The Elbert County tribune., 1906-01-04
REPORT ON CANAL
WORK OF DIRECTION OF PREPAR.
ALTON AND SANITATION.
ALIEN LABOR IS EMPLOYED
Yellow Fever Extirpates-seventeen
Thousand Persons On the Pay Roll.
Expenses S6oo,oc Month.


Washington.-The report OF the 18th
milan Canal Commission for the year
ending December /. 1905. says:
THE members of this commission
decided. during their first trip to the
isthmus. that 1t would be useless to
hope for large and satisfactory results
In canal work, either in quantity OF ex-
cavation or In cost, until thorough
preparation had been accomplished in
several directions. The isthmus must
be made healthy by thorough sanitation,
proper quarters and food must be pro
vided for employees and adequate ter
minal facilities must be constructed
for the prompt and economic handling
Of supplies and materials. It was de-
cided, therefore, to stop at once exca-
vation on large scale until the pre-
paratory work was done. The commits
sion realized that this was a radical
change of policy, but believed that it
would be approved when full state
ment should be made of existing con
ditions and OF the difficulties to be
overcome before canal construction
could be undertaken in accordance
with a comprehensive and systematic
plan.
"In order to make the isthmus a
pidCt 1T W i've III anu W WOTh III Tile
the first essential was thorough san
itation.
-Four thousand one hundred men
are now employed in the sanitary un-
dertaking, and SO effective has been
this work that yellow fever has been
virtually extirpated from the isthmus.
1.-THE force employed on the isthmus
on November Is, 1905, was as follows:
''In November, 1904. the commits
sion's employees on the isthmus num-
bered $500. In November. 1905, they
numbered. approximately, 1900. OF
these 1890 were under the depart
ment OF construction and engineering,
$500 under the bureau of material and
supplies, and 3,050 under the depart
ment of government and sanitation.
There were in the local auditors Office
forty-six men and in the office of the
disbursing officer twenty-one.
THE question of labor is grave and
perplexing one. A sufficient supply of
labor can be secured from nearby trop-
ical islands and countries. so far as
numbers are concerned. The question
of quality is very different matter.
Unless much greater efficiency can
be developed than Is secured at pres
ent 1t will be necessary to look else
where for a better class.
THE present wage varies from so
cents to $1.04 per day in gold. AS
compared with the best common labor
in the United States its efficiency Is
rated at from twenty-five to thirty
three per cent. Over eighty per cent.
of tho employees of the canal are now
and will continue to be alien laboreis.
"A majority of the other twenty per
cent. employed will be In clerical. a
supervisory, or in some other capacity
to which the various labor laws OF the
United States are not applicable. 1t is
to this kind of labor we are compelled
to apply the eight-hour law-that is. to
aliens who know nothing of the laws
existence until they arrive on the 18TH
mus. Such application will increase
the labor cost of canal construction at
least twenty-five per cent. and will add
many millions unnecessarily to the
total expenditure.
while this preparatory work has
been in progress very little has been
done in the way of actual excavation.
Eleven steam shovels have been at diff
ferent times in operation. however. in
the Culebra cut, which Is the largest
single factor in the construction Of the
canal, and approximately 100000 GU
bic yards of material have been re-
moved. By this work two things are
being accomplished. First. the levels
of the cut are being put in proper con
dition for the installation of the largest
number of machines which can be ef-
fectively operated. and, second, data
is being gathered which will be useful
in future estimates of the cost of canal
construction.
"The pay roll on the isthmus at pres
ent amounts to approximately 100000
per month";