The State of Panama.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 7, 3 October 1907, Page 10

The State of Panama.

A SINK OF DEPRAVITY. THE'U.S. PRESIDENT HELD RESPONSIBLE. A telegram from Now York to Sail Francisco states that plans arc rapidly being perfected to bring beforo President- Roosevelt and .later before Congress the fearful condition of morality 011 the Isthmus of Panama. Tho Rov. William P. E. Ferguson, editor of the Defender, tho 'prohibition organ, is at tho head of the movement. Ho is at present in tho West telling what he saw in ail exhaustive investigation of the conditions in Colon and Panama and along, the Canal 1 Zone. ,Jlr Ferguson says: " Wo are proving that we aro a great people; wo are also writing big for the reading of tho world that- we are a. wicked, people. It is of that wickedness that I propose to tell —to tell tillj please God,- tlio American homes of virtuo and cleanness rise in their, might and tell Washington in tones, which, even, the wielder of tho 'big stick' (must understand that tho American honour . must not be stamped in the mud of vice in Panama ; . that we aro glad to send our sons to dig'tho Cuiebra, cut and build the Gatum dam in the sweat and dirt of honest toil, but- we will not give them to bo meat for tho saloon-keeper and vice syndicate; that wo will give our girls to wed tlio boys who battle with the rock beneath and tho sun and rains-above, but by tho grace, or every sainted mother who has gone to heaven sinco the Pilgrims touched Plymouth Rock and the Cavaliers built Jamestown, .not 0110 moro little girl from American homes shall they tlrag array to degradation and to slavery on tlio istnmus." Slave Trade in Girls, ■ Mr Ferguson makes the direct charge that there is a regular slave trade, in young. American girls from tlio States, and gives ono instance; when lie caw two "young girls, not more than seventeen years old, who had b'cen brought in shortly beforo, one of them from Jonesboro, Ark., and tho other from Memphis, Tonn. Three weeks later ho saw them, physical, mental, and. moral wrecks. Sir. Ferguson continues: , . . ■ " I have seen two little girls, practically slavos in a vico den in this city, lying drunk, a show for native' boys , and men—two little American girls, to all.intents and purposes stolon trom'American homes. "I want to. put 011 record hero tho statement that the. Government of Colon 13 a mass of graft and fraud-; public service, so far as thero is any, is managed for practical robbery; its so-called courts of justice are simply extortion mills. In the plunder that comes from- this leading Americans share and tho Government of tho zono looks 011. in silonco for ' that reason." > Proofs of his Statements. Ho says ho has proofs of tlio statements that American officials are at loast iii some instances directly interested in this infamous place. Ho says: "At Colon, within fifteen feet of the post-office, and. commissary store, in plain sight of both, to the common knowledge of thousands, a huge building owned by an cuiployeo of the "United States is operated, not only as a saloon, but as a vice den." ' Thero aro, ho says,, not less than 300 saloons in Colon/ which has a population of only 12,000; twice that number in Panama and one for every miles at least along tlio Canal Zone. Ho adds " With the oxception of such special laws upon particular matters, as Congross -imay havo enacted, law and administration. in tlio Canal Zone are the will of the President of tho United States. The vico and the Honor traffic aro in power and accomplishing their accursed work. They do so because Theodoro Roosovolt either wills that they should, or does not care enough about them to exerciso his fully sufficient authority for their suppression and the protection of thoir victims."