Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-04-01
ITS CHIEF ENGINEER
A Big Man in Charge Of the
Panama Canal.
KNOWS HIS BUSINESS
HAS ALWAYS BEEN ANXIOUS TO
TACKLE BIG PROBLEMS.
The Sort That Accomplishes Things
His Early Life and the Secret
of His Success.
Copyright, 1905, by Frank G. Carpenter.)

Copyright, 1905 by Frank G. Carpenter)
Special Correspondence of The Evening Star.
PANAMA.
Uncle Sam has a big man in charge of
the Panama canal. 1 refer to the chief en-
gineer, John Findley Wallace, who has
taken charge of this, the biggest engineer
ing job of the world, at a salary of $4,000
a year. Daniel Webster was called steam
engine in breeches. Mr.. Wallace is great
power plant in flesh and blood which trans
mts its force to everyone with whom 1t
comes in contact. He is an originator He
plans things and does things. He unites
commercial ability with technical training
and experience. He knows how to handle
men as well as how to handle machinery,
and while he was manager of the Illinois
Central railroad his method such that
he could tell whether every man and every
machine, locomotive and on that vast
system was doing its duty, and whether the
man or thing paid the company to keep him
or it at work.
Mr.. Wallace is the prince of our business
engineers. He has been dealing with bust
ness undertakings all his life and has had
to figure them out to profitable conclusions.
AS manager of the Illinois Central he was
handling a proposition capitalized at hun
dreds of millions of dollars and made it
pay dividends. He spent $50, 600 600 and
upward a year; his employees more
than 50OG0 and his territory covered four
teen of the busiest states of the Union.
His experience there fits him for the Pan
anna canal, which might be called the big
gest business undertaking in existence. 1t
will probably be something like $500, 0OO,-
900 job; and the American people want it
done in the quickest possible time and at
the lowest possible cost. Every years de-
lay means just that much loss in interest
and income, and there is business end TO
every proposition connected with 1t. With
unlimited time and unlimited money any
engineer could do it. We have able en-
gineers in the army who could construct it
that way, but the army engineer usually
lacks the business point of view, the very
point of view which Mr.. Wallace has to
an extraordinary degree, and the point of
view that is absolutely necessary to a job
like this.
The Two Engineers.
In talking one day with Mr.. Wallace
about his early life. he told me that soon
after he started out in his engineering work
he began to study why some men succeed
ed and others, who seemed to be better
equipped in the way of education, failed.
The engineers who were failures might be
excellent craftsmen and apparently super
Tor technically to the engineers who sue
ceeded. The latter, however, soon climbed
to the top and the beautiful workmen were
DOSSeQ by Enem. he soon learned llldl II
was the man who accomplished results who
succeeded, and that results were the only
criterion of success. He early learned that
the successful engineer is he who, taking
conditions as they are by the use of the
forces he has, can work them out to
commercial success. There are, he says,
several sides to every engineering propo-
sition. Every work must be constructed so
that 1t will serve the purpose for which II
is made. but it must also be constructed
at such cost and in such way that 1t
will pay the men who are having it made.
He illustrated the point by taking the case
of two engineers. One lays out the line of
a railroad, carrying it across ravine over
a bridge, which is marvel of engineering
construction. The other, who may not per-
haps be able to build beautiful a bridge.
plans the road so that no bridge is needed
and so that the change does not add to the
operating expenses. Which is the better
engineer? The latter of course.
AS to Engineer Wallace, he has the quail
ties of both these engineers. He has tech
nical ability and training of the highest or
der and at the same time natural business
ability which has been developed to the full
by an extraordinary business education and
business training.
How One Man Succeeded.
I like to write stories of successful men.
They are helpful for the boys of today who
starting out toward success. Here at
Panama We have hundreds of American
ships of seven hours work at s. or 81 a
day. 1t may interest them to- know how
their $25,OO0-a-year chief worked to get an
education and was glad to receive for his
first labors engineer half what they are
now getting, sleeping in the fields or in the
farm houses nearby while engaged in his
surveys.
Mr.. Wallace is now fifty-two years old.
His father was an eminent Scotch Presby
terrain preacher, a doctor of divinity, who
wanted to educa all his sons for the min
istry. He started his boy, John. at Latin
when he was ten and at Greek year later.
Young Wallace was in fact, nursed the
classics, and it was not until his sophomore
year in college that he rebelled. Then his
father wanted him to take up Hebrew, but
young Wallace said that his lifework lay
outside the ministry and that he was bound
to study engineering His father replied
that if so he would help him all he could,
but that most of the money must be earned
by himself. Like many preachers, DR.. Wal
lace poor and he could only afford TO
educate his son through the support given
to divinity students. This denied to
young men who took up other professions.
The change, however did not bother
young Wallace. He stayed out from school
a month at the end of each year and an
other month at the beginning and in these
months and during his vacations he made
enough by surveying to pay his way
through. He could not go to a technical
school, but the several professors of the
college gave him special instruction along
engineering lines, anu III inns way ne
ed the basis, which, added to his study
thereafter, has put him at the head of the.
engineers of his time.
How Wallace Learned Business.
l have referred to Mr.. Wallace as a bust
ness engineer. 1 want to tell you how he
got his business education. AS soon as he
began to work he saw that the successful
engineer had to know business methods in
order to succeed. He realized that he
would have to deal with accounts all his
life and also with all matters relating to
corpora tons. The first thing he took up
was accounts. While acting surveyor
he carried on private course in bookkeep
ing, learning single and double entry. He