Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-03-04
PRESENT CONDITIONS
IN THE PANAMA ZONE
Statement by Mr.. Ferguson, a
Locomotive Engineer.
SOME OF THE CHARGES
Exorbitant Prices Paid for Nearly All
the Material.
THE CIVIL SERVICE PROBLEM
Donkey-Skinners and Hosting Engine
Men Working as Locomotive Driv-
ers-Give the Mechanics Show.
THE CIVIL SERVICE PROBLEM
Some of the Charges.

Most OF the red wood purchased
in New York at cost OF $40 a
thousand.
In house constructed for Stevens
at Culebra, common sap pine cost
$2S.75 per 1000, and was shipped
from New York instead of from
southern ports.
Five-room cottage cost $4,000.
Hotel, plain structure, no doors
and no windows, cost $4,000.
Cost of common materials: Pig
iron, $3.50 per hundred pounds
block tin, Is cents per pound sew
enty-pound steel rails, S27 ton
one lot of wheclbarrows, SI.74 a
piece; second lot, s.. so piece; ref
use cheese for sanitary department,
II cents a pound.
Locomotives cost hall as much
again through being reconstructad
as railroads here would pay.
Imported Martinique women were
not wives
There probably never was a subject about
which there were more conflicting opinions
than about the present conditions in the
Panama zone There was Mr.. Poultney
Bigelow's very pessimstic view. while on
the other hand many optimistic accounts
have appeared from people who have made
inves tiga tions of the canal work.
The Star herewith gives a statement made
TO it by Mr.. l.. w. Ferguson. who has just
returned after year spent In the canal
work Mr.. Ferguson Is a locomotive engi-
neer. and for over a year served In that ca
pacity for the canal commission and the
railroad In his statement he gives some
figures to bear out his charges that the pur-
chasing agents of the canal are paying un-
necessarily higher prices for materials used
in Panama. If the figures given as the
prices paid were in any way continuous and
not emergency appropriations, then 1t is
certain that Mr.. Shonts, with his certain
energy and straightforwardness Will re-
quire explanations that explain from the
purchasing agents of the canal. This is
Mr.. Ferguson's statement:
Mr.. Ferguson's Statement.
The following statement which 1 make
In regard to the money which is spent un-
necessarily on the isthmus cannot possibly
be denied.
The lumber, which amounts TO far more
than that which is used in Greater New
York, and the unnecessarily high prices
which are paid for It, leads one 10 wonder
For instance. whoever heard of redwood
being grown east of the Rocky mountains
The most of the redwood used on the 18TH
mus is purchased in New York at a cost
of $40 a thousand In the house recently
constructed for Chief Engineer Stevens at
Culebra the cheapest lumber that was used,
which was common sap pine, usually ship
ped from our southern ports. cost the
canal commission at wholesale price SIS 10
Per thousand This was the poorest sap
pine that could be bought. The average
lumber used in this building was $40 per
thousand all shipped from New York. A
hve-room cottage constructed of the same
material. with the exception of some of the
hardwoOds. cost the canal commission
$500. The hotel plain structure. with no
doors, no windows, only wire screen being
USED, cost the canal commission $4,000 to
construct.
The following list Of articles used by the
canal commission are such would be
necessary to be used for the next ten years,
during the entire time required to con-
struct TIE Panama canal. For instance,
our pig lead is used in large quantities at
a cost OF $50 per hundred. Block tin is
used AT Is cents a pound: angle bars fer
our railways, at - cents per pair; steel
rails. OF the T0-pound type, ST a ton; our
hnsCed oil. ~ cents gallon; our boiled
oil. G3 cents a gallon, The lowest grade of
engine and valve oil is used at 81 cents per
gallon. one lot of wheelbarrows were sent
down to the canal commission at a cost of
STA apiece. These wheelbarrows gave
such perfect satisfaction that another lot
was ordered. The price paid for the second
lot. TO my amazement, amounted to $500
apiece, which. in ordering several thousand
wheelbarrows, amounted to quite sum-
Cheese at Al Cents a Pound.
During the bubonic scare. along in July
or August, 1905, a quarantine was put on
Iaboca. Our chief sanitary officer. DR..
Gorgas. claimed that II was necessary TO
exterminate the wharf rats. which be
found in large quantities around the ship
ping docks A requisition was sent for q
large quantity of cheese to be used In rat
traps for the purpose of catching these rats,
which DIR. Gorgas claimed aided in spread
ing the infection. OF course the quality of
the cheese to be used in setting these traps
was to be OF the poorest refuse stuff that
could be bought on the market I'm New
York.
''Our cOmmissary is run for the benefit OF
the employees of the canal, and the goods
that are sold by Il are only 10 be disposed
OF at 10 per cent profit. to cover expenses
for the commissary. We buy the best OF
cream cheese at this commssary for Is
cents a pound. while the shipment of cheese
sent down for the sanitary department,
amounting TO several hundred pounds cos.
the canal commission Al cents pound
Il also find that our cotton waste that
Is used in the macnme shops and round
houses for wiping locomotives only costs
the canal commission a trifle over 8 cents
n pound, while our tool steel, which is
shipped down in the common bar form,
costs the canal commission from 81 cents
to tS cents a pound
The above stated prices were taken from
the chief bookkeeper's office. Now. as to
civil service in the supply division, Mr. Tub
by, through the recommendation of Mr..
Wallace's son, brought down several men
Tor MS own private use from various rail-