Los Angeles herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1900-1911, 1906-12-18
MAKES SPECIAL REPORT TO CONGRESS-
Considers Work on Great Waterway Progressing
in Satisfactory Manner and Uses Some Wig
orous Language to DenOunce Those
Who Are Knocking Project

ferent Observation-Disclosures and heads
of departments, divisions and bureaus,
steam shovel men, machnists. conduct
ors, engineers, clerks, wives of the
American employees, Health officers.
colorcd attendants, and managers of
the commissary stores where food is
sold to the colored laborers wives of
the colored employees who are married.
In the evening ] had an interview with
the British consul, Mr.. Mallet a gen.
tleman who for many years has well
and honorably represented the British
government on the Isthmus of Pana-
ma and who has a peculiar relation to
our work because the bulk of colored
laborers come from the British West
indies. l also saw the French consul,
Mr. Gey, gentleman of equally long
service and honorable record L saw
the licutenants, the chief executive and
administrative officers, under the en-
gineering and sanitary departments. I
also saw and had long talks with two
deputations-one of machinists and one
representing the railway men of the
dirt misunderstanding to what they had
to say as to the rate of pay and various
other matters and going over, as much
in detail as possible all the different
questions they brought up. AS to some
matters l was able to meet their wish
yes; as to others, / felt that what they
Requested COulu not De uOne consistent
ly with my duty to the United States
government as a whole; as to yet 9TH
ers l reserved judgment.
Third Day
On Saturday moning we started at
O'Clock from the hotel. We went
through the Culebra cut, stopping off
to see the marines and also to investi-
gate certain towns; one, of white en-
ployes, as to which in certain respects
complaint had been made to me; and
another town where l wanted to see
certain houses of the colored employees.
We went over the proposed site of the
Gatln dam, having on the first day
inspected the sites of the proposed La
Boca and Sosa dams. We went out on
little toy railway to the reservoir,
which had been built to supply the
people Of Colon with water for their
houses. There we took lunch at the
engineers mess. We then went through
the stores and shops of Cristobal in
speeting carefully the houses of both
the white and colored employees, mar
ried and unmarried together with the
other buildings. We then went to Colon
and saw the fire department at work:
in four minutes from the signal the en-
gines had come down to Front street,
and twenty-one two and a half inch
W
ter about seventy-five feet high. We
rode about Colon, through the various
streets, paved, unpaved and in process
of paving, looking at the bitches, sew
ers, curbing and the lights. l then
went over the Colon hospital in order
to compareSit with~the temporary town
or field receiving hospitals which 1 had
already seen and inspected. L also in
spected some of the dwellings, of the
employees. In the evening 1 attended a
reception given by the American en-
ployes on the isthmus, which took place
on one Of the docks in Colon, and from
there went aboard the Louisiana.
Each day from twelve to eighteen
hours We're spent in going over and
inspecting all there was to be seen,
and in examining various employees
throughout my trip l was accom-
panied by the surgeon general of the
navy, Dr. RiXley; by the chairman of
the isthmian canal commission, Mr..
Shonts; by Chief Engineer Stevens, by
DR.. Gorgas, the chief sanitary officer
of the commission; by Mr.. Ripley, the
principal assistant engineer; by Jack
son Smith, who has had practical
charge of collecting and handling the
laboring force; by Mr. Bierd, general
manager of the railway, and by Mr.,
Rogers, the general counsel of the COM
mission, and many other officials joined
us from time to time.
AT the outset l wish to pay a tribute
to the amount of work done by the
French Canal company under very diff
fcult circumstances. Many of the
buildings they put up were excellent
and are still in use, though, naturally,
the houses are now getting out of re-
pair and are being used as dwellings
only until other houses can be built
and much of the work they did in the
Culebra cut, and some of the work they
did in digging has been of direct and
real benefit. This country has never
made better investment than the $40,-
100000 which it paid to the French
company for work and betterments, in
Guiding especially the Panama railroad
An inspection on the ground at the
height of the rainy season served to
convince me of the wisdom of congress
in refusing to adopt either a high level
or a sea level canal. There seems to
be universal agreement among all
people competent to judge that the
Panama route, the one actually chosen
is much superior to both the Nicaragua
and Darien routes.
Hospitals and Their Treatment
I inspected the large hospitals at Au-
con and Colon, which are excellent eX-
amples of what tropical hospitals should
be. | also inspected the receiving hos
pitfalls in various settlements. ! went
through a number of the wards in
which the colored men are treated, a
number of those in which the white
men are treated-Americans and Span
iards. Both white men and black men
are treated exactly alike, and their
treatment is as good as that which
could be obtained in our first-class hos
pitfalls a: home. All the patients that
saw, with one or two exceptions, were
laborers or other employees on the canal
works and railways, most of them be-
ing colored men of the ordinary laborer
stamp. Not only are the men careful
ly cared for whenever they apply for
care, but so far as practicable a watch
is kept to see that II they need it they
are sent to the hospitals. whether they
desire to go or not. From no respon-
sible source did any complaint come to
me as to the management of the hos
pital service, although occasionally a
very ignorant West Indian negro when
he is first brought into the hospital be-
comes frightened by the ordinary hos
pital routine.
Health Showing Remarkably Good
Inst af nrasent the health showing