Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1906-05-03
CONDITIONS AS THEY ARE
ON THE ISTHMUS OF PANAMA

out of the country? We have judges,
jails, and justice in the zone. l am
informed that just prior to my arrival
IL workmen had been cOrralled at the
Cristobal Jail for deportation, but that
their leader declared he would take
the matter before the authorities at
Washington unless they were all re-
leased. And they were released. But
Connolly was deported. The result is
that a great many working men-car-
penters, mechanics, foremen, and the
like-feel that certain degree of
despotism is seeping into canal affairs
and that the republican form of gov
eminent does not always follow the
stars and stripes.
But we were talking of government
al red tape. Experience teaches us
that a certain amount of red tape is
necessary, or else some scandal mon
ger will make charges of graft against
public officials. But it does not seem
right that the negro laborerS on the
canal work should have to wait for
from seven 10 seventeen days for their
pay, and | know of some instances
where the negroes actually sailed for
their island homes, leaving their wages
behind them. The reason is mystic
method of accounts, of pay rolls that
weigh more than a hundred pounds,
of an arbitrarily autocratic administra-
ton of money affairs. The negro
should be paid as he drops his pick at
the end of the working period, and
when this is done so per cent of the
complaints from the working classes
will cease.
A Chicago contractor who came to
Colon recently to erect several struc-
lures for a private corporation, re-
quested permission to purchase an old
French boiler and engine that had
been discarded when the French de-
serted their posts, and had not been
touched by the Americans. In all
probability the engine and boiler will
soon join that host of machinery that
has been dumped into the sea. But
the division engineer could not sell the
material. Neither could he give it
away, or loan it, or do anything with
it but leave it rusting by the roadside
The Chicago contractor was told that
he would have to communicate with
half dozen officers on the zone, and
then that permission would have to
come from Washington. He also want
ed some short pieces of discarded lum-
Der. but the same red tape was at
tached to that. So he cabled his order
ha
government might have made 5000 or
$500 from the sale of this bit of old
iron. A private contractor would not
have hesitated for a moment
Great progress is being made in the
matter of commissary supplies, al
though the government is being taken
advantage of in many respects. re-
lfrlgerating plant has been constructed
and cold storage warehouse has just
been completed at Colon, from where
supplies of all kinds are distributed in
small and large. quantities along the
zone. The morning train out of Colon
carries ice and all sorts of provisions
to the various camps, and within a few
months the system should be perfected
to an extent that will give perfect sat
tor ships is the only essential that is
lacking. Then it will be possible to
get fairly good preserved foods.
But in the distribution of household
goods, clothing and the like, there is
another story to tell. Employees persist
in buying all sorts of supplies at low
commissary prices and giving them to
friends who are not in the employ of
the government. The homes of wo-
men of ill repute, l am told, are fur
nished with commissary supplies at
commissary prices. This looks bad.
but it is a. condition that is hard to-
remedy. The fault is with the en-
plOyeS, who have the material sent to-
their residences and then transshipped
to other places. Mr.. Burnett. who has
just been put in charge of the commits
sary, hopes to be able to devise some
system of checking up that will pre-
clude this imposition.
For the past year many complaints
have been made by government off
GERS against the commissary and its
method of management, but within the
made, and there is every reason to be-
lieve that conditions will improve
forthwith. But there is one thorn in
the side of the commissary-a thorn
that can be removed only by congress.
Mr.. Burnett is compelled by, law to
purchase his supplies in the United
States. Any other course would be I'M
American. But he pays more for somel
articles in New York than the price of
the same articles in the Chinese stores
at Colon. Then he has to add freight
and handling. 1t revives the same old |
question of protection versus free
trade, and the result is that the Chi |
nese have an exclusive market for
such stuff on which they can quote |
lower prices. The commissary is pat
ronized where its prices are lowest
and for such goods as it carries exclu-