The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-07-23

the old story of Yankee brains. Yankee
 capacity for doing things and Yankee
 grit and determination. As me 2 | force of Americans as one can nope 70
 meet is assembled on the Isthmus. and 1 the handspring of it's action Is the | brains which the United States govern I ment has placed over 1t to direct it's | efforts. FrorR the East. the West the | North and the South the flower or the 1 professions has been called 70 come down here and dig this canal. They I have come and have developed the force into working machine of an un- precedented efficiency. The contractor on government jobs in the United States may well thank his stars that the Panama Canal is being dug In a country where everything is more than expensive; if 1t were not so the United States might decide after it's experince at Panama. that all public work in the future should be done by this organi- zation.
 What U. S. Grant was to the Army of the Potomac George W. Goethals Is to the Army of the Panama Canal. It mas been said that the decision to put the building of the canal in the hands of the army was a master stroke Be- fore that no little Reorganization reigned: but when the army took charge every man on the Isthmus learned that it was question or making good or getting out. As soon as the members of the force became acquainted with the man who was to command the canal army, they worked as a matter of devotion to the cause rather than as a matter of necessity.
 Some men have the peculiar faculty of transmitting their enthusiasm into the hearts of all under them. This faculty Colonel Goethals has in an un- usual degree.
 When one calls on him he finds broad shouIdered man with hair white as the unsunned snow and face as brown as a berry. a man of modest de- neanor, yet business-like in every line of his mak cup. He says frankly that there Is nothing to hide. and that they want to extend to those interested an opportunity to see everything that is going on. He tells you that if there is anything which forms ground for legitimate complaint he wants to know of 1t, as it is his mission on the Isth- mus to remove every possible ground for complaint. Yet he adds that of course there will be found some things that ought to be done and others that ought to be left undone. since perfec- tion can never exist in this world
 He may say, that he finds the best way to see the Culebra Cut is to walk through it, and that he usually does so. The cut is nine miles from end to end, and 1t Is just one example of the thoroughness of the Chief Engineers work to say that he walks the whole length whenever opportunity affords Clad in a simple khaki uniform he gets around over the work regularly, and not an evening comes but he knows just what has been going on all day long. Colonel Goethals thinks that the de- mand for the dirt to ny is an ill-ad- vised one. He says that there are no many drawbacks and hindFances that the dirt cannot always be flying as fast as he or the American people would like to have 1t. As the years pass the dificulties of every phase of the work will increase. As many steam shovels cannot be operated to advantage later on, as many dirt trains cannot be run, the spoil will have to be haulded further away, and in hum dred ways the work will necessarily have to slow up some as 1t hears com pletion. It is this aspect of the situa- tion that prevents the canal authort- ties from making an exact prediction as to when the canal will be completed or what the ultimate cost will be. But they hope that the good work they are now doing will cause the people to un- derstand that they are doing the best that can be done when the slow-up time comes.
 A bit of figuring on August will show that they have excavated more months of the present year than they did during the whole of 1907. This was done, too, without any important increase of force or equipment. The canal digging machine has simply been put to the maximum efficiency test Colonel Goethals proved the manner of man he Is. when, discussing the work of former Chief Engineers. he. said
 Stevens will never get the credit that is due him in connection with this work. For instance, take this Cule- bra division. It is the big organiza- ton of the canal. It Is being conduct ed today on the very lines he laid out, the only changes we have made being those of a routine nature which he would certainly have made had he re- mained here"
 One hears the same sort of things about Wallace and the preparatory work he did. The big engines he bought for the canal and the railroad. in the face of much adverse criticism have proved themselves to be the most important factor in the big showing of excavations this year. The biggest problem of the canal is to get the spoil away. anI these herculean engines af- ford the solution of that problem.
 Commissioner Galliard and Commis' sioner Sibert are both army officers, ana have worked on some of the most difacult construction jobs in the Upit- ad. States. Upon them. next to the Chief Engineer. depends the great task of the actual digging of the canal. To- rether with Colonel Goethals they go over all the reports of those under them, and over the work itself. and solve the problems at hand. Major Sibert, as we'll as Colonel Goethals. has hnd much experience in dam building.