The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-07-17

took no coEnizance of 1t.
 4 West Indian Kitchen is not a bad place to visit. Everything Is as neat as a new Din. A medical inspection of each place is held every day. and If everything is not in apple-pie, order . complaint is sent in to headquarters. Just a few such complaints spell re- duction or dismissal for the steward and cook. so that there gre very few of them to make. A large piece of beef is brought to the kitchen In cold stor. age, and is there cut up into half pound pieces. This beef is cooked In big copper boiler. Then there are potatoes, beans, and other things which make splendid meal for a laboring man. When everything is cooked and the meal hour arrives each laborer brings his pan and after presenting his meal check, gets his portion dished out to him. He is at liberty to eat 1t there, or he may retire to the shade of nearby tree or to his quarters to eat it.
 year ago they counted that one Spanish Iaborer would do the work of time the negroes had thought that the digging of the canal depended upon them and they were indifferent as to how much work they would do. It was common sayinK that they never ex- arted themselves except when they were running after the pay car. Then some Porto Rican Spaniards were brought over and tried. These did so well that 1t was decided to send an agent to Spain and Italy to get some men, All sorts of difficulties were ex- pertenced. When they said "Panama" to any laborer over there he was ready to run. The evil days of the French occupation had not been forgotten. But by hook and crook they managed to get few to go. They came to the rsthmus and tried it. Soon glowing reports and some good American money began to arrive in Spain and Italy. and except for. the restrictlon os the governments there was little trou- ble to get good men. Finally so many Spaniards could be gotten that 1t was decided not to worry with the r~- strictions that the Italian government sought to impose. As the Spantards grew more numerous the Commission could be little more independent. and the West Indian negroes had to work better or lose their johs. They elected 10 work better, and as the days come and go they are becoming more and more eficient. They have reduced tho margin of relative efficiency from three to one, to two to one. and In many in- stances even down to the point where the West Indian will do almost as much work as the Spaniard.
 There is a pretty good system of promotion among the negro labor. When a likely looking negro is found in the force he Is given Job as a wait CT in one of the Isthmian Canal Com FntegIon's hotels. If he makes good there he soon finds himself head waiter in one of the smaller places. If he does well there he gets a chance to go to Tivoli, the mecca of every West In- dian negro. There he has the usual tip coming his way. and he manages to get along pretty we'll. He even stands a chance of getting to be head walter. The present head waiter Of this Wal dorf Astoria of the Isthnlus was for some time head waiter at one of the little line hotels of the Commission.
 Counting each island As q different nation, and to all intents and purposes 1t is. there are now hfty-two national ities on the Isthmus. Each nationality ia jealous of It's own rights. and tho snly way conflicts can be averted is to