The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-12-18

went. through the machine shops. Dur Ing the day I talked with scores of diff ferent men--superintendents and heads of departments, divisions, and bureaus; tors, engineers. clerks, wives of the American employees health officers, c0l-
 ored laborers. colored attendants, and managers of the commissary stores
 where food Is sold to the colored labor CTS; wives of the cOlored employees who
 are married. In the evening had an interview with the British Consul, Mir. Mallet, a Gentleman who fer many years has well and henorabIy repre- sented the British Govefnn1ent on the Isthmus of Panama and who has peculiar relation to our work because l the bulk of the. colored faborers come from. the British West Indies. I also
 tleman of equally long service and ! honorable record. saw the lfeuteu- , ants, the chief executive and adminls- trative officers under the engineering and sanitary departments. l also saw and had long talks with two deputa- tfons--one of machinists and one rep- resenting the railway men of the dirt trains-listening to what they had to say as to the rate of pay and various other matters and going over, as much questions they brought. up. As to some
 matters l was able to meet their wishes; as to others, felt that what sistentIy with my duty to the United States Government as a whole. as tv yet others, l reserved tudgm snt.
 Third Day.
 On Saturday morning we started at 8 o'clock from the hotel. We went through the Culebra cut, stopping of to see the marines, and also to investi- ployes. as to which in certain respects complaints had been made to me; and another town where I wanted to see certain houses of the colored employees. We went over the site of the proposed fSatun dam, having on the first day Inspected the sites of the proposed La < eoea ana sosa dams. we went o.t .9I on which had been built to supply the peo- pie of Colon with water for their houses. There we took lunch at the engineers and shops of CristobaL inspecting care- fully the houses of both the white and colored employees, married and unmar- We then went to Colon and saw the fire department at work: in four min- utes from the signal the engines had come down to Front Street, and twen- ty-one 21-2-inch hose pipes were rais- ing streams of water about seventy five feet high. We rode about Colon, through the various streets. paved, un- paved, and in process of paving. looking at the ditches, sewers, eurbinE and the lights. then went over the Colon hospital In order to compare 1t with hospitals, which I had already seen and inspected. also inspected some of the dwellings. of the employees. In the by the American employees on the Istf- mus, which took place on one of the docks in Colons and from there went aboard the Louisiana.
 Each day from twelve 10 eighteen hours we spent in going over and in- specting all there was to be seen, and in ln examining various employees; by tho Surgeon General of. the Navy. Dr. Rxiey; by the Charmian of the Isthmian lnal Commission, Mr. Snonts; gas, the Chief Sanitary oficer of tho Commission: by Mfr. Bishop, the Secre- tary of the Commission; by Mr. Ripley, the Principal Assistant Engineer; by Mr. Jackson Smith. who has had prac- tical charge of collecting and handling the laborins force; by Mr. Bierd, gen~I eral p1anager of the railway. and by Mt. Rogers the general counsel of thel CommissioiA, and many other officials joined Jus from time to time (a
 Al the outset l wish to pay a tribute French Canal Company under very dif- ileuIt circumstances. Many of the buildings they put up were excellent fhe Houses are nowBgettihg out of re- pair, and are being used as dwellings, only nntil 9thssr houses ses, can a, be x, built cuIebra cut. and some or the work they did in digging has been of direct and real benefit. This country has never
  100000 which ti paid to the French Company for work and betterments, in- eluding especially the Panama Rail- An inspection on the ground at 4ha height of the rainy season served t0l convince me of the wisdom ot Con- high-leyel or sea-leyel canal There geefns to. be a universal agreement among all people competent to judge that the Patama route. the ene actual ricaragua, and Darien routes.
 I PrelinAlnaFy work. Being Done.
 The wisdom of. the canal management more nsS Siea eiearly 'nEMm tSsn in the H0'Hs Way in which the foundations of the. work have been laid. To have iil-informed outsiders and, begun all kinds of experimental work prior to a thorough sanitation of the Isthmus, and to a fairly satisfactory working out Of the problem Of getting a sufficient la- Dor Supply, would have been dlsast- rous. The various preliminary meas ures had to be taken first; and these could not be taken so as to allow us to begin the real work. of construction prior to January l of the present year. 10 then became necessary to have the type of the canal decided, and the only delay has been the necessary delay un- til the 3yth day of June. the date when the Congress dennitgly and wisely set-J tied that we should have an eighty-hve- foot level canal Immediately after that the work began in hard earnest and has been continued with increasing vlgor ever since; and 1t will continue so to progress in the future. When thel contracts are let the conditions will be such as to insure a constantly increas- | ing amount of performance.
 Successful Sanitation.
 The first great problem to be solved, l upon the solution of which the success of the rest of the work depended, was the problem of sanitation. This was from the outset under the direction. of Dr. w. c, Gorgas. who IS to be made @ full member of the Commission. It must be remembered that his work was not mere sanitation as the term is un- l derStood In our municipal work. | Throughout the Zone and in the two cities of Panama and Colon, In addition | to the sanitation work proper, he has | had to do all the work that the Marine Hospital Service does as regards the | hcers do in the various States and cities, and that Colonel Waring did In | New York when he cleaned its streets. The results have been astounding. The l Tsthnus had been byWofd for deadly | unhealthfulness, Now, after two years of our occupation the conditions as re- gards sickness and the death rate conn pare favoTably with reasonably healthy localities in the United States. Espe- clal care has been devoted to minimiz- ing the risk due to the presence of those species of mosquitoes which have been found to propagate malarial and yellow levers. In all the settlements the little temporary towns or cities of the white and black em- pioyes. which grow up here and there In the tropte jungle as the needs of