The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-07-15

seems that the best talent obtainable has been secured for the prosecution of the work. The engineers of the con- | structlon department are all men who have made good in their respective fields. For instance. Civil Engineer Saville. who has charge of the experl- ments at the Gatun Dam was selected for the work because of hIs proven ability in connection with the Wachu- setts dam near Boston, an engineer .ing problem of a similar nature as the construction of the Gatun dam. These men also know how to get all hands under them to doing a maximum amount of work. and are accomplish ing wonders by combining the inteili- gent direction of those higher up with the main strength and awkwardness of the illiterate Spaniard and the igno- rant West Indian negro.
 Nearly every American member of the force has some pet ambition in con- nection with hte work. There Is Cap tain Michaelson of the big sea going dredge. Ancon. which can suck up a half million cubic yards of earth a month and carry 1t out to sea. His pet ambition Is to pilot the first ship through the canal He says he intends to stick to the work until the job is he hopes to be the head pilot at the big celebration when the canal is finished.
 Another employe with worthy ann bition is Paymaster's Clerk Page. He already has the record of being the oldest employe in point of service on the canal. He has been connected with the canal project for twenty-two years. He 1as on the pay force under the old French regime and was inherited by the new company with the other as- sets of the canal. He was employed by the Americans when they began op- erations, and wants to see the job fin- ished. He can pay off as many men in a given time as any man on the Isth- mus. and the mistakes he makes are as few and far between as four-leaved clovers.
 There are nearly 5000 white people in the Canal Zone. out, of a total pop ulation of more than S5,000. Of these about 1900 are women and HOO are children, who live in Canal Commis- sion quarters. About 17 per cent of the white men in the Zone are aliens mostly Spaniards and Italians, but only small per cent of the women and children are not Americans The work ing force averages about 2,600 men with the Canal Commission and about $500 with the Panama Railroad Approxi- mately 11,000 are at work on the exca- vatfons. On dredging there are some 5000 at work. On their contributory construction work there are about 5000 engaged. making a force of approxi- mately 21,000 at work on the con- struction work of all kinds on the Canal.
 There are slightly more than 200 women employed on the canal, of whom about 90 per cent are with the Com mission and the remainder are with the Panama Railroad. The highest salary paid to a woman is $115 month and the lowest $50. The average is about SIS. It Is not the policy of the Com mission to employ many women. and those it does employ are mainly re- lated to men living in married quarters who furnish them a home. The Com mission finds that 1t would cost more proportionately to furnish homes for women than for men.
 No one can imagine the difficulties that beset the Americans who man age the great work of digging the canal Many is the day when it rains two or three inches in an hour or two. Of course this makes veritable seas of mud of the big dumps where they de- posit the excavated material and these seas are almost without bottom. To stop hauling until these dried out would be out of the question. for 1t would cut down the total monthly ex- cavations very seriously. On the other hand, to run their dirt trains on the dumps means that many of them will literally sink into the mud. Yet the dump foreman, the yard masters and the others in command, courageously take the responsibility and the work goes forward. Sometimes it is hours before they can get a train off of a sunken track, but here in the Canal Zone no one ever says die, and %he work goes merrily on, rain or no rain.
 No one in the States ever saw it rain much harder than 1t did here one day not long ago. In less than two hours nearly three inches of rain had fallen. And yet when I asked the division su- perintendent how much dirt they had gotten out of Culebra that day, he handed me the cheering information that 1t had amounted to 10000 cubic yards of material. which is at the rate of a million cubic yards a month for Culebra Cut alone. Riding on a dirt train after a rain asked the conduc- ders dry while such a downpour was falling. Orders be hangedw he re- piled. T have to carry everything in my mind when these rains fell Even rubber coats will not keep one dry during these Panama rains" And he went on his way singing as if he didn't mind shower more than a duck would.
 The steam shovel engineers of the Canal hold the record as being about the only people in the employ of the United States who ever conducted a successful strike against the Govern ment for higher wages. They were getting $1S5 month, with six weeks leave with pay and quarters besides. but they thought 1t was not enough. They struck and the force dwfndled from stxty-five to thirteen. New men were secured, but things did not go well, and the President and his adyis- CTS decided to give them their present wages, $210 per month. This brought all the other classes of steam shovel CT and train men proportionate in- creases.
 The average length of time Ameri- cans stay on the Isthmus is a little more han two years. There is some- thing enervating in the climate which, together with the lack of opportuni- ties for rational diversion. seems to make a man. after he has been here two or three years have lonRings for home which he cannot overcome. Dur ing the wet season the winds seem so laden with moisture that they pass men by unable to cool their brows. On the whole. 1t is very depressing though 1t is not unhealthful.
 construction engineer, who has told me that in the twenty months he has been on the Isthmus he had never had a headache from heat Sunstrokes are all but unknown.
 On the whole, Uncle Sam has em- ployed on this great Job as fine a force of workers as can be found any where. These men are terribly in