1909] on the Americans and the Panama Canal. 709 



food if they wish. There are separate messes for the gold employees, 

 coloured employees, and European labourers. Formerly the coloured 

 labourers did their own cooking, but it was found that they were not 

 eating sufficient nor properly cooked food, so the Commission now 

 prepares food for them. The coloured labourers receive 10 cents 

 United States currency per hour, and pay 80 cents for three meals 

 each day. The European labourers receive 20 cents per hour, 

 and pay 40 cents for the three meals received each day. Tiie 

 skilled labourers get a higher rate of pay. 



Employees may obtain from the Commissary Department up to 

 40 per cent, of the amount they have earned. This money is deducted 

 from their pay at the end of the month ; also, meal tickets given to 

 them are deducted from the monthly salary due to them. 



At each of the camps there is a dispensary and a " sick camp." At 

 the larger settlements there is also a hospital. These are under the 

 supervision of the District Physicians. At Ancon and Colon are the 

 main hospitals. On Taboga Island, 9 miles out in the Pacific, is a 

 sanatorium for the convalescent patients. No charge is made to 

 employees for treatment at the dispensary or the hospitals, and 

 families of employees are treated at a nominal rate. 



Hospital cars make a round trip daily on the railway, taking 

 patients to Ancon hospital on the morning trip, and to Colon 

 hospital on the afternoon trip. Up-to-date ambulances await the 

 trains at the station, so that no delay occurs in conveying 

 the patients to the hospitals. At the " sick camps " the labourers are 

 either discharged or sent to the terminal hospitals. Both gold em- 

 ployees (United States citizens chiefly), and white labourers (mostly 

 Spaniards and Italians), if unfit for work when leaving the terminal 

 hospitals, are sent to the Taboga sanatorium. Gold employees who 

 become ill while on duty are allowed up to thirty days' sick leave with 

 pay during the year. In case of emergency or accident a special 

 train is sent for the patient or patients direct to Ancon or Colon 

 hospitals, when the patient can stand being transported. 



Americans not only take the greatest care of the living, but the 

 dead are looked after in a manner undreamed of by Europeans. All 

 deaths occurring in the Zone are reported to the Chief Sanitary 

 Officer. The cemeteries in the Zone are cared for, and burials are 

 made by the Sanitary Department. A complete record of all cases 

 of death is correctly kept. In case of the death of an American 

 employee the body is embalmed, sealed in a metallic casket, and 

 shipped to his relatives in the United States free of cost. 



