Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1906-12-19
The PRESIDENTS
SPECIAL MESSAGE
[Conunued from Linth Pagel

preparation for the hygiene and com
fort of the employees. AS a matter of
fact, neither criticism is just. 1t would
have been impossible to go quicker
than the commission has gone, for
such quickness would have meant in
sufficient preparation. On the other
hand, to refuse to do anything until
every possible future contingency had
been met would have caused wholly
unwarranted delay. The right course
to follow was exactly the course which
has been followed. Every reasonable
preparation was made in advance, the
hygienic conditions in especial being
made as nearly perfect as possible;
while on the other hand there has
been no timid refusal to push forward
the work because of inability to antici-
pate every possible emergency, for, of
course, many defects can only be
shown by the working of the system
in actual practice.
In addition to attending to the
health of the employees, II is OF course
necessary to provide for policing the
zone This is done by police force
which at present numbers over 200
men, under Captain Stanton. About
one-fifth of the men are white and the
others black. Where possible the po-
their own color, but in any emergency
no hesitation is felt in using them in
discriminatory.
Inasmuch as so many both of the
white and colored employees have
brought their families with them,
schools have been established, the
school service being under Mr.. O'Con-
nor. For the white pupils white Amer
lean teachers are employed; for the
colored pupils there are also some
white American teachers, one Spanish
teacher, and one colored American
teacher, most of them being colored
teachers from Jamaica, Barbados, and
st. Lucia The schoolrooms were
good, and it was pleasant thing to
see the pride that the teachers were
taking In their work and their pupils.
There seemd to me to be many sa-
looms in the zone; but the new high
license law which goes into effect on
Jan. l next will probably close four
fifths of them. Resolute and success
full efforts are being made to minimize
and control the sale of liquor.
Care of Employees.
Next in Importance to the problem
of sanitation, and indeed now of equal
Importance, is the problem of securing
and caring for the mechanics, laborers
and other employees who actually do
the work on the canal and the rail
road. This great task on the whole
has been well done. At present there
are some 5000 white employees and
some 10000 colored employees on the
isthmus. Nearly 5000 of the white,
employees had come from the United
States. No man can see these young,
vigorous men energetically doing their
duty without a thrill of pride in them
as Americans. They represent on the
average a high class. The white
Americans are employed, some of
them in office work, but the majority
in handling the great steam shovels,
as engineers and conductors on the
dirt trains, as machinists in the great
repair shows, as carpenters and time
keepers, superintendent and foremen
of divisions and of gangs, and so on
and so on. The bachelors among the
employees live sometimes in small sep
arate houses, sometimes in large
houses; quarters being furnished free
to all the men, married and unmar-
ried The housewives purchase their
supplies directly or through their hus-
bands from the commissary stores OF
the commission. All to whom / spoke
agreed that the supplies were excellent,
and all but two stated that there was
no complaint to be made; these two
complained that the prices were exces-
sive as compared to the prices In the
States. On investigation did not feel
that this complaint was well founded.
The married men ate at home. The
unmarried men sometimes ate at pri-
vate boarding houses or private
messes, but more often, judging by
lHt vi llOoc WnOh quCotloh-
ed, at the government canteens or
hotels where the meal costs 30 cents
to each employee. This 30-cent meal
struck me as being as good meal
as we get In the United States at the
ordinary hotel in which a 50-cent meal
is provided. l myself took dinner at
the La Boca government hotel. no
warning whatever having been given
of my coming. My meal was excel
lent. I came to the conclusion that,
speaking generally. there was no war
rant for complaint about the food.
was given to understand that one real
cause of complaint was that at the
government hotels no liquor is served,
and some of the drinking men, there
fore, refused to go to them. The num-
Der of men using the government no
tells is steadily increasing.
Chinese and Other Labor.
or the 10000 or 10000 day laborers
employed on the canal, few hundred
are Spaniards. These do excellent
work. Their foremen told me that
they did twice as well as the West
India laborers. They keep healthy
and no difficulty Is experienced with
them In any way. Some Italian labor