100 years ago this came out in the papers in America. What I find most interesting is the estimated cost of construction.
An upbeat annual report by the Isthmian Canal Commission was released yesterday by the War Department, and included an explanation for the increase in the project’s estimated cost, to about $375 million from $144 million. “Prosperous conditions in the United States, combined with the unsavory reputation that the Isthmus had regarding its healthfulness, made it necessary, in order to secure labor, to increase the wage scales from 30 to 60 per cent over those paid in the United States for similar classes of work,” the Chief Engineer, George W. Goethals, wrote. “Certain gratuities, as additional inducements, were also offered, which in the main have since been continued. Moreover, the provisions of the eight-hour law were made applicable to the isthmus.” Canal Report Shows Good Progress Made; Col. Goethals’s Summing Up of Year’s Work at Panama Published by War Department; Explains Increase in Cost; Subsistence Department Runs 17 Hotels — 12 Schools for White Children and 17 for Colored Maintained..
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