The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1907-03-18
BUILDING Of
PANAMA CANAL
CONTINUED from Page Ffve.)

CONTINUED from Page Ffve.)
| engineers, likewise proud Of their pro-
| fession and entertaining no very high
opinion of civilian engineers as cOmpar-
ed with themselves, are now girding
| their loins. They are very confident
| that military methods will be success
| full. The engineers whom the Pres1-
| dent sends to the isthmus will go there
as a matter of duty. 1t is in line with
| their army ideas to go where they are
| told to go and to stay there till re-
lieved The big problems of the canal
construction have now been met in
large part. 1t ought to be fairly
smooth sailing for the army men from
now on They have some very COM
petent engineers and now that the
work is placed in their hands it Is
not likely to be taken from them. It
almost certainly will not be While
Theodore Roosevelt is President. And
if the army engineers succeed they and
their Successes will have a feather for
every engineers cap for the next three
hundred years. I'VE built the canal
will be enough to silence criticism long
after the names of Walker, Stevens,
Wallace and Shonts have passed into
oblivion. 1t is little wonder that the
army engineers are not unmindful of
the great opportunity the President has
given them.
Lieut.. Col. Goethals has started for
the isthmus and in few days will be
ION the job His assistants will fol-
low him The President is determined
to build up an organization of compe-
tent army engineers there just as rap
idly as possible. He is going to draw
from among the best men of the $50
odd officers of the engineer corps. THE
swell head" or WEAKNESS of residence
on the isthmus, or disgust with trans
actions in washington will no longer
annoy the President in directing the
enterprise. If Lieut.. Col. Goethals falls
sick, or can not endure the climate, or
needs a. few months Of rest the engi-
neer next IN command will take his
place, just as happens when a general
is killed or wounded in battle. The
President is going to have competent
subordinates on the ground, trained in
the work and familiar with its de-
tails. The plan will be the same as
that by which the War Department
digs a canal along the Ohio river, or
dredges New York Harbor, or builds
an enormous breakwater on lake Erie. |
Uneasiness over the larger salaries
paid in private employment will be
eliminated. Wallace and Stevens
thought they were not paid enough.
Shonts thought his 100000 year was
too small, although he never earned
a. quarter of it. The temptation of
big salaries will not tempt the army |
engineers as it did civil engineers. |
They have an assured salary for life, |
conditioned only on good behavior, and
can retire on three-fourths pay at 81
years of age. But the President is go
ing to pay the army engineers on the
isthmus good pay. He has ample au-
thority to fix the salaries, Congress
having given him a free hand in that |
particular. Chief Engineer Goethals
will have $4,000 a year, which is about |
three times his pay as a lieutenant |
colonel in the army. His army subor-
dinates will also have increased COM
pensation-
Accordingly, the President has elm
mated the factors of INSTRUMENTATION |
and discomfort. In a few weeks or a |
few months Mr.. Stevens will leave the
Isthmus, Col Goethals will become |
chairman of the Commission, Maj. |
Gaillard and Maj. Sibert will become |
members of the Commission and the /
army will be in command all the way |
from Colon to Panama. Congress has
given the President a freer hand than
ever in appropriations, practically told
him to go ahead and spend as much |
as he thinks necessary, without re-
gard to the original estimates.
But there is another phase. With |
everything now in his hands, the Pres
ident must get results. There is
deep undercurrent of dissatisfaction in
Congress with what has been happen
ing. The critics say there have been
too many changes. 1t is freely pre-
dicted that these changes will arouse
popular suspicion, that people will be-
gin to believe that if the canal is ever
built it will be only in the course of
twenty or thirty or even fifty years,
that the cost will be many times the
original estimates, and that the task
is one upon which the government
should have entered with greater eau
ton and more thorough preparation.
He has no serious hindrances now in
the matter of personnel, and, the crit
les add, IF he does not make the dirt
fly in enormous quantities-in hum
dreds of thousands of cubic yards
weekly-we shall know just where to
place the blame. Theodore Roosevelt
will be the responsible party
The President himself is confident.
He has felt some discoura cement be-
cause of the frequent changes and the
hands into which the work
has at times fallen. What he most
deprecates is the popular criticism.
This was very CALLING to the civil en-
Wallace and to Stevens. It
was also odious to Shonts Civil en-
gineers, having spent their time on
private contracts, are unused to the
governments methods of careful scru-
tiny and free criticism. It is a whole
some plan and altogether indispensa-
BILE. Even unfair criticism. while not
justifiable, often is to a good purpose.
because it makes government en-
ployes and officials careful. The army
engineers are used to it and will not
mind as much as did the civil engin-
GERS. Mr.. Stevens often was greatly
at the criticism in Congress
about the canal. although few of these
criticisms were leveled at him.
= e I