This tendency of the civil engineers to leave their employment caused
much concern to the President and Congress, and finally President
Roosevelt, with his characteristic acumen, decided that he would place
the work of canal construction under the army engineers entirely. So,
at his suggestion, Congress reframed the law of the Canal Commission,
and President Roosevelt remarked that under the new law he would put
army engineers on the job, and that they would either stay there until
it was done or get out of the army.
Experience has proved that President Roosevelt’s judgment was correct,
for the work has gone on since the reorganization of the commission
with the regularity of a machine. There has hardly been a stop or
a break at any point along the line of operations. Colonel G. W.
Goethals, one of the most successful of the army engineers, was placed
at the head of the Canal Commission and given full charge, and his work
has been so successful that he has demonstrated his ability to command
and to control the operations placed in his charge to the satisfaction
of the great powers that gave him his commission.
His first step upon being placed in control was to provide the means
of feeding and caring for an army of from 25,000 to 40,000 men. A
bake shop was built at Crystobal, out of which 30,000 loaves of bread
are turned twice a day if necessary, and a batch of pies and cakes in
proportion. Storage warehouses have been built for the storage of meats
and vegetables and various other supplies, that are brought from the
north by shiploads. Ice plants have been constructed so that ice may
be distributed up and down the line of operations. Every morning at 3
o’clock a supply train leaves Colon, and furnishes every camp along the
line of the canal with fresh supplies for the day’s consumption.
Thus, under army supervision the employees of the Canal Zone are as
well supplied with rations and materials as they would be on an army
reservation.
Following these necessary preparations for handling the big force of
men, came the assemblage of the machinery and the mechanical implements
necessary to perform the work. Without going into exhaustive details,
it is only necessary to say that the very best materials, implements
and machinery that money could supply, brought from all parts of the
world, were sent to Panama.