332 REPORT OF BOARD OF CONSULTING ENGINEERS, PANAMA CANAL.


 Mr. DAUCHY. Those aire the figures I gave. As 1 stated at the time, 1 made a careful estimate giving the exact number needed for each unit, and while I do not recall the exact figures now it is my impression that it is somewhere in that neighborhood.
 Mr. NOBLE. Does that include night work?
 Mr. DAUCHY. No; that is just for day work.
 Mr. NOBLE. Would that force have to be approximately doubled for night work?
 Mr. DAUCHY. Yes.
 Trhe CI-TAIRMAN. The chief engineer has sent to the Commission certain figures on that matter. I think I recall a conversation with him, when hie stated lie thought a maxinmun of 80,000 laborers would be required.
 Mr. DAUCHY. It is hard to figure 0o) the exact number of laborers required. The labor we have at the present time is v ery inefficient. It seems to me almost a necessity that more efficient labor be obtained; and if that is obtained, of course it makes quite a difference in the basis of figuring as to the number of men needed. The figures have been made on the basis of the kind of labor that we have at the present time. What seems to me to be the most essential ting in the question of preparatory work is the obtaining of a more efficient lass of labor than we have at present.
 The CHAIRMAN. Bearing1 upon that is also the well-known fact that labor imported to the tropics from a colder climate wiii be subjected to climiatizing vicissitudes, impairing their efficiency.
 Mr. DAUCHY. Take the question of cost, what we are paying for that labor, regaidinlg its efficiency, makes it the most expensive labor of its kind that I ever saw or heard of in the world. It is practically equal to paying the ordinary day laborer in this country $4, $5, or $6 a day.
 Mr. NOBLE. That is essentially the same kind of labor that was used in Nicaragua, Mr. Chairman?
 The CHAIRMAN. Yes.
 Mr. NOBLE. And reports concerning that labor were quite satisfactory, I think?
 The CHAIRMAN. I believe so.
 Mr. DAUCHY. I think they pay that same class of labor in Jamaica much less than we are paying on the Isthmus.
 The CHAIRMAN. In Jamaica there is a negro population of 700,00() and there is a constant struggle for existence. Half of then) have inadequate subsistence. When they built the railroad in Jamaica, there was a throng rushing for work, ten times beyond the needs, and the contractor would retain only the efficient.
 Mr. DAUCHY. I think the average price of labor there is about a silling a day.
 The CHAIRMAN. That is about the average.
 Mr. DAUCIIY. There seems to be not the least incentive on the part of the Jamaicani laborer to accumulate, and if he can earn enough in one or two days to keep him a week, he would rather do that than to put in full time.
 Mr. PARSONS'. Is Mr. Dauchy willing to take that ratio and apply it to his estimated cost price; that is, an estimate of 4 or 5 to 1? Does lie think that the Culebra cut would cost 10 cents a yard here?
 Mr. DAUCHY. Well, there are other elements that enter into it besides the price that is paid the cheaper kind of labor. Our gold pay rolls amount to a large proportion of the expenditure made. There is no question in my mind but what the canal could be built much more cheaply here.
 Mr. HUNTER. I think Mr. Parsons is rather exaggerating.
 The CHAIRMAN. IDo you think the Government should feed that labor, or should they be left to feed themselves?
 Mr. DAUCHY. I have always been favorably inclined toward the idea of the Government doing it, for the reason that the men, when they furnish their provisions, do not as a rule furnish the class of provisions that men doing that kind of labor require, and I have thouoht that if the


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