Prowling about Panama

by George A. Miller

As may be expected, the birth rate is high, but large families are rare because of the distressing and unnecessary high rate of infant mortality. How could it be otherwise when a whole family lives in one room on twenty-five dollars a month with food at New York prices?

That the Jamaicans are a gregarious folk is to be expected. The social instinct is always strong in any people of African descent. Canal Zone bosses complain that their employees prefer to leave the clean and sanitary quarters of the Zone and live in the Guachapali and San Miguel districts of Panama and in Colon, where they are crowded together in a way that would prove fatal to a white man. The constant company and crowded conditions do not trouble the West Indians, whereas the rigid restrictions of the silver quarters of the Zone he often finds objectionable.

What the West Indian most needs is a fair chance. He is cursed and disparaged on every hand. He is to blame for being ragged and unwashed, but when he goes hungry and dresses up, then he is a hopeless spendthrift and a fraudulent dude. It is useless to pay him fair wages because he would spend the money. Unscrupulous landlords are allowed to extort enormous rents for wretched quarters in Panama and Colon, because, if the Jamaican did not spend his money that way, he would pay it out for something else. He is looked down upon as not being highly educated, and it is claimed that the more he knows the worse off he is. No matter what happens he is to blame. If the cholera should appear in Panama, or the Gold Hill should slide into the Canal, the West Indian would be the guilty party. Surely, he is worth his wages merely as a target for the verbal explosions of his boss. Some men would have difficulty in holding their jobs were it not for the timely assistance of this "goat" of the Zone. Living conditions in Caledonia and Guachapali would give the New York East Side something to think about. Rooms ten or twelve feet square are rented out to families who usually stretch a curtain across the middle, sleep huddled together in the rear at night, and live in the front of the "flat" the rest of the time. From some primitive prejudice comes a violent dislike of fresh air, especially at night, when every room is as nearly as possible hermetically sealed. In a tropical temperature no one has yet explained how the inmates live till morning.

Naked children swarm in the streets. At first the visitor is properly shocked, but soon ceases to notice these ebony cherubs. In time, however, one does get tired of it. Along the sidewalks and in the doorsteps the evening hours are turned into neighborhood debating societies and wrangling clubs, and between the arguments and disputes, and the always nearby street meeting, there is never a dull moment. That is why they prefer living there to the quiet and monotonous life in the silver town on the Zone.

Religious gatherings on the street are a marked feature of the night life of this part of the city. Torchlights and crowds, vigorous singing and enthusiastic exhortations mark the visible features of the efforts of these earnest persuaders of their neighbors to flee from the wrath to come. If street demonstrations were confined to religious meetings, all might be well. While ever-present canteenas dispense cheap and deadly rum there will always be people who will go hungry and ragged to buy "firewater," and with one or two drinks aboard the West Indian becomes a very talkative and quarrelsome person. Often have I seen sidewalks spattered with blood, and a common sight is that of a couple of policemen leading away a gory victim or culprit.

So scanty is the food ration of these people that the general custom prevails of eating very little during the day and then making a feast at night of whatever food can be secured. The Methodist missionary school in this district established a soup line at noon for the feeding of hungry babies who came to the school without their breakfast and had nothing at home to eat at noon. Any sort of "learning" under such circumstances was impossible.

Three or four things must be supplied if the West Indian is to rise above his present level. He needs living wages, he needs intelligent and responsible leadership; he needs a better education, and he needs a broader social basis and a wider horizon for his circle of life.

There are a few lawyers and doctors and teachers of this race, and there are a number of preachers, who consider themselves to be the intellectuals, but there is no concert of purpose or plan for progress among these people. Each man is intent upon exalting his own personal prominence, or furthering the interests of the little group to which he belongs. West Indian life at present is segregated into little cliques and rings, represented by churches, lodges, dancing clubs, and other organizations. So far no common cause has united any of these factors in any program of progress. So intent are they upon individual emphasis that any thought of the social whole seems almost impossible. Several efforts have been made to unite in a common program of service the different churches in a given community, but so far small success has attended these worthy plans.

Perhaps more than almost anything else the West Indian needs racial self-respect. He is humble enough before his boss, and if well treated is loyal and faithful; but for his own kind he has little appreciation. "I will never work for my own color," boasted a proud cook one day. And one of the most difficult problems of the missionary grows out of the fact that the West Indians generally despise each other. To arouse leadership and stimulate ambition among a people who look down upon themselves is a big task. The individual man will have to get his mind on something besides his effort to exalt himself above all his fellows before any great progress can be made. The fundamental trouble with the West Indian is that he looks up to those whom he considers his superiors and looks down upon everybody else. It seems difficult for him to look across or on a level, and recognize other people as being on the same plane with himself.

The educational equipment of these people needs to be extended beyond the present mere elements of reading, writing, and arithmetic. Some intellectual window into the great world out beyond the Caribbean Sea must be provided if there is to be deliverance from the superstition and iron-bound customs that have held them fast for ten thousand years.