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I have seen negro slaves at work on tlie cotton plantations of Cuba; I have also 

 seen the convicts at work at Portland. The conditions under which all these labored 

 were greatly preferable to those to which these Egyptian fellaheen were exposed, 

 and it must l)e remembered that most of them uwn farms and constitute, in fact, the 

 yeomanry of Upper Egyjit. 



"What struck me most as I gazed on the toiling multitude was the pitiable waste of 

 human labor, for one-fourth the num))er, with proper tools and appliances and sutR- 

 cient food, and with intelligent and experienced foremen to direct tliem, could have 

 done the work far Ijetter and more quickly than the ill-directed efforts of that nwl) 

 of men, without implements, weak from scanty diet and exhausted l)y hardsliip. 

 An English navvy would laugh at their work as excavators, but the conditions as to 

 food, temperature, and exposure under which tliey work would kill him long before 

 the month was out. ( )i)hthalmia is one evil that results. I can not imagine a better 

 receipt for the wholesale manufacture of this malady than to work men to exhaus- 

 tion in tiery heat and glare and dust all day and then to expose them at night to the 

 heavy dew and frosty temperature, lying on the l)are ground in their calico dresses. 



It nuist not be supposed that because the government jjays nothing for it thatthere- 

 fore forced labor, as now condiicted, is cheap; on the contrary, it is most costly to 

 the country. Every man there withdrawn from the cultivation of his farm repre- 

 sents a family by so nuich impoverished. 



One-half of the able-bodied population is engaged for l^etween three and lour 

 months in the year in forced labor. That means that the second crop on their farms 

 is reduced in productiveness by one-half; that on the lands where 4 ardebs (21.76 

 bushels) i)er acre could have 1)een yielded had all the hands remained at home, only 

 2 are yielded owing to deficient irrigation when half the hands are withdrawn; that 

 is to say, that it amounts to a tax of 21s. ($5.04) per acre on every acre devoted to 

 second crops. Where land is rented, not owned, these second crops often constitute 

 all the return the cultivator gets, rent and land tax entirely swallowing up the first; 

 the price the government pays is the pauperization of the people and the reduction 

 of their taxpaying capacity, l)ut that is not the whole price. There are not men 

 enough in Eg^t'j^t to cultivate it i)roperly or to develop its resources fully; the gov- 

 ernment, grudging the cost of food and imjilements,' is prodigal only in men, the 

 very article that most needs here to l^e economized. If they can save the expense of 

 tools ])}' setting four or five men to do the work which one man with tools and food 

 could easily accomj)lish, they send the five men and withhold the tools and food. I 

 fear, also, that the sacrifice of men is not merely temporary; men can not be exposed 

 with impunity to tlie hardships which 1 witnessed. The constitutions and health of 

 many must be permanently inipaired, even their lives shortened. Twenty thousand 

 men are said to have perished in making the Mahmoudia Canal, and I can well 

 believe it after what I witnessed near Keneh. 



It must be accepted for a fact that forced labor exists with the consent of the great 

 mass of the people of i^gyi^t. I have heard them comjilain of this or that tax and 

 suggest its abolition, and I have heard them complain of the unfair apportionment of 

 forced labor in their district, but I never heard one single jjerson of any class suggest 

 the abolition of the forced-labor system. They admit it to be necessary, but it does 

 not follow on that account that nothing can be done to reform its conditions. The 

 first term of lal)or should be postponed till the first crops are thrashed out and sold 

 and the second crops well estaljlished and less likely to suffer from defective irriga- 

 tion. The men should be supplied by the government with nourishing food. Two 

 or three intervals for food and rest should Ije allowed in the day, instead of only 

 one. Proper implements for excavating should be supplied to them. Labor-.'^aving 

 machinei-y should he introduced where possible. Skilled foremen should direct the 

 works. The men should he divided systematically into gangs, each gang with its 

 own task marked out, instead of the desultory fashions which now i)revail, for they 

 work in a mob and everv man is in Ids neiirhbor's wav. Some shelter ought to be 



