The star. (Reynoldsville, Pa.) 1892-1946, 1905-11-22
FEEDING OF CANAL MEN.
J. E. Markell TELLS ABOUT HIS
BIG PANAMA CONTRACT.

Cost from 45 Cents to 81 a Day
All Supplies to Be Shipped from
New York, Direct.
j. e. Markell, who has just obtained
the contract to feed the workmen OF
the Panama, Canal, began the business
of feeding people nearly fifty years age
when, as a boy, he took contract tC
feed workmen on big flatboat be,
tween st. Louis and New Orleans, on
the Mississippi, writes the Omaha
| (Neb.) correspondent of the New York
Sun. He was raised on a farm neal
| Mark Twains place in eastern Mis-
souri,, and after his experience on the
flatboat he settled down in st. Louis
to become a baker.
Next he drifted to the West, and in
1872 began operating eating houses
along the Union Pacific, with which
road he continued for thirty years. In
addition to his Panama interests, Mr.
Markell at present operates the boarding
and eating houses along the lines of the
Cincinnati, Hamilton and Dayton, the
Illinois Central, the Denver and Rio
Grande, the Rock Island the Kansas
City Southern, the Denver and North
western and the new Moffatt railroads
and manages a number of big hotels in
Western cities.
His great experience in feeding
crowds placed him in a position to bid
intelligently for the Panama contract
Degrading the contract and his plans,
Mr.. Markell says:
1.-THE contract is not a $4,000 900 one
to feed any $4,000 men, as the news
papers have reported. | don't believe
there will ever be more Lnan 10000
men employed at any one time. The
contract runs for five years.
81 was first invited last March to go
to the Isthmus by Mr.. Wallace, and I
was studying the conditions when he
left. | kept watch of things and con-
tinued my investigations until | found
out just what was wanted
II spent a, whole month down there,
and when | finished knew what was
necessary and knew just what | was
bidding on. The result was that | got
the contract
What the commission wanted and
what | am going to furnish is a sys-
TEN of substantial meals at reasonable
prices, so that the employees on the
canal can afford to buy them and will
be in condition to return the commits
sion in labor the worth of their wages
For instance, the Jamaica negroes
now about 1000 employed on the canal
are scattered along in camps from one
to two miles apart, there being thirty
camps along the forty-seven miles of
canal. These camps have from 200 to
300 negroes each.
"The houses are built especially for
the purpose and are thoroughly sani-
tary. There are strict rules for keep
ing them clean The negroes have to
have everything cleaned up by a GER
tain hour each morning. The houses
are thoroughly scrubbed once a week
and fumigated every two weeks. They
have comfortable canvas beds.
But when it comes to eating, the
only things they can afford to buy with
their money, as things now are on the
Isthmus, are sugar cane, bananas and
such stuff, and man can't stand up
and do hard days work on such
diet and give back the value of his
wages. Eggs are 10 cents apiece, salt
fish is 40 cents a pound, fresh meat
from so cents to dollar pound, and
everything in proportion.
Now we are going to offer them
three meals a day with such stuff as
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 As
cents day or $14 month.
"ln addition, we will have a place at
each camp where we will sell cooked
food in bulk to the men with families
who want to take it home, or to the
men who live in clubs and do their
own cooking, or part Of 1t, and want
to buy a portion ready cooked. 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 reasonable prices.
For the white men, of whom there
are 1,500 now, and there will be 5000
later, we will run hotels. Two are
now finished and the number will be
increased to ten. We furnish them
first class board at 81 day, and rooms
at Sc month each, making the cost
Of living S36 month each.
Before these prices were made we
figured it out with the commission that
aborers generally in this country have
10 pay from 40 to so percent of their
wages for living purposes; and clerks
md other salaried men in cities about
he same proportion. So we figured
IN the canal to keep down the cost of
living to between 40 and so percent
If the wages.
"The Jamaica negroes get from $1.75
o S2.25 silver each day. This is from
70 cents to $1.10 gold, so the commits
,ion hold tho oost of living dou, IN Ak