The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1906-12-18

a bottle of liquid auinine tonic, which
| two-thirds of the guests, as ! was in
| formed, used every day. There We're neat
tableeloths and napkins. The men. who
were taking the meal at or about the
| same time. included railroad men, ma i
ehinists, shipwrights and members of the
| office force. The rooms were clean, COM
Portable and airy, with mosquito screens
around the outer piazza. ! was informed
| by some Of those present that this hotel,
! and also the other similar hotels. were
| every Saturday night turned into club
J houses where the American officials. the
| school teachers and various employees APP
peared bringing their wives. there being
! dancing and singing There was a piano
| in the room, which I was informed was
used for the music on these coca sions. My
meal was excellent. and two newspaper
correspondents who had been on the
| isthmus for several days informed me
! that 1t was precisely like the meals they
| had been getting elsewhere at other gov
| eminent hotels. One of the employees was
a cousin of one of the secret service men
with me, and he stated that the meals
| had always been good, but that after a
| time he grew tired of them because they
seemed so much alike.
No Cause for Complaint About Food.
| came to, the conclusion that, speaking
generally, there was no warrant for COM
|
| monotonous after awhile. Any man ae-
customed TO handling large masses of
men knows that some of them. even tho
| otherwise very good men, are sure 10
| grumbe about something, and usually
about their food. School boys college
| boys, and boarders In boarding houses
make similar complaints, so do soldiers
| and sailors On this very trip, on one
| of the warships, a seaman came 10 COM
| nj al 40
| the quality of the cocoa at the seamen' :
mess saying that 1t was not sweet
enough; it was pointed out to him that
| there was sugar on, the table and he
| could always put it in, to which he re-
| sponded that that was the cooks business
and not his | think that the complaint
| as to the food ON the isthmus has but lit
| tie more foundation than that of the sailor
| in question Moreover, | was given to
understand that one real cause of COM
| plant was that at the government hotels
| no liquor is served, and some of the drink
| ing men, therefore, refused to so to them
! The number of men using the govern
ment hotels is steadily increasing
Chinese and Other Labor.
OF the nineteen or twenty thousand
| day laborers employed on the canal a
few hundred are Spaniards. These do eX-
| celent work. Their foremen told me
| that they did twice as well as the West
| Indian laborers. They keep healthy and
no difficulty is experienced with them In
| any way Some Italian laborers are also
| employed in connection with the drilling.
As might hs expected, with labor as high
| priced as az present In the United States
| it has not far proved practicable 10
| get any ordinary laborers from the United
| States. The American wage workers on
| the isthmus are the highly paid skilled
.1,a mt Of flaa
viously. A steady effort is being made 10
! secure Italians. and especially TO procure
more Spaniards, because of the very salts
| factory results that have come from Their
| employment, and their numbers will be
| increased far as possible. 1t has not
| proved possible, however to get them In
anything like the numbers needed FOR the
work and from present appearances We
| shall in the main have to rely for tho
| ordinary unskled work partly upon coll
| ored laborers from the West Indies part
| ly upon Chinese labor. II certainly ought
! To be unnecessary to point out that the
American Workingman In the Tinted
| 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 once country with "A black skin or by
| aliens from another country with yell
| low skin. Our business is to dig the canal
| as efficiently and as quickly as possible:
| provided always that nothing Is done
! that is inhumane to any laborers, and
| nothing that nterferes with the wages of
| or lowers the standard of living of our
workmen. Having in view this principle, |
| have arranged to try several thousand
Chinese laborers. This is desirable both
| because we must try to find out what
laborers are most efficient, and, further
| more because we should not leave ouf-
| selves at the mercy OF any one type of
foreign labor At present the great bulk
| of the unskilled labor on the isthmus is
| done by West Indian negroes, chiefly
| from Jamaica, Barbados, and the other
| English possessions. One of the COVER
| nors of the islands in question has shown
| an unfriendly disposition to our work and
| has thrown obstacles I'm the way of our
| getting the labor needed and ii Is highly
undesirable to give any outsiders the Inn
preston however Ill founded, that they
are indispensable and can dictate terms
| to us.
Nearo Iaborers and Their Quarters
| The West India laborers are fairly, but
| only fairly, satisfactory. Some of the men
| do very we'll indeed; the better class, who
| are to be found as foremen, AZ skilled
mechanics, as policemen, are good men,
and many of the ordinary day laborers
are also good. But thousands of those
| who brought over under contract tat
| our expense), go off into the jungle to
| live or loaf around Colon. or work SO
badly after the first three or four days
| as to cause a serious diminution of the
| amount of labor performed on Friday and
Saturday of each week. | questioned many
of these Jamaica laborers as to the con-
ditions of their work and what, IL any
| changes they wsht. | received many
complaints from them, but as regards
most of these complaints they themselves
contradicted one another. In all cases
where the complaint was as to their treat
ment by any individual 1t proved on exam
ination that this Individual was himself
n West India man of color, either "a po-
lceman, a storekeeper, or an assistant
storekeeper Doubtless there must be
many complaints against Americans; but
those to whom ] spoke did not happen
tn make any such complaint to me. There
was no complaint of the housing; ! saw
but one set of quarters for colored la
borers which / thought poor. and this
was in an old French house. The bar
racks for unmarried men are roomy,
we'll ventilated and clean, with canvas
hunks for each man, and a kind of false
attic at the top. where the trunks ana
other belongings of the different men
arc kept The clothes are hung on clothes-
lines nothing being allowed to be Kept
on the floor. In each of these big rooms
there were tables and lamps and usually
a few books or papers, and In almost
every room there was a Bible; the books
heine the property of the laborers them
eaIves The cleanliness OF the quarters il
.za,,uol H., daily inspectiOu. The quarters