Omaha daily bee., 1912-04-21

nat tor six days Of the week is the
.Islest and nOisest place upon earth I
iaVe had chat with Colonel George w
Goethals as TO our mighty canal ana a..
future. '''
There is no man who can sneak nors
.ntfIhgently and more authoritattyelv
about the canal than Colonel Goe,haIs
-4H Is Is the supreme manager Of all
'"'NgS on the Isthmus. His title is chair
man OF the Canal commission ana chief
engineer. but he is far more than that
haer the powers granted him by the
president. he is the dictator. ths al.
mihstratcr. the executive. and, in short.
the ultimate authority to whom all
".hers must bow. His iron fist may be
cad IN a glove Of velvet and the thou
sands he rules may not appreciate its
existence. but IL they disobey. II strikes
and crushes the offender
SUcn authority has been found abso-
s-suteiy necessary to the canal constrlc-
ton. The lack Of II was to a great extent
'he causes OF the designations of Chief
Engineers Wallace and Stevens. II tied
their arms and those of their subordinates
with the governmental red tape Of CAPRICE
ana custom, and swathed this mighty in
dustrial entity. the whole canal force,
with bands stronger than those with
which the 44iIliputians bound the giant
Gulliver. When Colonel Goethals first
came he found himself in a network like
Gulliver's, and it was only by presenting
the matter TO President Roosevelt, who
had watched the vain and chaotic strug-
giles OF the past, that he was able to get
the power which has enabled him to &C.
compiish the mighty work which every
one now recognizes as his.
The Square Deal Mt Panama.
More than this. Colonel Goethals has
used his authority so that his thousands
Of employees are glad to obey. He has
brought harmony out Of dlscord among
the American employees, and has done the
same with the thirty-odd thousand Gem
tral Americans. Jamaicans and other
West Indians. He has not only preached
the square deal. but he has given the
square deal to every one. and, with the
exception OF few constitutional kick
,srs, all are satisfied. Every Sunday morn
ing the chairman holds a little supreme
scourt Of appeals here in his office in the
administration building He is both
}udge and jury. and any one who will.
even to the blackest and poorest Of the
laborers who handle the picks or wade
the mud, may come and present his
complaint. The chairman investigates the |
trouble, and the judgment is usually such |
that the man goes away satisfied.
The Working Ruler.
Colonel Goethals is a working dictator.
He knows every bit Of the canal con-
structi by close contact with the men
and the machinery. He goes over some
part Of the work every day. He starts
TO those places where he Is most needed,
:alking with the men and directing the
foremen He knows each branch OF the
engineering construction as we'll as the
division engineer In charge. and has. in
short, complete grasp OF this mighty
lob as whole and in detail.
| might I'LL this letter with stories
about him which illustrate his character
lstics. might tell you now he looks a
gray-headed giant OF fifty. with eyes as
blue as the Panama sky and muscles as
strong as the steam shovels which are
lifting mountains In the cut far below
me. | might speak OF his nerve and
determination to get things done and OF
his motto. which seems to be- Results
1t all costs" and that everything and
every body must be pushed TO hurry the
F-F- A
modern scientific management. OF his
rigid economy and his watching the leaks
and of his appreciation that every one of
Uncle Sans dollars contains Just 100
cents and that every cent spent must do
Its share OF the work. ! might do all
this and more. but this story Is not
character sketch. II is an interview. or
rather a running chat. gotten especially
for you. about the greatest job upon
earth. with the man who. more than any
other, is its handspring and dynamic
ruler.
, A Sea-Level Canal Impossible.
Our conversation covered wide range.
Colonel Goethals knows the canal so
well that he could talk most interest
ingly for an hour or more about any OF
its features. l have room here for only
a part OF our chat. We had been dis
cussing the mighty locks at each end Of
the waterway which will lift the ships
to the level Of the great cut which lay
there below u.s. and asked whether.
after all. it would not have been better
to have made the cut deeper and have
created sea-level canal.
Colonel Goethals replied: NO the
lock canal is by far the better. and it
will prove to be the more permanent
and the more economical In its operation.
II the government had decided upon a
sea-level canal that great gorge below
US would have had TO be cut eighty
five feet deeper than II is now. Be-
sides, do not believe that the people
Of the United States would have stood
for the additional time and cost which
would have been necessary to make IT,
and that is supposing it were at all pos
sible TO have made II. When l came
fere l had a pretty well fixed idea that
the sea-level canal might be the better
but my experience has changed that
opinion. for l do not believe that we
could have constructed 1t on account Of
the immensely greater slides which we
would have had II We had deepened the
cut. As it is now We shall be able TO
control the slides. and l do not appre-
hend that they will cause any great
damage to the completed canal"
The slides of the Future.