Rocky Ford enterprise., 1914-02-13
weary OF PANAMA
COL. COCKTAILS AND HIS AIDS
WILL BE MIGHTY GLAD TO
COME BACK HOME.
CLIMATE is VERY TRYING
Canal Builders Have Been Drenehed
With Rain Nine Months Of Each
: Year. but Have Completed
Their Task Quickly.
BY GEORGE CLINTON.

washington. - COlOnel george W.
Goethals, chief engineer of Panama
Canal construction. will remain as
governor of the isthmus only until
January first next. This seems to be
assured. The great engineer proba-
bly, will either accept the police COM
missionership of New York or under
take some other work of prominence,
provided he is placed on the retired
list of the army after the canal is
opened.
1t always has been known that Col
onel Goethals did not care to be made
governor of the Canal Zone to hold
the position for any great length OF
time. Colonel Goethals. Lieutenant
Colonel William L. Sibert and the 9TH
er great engineers are willing and
even wish to leave the Isthmus OF
Panama as soon as the great work is
completed? Why? They need rest
and moreover they are tired of the
tropical life.
Does anybody blame the chief en-
gineer or his division engineers for
wishing in their hearts to come back
to the United States? The work In
the Culebra Cut, with the nervous
strain imposed because of its peculiar
Dub Gaillard. He virtually had I'm
ished his labor when he gave up his
life. The work of the other divisions
on the isthmus was as heavy as that
with which Gaillard was confronted.
but 1t was not In It's nature SO trying.
II 1t had been. other great engineers
like Gaillard probably would have died
at their post.
Life on isthmus is Trying.
In August Of last summer, visited
the Isthmus of Panama and was the
guest Of division engineer who was
one of my classmates at West Point
He is a big man in brain and body.
but that he felt somewhat the effects
of the tropic sun. of anxiety and of
physical and mental labor there was
no doubt. What is true of him un-
questionably is true of other engineers
who have done their work on the
isthmus. Seven years OF 1t, and Is
there any wonder that they yearn for
home?
For nine months each year for seven
years the workmen of Panama have
been rained on. For these nine
alternately four or five times a day
The rains descend as they do not de-
scend anywhere else and then they
stop and a baking sun comes out to
roast man and beast for an hour or
two. then to disappear and let the
rain go at 1t once more.
When young officer OF engineers
who was assisting the engineer In
charge of the construction of the
Gatun Locks and dam was working at
Porto Bello getting out stone and
gravel to be used for foundations. II
rained fifty-nine inches in one month
His chief. necessarily anxious to com
plete his work. kept calling on his
lieutenant for quicker action and
more material. One day the young
officer flashed this telegraphic mes
sage to his superior: Fifty inches of
rain not extraordinary; anything more
considered an act of God and mans
responsibility ceases"
The youngster received no more
hurry-up orders.
Work Has Been Done Quickly.
The Panama Canal has been com
pleted quickly. The men building it
kept everlastingly at 1t and yet there
was the appearance Of leisureliness
in the work. 1t was only In appear
ance. however. They walked slowly
from one post OF duty to another. but
when they were standing still direct
ing they made the dirt fly because
the laborers under them were men to
whom tropic conditions were usual
and to whom the short hours and the
good treatment accorded by the
American officers were unusual and
made labor with them a seeming pas
time.
With few individual exceptions. the
working force on the Isthmus of Pan
anna has kept its health. The Ameri-
can engineer officers, however. have
felt the effects of seven years of labor.
Moreover. they are homesick and their
inconsistencies has been accentuated
by the fact that the time is near at
hand when they can come home for
the cure.
Keeping In Touch With People.
President Wilson has said that in all
he does he wants to be guided by the
views of the country rather than by
those OF the city of Washington. Not
long after his Inauguration he said to
the newspaper men: THE only way
can succeed is by not having my mind
live in Washington. My body must
live here, but my mind has got to live
in the United States. or else | will fail.
| have got to understand the
country or will not understand my
lob"
1t is probable that every president
has felt exactly as Mr.. Wilson feels,
but It was probably only Theodore
Roosevelt who made actual systemat-
ic daily attempts to keen in touch