The Panama Canal 



59 



they would rather have extra work, with 

 a chance of regular employment here, 

 than leave their own country. 



THE EIGHT HOUR LAW WOULD BE AN EX- 

 TRAVAGANCE 



Before closing my remarks in regard 

 to the importance of labor in this enter- 

 prise, I wish to repeat and to emphasize 

 the opinion I have expressed on former 

 occasions in regard to the application of 

 the eight-hour law. The present wage 

 varies from 80 cents to $1.04 per day in 

 gold. As compared with the best com- 

 mon labor in the United States, its ef- 

 ficiency is rated at from 25 to 33 per 

 cent. Over 80 per cent of the employees 

 of the canal are now and will continue to 

 be alien laborers. A majority of the 

 other 20 per cent employed will be in a 

 clerical, a supervisory, or in some other 

 capacity to which the various labor laws 

 of the United States are not applicable. 

 It is to this kind of labor we are com- 

 pelled to apply the eight-hour law — that 

 is, to aliens who know nothing of the 

 law's existence until they arrive on the 

 Isthmus. 



Such application will increase the 

 labor cost of canal construction at least 

 25 per cent. You can readily see why 

 this will be the case. We pay our 

 laborers by the hour. If we can employ 

 them for only eight hours a day we can 

 give them work for only forty-eight 

 hours a week. If we can employ them 

 for ten hours a day we can give them 

 sixty hours a week. They will accept a 

 smaller hourly wage for sixty hours a 

 week than they will for forty-eight hours. 

 As a matter of fact, the skilled laborers 

 prefer a ten-hour day, and many of them 

 have asked for it, desiring to get the 

 extra two hours' pay. When they work 

 overtime on the eight-hour plan they 

 expect to get time and a half. 



It is obvious that by forcing the eight- 

 hour day upon us, millions of dollars will 

 be added to the cost of construction. 

 American labor in this country will have 



to pay its share in the consequent in- 

 crease of taxation, and for no appreci- 

 able benefit, for, as I have shown you, 

 there are only a very few American 

 laborers on the Isthmus. There is no 

 question of American labor involved in 

 Isthmus work, and I repeat what the 

 Commission has urged' in its annual re- 

 port, that it is a mistake to handicap the 

 construction of the Panama Canal with 

 any laws save those of police and sani- 

 tation, and that labor on the Isthmus 

 should be excluded from the application 

 of the eight-hour law, the contract-labor 

 law, the Chinese exclusion act, and any 

 other law passed or to be passed bv Con- 

 gress for the benefit of American labor 

 at home. 



As I said at the beginning of these re- 

 marks, our preparatory work is nearing 

 completion. It has, in fact, advanced as 

 far as we can carry it safely until we 

 know definitely the type of canal we are 

 to construct, whether it is to be sea level 

 or high level. It is of the utmost im- 

 portance, therefore, that decision as to 

 this type be reached at the earliest pos- 

 sible moment. I had hoped when I ac- 

 cepted your invitation that before the 

 time to address you should arrive the 

 Advisory Board would have made its re- 

 port, and I should be at liberty to speak 

 freely about it, and to discuss both the 

 details of the plan decided upon and the 

 methods to be employed in its execution. 

 The members of the Board consumed 

 much more time in their deliberations 

 than they had anticipated/and as the two 

 reports which they have decided to make 

 are not yet before the Commission, it 

 would be obviously improper for me to 

 enter upon the subject now. 



THE DIGGING WILE PROBABLY BE DONE BY 

 CONTRACT 



I am glad to say, however, that what- 

 ever may be the type decided upon it will 

 take us but a short time to complete the 

 arrangements for beginning at once to 

 carry its details into execution on a com- 



