The Cairo bulletin., 1906-12-18
DELIGHTED WITH
WORK ON PANAMA
PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT IN SPEC
lAL MESSAGE TELLS OF TRIP
TO lSTHMUS.
TR AL OF COOLIE HELP
Need Cause American Workmen Any
Concern, He Says--Praise For
All the Ditch Diegers-Sure
of Success.

washington, d. c., Dec 1.-THE
pictorialy illustrated message from
President Roosevelt, portraying the
conditions as he found them on the
I.thmus Of Panama during his recent
visit. occupied the senate during the
greater port on of its. session today.
Printed copies of the message, hand
somely bound were placed on the desk
of each senator and the reading OF the
document was closely followed. Pre-
ceding the Panama message, the presi-
dents MESSAGES with recommenda-
tions regarding the public lands and
the naval personnel were received and
read
The pictorial feature of the mes
sage afforded all opportunity for good
natured comment The innovation OF
cuts in a state paper being looked up
on with favor.
The president said in part:
Preliminary Work Being Done.
The wisdom OF the canal manage
ment has been shown in nothing more
clearly than in the way in which the
foundations of the work have been
laid. re have yielded to the natural
i7npatience of ill-informed outsiders
and begun all kinds OF experiments III
work prior TO thorough saniiatio OF
the Isthums. and to fairly satlsiac-
tory working out of the problem OF
getting and keeping sufficient labor
supply, would have been disastrous.
The various preliminary measures had
to be taken first: and these could not
he taken SO as to allow us 10 begin
the real work Of construction prior 10
January of the present year. Ii
then became necessary To have the
type Of the canal decided, and the only
delay has been the necessary delay
until the Goth day Of June the date
when the congress definitely and wise
ly settled that we should have an S3-
foot level canal. Immediately after
that The work began in hard earnest
and has been. continued with increas-
ing vigor ever since and it will con
tinue so TO progress in the future.
When the contracts are let the condi-
tions will be such as toinsure a con-
stantIy increasing amount Of per
formance.
Chinese and other Labor.
OF the nineteen or twenty thousand
day laborers employed on the canal, 4
few hundred are Spaniards These d.
excellent work Their foreman told
a. %. no
West India laborers. They keen
healthy and no difficulty is cxpcr.
fenced with them in any way. Some /
Italian laborers arc also employed in
connection with the drilling. As /
might be expected. with labor as high |
priced as at present in the United !
States. it has not so far proved prac- /
ticabIe to get any ordinary labCrcrs t
from the United States. The Ameri I
can wage-workers on the lsthmus arc |
the highly paid skilled mechanics of |
The types mentioned previously A |
steady effort is being made TO secure
Italians and especially to procure
more Spanards. because Of the very
sat sfactory results that have come
from their employment: and their
numbers will be increased as far as
possible. II has net proved possible.
howevet to yet them In any hing like
the numbers needed for the work. and
from present appearances VIC shall in
the main have to rely, for the ordinary
unskilled work. partly upon colored la
borers from the West Indies, partly
upon Chinese labor.
II certainly ought to be unnecessary
to point out that the American work
ingmen in the United States has no
concern whatever in the question as to
whether the rough work on the 18TH
mus. which is performed by aliens in
any event is done by aliens from
one country with black skin or by
aliens from another country with 4
yellow skin. Our business is TO dig
the canal as efficiently and as quickly
as puss BILE; provided always that
nothing is done hat is inhumanc to
any laborcrs. and nothing that inter
fcrcs with the wages Of or lowers the
standard of living of our own work
men
Having in view this principle. have ,
arranged TO try several Thousand Chi
nese laborers. This is desirable both /.
because we must try 10 find OFT what
laborers are most efficient. and. fur :
thermOre. because we should not
leave ourselves at the mercy of any
one type of fore gn labor. At present
the great bulk OF the unskilled labor
on the Isthmus is done by West India I.
negroes. chiefly from Jamaica. Bar