PANAMA CANAL.

Evening Post, Volume LXXVII, Issue 101, 30 April 1909, Page 4

PANAMA CANAL.

FEEDING AN ARMY OF WORKMEN. The new Panama Canal is an instance of the enterprise of the American Go- 11 vernment. At the present time 38,000 men are employed in constructing tho canal, 8000 being whites, mostly Anfericans. All along the canal cutting (says the St. James's Budget) are small villages, with churches, schools, and model houses. The Goveri.ment has spent £122,000 on wire netting, and is the owner of 3338 buildings, representing the expenditure of over £2.000,000. The Government pays the salaries of ministers in the canal zone, and also the salaries of the secretaries of five branches of the ii T oung Men's Christian Association. Each Young Men's Christian Association has its glee clubs, its orchestias, its dramatic organisations, and other social subdivisions. All the workmen who desire are allowed" to have their wives with them, and there are many women's clubs on the isthmus. The Government also has established 14 hotels, and 55 messes and kitchens, and shops have been erected to supply goods to the employees. At the hotels a good dinner is served tor Is 3d — soup, fish, meat, vegetables, ice-cream, and coffee. At the messes, where tho chief patrons are Spanish labourers, Is lOd pays for a day's meals, and at the kiichem, wheve the negroes eat. Is 3d is charged a day for meals. At the shops all Government goods are purchased by vouchers, and deduction."; are made from the employees wages in accordance with the vouchers. No one is compelled to purchase from the Government unless ht> wishes. The following statistics give an idea of the commisssriiit monthly :—350,0001b: — 350,0001b of beef, etc, £15,000 worth of clothes, £6000 worth Si tobacco, 500 gallons of

oysters, 280,000 loaves, 450 tons of rice, £b,OOO eggs, 15 tons of chickens, 12,000 gallons of ice-cream. The only things the American Government refuses to sell are intoxicating beverages.