The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-04-21
RECORD OF MEN WHO ARE
 BUILDING PANAMA CANAL
Army Engineers, Goethals, Gai11ard and Sibert Have Inspired Confidence That the Gigantic
 Feat Will Be Success.

the administration has at last oono what 1t ought to have done at nrst put the digging of the canal into .ne hands of the army engineers. UT the army engineers, bear in mind. for while the personalities of the three men selected from the corps of enein- eers Is naturally and necessarily an nm portant factor, the principal thing IS that the work Is directed by the en- gineer corps, yet 1t is with the person. aIities of teshe men, though In rela- ton to the whole corps of engineers that this story must deal. The assign. ment of this man to the work on tne Panama canal was made in precisely the same manner other assignments are made in the army. Of course ordi- narily men are not selected for any specific work unless they seem 10 the authorities which appoint them to nave qualifications for the work.
 Something of Goethals.
 Colonel George W. Goethais' then Major. was selected to be engineer ah chief, and Chairman of the Canal Com mission, not only because of his en- eineering experience and his ability as A practical engineer but because or his well known administrative and ex. ecutive ability. For three years past he has been a member of the Generai Staff and though he has not been member of the Canal Commission nor assigned to duty in any way connecteo with the canal work. he has been fre- ouently consulted about it, and twice he has been offered the position of As sistant Engineer. He went to Panama on the trip with Secretary Taft, m spected the work, advised concerning 1t and did much towards collecting infor- nation in regard to the canal, Tor the Secretary of War and the President and he has aided materially 'n tne preparation of many of the executive communications upon this subject.
 Colonel Goethals is a tall, straight, commanding g looking man. His hair Is white, though he Is but 50 years old. The President said that he wanted to put men in charge of this work wno would be old enough to have had ample experience and young enough 10 cons plete the canal before they die or reached the age of retirement Colonel Goethals is the senior in years as he IS the senior in service and in rank ana he Is young enough to complete tne work. But he is younger in strength than he Is in years. Thirty-one years of army discipline has made him man vigorous physically and mentally. Ana he keeps his nerve with him all or the time. ..... ..
 whether or not the life of army of- fieers in general Is a life of ease as 1t IS often reputed to be, this is certainly not true of the engineer corps, Tor 1T there Is an active set of men In tnis country, 1t is the engineer corps or the army. They do not sit around and wait for war. Their work is in time or peace. and not only preparing for war, but preparing for the pursuits of peace As is well known the great river ana harbor works of the country are III their charge. Colonel Goethals has then had plenty to do and doing It sys- tematically as must be done In the army, he has profited by IL himsei1 ana even though 50 years old. he Is Tn strength and vigor and in the life oe- fore him, younger than pr. Oslers 40 year dead line.
 whether or mot Colonel Goethals IS one of those born to command, ne mas been trained to command. And one cannot look into his clear blue eyes, his strong muscular face and study his spacious overhanging brow without feeling that he is in the presence or one whose will must be obeyed oy those under his command ana that 50 far as possible the forces of nature themselves will be numbered among these.
 Started to Be a Doctor.
 Georget w. Goethals started out m life to he a physician. Thus his early instincts were those of fighter. u was while he was at Columbia Univer- sity, or rather Kings College, ns It was then, preparing himself to night the weaknesses and ailments of human flesh, that the distinguished and pie turesoue ''Sunset' Cox. Representative in Congress from New York, deter mined to make a different kind or fighter out of him and secured for him an appointment to West Point He graduated there in 1880. high enough in rank to receive his commission m the engineers, in which he mas slnce heen fighting the forces of nature. Elm ,"s'ntit, s,ccessful has he been Yet there has been nothing particularly conspicuous or dramatic, certainly nothing specially romantic or striklhS about his career. He has always been known as a man of the soundest 9uos- ment. A man who begets confidence py the strength of his character rather than by the flash of 1t.
 Immediately upon graduation from West Point, he was assigned on special duty at the Academy, and atter several interim assignments went again to the Academy as an assistant professor Ot civil and military engineering rom 1885 to 1888. His chief construction work has been in the Tennessee River below Chattanooga, wherS he was sta toned between 1891 and 1894 and at Newport, R. l., where he had charge of the river and harbor work ana the ior- tifications from 1900 to 1908.
 The work on the Tennessee River Colonel Goethals had charge of when he was A captain. This was in 1891. He first encountered some large obstruc- lions in the river at place called The suck" few miles below Chattanooga. The river formed a series of rapids sep arated by pools, formed by bars of gravel boulders. and detached and solid rock Captain Goethals removed these obstructions by blasting and dredging then built the canal fourteen and one half miles long, seventy to 120 feet wide and six feet deep around Big Muscle Shoals In this canal were nine locks.
 Captain Goethals had much experi- ence along this river in the construc- tion of canals. and he undertook and carried out several projects which pre- vious engineers had considered imprac- ticable. The most important of these were the Colbert and Bee Tree Shoals which formed the principal obstruc- tions to navigation during the low wa ter stages.
 A lateral canal on the south bank of the river had to be con struoted. Other engineers who had been in charge of this work proposed to con- struct this with two locks. but Goeth- als. after an examination and a series of tests, came to the conclusion that 1t would be feasible with only one. and contrary to the advice of all other en- gineers, he put the canal through with one lock So successful was he in his work on the Tennessee River that he was taken to Washington to become the assistant to the chief engineer, Here he was in 1888.