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Show TAFT REPLIES 10 BIGELOW ATTACK Savs Defamer Knows Little About Affairs on ( anal Zone. WASHINGTON, Jan. 10. An elaborate And comprehensive answer to the charges against (be isthmian Canal commission, contained In an article In the independent, has been made by Secretary Tail. II Is In the form of a letter to the President who on January 6. In a communication to i in- secretary, said his attention had been directed to an article published purporting purport-ing to have been written by Poullne BlgelOW 'attacking the administration of affairs by the Canal commission and yourself your-self on the Isthmus.' and adding 'Will ymi please advise me what basis, if any. there is for these charges " Summarizes Charges. In his reply, Secretary Toft first briefly summarises the chaiges as follows. Al-li Al-li King that the conditions In Colon ure so unsanitary as to Indicate great neglect In providing for the health r the emplovei s Of the commission, alleged mistreatment of negro laborers; that persons appointed (o the Isthmus are Incompetent and have been given their places through political influence and official Incompetency or misconduct, the -latter involving the charge that there Is so much "red tape ' necessary to bring about the construction Of buildings that grut misery has conic to the laborers of the Isthmus Stevens Makes Comments. The Secretary says that Chief Engineer Stevens Is now In W ashington and Is personally per-sonally ccgnlzant of the facte with respect to every local condition described by the writer of (he article, and a memorandum of comments thereon by Mr Stevens Is app nded to the letter as an exhibit. Discussing the conditions at Colon the Secretary quotes Mr. Stevens as saving that every one knows, who bus be n on the ground, thnt the problem of draining ihi city Is on. of extreme difficulty owing i to the situation on an Island surrounded by the sea on one side and by a freshwater fresh-water swamp on the other, that tin land on i In- average Is not more than IVi feet above the sea level Makes Drainne-e Difficult. I'll' i 'taintlv as to i he plans of improv ing Colon has rendered impracticable any radical destruction of unsanitary buildings, build-ings, most of which are on lands owned In the railroad company and leased 0D short terms to middlemen Meantime, the secretary says the sanitary conditions in P una required much more urgent treatment treat-ment than those at Colon The death rate at Panama since the Government took charge of tin health of the Isthmus, the S' i relarv says, is from per cent to ;I3 1-3 per cent greater than In Colon Trent Pminma First. Th eommlsteon thought Itself fully justified therefore, the Secretary adds, in establishing a water system and a sewer system In Panama Drat. It Is not true In says, that a large number of the employees on the Isthmus live in Colon proper, w here the swampy district Is and, as Mr. Stevens points oat. there are not to exceed 200 or 800 living there. Regarding tin- charge of Indifference as to food supply for the laborers', the ber-retarj ber-retarj refers to the reports on the Mar-kel Mar-kel contract and suys the very diligent Sorts made In this regard are suftlch ntlv sit mil there, as altvadv published Reservoirs at Colon. Hearing on the chatK- that there Is no water supply in Colon, Secrttarv Taft q totes from a dispatch from Gov. Mas' Ma-s' advising him that the two temper- ary reservoirs for tho Colon and Crist o- ' bal water supply (She latter place being not five minutes walk from the , enter of ("olo III Were complete,), one op November II and the other the latter part of December, De-cember, with a total capacity of 80,000,-000 80,000,-000 gallons, amply sufficient for the present pres-ent dr season; that there Is no scarcity of water in Colon; that a permanent reservoir with a capacity of 700,000,000 gallons is under construction with io permanent stand pipes, under contract to be completed April 1 The statements of Mr Stevens and Gov. Magoon. Secretary Taft says, are at variance with those of the writer of this article. Negro Labor Inefficient Secretary Taft declares that the rate of wages Is well advertised throughout the West Indbs as la cents ipdd ;in hour for a day of eight hours, which may be Increased In-creased by diligent work to 13 cents an hour. It lei also untrue, he says, that 1 great prejudice exists against negroes In the railroad management The S icre-tsry icre-tsry says it Is charged that the chairman chair-man of the commission and all others wronglj io.,k upon the tropical negro laborer ;is poor labor. Tin conclusion of Mr. Stevens and of every observer on the Isthmus, h declared, i to the effect that this labor is Inefficient. Go Home for Holidays. Regarding the statement that the ne-groes ne-groes are leaving the Isthmus In portentous porten-tous numbers because of mistreatment, Mr Stevens testifies, the Secretary says, that Just before the holidays a great number num-ber of laborers returned to the Islands whence they came. This, the Secretary says, has been the ustom ever aim e the hi ginning of the French construction. Many of the laborers leave their families and, because transportation Is cheap, arc-able arc-able to go back and then return. The Secretary shows that there are now on the payrolls 1T.XK.' laborers Secretary Taft refers to the personnel of tho court of the canal zoic and sas It would be difficult to select a better one for the duties It has to discharge No Political Influence As to the charge that officials on the Isthmus v' r. appointed through 'oiiKre:;- sional or political influence, the Secretary sav s the chief engineer ca tegorh ally denies de-nies Ihls. "and I 111 able from the standpoint stand-point of Washington also categorical to dens it ' Political Influence, he says, has played no part whatever in the selection of appointees. He adds ' There has been great difficulty in se curing under the civil service law methr ods men for out-of-doors worli on the Isthmus skilled mechanics, track-layers, carpenters and others but certainly the III fi (is in iheh iiri llfii .1 lions which have been found to exist, have never been due to the exercise of political Influence." No Dredges in Cut, Seeretarv Taft says the charge of delay by "red Tape" in the construction of buildings on the Isthmus Is shown to be untrue by the statement Of the chief engine! en-gine! r. and us to the allegation that the dredges In the Ciilehia cut were not working work-ing to twenty per cent of their promised capacity, the Secretary says there are no dredges within a long dlstai.ee of the Culebrs cul and that the Instruments there being used are steam shovels. Defends Quarantine Officials. Secretary Taft says thai (he charge that quarantine officials construe the law and Liiforce It as far as possible to Interfere u ith 1 ommerce is "uttei 1 1 unfounded. The Isthmus is being fried from danger of yellow fever and other contagious diseases, dis-eases, observes the Secretary, by an effort ef-fort unprecedented in the history of the world. Being surrounded on every Bldi bj disease-breeding ports, (he Secretary says 11 is of the highest Importance Im-portance if the work done upon the Isthmus Is to remain permanent, thai the quarantine be strictly enforced Natives Immune Native! of the isthmus, he says, regard themselves as Immune from yellow fever, ami many of the other diseases, and there- ii ! nulurrilU resent the strictness of the quarannne against such diseases, but are greatly alarmed over the Importation of the bubonic plague Secretary Tafl repeats his former statement state-ment that the charge thai a boatload of black women were imported from Martinique Mar-tinique for Immoral purposes is false, and refers to documents to corroborate this denial. Engineers Investigated. Secretary Tafl says the twelve members of the advisory board 'of engineers spent seven and a half days on the isthmus and mad ext ad i examination of the proposed pro-posed Mi'--, and its appurtenances, quite sutttcknt and minute enough, he asserts, for th m to pass upon the proper type of the canal. Secretory Taft continues "Flnallv I come to the charges specifically specifi-cally made against the Secretary of War. They consist In a refusal to accept the guidance of Tracy Robinson in visiting Ihc purlieus of Colon and a refusal to I ave an interview with John Lundle, chief i uglneei of the electrh and refrigerator plant In Panama. Pleads Guilty to Charge. To the first charge I plead guilty " He savs an Impression v.as sought to be given that Mr Lundl s application for an Interview was made in the interest of the negro laborers on the Isthmus, and declares de-clares that the correspondence shows "how unfounded this Is, and that In fact Mr Lundl C did not ak for an Interview at all." Secretary Tafl states that the writer of I I , article conl Inlng the charges arrived In Pans ms November :'ji and left December Decem-ber 1 and "that It is not unfair to s.ny thai ids opportunities for observing were limited to twenty-eight hours. Including daytime and nighttime." |