The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1907-03-07
WASHINGTON
From our Regular Correspondent.

Once more the kaleidoscope has
changed on the Panama Canal.
What is there about the Job that
prevents any engineer of reputation
from holding ii more than a few
months' OF course, every man
who has been Oh the Job as a chief
engineer or chairman has been
man of International c gineering
reputation. Aud all Of them have
gone from the canal to positions
that paid more money. Even at
that, the pay they were receiving
on the canal work was enormous
for government pay, and more by
far than will be paid if the work is
turned over TO the engineer corps.
There seems to be some sinister in
fuence behind the inability of the
government to keep any good man
at work in high position on the
canal. Now the resignation tf
John +. Stevens as chief engineer
is announced He is going 10 take
some big engineering position, the
exact nature OF which is not yet
specified.
This is the more remarkable as
the government has just decided
against doing the very thing that
Mr.. Stevens threatened to resign
for. 1t has thrown out all of .he
bids of the o liver Bangs and the
McArthur- -Gillispie combinations
to which Mr.. Stevens was said to
be opposed, and yet Mr.. Stevens
resigns from a position OF world
wide prominence the work of which
he seemed so well fitted to do, and
where the salary was certainly
large enough to enable a man to
keep his family in comfort and
smoke any brand of cigars he
pleased.
There is said to be more than the
climate against keeping co mpe-
tent man on the work. The big
railroad interests of the country are
10th to see the canal pushed to COM
pletion, and there are all the huge
corporate interests or the country
bound up in the railroad opposition.
Il is more than possible that there
is some connection between the
covert opposition to the canal and
the fact that every able engineer
gets offered better job as soon as
he gets settled in the canal saddle.
Now it appears there is to be an
other scheme tried for the handling
OF the work. The Army Engineer
Corps is to be drafted on the work.
Maj. Geo. w. Goethals, assisted
by Maj. Galliard and Maj. Seibert,
are TO be put on the work. 1t has
not yet been announced whether
these officers are to get anything
for the canal appointment beyond
their regular service pay. If the
government does as it frequently
does when it has the chance, the
law will be SO strictly construed as
to prevent their receiving addition
al compensation. But there is one
thing to be said, and that is that
the officers of the engineer corps
are among the most skillful engi-
neers in the world. They are 10y.
al. and with the single exception
on record of Capt. Oberlin Carter,
they are strictly honest. Even in
this case. the people of Savannah
today say that the work he did on
the harbor improvements there
was strictly first class, and there
are many who refuse to believe
that he was crooked, despite the
fact that he went to Jail for his part
in the job.
However, the officers of the en-.
sineer corps have been put in
charge of the canal work. 1t is
highly improbable that any Of them
will resign, and their position is al.
most guarantee that the govern.
ment will get the work done well
and honestly. Some of the work
probably will be done by contract
But there is no question that it will
get done. tor the canal has gone
too far for the genius of the Ameri
can people ever to allow it to be d
failure.
XIX
Taere is already rattling of dry
bones in the Postoffice on the eve
of a change in the administration
from Geo. B. Cortelyou to Geo