Northern Wisconsin advertiser. [volume] (Wabeno, Wis.) 1898-1925, 1913-08-15


Colon, G. What of the men who
have done the actual digging of the
Panama canal? Who are they,
whence have they come, how do they
live?
We all have read a lot about Col
onel Goethals, Colonel Sibert, Colonel
Gaillard, Colonel Hodges, Colonel
Gorgas and a few others of the men
who hold the big jobs" We know
that their immediate subordinates are
skillful, energetic young engineers
and doctors from the states. But
what do we know about the men who
handle the pick and shovel, who run
the steam drills, who load the borings
with dynamite, who help to fill up
and empty the interminable dirt
trains?
With the very beginning Of the
French attempt to dig the canal the
labor problem bobbed up as serious,
especially in view of the horribly in
sanitary conditions on the isthmus.
White laborers succumbed rapidly to
yellow fever and malaria and it was
found that only negroes could with
stand even fairly well the diseases
and the climate.
When Uncle Sam took hold of the
big job he had the benefit of the ex-
perience of the French in this as in
other respects, and though he tried
q few experiments in the labor field
on his own account, it was soon de-
termined that the actual digging could
be done best by negroes. Now there
are two islands in the West Indies,
both British possessions, which are
overlooking with workmen-Jamaica
and Barbados. To these islands agents
were sent, and soon the colored men
began to arrive on the isthmus, ship
load after shipload. Many of them
brought their wives and children and
have become a part of the permanent
population of Panama.
One other source of labor was
drawn upon largely, the north of
Spain. There the agents of the COM
mission found a race of men hardy,
eager for work and more intelligent
than the negroes. A large number of
them were brought over, and though
for time they were troublesome by
reason of their disposition to engage
in bloody quarrels among themselves,
after several had been locked up by
the Zone police they learned to be-
have more like civilized beings.
These Spaniards do not mix with the
negroes, either in work or socially.
They have their own camps and
messes. The stewards and cooks at
these messes are Europeans and the
Spaniards get better meals than the
negroes. The food Is adapted to
their national taste and they receive
wine several times q week. For this
they pay 40 cents a day-10 cents
more than the colored men pay. The
Spaniards are considered the best
common workmen in the zone.
The day laborer on the canal, as a
general thing, uses the pick and
shovel and does work that calls for
no especial skill. But this is not true
of all of them. There is a higher
grade in which the men do such work
as the riveting on the great lock
gates and the operating of the busy
batteries of steam and compressed
air drills that bore the holes for the
dynamite blasting. Many negroes
who have been on the job for years
have graduated up TO these better
positions.
Above them are the bosses of
gangs, the conductors of dirt trains,
the foremen of dynamite crews, men
who hold similar jobs, and they are
almost invariably white men because
such positions require more independ-
ence, reliability and intelligence.
Up another grade and you come to
the experimenting, drafting and de-
signing engineers. These are men
from the states with technical eduea-
ton. initiative and often great iRven-
tive genius. To the latter are due a
number of most ingenious machines
designed to cope with new conditions
and TO expedite the work.
The negro laborer from Jamaica or
Barbados is a Joy forever. He is IN
ordinately proud OF his British citizen
ship. and with some reason, for the
British government looks carefully
after his welfare in such a case as
this, the terms OF his contract being
supervised, his health guarded and
his return, II he desires to retSrn,
provided for. The Jamaicans are the
more Intelligent OF the Two classes,