Arizona republican., 1906-02-17
"FLoRoDoRA" CANAL DIGGING.

John F. Wallace. formerly chief en- gineer of the Panama canal project had chance to tell his troubles some time ago to the senate investigators In MT Wallace's personal controversies with MT. Shonts and Secretary Taft the public feels no great interest. But he made some Illuminating remarks about conditions at Panama when he was there.
 He declared that there never was time when he was in charge when all employees were not properly housed and fed. What gave rise to all the stories of discomfort at that time was that, whereas the negro laborers were able to take care of themselves, many of the white employees pined for len tertainment."
 Some clerks from New York and Washington, added MT Wallace, had Florodora ideas about life in the trop- ics. They thought they should sit in hammocks sip mint juleps. and smoke cigarettes. There was no complaint from those who came to the Isthmus t } work
 MT. Wallace also expressed the Opin- ion that the civil service regulations were not applicable to the selection of workers on tho isthmus, except in the
  as those of timekeepers and stenog raphers. In light of Mir. Wallace's re- marks, just quoted, it would seem that the boasted merit system from China would hardly do in any case.
 For it is to be noted that these Flor odora young men of whom MT Wallace spoke were all, as Secretary Taft sol emnly ayers in answer to certain suG- gestiOns about political pull the product of the civil service ,examina- tion. and job insurance idea. They were its choicest flower and fruit. And their uselessness in such work as must be done at Panama needs no argument.
 In fact, it is surprising that any American who even tries to be prac-. tical should need any sort of argument to convince him that the merit system now in vogue does well enough to se- cure small men for routine tasks. and to keep them undisturbed at those tasks by other seekers for easy jobs. And where merely routine work is to be done it is better to keep the small man who has learned his work, than to bother with a succession of small men learning 1t.
 But to get efficient men for such tasks ess that at Panama, ideas must be appealed to other than those of the small man whose best thoughts are of personal comfort. For success at Panama the instincts of physical prov ess seeking vent of willingness to take large chance for fame and fortune, and the spirit of adventure, must be ap- peaIed to. And the competitive civil service examination does not appeal to these instincts and this spirit at all. It repels them and when it comes un- der thcir influence destroys them.
 Rudyard Kipling says somewhere two kinds of regiments are especially terrible in battle-one of hard praying Presbyterians led by melancholy elders and the other of unregenerate black guards led by reckless young libertines but that a regiment composed of school prize winners is absolutely worthless until it has been. soundIy whipped.
 There is food for reflection in that remark on the part of the prominent gentlemen at Washington responsible for the work at Panama. So long as they persist in treating the Panama task as if it were merely ope of de- partment routine they will get but Florodora mon to attend to it. and we shall have nothing but Florodora canal digging