Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1906-01-25
PANAMA CANAL WORK
is BEING PUSHED
Little Or No Truth in Statement
OF Graft and Laziness at
ISfhmuS

I
interesting letter this week from the
Canal zone. in which he enclosed a
clipping from one of the New York
papers. The clipping was a write-up
| OF the work being done on the
lsthmus, and Of the trip of the Canal
board to the scene of the work last
mouth, 1t went on to say that the
canal board, upon their visit, ventured
ashore only when necessary, stayed on
the steamer Havana, and that there
had been no digging done. 1t went
on to say that all was chaos at the
| 1SthmuS; that white men received too
little pay: that health conditions
| were very bad: that the Panama rail-
| road was more or less a nuisance. and
that sea level canal was unnecessary
when locks could be put in: and
| several other statements that would
indicate that the work at the canal
was merely a big graft, and that
nothing Was being done, either toward
| finishing the canal or toward making
it possible for those who were to build
it to live properly.
Mr.. Huntington takes exception to
the greater part of the story, saying
| that the newspaper man who writes
most of those articles does not know
what he is talking about. He explains
that there was practically nothing
| done wheE he went down at first:
| there was no material on hand, no
| place for the labOrerS to live. very
unSanitary conditions, and a thousand
and one things that must be done be-
fore any real work could be done on
the canal, The ground had to be
| studied, levels taken, and bOringS
taken all along the route to establish
bottom to work on.
All these preparations in new
country require long time and much
labor to bring out, and Mr.. Hunting
ton says this is what has been taking
! up the attention of the men at the
lsthmuS up till now. 1t is far from
being done yet, and of course nothing
of magnitude can be done on the
canal till this is attended to.
AS to the Canal Boards going
| ashore, Mr.. Huntington said they did
20 and Investigate where it was neces-
sary. and that they were wise in not
staying ashore under the conditions
! no to-
Mr.. HuntingtOn's previous letter to
the REPORTER describing this part of
Panama life bears out this statement.
Mr.. Huntington does say, however,
that the pay OF the white men is too
small. ln order to live decently it
costs 4 white man nearly $50 month,
and then he must be careful He
agrees, too, that health conditions
are bad. As to everything'S being
chaos, he said that it merely
looks chaotic, due to the varied
branches of the work being done, and
the abundance of material on hand
not used as yet. AS to the sea Level
canal, Mr.. Huntington still agrees
with his former conviction. that this
was the only kind of water way prac-
ticable, since no rock bottom is found
within sixty feet under the ground.
He declares further that it will be
some time before there will be hOus-
ing enough for the labOrerS employed
lie has room for himself and con-
Siders himself fortunate. Water con-
nectionS are bad, and ice is used by
most people for drinking water. In
regard TO the water supply, he said:
LAS for the natives they never saw
any clear water before last Fourth of
July at which time the Pho Grande
water was turned on at Panama. On
that occasion the hydrants were
opened on the streets and the natives
drank and SpOrted in the water, took
baths on the street, carried it home
in cans. pals, barrels and every con-
ceivable dish they owned; before this
time they had 70 buy water from ped
oilers along the streets"
The negroes on the canal are well
treated, he said, and they have
two pay days per month, a privilege no
white man can get.
In summing up Mr. Huntington'S
letter, we are led to conclude that the
work at the Canal is going along as well
as one could hope for, and that as soon
as the necessary preparations are
made, there will be showing of work
done in short time. Newspapers
like to find chance to display alleged
graft, which accounts for many of the
stories of such on the ISthmuS Mr.
Huntington'S letters, however, con-
vinces US that the canal work is going
RIGHT q lnnn &c x,yoll DC .uyo oonlI