Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-01-27

has not been a single case of yellow fever
among Them Their general condition is
about as good as it was in their homes in
! Spain. and they stand the climate very
| much better than the negroes. ss,es
A Surprising Disease Record.
During the three and one-haf months
at the height of the rainy season. sup
| posed to be the most sickly. among 5000
! Americans including 1900 women and
| children, no death occurred from disease.
During October. among $500 white en-
| pioyes of all nationalities, there were but
i two deaths from disease as against
/ elghty-siX deaths from disease among the
| negroes. If the negro employees had pos
/ sessed the power to resist disease as eff
! 1ectualiy as the white employees did there
| would have been but six deaths instead Of
| eighty-siX among Them
! In view of these statistics down to Oc-
tober 81. and of the gradual decrease in
| both sickness and death rates among all
| classes of employees. we feel justified in
! announcing to the world our belief that we
are now in a position to invite white labor
| in any quantity from the states to assist
| in the construction of the canal, and at the
same time to promise them an immunity
| from disease equal to that which they
| would enjoy in our southern states under
| like conditions. of employment.
In addition to making the isthmus a
healthy place in which to live and work.
we have accomplished many other and
scarcely less QlHlcult TASKS we nave eS-
tablished a system of government for the
preservation of law and order, with the re-
suit that, Notwithstanding We have mixed
population drawn from all quarters of the
earth. serious crime is unknown, and arrests
are mainly for petty offenses and violations
of the sanitary laws. We have erected for
employees of all kinds towns and villages
varying in population from 100 to 5000,
composed of buildings constructed in &C
cordance with the principles of sanitary SCI
ence, provided with modern sewerage sys-
tens and with abundant supplies of pure
water. We have enthusiastically means of
refrigerating plants on the governments
steamers a cold-storage plant at Colon and
refrigerator cars on the Panama railroad
| a continuous line of food supply between
the markets of the United States and the
dwelling and eating places OF every employe
on the isthmus.
Good Living at Cost Price.
We have established commfssarfes and
mess houses and placed it within the power
of every employee to obtain good food, cook
ed and unlocked, at cost prices plus the
actual cost of transportation We have
nearly completed the task of converting
the Panama railroad, which was-aadecrepit
single-track road, twenty-five years be-
hind the time in personnel and equipment
and without terminal yards or docks, into
doubIe-track road with modern personnel
and Equipment, terminal ana switching
yards that would be credit to any rail
way anywhere and docks and piers with
modern hosting and unloading apparatus
adequate to the demands OF greatly in
creased ocean traffic. We have converted
the city of Panama, which was without
pavement or sewers or water supply. into
the best paved, best severed and best wa
tered city in the northern half of South
America. We have supplied the city of
Colon and it's neighboring town Of Cristobal
with an abundant supply of pure water,
have paved its main street with model
modern brick pavement and raising
and covering the surfaces of its other
streets with crushed rock. We have as
sembled the larger part of the great plant
with which the canal is to be constructed,
and we have completed the engineering
plans upon which the work Is to be carried
forward.
There are other features connected with
the construction of the canal which ma
terially affect the United States. First.
there is the added stimulus to trade caused
by the purchase of supplies entering into
this work; and second. the reduction in
freight rates and increases in ocean ton
mage which have resulted from this en-
larged volume of traffic afford better OPP
portunity to our manufacturers and pro-
ducers than has heretofore existed for es-
tablishing closer trade relations with the
South American peoples.
Under the governments policy of buying
all our supplies from American producers,
we are adding approximately 100000
per year-of additional business to the in
dustries of the United States over and
above what they would have had if the
construction of the canal were not in
progress. The purchase of materials and
supplies for use in the construction Of the
canal and the competition on the part of
railroad and steamship lines. brought
about in connection with the delivery of
these purchases. have caused reductions in
rates from the United States to the isthmus
and at the same time have added consid-
erably to the volume of ocean tonnage go
ing thither. Within the last year two iim-
portant steamship lines sailing under for
eign flags have established regular sail
ings between New York and Colon. while
so per cent of the commissions supplies
has been carried in tramp steamers.
Canals Trade Possibilities.
With increased steamship facilities from
the ports of the United States to the 18TH
mus and awakened feeling on the part of
our manufacturers and merchants as to
the possibilities in the way of trade de-
velopment in the Latin American countries,
there is no reason why the volume of trade
between the United States and these coun-
tries should not be very largely increa sed
each year, so that by the time the isthinian
canal is completed the people Of the United
States will be ready to reap all the ad-
vantages which it has in store for them
The question has been asked whether or
not. from commercial point of view, the
expenditure for the canal will be justified
by the benefits that may be reasonably ex-
If conditions were to remain permanently
as they are today, there might be a doubt
as to the wisdom of this expenditure; but
when we look around and see the rapidly
increasing population and resulting density
Of traffic in our own country, when we OBJ
serve that our vast transportation facili-
ties, which made possible our country,s
wonderful expansion and form the under
lying basis Of our prosperity, are simply
swamped with the traffic which they are
called upon to handle, and when we con-
template the enormous amount of money
that must be raised to adequately provide
facilities for taking care Of the Increased
volume Of business. we are compelled to
conclude that the superfiuous population
of the earth will soon be forced INTO other
channels than the United States, and is
not unlikely to move into the vast fertile
plains and rich regions of our South Ameri-
can neighbors.
AS we know from contemporaneous his
tory. European countries are ALREADY es-
tablishing colonies in South America, and
are seeking to cement SO strongly their
hold these people as to control cher
commerce Hence it is our duty, If we
expect to get our share, to set forth NM
nadfafaly and SvStem 5.-,.I--