Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1912-05-05
Goa7 Zone. IRE. Deyx

In the canal work. .Nearly every race
and locality of the sIohe Is repr1sented.
There are Cinnamon. East Indians. ma
tives Of South and Central America ana
tens of thousands Of negroes nom The
Islands OF the Caribbean sea. Most OF
the silver employees are from Jsmaics.
Barbados. Trinidad. 81. Kits. Mar
Unique and others or the West Indian
Islands. These people are English speak
ing. for the most part. although those
from Martinique speak .srench. and We
have some spanish-spcaking negroes
from Colombia and venezuela. We have
.spaniards from the northern part Of the
Iberian peninsula. and also Italians.
Greeks. Armenisns and men OF other
nationalities"
How many whites have your
About i5.ooo OF these 5000 are Amer
teams engaged on the canal. This In
Guides the engineers. high-grade me-
chanics and clerical employees. another
5000 OF the whites are the wives and
children OF the American employees, ana
In addition we have about 5000 white
European laborers."
How many negroes have your"
Nearly eoooo. l should say"
How Ian and order Are Kept.
But Is not such varied population
hard toycontror? should think II would
be very much like that of mining camp
in the wiids OF our west or OF con-
struction gang which is building a rail-
road through a new country. II that
population were In the United States
everything would be wide open. There
would be faro games. poker games and
roulet: the zone would be peppered with
saloons. and II would be very unsafe 70
10 about after dark. How Is II hereT'
There is no comparison between Our
conditions and those which you have de-
scribed." said the governor. I'VE have
mo public gambling In this part Of Uncle
Sans territory. I doubt whether you
can find as good order in any city Of the
United States as right here in the set
Elements along the canal. You might re-
member that the most OF our workmen
are single men They have their quar-
tiers free and they live in camps of bar
racks near where they work. The lights
in those barracks go out every night at
O'Clock. and everyone Is compelled 10
be quiet. so that the others may sleep,
The fact that married quarters have been
generally provided for white American
employees and their families. l believe.
has greatly aided In establishing stable
social conditions"
How the Zone q. Policed.
But does II not require large police
force to keep the people In orderg'
NO. Our policemen are men OF en-
perience. The chief Is Colonel ]. p FSffe
and the assistant chief is Captain c. W.
Barber Of the United States army. Both
men have had military experience. and
the force is handled somewhat along
military lines. We have nearly 800 po-
licemen all told. one-han Of these are
white Americans and are chiefly ex-sol-
dlers OF the United States army. The
other half are blacks, who have served In
the police and military forces Of the West
Indian islands and have made good rec
ords there. As result our policemen are
trained TO obey. and they are efficient In
their work. The black policemen receive
in pay almost three times as much here
as they received in the British service.
and they are pleased with their jobs.
They are used chiefly In handling the
black population OF the zone. I believe
one feature OF our police service which
makes II more easy TO preserve law and
order here Is the respect which the labor
ers have for the police. Our police Of
ficers are held In much the same regard
as are the famous mounted policemen u
Canada. One or two Of our policemen
will so into a camp of 800 or 800 blacks
or spaniards and make an arrest without
the necessity Of clubbing anyone. This
would not be possible in many parts Of
the United States
Arrests Per Month.
ut may be that the population is bet
ter than ours?'
II believe that much of our good order
rs due to the way the men are handled.
Now. here Is last months report, which
shows the arrests which were made
among seventy-cdd thousand people In
the zone. The total number of arrests
was 5ss. and OF the offenders arrested 4s7
were men and fffty-one women. Now.
note the nationaliies. They come from
fifty different countries Here are
ninety-seyen from Jamaica. 152 from
Barbados. fifteen from Trinidad and
twenty-one from Martinique. forty-eight
from Spain. thirsy-eight from Panama
and forty-six from the United States:
seven are from British Guiana, six from
Fortune Island. three from India and
eight from China. Among the others are
cubans, Germans. Greeks. Italians and
Mexicans. one from Finland. one from
Tunls In north Africa and one from
New Zealand. This gives you some idea
Of our mixed population.
What are the offensesg r.
They are mostly petty oaes, A num-
Der are for violation Of the sanitary and
revenue laws. some fer cruelty 10 ami
mails. some for fighting and drunkenness
and other forms Of disorder, few for
nonsuoport Of wives and families. two or
three are for homicide. some for bur-
giary, twenty-one are for yagrancy. two
for cock fighting and included in the
total are the arrests of five soldiers for
being absent without leave"
JaiIs and Prisons of Zone.
what do you do with these men after
you arrest themy'
III they are unable to give bond We put
them In JAN and have them tried In our
zone courts. We have q penitentiary at
cuisbra and pals at the various towns
on the zone The penitentisry l. model
Of its kind. The prisoners are credited