Los Angeles herald., 1909-08-17
ENGINEER CHIEF
IS HERE TO SEE
NEW HARBOR
GEN. w. |. MARSHALL REACHES
LOS ANGELES
WILL MAKE TRIP FROM LONG
BEACH TO WILMINGTON
Duties of His Office Have Been So
Enlarged That He is Now One
of Busiest Officers In
Nation

nRIGADIER GENERAL w. L.
x MARSHALL, chief of engineers,
~ United States army, is in Los
Angeles on an official trip and will
spend today at the harbor. He is
finishing a tour on the Pacific coast,
and on his way west from WASH
ington made official stops at De-
troit, Chicago and other places on the
route With Mrs. Marshall, he is reg
istered at the Van Nuys.
I'm talk about the harbor after l
see it," he said last night, and, with
an army officers reticence, he asked
to be excused from saying anything
until he had time to inspect the local
situation
He will go to Long Beach this morn
ing to take the government boat
through Wilmington harbor by way
of the Cerritos channel. After IN
specting the outer harbor and break
water he will be met at San Pedro by
| a committee from the San Pedro board
of trade. President George II. Stew
art and Secretary A. P. Fleming of the
Los Angeles harbor commission were
at the hotel last night to pay their re-
spects to General Marshall, and he
was met at the train by Lieutenant
Leeds, who will accompany him to the
| harbor today.
General Marshall probably is carry
| ing on his shoulders more perplexing
problems than are now met by the
| head of any other department OF the
army. With the accession of the island
possessions and dependencies, the
building of the Panama canal and the
greatly enlarged interest in harbor and
waterway Improvement, the work or
the engineers has grown enormously In
recent years. The Panama canal es-
pecially has called for the attention
of the best men in the corps. Yet the
strength of the corps is practically lit
tie greater than before these problems
We're presented.
/ An instance of what this means is
offered in the district covered from
! the engineers office at Los Angeles.
! Captain Fries is sent to take up mil
itary duty with a much larger amount
| of construction work in the district
than when he came here, yet it is found
necessary to consolidate the work he
has been doing with that which Lieu
tenant Leeds had before assuming
charge of the office. In addition, be-
cause it is necessary TO reduce the
force at San Francisco also, work on
the debris commission is added to the
duties of Lieutenant Leeds.
Faces Heavy Burden
This is done in the face of the fight
| by Los Angeles to make the local har-
Dor free involving litigation that Will
tax the ability of the United States en-
| gineer as a marine lawyer and the
Nplans to expend $10,O00,000 at San
Pedro and Wilmington harbors by the
municipality and $1,500,000 at san
Diego by the state. These would nat
urally call for a material increase in
| the force at the Los Angeles office but,
| instead, Lieut.. Leeds is compelled to
face the future work confronting MIN
as we'll as the established routine with
| one less man than capt. Fries had De-
| fore he was relieved.
Similar situations are confronting
| the engineer officers all over the
United States. In spite of the in
| creasing duties at San Francisco, 1t
| has been found necessary to reduce the
number of officers there.
Gen. Marshall cannot avoid this sit
uation, as he has no power to increase
! the number of officers and assistant
engineers, as the civilian engineers in
| the service are called. Until congress
sees fit to bring the strength of the
| corps of engineers up to the measure
of demand made upon it by the greater
amount of work he can only meet the
situation as he is doing at present.
| An effort has been made to secure
from congress an enlargement of the
corps of engineers commensurate with
| the larger requirements. 1t has not
been successful so far, but bill will
| be before the next congress for prop
er increase in the strength of the de-
partment, which at present is less than
| 200 officers. A provision will be in
corporated in the bill permitting civ
ilian engineers attached to the depart
| ment to take station, which will al
| low recognition of the work of men
! Ike d. e. Hughes of the Los Angeles
district office, who is now known only
| as an assistant engineer. If congress
| passes the bill, some provision may
be made by the engineers department
to handle big questions calling for
larger force through local Improvement
| like the harbor at Los Angeles or more
military needs, such as those arising
III the Philippines.
Gen. Marshall is carrying with his
| duties as chief of engineers local
responsibility which has followed him
| from the New York harbor, where he
was stationed for number of years
before his advancement. His handling
| of the problems at New York, which Is
the second harbor of the world, made
him famous as a harbor engineer all
over the world and New York city
and state insisted that he be allowed
| to leave to become chief of engineers
only with the stipulation that he re-
tain charge of a complicated part of
the army engineers work at the New
! York harbor, and he still has this to
/ look after.
4.