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Show lIOItEIITJIO LIGHT lit FUEIBILLS Uncle Sam's Employees at Panama Canal Get FurnK tore and Ice Free, Too. CLOTHING AND FOOD SOLD CHEAPLY ALSO Homes Cool and Comfort' able; Government's Hotel Has Reasonable Rates. - v jjy rBEDBBlO J. HAkaVLVi. ZMPIBE, Canal Zone. Nowhere else in tha world U a set of government govern-ment employees so well eared for aa here ia the canal soae. Housed in buildings that have net new standard for tropical architecture, their material needs supplied by a commissary at low prieea, and receiving wagee higher than aimilax services command aaywaere cue in the world, the mem who era digging too oaaal find that J. government ia doing everything that reasonably eould bo expected ia return .for the services rendered. . TV. average Amencaa workman receives re-ceives about 1S0 month for his labor. la-bor. -He is furnished, if married aad In the service a reasonable 1 tome, with s kooM for himaelf and family, his light Mil ia never rendered, tha coal for his , kitchen stove ooata him nothing, the ieemau sever esUls to collect, most of - hia diversioma and tkoae of his family are at umsisment expense, and food aad raimeatt for himself and family are obtainable at prices in which BO middleman has figured a profit. The commissary prieea at which the eaaal employee buys hia supplies of food are interesting. Aad Clothing Ia Cheaper, Too. Start out mutton eaope are quoted at SO cents a pound, pork at 14 cents, sirloin beef steaks at 19, pork sausage at J 6, fresh halibut at IS, sugar eared bam at IS, and so oa all through the list. Here, 2000 miles from New York, where every coat of retailing is higher, tha prieea are lower than prevail in tha Btatea. Ths eaaal employee buya . hia clothing at prieea much lower than at home. A linea emit that would cost j. in Washington may be bought by eaaal em leyeo for It le roughly rough-ly estissated that mora than Valf of the . Buuried employees are aaviag a liberal portioa their income every month, a- The commissary is operated by the ' ' Panama railroad, aaviag a lot of otherwise other-wise Beeeeeary red tape. The aggregate value of the goods sold annually amounts to about five million dollars. Prices Low In 1910 There. More thaa a mink dollars worth of groceries, a hundred thousand dollars' worth of hardware, a million aad a half dollars of cold storage supplies, and 9163,000 worth of tobacco were handled laat year. Duriag the calendar 1 year 1910 prices of almost everything, except pork products, were cheaper than ia any other year since eaaal building operations began. Tha commissary, under agreement With the Panamanian government, is open dairy to canal employees. The native merehanta put up a stiff fight against the establishment of the commissary, com-missary, being desirous of making a profit ont of the canal workers, but Uncle Sam waa anxious to protect hie force from extortion, and would agree to ao ether course. He did agree that the oomniasary should not sell to any outsider, and every tourist eaa testify that the canal employee has reason to rejoice that he does not have to patronize pat-ronize the local merehanta. ' truism O00I and Comfortable. . Every canal settlement has ita commissary. com-missary. The canal employee buys eonpoej books, earefutlT numbered and rmrirtered, and with these he can buy what ke wants. He gets the book and the amount paid for them ia takea out of hi wages for ths next month. The commissaries are bugs department stores, there is an ice cream manufae-turing manufae-turing pleat, a laundry, and everything needed by a . modern community of Americans. . The hoosea ia which the employees livs are built for coolness snd comfort. Broad verandas, carefully screened, Krround each one. Some of the more portent oCcials have a whole house to themselves. Others live in what are known ia the States aa semi detached honsea, accommodating two - families. Other are four-family houses, with two families oa the lower fioor and two oa the aeeond floor the houses being semidetached, semi-detached, two-family flats. - Bachelor Quarters Changed. There aeed to be a large number of bachelor quarters, but se many of the haj-holnm went home or became bene- dieta that some of these quarters bsve beea converted into non housekeeping flats, aad ia them live the married people peo-ple who have not vet beea advanced fnr enough oa the list to get housekeeping . quarter. A large anatber of the families fami-lies living ia thee quarters take their meals at the hotels, at U cents a meal. The bachelor quartern are eosilv arranged ar-ranged aad fitted with shower baths aad other mod era conveniences. The furniture of these quarters, as well as thst of all the 300 buildings owaed by the commission, is furnished by the government. This matter ia looked aft-r aft-r by the district quartermasters, aad if ever men needed diplemaev nnd tact, these men do. If lira. A. happens to call on Mrs. B. and tads a swell front dress sr in her bedroom, while hers haa a straight froet, aa soon as Mrs. A. . starts for borne ana is likely to go by the quartermaster's office aad 44 know the reason why" such diaerimiaatioa is practiced. Oood Hotel fj7stern. 8 he forgets that aew furniture ia coming in eontiauauily and patterns are changing. Ueut. t'oT. O. A. Devol, the chief quartermaster, is the officer wee took charge of affairs at San "rsnciee after . the earthquake.' He says, sigaineaatly, that equitable rules cover the assiga-ment assiga-ment of quarters and the allowance of (Continued am page . NO RENT (Continued from page I.) furniture, and that these rules sr bains ba-ins admin inter ad by a bodyof district quartermasters who have now received sitcl, training that he thinks tha nrob .eras of this branch of the work nwvs been solved. The hotel system on the Uthmui is an admirable one, with accommodations to suit all employees. The West Indian negro has the privilege of patronizing the mess kitchens along the line. His quarters in the barracks are free and he pars 30 cents a day for his meals. These are of nourishing food handled with the utmost cleanliness. Meaig at 10 Cent. We takes his beef, rice and (Kit mors in his kit and finds a shadv spot in whirh to eat them. But with ail thin he is not satisfied, and if they continue 'to forsake the mens kitchen in the future fu-ture as rapidly as they have in the past, before the work is completed there will be no mess kitchens. In 1.4i0,iJ meals were served in these kitchens; in 1910 the number hsd decreased to 781,000. The meals cost about 9 13 rente each, and were sold for 10 cents. The thousand Spanish and Italian la borers at work on tha rsnal receive 1J cents an hour wag's, and pay 40 cents a day for their rations. Those rations are almont exactly of the same weight and nutritive qualities as the I'nitefi Btatea army garrison ration, and coat about 37 rente each. Mora than 1,000,-000 1,000,-000 of these rations were served during the laat fiscal year. For the American employees there are hotels at every town in the zone, where. meals are furnished at 35 cents each. These meals cost, including the service, a little more than 3o rents - a MM sbsmm aa tWsak sm fcia I . Wl ' U . 11 fITW Tunu X ,T "M TTieSIS W"It" served during the year and the daily average was 1915. Unci Bam Oood Boniface. The Tivoli is the Waldorf Astoria of the isthmus, and of the whole tropical world, for that matter. Rear Admiral Stevens, retired, of the L'nited State; navy, who has tried them all, Heclaren that nowhere else in a lifetime of travel has he ever seen as good a tropical tropi-cal hotel as the Tivoli. It was huilt ny the government in 1900 and in the ren dezvoue of all Americans who travel this way. The employees of the canal are given special rates. Built on a beautiful eminence at the foot of Ancon hill, with Panama bay anil the eitv of Panama in front. Ancon hill and the splendid Ancon hospital reservation in the rear, swept by breezes from tha Pacific hv day and cooled by sephyrs from tne Ciilebra hill bj night, surrounded by broad ve-rsmdaa. ve-rsmdaa. possessing a ballroom and a dining room each ideally situated, its cuisine excellent, its service good its office force attentive to the comforts of its patrons, on can resdilv under stand why the Tivoli hotel is visited hv every traveler and is the social bead quarters of the isthmus. If anyone thinks your Uncle Samuel it a failure as a tavern landlord, he has never, stopped at the Tivoli. For $5 a day one gets a room and bath with meals' that would coat nearly double in the Statee. Ics for Everybody. Everybody in the employ of the eanal commission drinks Altered water, has a full supply of ice. and everything else that goes to make living pleasant and comfortable. The result of it all ia that except for the petty complaints that ean never be silenced, no mattes) what ia done, the canal force ia a satisfied lot of people. when the work began the Spanish snd the Italian governments did everything every-thing in their power to prevent e magi's ma-gi's t ion to the isthmus, and tha United Statee had to atake some remarkable guaraneeg before they would allow their people to sail. Now the letters that go back to Spain and Italy from here tell of good times, good wages, good food, and good quarters, and there ia a constant con-stant stream of laborers coming over, trusting to the fates for a Job. Tt is the same with the West Indian laborer. When the work atarted he was inclined to shun Panama. Tales of the horrors of the French davg were abroad, and the isthmus seemed to the negroes of the Caribbean a sort of pesthole where death stalked un-1 un-1 checked and uncontrolled. But that i baa been changed long ago, and Panama Pana-ma is now an El Dorado to the West Indian imagination. Monday: THB PANAMA CANAL. X. Banishing Homesickness. |