The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1911-06-04
COL. GOE ETHkLS At
NATIONAL CAPITAL
Engineer of Panama Canal Enthu-
siastic and Confident Over
Existing Conditions.
STEADY PROGRESS is MADE
Officer Says the Time to Inspect
the Great Work Is Before the
Water Is Let In.
By Leased Wire to The Tribune.

By Leased Wire to The Tribune.
WASHINGTON, June 3.-Everybody
who meets Colonel George W. Goethals
the Panama canal builder, asks him the
same question:
'How's the canal coming on7' Ii
must sound monotonous to him, but he
always answers cheerfully that the
canal is getting along in fine shape.
Colonel Goethals has been spending
e few DAYS in Washington and has
talked to the president about the work
in the canal zone. He spent some time
at the capitol, where he met lot OF
congressman who have at various times
paid visit to the zone OF the greatest
engineering work now going on any
where IN the world.
''The time TO see what has been done
at Panama said Goethals "is before
the water is let into the canal.
"That VIII be year from next April.
People who go down there after the
canal has been filed will never be
able TO understand what a big piece or
work has been done. They will won,
der why IL the world the United States
spent all that money and where IT
went to-
Will Look Easy to Uninitiated.
Yes said congressman who over
heard this remark, 'and some day you
will see an investigation by congress
to find out why the canal cost so much
money. Those who go down will see
a ditch full of water and il Will look
so easy that they wop t see where the
millions of dollars were spent.
The colonel does not talk about the
canal as anything like an experiment.
He speaks of it as if il were a most
ordinary undertaking, simply requir-
ing a certain amount of time for its
''We are little ahead of the
schedule. - he said, "and everything is
going along as well as any of us could
hope. The human element that enters
into the construction OF the canal per
haps is It's most interesting feature.
We have our joys and our trials in this
respect, but 1t is certainly one of the
most remarkable fea lures Of the work -
Colonel Goethals s attention was
called to that recent statement by a
man who visited the canal zone and
who declared that the slides which have
from time TO time been experienced in
the Culebra cut and other places would
continue and always threaten the
canal.
Says Slides VIII Cease.
"That is not true" said Colonel
Goethsls. 1--WE have had twenty-five
slides thus far and will have more.
but these slides mean that the material
through which we are cntting the canal
is seeking It's natural level. great
many different kinds of material are
encountered and the angles at which
they will come to rest vary greatly.
For instance, a pile of sand viii come
TO rest with its slides at an angle of
about As degrees. We have material
at Panama. principally clay, where we
can make the side of cut almost per
pendicular. On the other hand. we
have material that will slide until IL
comes to rest al only 25 degrees
above the horizontal. That is its nat.
ural point of stopping. The Parazo
slide was one of the largest encoun-
tered, but it was entirely natural and
TO be expected. After il had come to
a rest we had to make another ten
foot cut and it slid again. But that
always was TO be expected, because
when the materials of which they are
composed reach their natural level they
will come to rest and stay there