The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1907-04-05
The PANAMA CANAL AGAIN.

/ sell. were II not Tor lne IdCl llldts lot
/ once at least. the directors of great
! government undertaking are going TO
/ be in places where they direct in per-
son and not by proxy. 1t is scarcely
possible that any one will go into hys-
terics because the commissioners are
TO commission in the canal zone and
not in a luxuriously furnished building
I'm New York or Washington-except
the commissioners themselves.
The Panama canal commission has
had a pretty strenuous time of it all
through its existence and the careers of
commissions that preceded it. If our
memory serves us, the first canal COM
mission was composed of seven men,
bers who were paid enormous salaries.
They went to Colon and took a ride
across the isthmus and then got into
a fight One of them wanted to be the
chief director of the whole works or not
stand for" anything of the kind. so the
One-his name was Wallace-quit and
came back to the United States, wrote
statements about the Panama canal in
general and his own grievances in par
ticular. Wallace got into a tremendous
discussion with the president, and there
was much ado about the resignation"
of Wallace.
:. ::
WallaCe's retirement was followed
with more or less rapidity by the re-
tirement of the other members of the
committee. None of the commission
ers had more than a remote idea Of
what he was expected TO do in connec-
ton with the actual building of the
canal Individually they went, one
pleasant day, from New York through
the peaceful waters of the South At
lantic, enjoyed the cradIe-sOothing of
the waves of the Gulf of Mexico. looked
at the isthmUs and picked out the par
pened that most of them wanted the
same job; as a matter of fact, none of
them knew any more about the actual
work of digging a canal than a Gros
Ventre Indian does about designing a
Mormon temple.
After that. the president figured it
out that the commission was entirely
too cumbersome. He suggested all sorts
Of changes, and finally hired Theodore
ShOnts, a middle-west railroad mag
nate, to be head commissioner. Shonts
enlisted the services of John F. Stevens
as chief engineer. Shonts quit early |
and Stevens didn't stay very long.
bureaucracy was too |
much for them.
And, right here, it may be stated that |
John Stevens was the only man who |
sver went to the isthmus who knew his |
business. He knew how to build rail- |
roads and drive tunnels. He built the |
Great Northern through the wilderness
and never lost more than a foot of |
ground. The awe-inspiring cut Of Guile |
Dra did not dismay him, but the board |
If strategy" at Washington did The |
men who were doing the work on the |
sthmus feared another CrowninshieId /
system, and they threw up their hands |
n alarm and apprehension. 1t is the |
testimony, written and spoken, that /
John Stevens did more work on the
sthmus during his brief stay than all |
he rest of them, domestic and foreign, |
)ut together. He was beloved of his /
associates; his men We're loyal and will
realized that, for the first
ime, they were working for a man who
vas a past master in the business Of
and construction; he was
lot a figurehead.
But Roosevelt lost Stevens, as he lost
very other capable man, and will con-
inue to lose them so long as his pres
mt policy with respect to the canal is
continued. Today We read a list of
James comprising the canal board that
: utterly strange TO us. We are told
hat these men are to live on the 18TH
nus Why should they not? Is there
my reason why a man who drives a
unnel into the Wasatch mountains
hould live in Jerusalem?- Is there any
eason why an inspector of the port of
ialt Lake should live in Irkutsk? There
would be as much sense in either of
hese conditions as there is in the Pam
ma commissioners living in New York
# Buffalo or Detroit. If the PROPOSE
lon is TO dig the canal, dig it; there is
10 shovel handle long enough to reach
rom Brooklyn to Colon.
Away at the foot of the Washington
elegram that bears the astonishing
ews that the canal commissioners are
o be put to work is a brief line an
that former Senator Black
urn of Kentucky is to be governor of
he canal zone. Good for Joe, He has
7anted TO be governor Of Kentucky
'ng enough to entitle him to be a gov
rnor of something. But we look in
a In for fha ro,,,o - Da,.T...- -.