Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1914-02-12
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.

/
/ 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 OF under
| take some other work Of prominence,
1 provided he is placed on the retired
list of the army after the canal is
| opened.
/ 1t always has been known that Col
I onel$Goethsls 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
/
| the Culebra Cut. with the nervous
| strain imposed because of its peculiar
! difficulties. killed Lieut. Col. David
/ DUB. Gaillard. He virtually had fin
/ 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 GailIard was confronted,
/ h1I+ in
/ If 1t had been, other great engineers
/ like Gaillard probably would have died
at their post.
Life on lsthmus Is Trying.
| In August of last summer, l visited
the Isthmus of Panama and was the
( guest Of a 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 IN
| questionably is true of other engineers
| who have done their work on the
/ isthmus. Seven years of it, 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
months they were drenched and dried
! alternately four or five times a day.
| The rains descend as they do not de-
scend anywhere else and then they
| stop and baking sun comes out to
roast man and beast for an hour or
| two, then 10 disappear and let the
rain go at 1t once more.
When a 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. it
| rained fffty-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 Geographic 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 it 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 Amsri-
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 herr, but my mind has got to live
in the DATED States, or else will fail.
have got to understand the
country G. I Will not understand my
| Job"
1t is pr<.bahle that every president
| has fe!a exactly as Mr.. Wilson feels.
| but it was probably only Theodore
| Roosevelt who made actual systemat-
| &c dailS att4mpts to keep in touch
with tbs sent nent of the entire coun-
! try. Mr.. Wilson is doing very much