The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-01-11
TAFT IS ON
 DEFENSIVE Secretary Makes Answer
 to Charges. AFFAIRS OF THE CANAL Letter to President Refutes Bige-
 lows Statements. Similarly Conditions on the Isthmus, Indifference of the Food Supplies for Laborers and Other Mat
 ters Discussed.

Washington, Jan. 10.--An elaborate and comprehensive answer to the charges against the Isthmian Canal Commission contained in an article in The Independent has been made by Secretary Taft. It Is in the form of a letter to the President who January 6, in a communication with the sec- retary, said his attention had been directed to an article published pur- porting to have been written by Poult- ney Bigelow, Attacking the adminis- tration of affairs by the canal com mission and yourself on the isthmus," and adding. "Will you please advise me what basis If any there is for these charges?"
 In his reply Secretary Taft first briefly summarized the charges as fol- lows:
 Alleging that the conditions in Colon are so unsanitary as to indicate great neglect in providing for the health of the employees of the committee; alleged mistreatment of negro laborers; that persons appointed to the isthmus are incompetent and have been given their places through political influence, and official incompetency or misconduct, the latter involving the charges that there Is so much red tape" necessary to bring about the construction of build ings that great misery has come to the laborers on the isthmus.
 The secretary says that as Chief En- gineer Stevens Is now in Washington and is personally cognizant of the facts with respect to every local condi- tion described by the writer of the article. memorandum of comments by Mir. Stevens is appended to the letter as an exhibit.
 Conditions of Colon.
 Discussing the conditions of Colon tho GenrpfarV nnntpq Mir Stevens saying that every one knows who has been on the ground that the problem of draining the city is one of extreme difficulty, owing to the situation on an island surrounded by the sea on one side and by a fresh water swamp on the other; that the land on the aver age is not more than one and one-half feet above the sea level. Uncertainty as to the plans of improving Colon has rendered hhpraetlcabie any radical de- struction of unsanitary building, most of which are on lands owned by the railroad company and leased on short terms to middlemen.
 Meantime the secretary says the sanitary conditions in Panama re- quired much more urgent treatment than those at Colon. The death rate at Panama since the government took charge of the health of the isthmus, the secretary says, Is from 20 per cent to 8 Ia per cent greater than in Colon. The commission thought itself fully justified, the secretary adds, In building a water and sewer system in Panama first. It is not true, he says, that a large number of employees on the isthmus live In Colon proper where the swampy district Is, and MT. Stevens points out thaI there are not more than two or three hundred living there.
 Replying to the charge of mdifer- ence of the food supplies for the la borers, the secretary refers to the Mer- ley contracts and says that the dili- gent effort made in this regard were sufficiently set out there as already published.
 Bearing on the charge that there is no water supply in Colon, Secretary Taft quotes from q dispatch from Gov ernor Magoon on January B. advising him that of the two temporary reser- voirs for the Colon and Cristobal water supply, (the latter place being not five minutes walk from the center of Colon) one was completed on Nov. 1 and the other the later part of Decem- Der, with q total capacity of S0.00.00 gallons, a quantity sufficient for the present dry season; that there Is no scarcity of water In Colon; that per manent reservoir capacity of 500,000,- 900 gallons is under construction. The statements of Mir. Stevens and Govern or Magoon, Secretary Taft says, are at variance with those of the writer of this article.
 Rate of wages.
 Secretary Taft declares the rate of wages is we'll advertised throughout the West Indies as ten cents gold an hour for a day of eight hours. which may be increased by diligent work to thirteen cents an hour. It IS also un- true he says, that great prejudice
 the railroad mana Rement. The Secretary says It IS charged that the Chairman of the Com ,nissjon and all others wrongly LOOK upon tropical negro lapor as poor labor. Tho conclusion of MT. stevens and of every observer on the !sthfnus' he declares, is to the erect thar tnls labor Is inefficient. Regarding the statement that the negroes are leaving the Isthmus in portentious numbers be- caI,se of mistreatment, MT. Stevens tes- tiFies. the Secretary says that just be- fore the holidays great number of laborers returned to the Islands whence they came. This, the Secre- tarv saws. has been the custom ever since the beginning of the French con struction. Many of the laborers leave their families and because the trans I portation is cheap, are able to go back and then return.
 The Secretary shows there are now on pay-rOllS l ttuUO ldDOfeTS.
 As to the charge that officials on the were appointed through Con eressional or political influence. the Secretary says the chief enginer cat egoricallv denies this and I am able. from the standpolnt of Washington also catcgorically 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 | inc Isthmus-skilled mechanics. track | la yers. carpenters and others-certain- lv their defects in their qualifications which have been found to exist have not been found fin the exercise of po- Iitical influence.
 Secretary Taft says that the charge If delay by "rcd tape" in building on the Isthmus Is shown 10 hc untrue by Inc statement of the chief engineer, ana as to the statement that dredees m Culebra Cut were not working up to -ventv per cent Of their promised ca- ,ocitv. the Secretary says there arc so dredges within a long distance of nc CuIebra Cut. and that the instru- ,1euts being used arc steam shovels
 Charge Utterly Unfounded.
 Secretary Taft says that the charge