The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1905-06-13
white Man Stands No Chance.

Scores of men from all the trades
are attracted by the promise @. an adj
vance In wages to go to the canal zone.
I know it was that WY witt. me. /
counted up that 500 month means
81 200 a year. Here in Washington, as
things are now, we painters are lucky
If we have work six months on. of the
year and make more than $500
When this offer Of 500 month came
and l decided to take it / told my moth
er that 1 would send he. $50 each month
and keep the other $50, and / thought
that by working that way &c: a year
/ could have $500 saved
Mr.. Jones explained that the Govern
ment promises each employee on the
great ditch six weeks annual leave and
one month sick leave, but the annual
after the ''1eave-taker' returns to work
al the end of the period. Further than
that the much-ineensed Washington
man declares that no negroes from ia
nlaica or Costa Riea-natives of the
tropics, who should be at least partial
~ acclimated-can live in the canal
zone for year. and that white man
from the States stands no chance at
all.
In the Grip Of the Fever.
''It is pitiful,' Mr.. Jones declared.
you can see American machinists and
iron molders all along the line, men
who by their frames you know must
have been well built and strong, stag
gering around, scarcely able to walk,
yet working with indomitable will. All
of them are in the grip of the fever, and
not one white man in 100 will you see
who is not walking with the queer.
indicates that the fever is weakening
their knees.
lone day 1 went into a field hospital
to have small cut on one Of my fin
gers dressed and while was there an
American machinist crawied rather
than walked in and asked for qufnIne.
'ouinine. the doctor exclaimed. after
one look at him. Why. man. you had
better come into the hospital and stay
No, no, no. the sufferer shouted.
i have only four more days to work
and then L Will have enough to go
home
And so it is everywhere" Mr.. Jones
said, sick men are working when only
one object keeps them on their feet
that they may earn enough TO pay their
way out on the first steamer The re-
ports of the number of sick as furnished
to the governor of the Zone includes
only those actually in the hospitals.
men who are out on the work If a
man happens to have formed a few
friendships, and he falls in his tracks
his friends see TO IT that he gets to
denly stricken. lies on the ground until
some cue. out of charity, carries him
to the doctor. A white man usually
gets to the hospital, but the negroes
no one bothers about them. 1 heard
one sick negro ask his boss for leave
to go TO the hospital and the reply was
that he could go, but that he must pay
half the railroad fare to Colon"
Natives Will Not Work in Zone.
Jones work extended from Mamei
to Culebra, a distance of about nine
miles. and In that territory n. had a
gang of sixty-four painters. all of them
Jan,aicans and Costa Ricans. earning
from 10 cents day TO sL25. Natives of
Panama will not come down and work
in the canal zone at AIRY price, he says.
They live high up on the Inountai..s
and make their living off tink gardens
and a COW or two. They frankly tell the
foreman on the canal that they will not
work for them because II is impossible
to do so and escape the fever.
Mt