The daily morning journal and courier., 1906-01-11

54GobSl lAAe"AA III {DOlO4ls llC SOlAAlAllooAOAA thought itself fully justified, therefore, the secretary adds, in establishing a water system and a sewer system in Panama first It is not true, he says, that a large number of employees on the isthmus live in Colon proper. as MT. Stevens points out there are not exceeding two or three hundred living there.
 Regarding the c.}arge of indifference as Ito food supply For the laborers the secretary refers tp the reports on the Markel contract and says the very dil- igent efforts made in this regard are sufficiently set out here.
 Bearing on the charge that there is to-day no water supply in Colon Sec retary Taft quotes from a dispatch from Governor Magoon of January 8 advising !im that of the two tempora ry reservoirs for the Colon and Cristo- bal water supply one was completed on November 1 and the other the latter part of December wit ha total capacity of S0,OOO,00O gallons amply sufficient for the present dry season; that there is Il oscarcity of water in Colon; that a permanent reservoir capacitytof 5O0,OO0, 900 gallons is under construction to be completed April 1.
 Secretary Taft declares the rate of wages are well advertised throughout the West Indies as ten cents gold an hour for a day of eight hours, which may be increased by dilgent work to It-s. {. t~o n1r true, he says, that a great prejudice ex- ists against negroes in the railroad management. The secretary says 1t is charged that the chairman of the com- mission and all others wrongly look upon the tropical negro laborer as poor labor. The conclusion of MT. Stevens and of every observer on the isthmus, he declares, Is to the effect that this labor is inefficient Regarding the statement that the negroes are leaving the isthmus in portentious numbers be- cause of mistreatment, MT. Stevens testifes, the secretary says. that Just before the holidays a great number of laborers returned to the islands whence they came as has been the GUS tom ever since the beginning of the French construction. The secretary shows there are now on the pay rolls + ,0O0, laborers He refers to the per- sonnel of the court of the canal zone and says it would be difficult to select another one for the duties 1t has to discharge.
 As to the charge that officials on the isthmus were appointed through con gressional or political influence the sec retary says the chief engineer cate gorically denies this, "and I am amble from the standpoint Of Washington also categorically to deny it. Political in fiuence. he says, has played no part whatever in the selection of appoinltees.
 Secretary Taft declares that the charge of delay by red tape" In the he construction of buildings on the isthmus Is shown to be untrue by the statement of the chief engineer, and as to the allegation that the dredges in the Culebra cut were not working to 20 per cent of their promised capac- ity the secretary says there are no dredges within a long distance Of the Culebra cut and the instruments there are steam shovels.
 Secretary Taft says the charge that quarantine officials construe the law and enforce it as far as possible to- in- terfere with commerce is utterly un- founded" The isthmus is being freed from danger of yellow fever and other contagious diseases, observes the secre- tary, by an effort unprecedented in the history of the world. Being surround ed on every side by disease breeding ports, the secretary says it is of the highest importance, if the work done upon the isthmus is to remain perma- nent that the quarantine be strictly enforced.
 Secretary Taft repeats his former statement that the charge that boat load of black women were imported from Martinique for immoral purposes Is false. Secretary Taft says that the twelve members of the advisory board of engineers spent seven and one-half days on the isthmus and made an eX- tended examination of the proposed situs and it's appurtenances, quite sufti- cient and minute enough, he asserts, for them to pass upon the proper type of the canal.
 | Secretary Taft continues Finally, l come to the charges specifically made against the secretary of war They consist in 8 refusal to accept the guid- ance of MT Tracy Robinson in visiting the purlieus of Colon, and refusal to have an interview with MT. John Lun- die chief engineer of the electric and refrigerating plant in Panama To the first charge l plead guilty"
 He says an impression was sought to be given that MT. Lundie's application for an interview was made in the in terest of the negro laborers on the isth- mus, and declares that the correspond- ence shows how unfounded this is, and that, in fact, Mir. Lundie did not ask for an interview at all"
 Secretary Taft states that the writer of the article containing the charges arrived in Panama November 30 and left December 1, and that Tit is not un- fair to say that his opportunities for observing were limited to twenty-eight hours, including daytime and night time"
 In view of this statement the secre' tary says the writer should not takt exception to the seven or eight days which twelve of the most distinguished engineers in the world in canal con- struction devoted to the same task