The Daily Alaska empire., 1928-01-23

der. Goethals found on the Isthmus of Panama the remains of many yeHrs toll by several French com panies who had attempted to dig the canal, what the latter accom- p1lshed was of little if any aid to those who finally crowned their efforts with almost undreamed of bucceHs. It was the ingenuity, persibtence and brains of the ltnly engineers; the remarkable efficiency of the workers who la bhred under them. and the un- ikQal organizing ability possessed by G6Athais that did in less than a decade what the experts of oth- ct uations declared could never be done.
 coethaIs Takes Job
 penstil 'Goethals was appointed by President Roosevelt in 1906 to takb over the work of digging a cGnalq across the Isthmus. Pre- viousiy several civilian engineers afid private construction compan- iSs had undertaken the task at tie invitation of the government, hiit theit slow progress and ap- pkrBnt inability to surmount the cbdhtisss problems confronting them had heaped volumes of criti- c11h upon the project, until for a tlfhA 1t seemed destined to go the NY of former attempts. Goethals lStliered about him as aides the ni65t efficient body of army off cSl8 at the call of the govern fn69t, and proceeded to Pahama wlth, an: organization almost wh91ly military in it's personnel.
 No mention of the Panama Cdiial and the officers who made its,possibie. would be complet !, without naming the late Major 0Sheral William Crawford Cor g4q, Chief Sanitary Officer of the Cat1al Zone, the man who cleaned db" the Isthmus. protected the lives of the workers, and made tke digging of the "big ditch" pfacticable. His name will re nhin indelibly linked with that of G6ethAls.
 After seven years of unremit. tiik labor. wherein he drove him s6if ds hard and as relentlessly a1 The drove the other Isthmian toiters, and during which he met ana conquered almost unbeliey- abie obstacles of nature and sci efice. General Goethals reported t6 the Congress of the United Akates and to the world that his 1ifk work was completed, and that tho two American continents at l6at we're separated by navig- a6te waterway.
 9 4uoesss by Failure
 The memorable success of Gen efRl Go6thals was built largely ,tbBh the failure of his predeces- sbfs. chlef of which were three Fflnch companies. One of these h3d turned the first spade Of eirth oh the Isthmus more than half a century before. They fail ed mllnly because they did not appreciate the necessity of mak- ine the country a fit place for a white man to live in, and again bscause they could not find a sea le1el canal possible and were ur- able to solve the problem of a lock system of sufficient magni- tnde to handle the huge ships which they knew would be built in the future. Even the famed ue Lesseps. builder of the Suez canal, abandoned the task and sp6nt the rest of his life brood ink over his failure to master the dikficulties presented at Panama.
 The French companies who es- soyed to thwart the sperils of Cape Horn and the Straits of Magel- l9A by digGing {, q canal across E{hama were private associations, fh6 officers of which, for the most mt, did not understand the con d1tions confronting them. They
 rnered the contributions of If1lion stockholders; wasted the l2ney in hopeless engineering tf31ects and riotious living, and oIlatf died oa the Isthmus 9f