sam has already recognized
this distinction. The men are classed
on his pay roll as silver men and gold
men. Raw muscle is paid in silver;
brains and skill get their money in
gold. Silver here is worth just one
half what gold is worth; so that the
silver wages must be multiplied by
two to equal the gold wages.
The silver pay now ranges from Is
cents an hour upward. A native work
man gets s1.50 silver for ten hours
work, or rs cents gold a day. The
American gold man often receives as
much as As or so cents an hour, or
$3.50 or IS gold day. He is often
paid by the month, his salary ranging
from SIS upward.
At present there are approximately
1000 silver men on the canal in addi-
tion to the police and sanitary labor
ers. There were only $50 when the
chief engineer took charge and they
worked intermittently, receiving low
wages and laboring only enough to
support life.
So far about one-third of the native
force has been off all the time. If 100
men are employed the American fore
man can be sure that little less than
seventy will turn up, and fully thirty
per cent in excess of the actual needs
must be carried on the pay rolls.
These natives work better under
American foremen. The supervising
architect tells me that his product has
increased twenty-five per cent since
the native carpenters were bossed by
American foremen. He says the ma
tives learn quickly and that by making
a raw Jamaican helper to good car
penter, tinsmith or plumber the raw
man soon becomes a mechanic. He
must, however, be bossed by an Amer.
Jean foreman, for as a rule he does
not think for himself and cannot un-
derstand anything outside the regular
lines. He says the natives never will
displace our high priced American
mechanics.
The Jamaicans, for instance, have
no such word as hustle. They don't
understand the sentences do it quick"
and "do it now" They are proud, po-
lite and need careful handling. They
are quick to resent insult and one can
not drive them.
The same conditions largely obtain
as to Colombian labor, and there is no
doubt that it will be to the advantage
of the canal work if Chinese, Japan
ese and East Indians can be employed.
When Secretary Taft was here last
fall he went to Jamaica, intending to
hire from five to ten thousand negroes
for the canal. He found the Governor
of the island averse to losing that
number of men.
The Governor said that Jamaica
was already drained of its mechanics
and laborers. and that this would re-
suit in the government having to sup.
port many parishes throughout the