The Dakota chief. (Gann Valley, Buffalo County, S.D.) 18??-1913, 1906-12-27

white Americans, including some 100
/ women and children, not a single death
/ has occurred in the past three months
Next In Importance to the problem OF san
itation, and indeed now Of equal Importance,
! is the problem Of securing and caring for
the mechanics, lab0rers, and other employees
! who actually do the work on the canal and
the railroad. This great task has been un.
der the control of Jackson Smith, and on
the whole has been well done At present
there are some 5000 waite employees and
some 10000 colored employees on the 18th
mus went over the different places
! where the different kinds of employees wert
! working: think / saw representatives c.
every type both at their work and in thei
homes; and l conyersed with probably
colpe OF hundred OF them all told. choosing
them at random from every class and In
Guiding those who came especially to pre-
sent certain grievances.
| Proud Of the Americans.
! Nearly 5000 of the white employees had
! come from the United Staes No man can
| see these young. vigorous men energeticalIy
doing their duty without thrill Of pride in
| them as Americans. They represent on the
| average high class. Doubtless to Congress
the wages paid them will seem high. but as
a matter Of fact the only general complaint
which | found had any real basis ameng the
complaints made to me upon the isthmus
| was that, owing to the peculiar surround
ings, the cost Of living. and the distance
| from home, the wages were really not as
| high as they should be. In fact. almost
every man spoke to felt that be ought to
| be receiving more money! view, however,
In the United States probably likewise holds
as regards himself.
The Labor Question.
or the nineteen or twenty thousand day
| laborers employed on the canal, few hun
| dred are Spaniards. These do excellent
did twice as well as the West India labor
ers. They keep healthy and no difheulty Is
experienced with them in any way. Some
Italian laborers are also employed In con-
pected, with labor as high priced as at
| present in the United States. IL has not 80
far proved practicable to get any ordinary
laborers from the United States The
are the highly paid skilled Mechanics Of the
| types mentioned previously. A steady ef,
| fort Is being made to secure Italians, ana
| especially to procure more Spaniards' oe
| cause Of the very satisfactory results that
| have come from their employment; ard
! their numbers will be increased as Tar as
possible 1t has not proved possiDie, now
| ever, to get them in anything like the num-
| bers needed for the work, and from pres
| ent appearances we shall In the main nave
| to rely, for the ordinary unskilled work,
| partly upon colored laborers from the west
| Indies. partly upon Chinese labor. 1t Ger.
| tainly ought to I've unnecessary to point out
| that the American workingman In the
United States has no concern Whatever In
| the question as to whether the rough WORK
| on the Isthmus, which Is performed by
aliens in any event. Is done by aliens from
| one country with a black skin or by aliens
| from another country wish yellow skin.
| Our business is to dig the canal as efii.
cientiy and as quickly as possible provided
| always that nothing Is done that Is inhu-
name to any lnborers, and nothing that In
| terferes with the wages Of or lowers the
Having in view this principle, I have ar
ranged to try several thousand Chinese Ia
| borers. This Is desirable both because we
must try to find out what laborers are most
efficient, and, furthermore, because we
should not leave ourselves at the mercy of
any one type Of foreign labor.
Work of Contraction.
The work Is now going on with a vigor
and efficiency pleasant to witness. The
| three big problems Of the canal are the La
Boca dams, the Gatun dam and the Guile
| bra cut. The Culebra cut must be made.
| anyhow; but Of course changes as to the
| dams, or at least as to the locks adjacent
to the dams, may still occur. The La Boca
dams OFFER no particular problem. the bot
tom material being so good that there is a
| can be achieved. but as to the time Of
achievement The Gatun dam offers the
most serious problem which we have to
solve; and yet the ablest men on the 18th:
| mus believe that this problem Is certain OF
solution along the lines proposed; although,
| OF course, 1t necessitates great TOLL energy
ana lntelllgence, ana altnOuSn eQudlly, OI
| course, there will be some little risk in
| connection with the work The risk arises
| from the fact that some Of the material
| near the bottom Is not good could be
| desired. II the huge earth dam now con-
| templated Is thrown across from one foot
| hill to the other we will have what Is prac-
| tically a low, broad, mountain ridge behind
which will rise the inland lake. This arti
| age. that is, will have greater restraining
| capacity than the average natural mountain
| range. The exact locality Of the locks at
| this dam-as at the other dams-is now
| The Culebra cut does not offer such great
| risks; that Is, the damage liable to occur
| from occasional land slips will not repre-
sent what may be called major disasters.
| The work will merely call for Intelligence,
J perseverance and executive capacity. 1t Is,
/ however, the work upon which most labor
| will have to be spent. The dams will be
composed of the earth taken out Of the cut
| and dams will taken even longer than tie
cutting in Culebra itself.
The main work Is now being done In the
! Culebra cut. 1t was striking and impres.
| sve to see the huge steam shovels In full
| play, the dumping trains carrying away the
rock and earth they disiodged. The imple-
| menrs Of French excavating machinery,
| which often stand little way from the line
| Of work, though Of excellent construction.
| look like the veriest toys when compared
| with these new steam shoves, Just as the
| French dumping cars seem like toy cars
! when compared with the long trains OF
huge cars, dumped by steam plows, which
| are now In use This represents the enor-
nous advance that has been made IN ma
chinery during the past quarter Of cen
| tury. No doubt a quarter OF century
hence this new machinery, Of which We are
| now so-proud, will similarly seem out OF
| date, but It Is certainly serving Its pur-
pose well now. The old French cars had
to be entirely discarded We still have In
| use a few Of the more modern, but not
| most modern, cars, which hold but twelve
| yards Of earth. They can be employed on
| certain lines with sharp curves But the
| recent cars hold from twenty five to thirty
yards apiece, and instead Of the old clumsy
methods OF unloading them, q steam plow
| Is drawn from end to end of the whole yes
] tibuled train, thus immensely economizing
labor. In the rainy season the steam shov-
| els can do bat little in dirt, but they work
| steadily In rock and In the harder ground.
| There were some twenty-five at WORK dur.
| Ing the time / was on the lsthmus, and
their tremendous power and efheiency were
| most impressive. .