The Birmingham age-herald., 1906-01-11
Declares Criticisms Are ACIuated
 h Ssfshntss
SENDS LETTER ID PRESIDENT
Bqelow's Recent Article Is the Result of Twenty-elght Hours Stay on the lsthmus-Defends
 MT. Stevens.

Washington January 10-An elaborate and comprehensive answer to the charges against the lsthmian canal commission contained in an article in the Independent has been made by Secretary Taft IL
 Is in the form of a letter to the President who on January in communication with the secretary said his attention had l been directed to an article published pur- porting to have been written by MT PouItney Bigelow, attacking the admin istration of affairs by the canal commits sion. and yourself on. the isthmns, and adding
 1 "Wn you please advise me what ba- sis. if any, there is for these chargesY Alleging that the conditions in Colon are so unsanitary as to indicate great neg 1ect in providing for the health of the employees of the commission; alleged mis- treatment of negro laborers; that per sons appointed to the isthmus are ln- l competent and have been given their | places through political influence; and ol- aoial incompetency or misconduct, the latter involving the charge that there Is so much "red tape necessary to bring about the construction of buildings, that great misery has come to the laoofefs on the isthmus The secretary says that Chief Engineer Stevens Is now in Wash ington and Is personally cognizant or the facts with respect to every local condition described by the writer of the article and a memorandum of comments thereon bv Mir. stevens Is appended to the lat ter as an exhibit.
 Is Extremely Difficult Problem.
 Discussing the conditions at Colon, the secretary quotes Mr. Stevens as saslhR lthat every one knows who has been oh the ground that the problem Of draining
 the city is one of extreme difficulty, ow- ing to the situation on an island sur
 rounded by the sea on one side and py a 1 fresh water swamp on the other; that the land on the average is not more man
 one and half feet above the sea level
 Uncertainty as to the plans of improving | Colon has rendered impracticable any rad teal destruction of unsanitary buildings
 most of which are on lands owned by the
 railroad company and leased on snort | terms to mIddlemen. Meantime the secfe-
 tarv says the sanitary conditions In fah- | anna required much more urgent Feat-
 fnent than those at Colon. The oeath rate
 at Panama since the government looh
 charge of the health of the isthmus, the secretary says, Is from 20 per cent to 35 l-S
 nar cent greater than In Colon. Ihe
 eonmission thought itself fully Justified | therefore, the secretary adds, in DullalhB
 a water and a sewer system In Panama first. It is not true,s he says, that large number of employees on the lsthmus iiNe tha l.
 tr,ct is and MT Stevens points out that thora arc not more than two or three hun- dred living there.
 i Replying to the charge or indifference
 of the food supplies for the laborers, the
 secretary refers to the Merkel contracts
 and says that the diligent effort made Tn
 this regard was sufficiently set out there as already published.
 Water Supply Is Ample. i Bearing on the charge that there is no water supply In Colon, Secretary Tali | quotes from a dispatch from Governor | Magoon on January 8. advising him that . of the two temporary reservoirs for the Colon and Crlstobal water supply uhe 1 latter place being not five minutes walk from the center of Colon) one was com pleted on November 1, and the other the l latter part of December, with total ca pacty of sOOOOOOO gallons, quantity sui
  } there is no scarcity of water In colon . that a permanent reservoir capacity or } l b00 100000 gallons Is under construction. , The statements of MT. Stevens and Gov ernor Magoon Secretary Taft says, are at : variance with those of the writer or this ] article.
 Secretary Taft declares the rate of
 wages Is well advertised throughout the
 West Indies as 10 cents gold an hour for | a day of eight hours which may be increased by dilgent work to IS cents | an hour. It Is also untrue me says that | a great prejudice exists against negroes
 in the railroad management The Secre- tarv says if is charged that the chairman . | of the commission and all others wrong | lv 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 leay- . ing the isthmus in portentious numbers, because of mlstreatment MT. Stevens | testifes the Secretary says that just
 before the holidays a great number of
 laborers returned to the islands whence
 they came. This, the Secretary says has been the custom ever since the beginning of the French construction. Many of the , laborers leave their families, and be- i, cause the transportation is cheap, are
 able to go back and then return. The Secretary shows there are now on , the pay rolls l7.O00 laborers.
 As to the charge that officials on the isthmus were appointed through congress
 sonal or political influence tine Secretary
 says the chief engineer categorically de-
 nles this "and l am able from the stand , point of Washington also cstegorieally to deny it." He adds
 There has been great difficulty in securing under the civil service law methods men for out of door work on : the lsthmus-skilled mechanics. track I layers. carpenters and others-certalnly their defects in their qualifications which 1 have been found to exist having been
 found in the exercise of political in- l luence.'
 Shown to Be Untrue.
 Secretary Taft says that the charge Of , | delay by "red tape" in building on the isthmus Is shown to be untrue by the s statement of the chief engineer. and as to e the statement that dredges on culebra V cut were not working up to 20 per cent o ~~.~~~~~~~~~-~-~~~~ ~~-~~~-~-~-->->--->~~-~