The Chanute times. [volume] (Chanute, Kan.) 1897-1913, 1906-12-21

Philippines, and belonged to the best
| type OF American soldier Without ex,
Questioned Svei had served either in the Brit
| ish army or In the Jamaica or Barbados
police. They were evidently contented
and were doing their work well Wnere
troll people OF their. own color, put IN
| any emergency no hesitation Is felt IN
| using them indiscriminately
| Inasmuch as so many both or the Wnite
and colored employees have brought their
families with them, schools have been
established, the school service being IN
white American teachers are employed
for the colored pupils there are also some
white American teachers, one spanish
teacher, and one colored American tehcn
err. most of them being colored teachers
from Jamaica, Barbados and ST. Lucia.
The schoolrooms were good. ana IL was
a pleasant thing to see the pride that the
teachers were taking in their work ana
their pupils
Care of Employees.
Next in Importance to the problem OF
sanitation, and indeed now or equal I'M,
portance, is the problem of securing ana
caring for the mechanics, laborers ana
other employees who actually do the work
on the canal and the railroad. This great
task has been under the control or Mr.
Jackson Smith, ana 0 on tne thepe are
some 5000 white employees and some
1900 colored employees on the isthmus.
l went over the different places where
working! l think / saw representatives
of every type both at their work and IN
their homes; and / conversed win prop
ably a couple OF hundred OF them an
told, choosing them at random from
every class and including those who came
especially to present certain grievances
olmost invariably expressed far greater
content and satisfaction with the con-
ditions than did those who called to
make complaint
Nearly 5000 of the white employees mad
come from the United States. No man
can see these young, vigorous dgtT y,tb men
a thrill of pride in them as Americans.
They represent on the average hgn
class. Doubtless to congress the wages
paid them will seem high, but as mat.
ter of fact the only general complaint
which found had any real basis among
the complaints made to me, upon the
isthmus was that, owing to the pecaui.iha a
distance from home, the wages were
really not as high as they should be. In
fact, almost every man / spoke 10 lelt
that he ought to be reeelY1 Ike a m9Te
age man who stays at home IN ne
United States probably likewise holds
as regards himself. | append hgures or
judge the matter for itself Later l shall
confer on the subject with certain repre-
sentative labor men here in the United
States as well as going over with Mr..
Stevens, the comparative wages paid on
the zone and at home; and | may then
my findings to the canal
committees of the two houses.
Chinese and Other Labor.
or the $4,000 or 10000 day laborers
employed on the canal "A few hundred
are Standards These do excellent
work, Their foreman told me that
thew did twice as well as the West
indian laborers They keep healthy
and no difficulty is experienced with
them in any way. Some Italian labor
ers are also employed in connection
with the drilling. AS might be ex-
nected with labor as high priced as
At present in the United States. it has
not so far proved practicable to get
any ordinary laborers from the United
states. The American wage workers
on the isthmus are the highly paid
skilled mechanics of the types men
toned previously. A steady effort is
being made to secure Italians. and es-
pecially to procure more Spaniards,
because OF the very satisfactory re-
suits that have come from their en-
ployment and their numbers Will be
Increased as far as possible. 1t has
not proved possible. however, to get
them in anything like the numbers
needed for the WORK and from present
we shall in the main have
to rely. for the ordinary unskilled
work. partly upon colored laborers
from the West Indies, partly upon
Chinese labor 1t certainly ought to
be unnecessary to point out that the