THE ORGANIZATION
When the United States finally decided to build the Panama Canal, the
next question of gravity which pressed for consideration was the
creation of the organization by which it was to be built. Many
problems were encountered, and after repeated changes in personnel and
rearrangements of duties, the situation finally resolved into an
organization headed by one man, clothed with the necessary powers, and
held responsible for the consequent results.
The completion of the preliminaries for the acquisition of title to
the Canal Zone and to the property and rights of the New Panama Canal
Company took place when Congress, on April 28, 1904, made an
appropriation of $10,000,000, which was to be paid to the Republic of
Panama. Six days later the United States formally took possession of
the Canal Zone and of the property of the Panama Canal Company, when
at 7:30 o'clock in the morning, Lieut. Mark Brooke, of the United
States Army, took over the keys and raised the American flag. The
following day President Roosevelt announced the appointment of John
Findley Wallace, of Massachusetts, as chief engineer of the canal at a
salary of $25,000 a year, the appointment to be effective on the 1st
day of June.
The first ship to arrive at Panama carried Maj. Gen. George W. Davis,
who was to govern the Canal Zone; Col. William C. Gorgas, who was to
make it sanitary; and George R. Shanton, who was to drive out the
criminal element. Governor Davis was a member of the Isthmian Canal
Commission, Colonel Gorgas had proved his worth in the sanitation of
Cuba, and Shanton had been a "rough rider" with Colonel Roosevelt in
the Cuban campaign.
When Chief Engineer Wallace arrived on the scene he found there an all
but abandoned project. There were hundreds of French houses, but
nearly all of them were in the jungle and practically unfit for human
habitation. He found millions of dollars' worth of French machinery,
but almost none of it in condition to be put into service immediately.
He knew in a general way the line of the canal, but surveys were
lacking to determine its exact location at every point. With this
situation in front of him, he found it necessary to concentrate his
efforts upon the problem of getting ready for the work. While he was
doing this the people at home began to demand that the dirt fly.
Colonel Gorgas also found conditions which challenged his best
efforts. Colon was a paradise of disease, Panama was no better. It was
only by making both of these cities over again, from a sanitary
standpoint, that any hope could be held out for reasonably healthy
conditions.
During his stay on the Isthmus Mr. Wallace found himself handicapped
at every turn by red tape, a new thing in his experience as a
construction engineer. He could buy nothing without asking for bids;
every idea he sought to put into execution had to be submitted to
Washington, and he found himself so harassed and handicapped that he
wanted a new plan of organization.
Acting in accordance with his recommendations, President Roosevelt
decided to accept the resignation of the existing Canal Commission,
and to appoint a new one, in which, instead of having independent
departments, with the governor independent of the chief engineer, and
the chief sanitary officer independent of both the governor and the
chief engineer, there should be a more united relation, in which all
questions were to be decided by the commission as a whole, the final
authority being vested in an executive committee composed of the
chairman, the governor of the Canal Zone, and the chief engineer.
Under this plan, the second Isthmian Canal Commission was organized.
It consisted of Theodore P. Shonts, chairman; Charles E. Magoon,
Governor of the Canal Zone; John F. Wallace, chief engineer; Mordecai
T. Endicott; Peter C. Hains; Oswald H. Ernst; and Benjamin A. Harrod.
Following the suggestion of Chief Engineer Wallace, the control of the
Panama Railroad was also vested in the new commission.
While these changes were being made Chief Engineer Wallace was in
Washington. There was dissatisfaction on the Isthmus with an
accompanying spirit of unrest, and, to make matters worse, a
yellow-fever epidemic broke out. Only a few days after Mr. Wallace
reached the Isthmus, he cabled the Secretary of War that he wished to
return to Washington, hinting that he might resign. Secretary Taft
cabled to Governor Magoon for an opinion as to the motives which were
behind this step on the part of Mr. Wallace, and was advised that it
was brought about by the offer of a better salary and the fear of the
yellow-fever epidemic. When Mr. Wallace reached New York he had a
stormy interview with Secretary Taft, who roundly denounced him for
quitting at such a critical time. Mr. Wallace declared his lack of
confidence in the ability of Colonel Gorgas to control the
yellow-fever epidemic, and asserted that the continual interference of
red tape was so distracting to him as to make new employment
attractive. President Roosevelt upheld his Secretary of War in his
denunciation of Mr. Wallace, and promptly appointed John F. Stevens
chief engineer at a salary of $30,000.
John F. Stevens arrived on the Isthmus on July 27, 1905. He found the
Panama Railroad almost in a state of collapse. He declared that the
only claim heard for it was that there had been no collisions for some
time. "A collision has its good points as well as its bad ones," he
observed, "for it indicates that there is something moving on the
railroad."
Mr. Stevens immediately set to work to build up the road, and to
provide the means for housing and feeding the canal army. But like his
predecessor he found Government red tape hampering, and in his first
annual report begged for "a thorough business administration
unhampered by any tendency to technicalities, into which our public
work sometimes drifts." He protested against civil-service
requirements on the Isthmus, and against the eight-hour working day;
and President Roosevelt met his protests by exempting all employees
except clerks from the operations of civil-service rules, and by
abrogating the eight-hour day.
It was under the régime of Mr. Stevens that the question arose as to
whether the canal should be built as a sea-level channel through the
Isthmus, or as a lock canal with the water in the middle section 85
feet above the level of the sea. President Roosevelt thereupon
appointed a board of consulting engineers, made up of 14 members, to
visit the Isthmus and determine what type of canal should be built.
Five members of this board of consulting engineers were foreigners
appointed by their respective Governments at the request of President
Roosevelt. They included the inspector general of Public Works of
France, the consulting engineer of the Suez Canal, the chief engineer
of the Manchester Canal, the chief engineer of the Kiel Canal, and the
chief engineer of the Dutch dike system. Three of the American
engineers and all five of the foreign engineers voted in favor of a
sea-level canal. Chief Engineer Stevens and all but one member of the
Isthmian Canal Commission concurred in the vote of the minority, made
up wholly of American engineers in favor of the lock canal. President
Roosevelt sustained the minority report, and Congress sustained him in
the law of June 29, 1906.
In the fall of 1906 Chairman Shonts came out in advocacy of a plan to
build the canal by contract. Here arose a difference between Mr.
Shonts and Mr. Stevens, and Chairman Shonts shortly thereafter
resigned. A few months later Chief Engineer Stevens also resigned. It
is said that his resignation was mainly due to his objection to the
appointment of Army engineers as members of the Canal Commission, and
to a letter he wrote the President in which he scored the limitations
of red tape and Government methods generally. When Mr. Stevens quitted
the Isthmus he left behind him the nucleus of the general organization
for building of the canal. He saw housing conditions brought up to the
required standard, established the necessary commissary where canal
employees could supply their needs at reasonable prices, and aided
Colonel Gorgas in his fight to make the Isthmus healthful.
At this juncture the organization destined to build the canal was put
into effect, with Colonel George W. Goethals at its head. Colonel
Gorgas, the chief sanitary officer, was the only important official of
the old régime held over. The other members of the commission were
Maj. D. D. Gaillard and Maj. William L. Sibert, of the United States
Engineer Corps; Civil Engineer H. H. Rousseau, of the United States
Navy; and Messrs. J. C. S. Blackburn and Jackson Smith.
[Illustration: MAJ. GEN. GEORGE W. DAVIS REAR ADMIRAL J. G. WALKER
THEODORE P. SHONTS JOHN F. WALLACE
JOHN F. STEVENS CHARLES E. MAGOON]
[Illustration: RICHARD LEE METCALFE EMORY R. JOHNSON
MAURICE H. THATCHER JOSEPH BUCKLIN BISHOP
H. A. GUDGER JOSEPH C. S. BLACKBURN]
Under former commissions the Governor of the Canal Zone had ranked
above the chief engineer, and the chairman, the chief engineer, and
the governor had had rival powers, which resulted in a great deal of
friction. Under the new order the offices of chairman and chief
engineer were consolidated, and the governor was reduced to the title
of "head of the Department of Civil Administration," reporting to the
chairman, as did the chief sanitary officer and all of the division
engineers.
This commission, in personnel, remained intact during the long period
of construction, except for the resignation in 1908 of Jackson Smith,
who was succeeded by Lieut. Col. Harry F. Hodges; and for the
resignation in 1910 of Mr. Blackburn, who was succeeded by Morris H.
Thatcher. Mr. Thatcher, in turn, was succeeded in 1913 by Richard L.
Metcalfe as head of the Department of Civil Administration.
During the construction period there were several rearrangements of
the duties of the Army engineers associated with Colonel Goethals.
From June, 1908, Major Gaillard, afterwards promoted to a
lieutenant-colonelcy, was in charge of the ditch-digging work between
Gatun and Pedro Miguel, which included the entire Gatun Lake and
Culebra Cut sections. It is everywhere admitted that so far as
difficulties were concerned, he had the hardest job on the Isthmus,
next to the chief engineer. Colonel Gaillard entered the United States
Military Academy in 1884 and was graduated with honors entitling him
to appointment in the Corps of Engineers. Before being selected as a
member of the Canal Commission, he had had much experience in
important work. For two years he was in charge of all river and harbor
improvement in the Lake Superior region. When he first went to the
Isthmus he was assigned as the supervising engineer in charge of
harbors, the building of breakwaters, etc.
Lieut. Col. William L. Sibert, another of the Army engineers who was
made a member of the Canal Commission, was graduated from West Point
in 1884 and was made a lieutenant of engineers. From 1892 to 1894 he
was assistant engineer in charge of the construction of the ship
channel connecting the Great Lakes. The four years following he was in
charge of the river and harbor work in Arkansas, and following that,
spent one year teaching civil engineering in the Engineering School of
Application. He then went to the Philippines as chief engineer of the
Eighth Army Corps and became chief engineer and general manager of the
Manila & Dagupan Railroad. From 1900 to 1907 he was in charge of the
Ohio River improvements between Pittsburgh and Louisville. As division
engineer of the Atlantic division of the Panama Canal he was in charge
of the construction of the Gatun locks, Gatun Dam, and the breakwaters
at the Atlantic entrance to the canal.
Civil Engineer Harry H. Rousseau, of the United States Navy, was
appointed a member of the Isthmian Canal Commission at the same time
that Chief Engineer Goethals was selected to head the organization. He
had had much experience in engineering work prior to the appointment
and was a personal appointee of President Roosevelt, with whom he had
come in contact when he was serving in the Bureau of Yards and Docks
of the Navy Department when Mr. Roosevelt was assistant secretary of
that Department. He entered the employ of the United States through
the civil service, having been appointed a civil engineer in the Navy
with the rank of lieutenant, after a competitive examination in 1898.
For four years he was an engineer of the bureau of which he
afterwards became chief, and for four years following, from 1903 to
1907, he was engineer of the improvements of Mare Island Navy Yard,
California. The duties of Commissioner Rousseau were changed from time
to time, and he was finally given charge of the work of constructing
the terminals at the ends of the canal. At the same time he was made
assistant to the chief engineer, having charge of all mechanical
questions arising on the canal.
When Jackson Smith, one of the two civilian members of the Canal
Commission, resigned, he was succeeded by an Army officer, Col. Harry
F. Hodges, who would have been a member of the commission from the
first, upon the request of Colonel Goethals, had not the United States
Engineer Corps required his services. Colonel Hodges was graduated
from the United States Military Academy in 1881, and immediately
entered upon seven years of duty on river and harbor improvements in
the United States. This was followed by four years' service as
assistant professor of engineering at West Point, and that duty, in
turn, by six years of work on rivers and harbors and fortifications.
During the Spanish American War he served in Porto Rico, and then
returned to river and harbor duty for two years. In 1901-02 he was
chief engineer of the Department of Cuba, from which duty he was
transferred to the War Department, where he became assistant to the
chief of engineers. His experience in river and harbor work, coupled
with his success as the designer of the locks of the American Sault
Ste. Marie Canal, fitted him for the work at Panama. He became
assistant chief engineer and purchasing agent of the canal in 1907,
and the following year was chosen a member of the commission to
succeed Mr. Smith. The work of designing the locks and the lock
machinery fell upon his shoulders.
When President Roosevelt wanted a man to handle the delicate problems
arising out of the peculiar relations with the Republic of Panama and
the United States, he selected Joseph C. S. Blackburn, of Kentucky,
who had just finished a long term of service in the United States
Senate. Senator Blackburn was well equipped for such a position,
combining that suavity indicated by the velvet glove with that
determination of purpose which lies in the iron hand.
The service of Col. William C. Gorgas, the chief sanitary officer on
the Isthmus, began earlier than that of any of the higher officials.
He went to the Isthmus immediately after it was taken over by the
United States. He has been described as a man "with a gentle manner,
but with a hard policy toward the mosquito." He was born in Mobile,
Ala., in 1854, the son of Gen. Josiah Gorgas, of the Confederate Army.
He became a member of the Medical Corps of the United States Army in
1880, and since his work at the head of the Cuban health campaign his
name has been a household word in the United States.
In establishing the Isthmian Canal Commission, which was destined to
make the Panama Canal a reality, President Roosevelt selected Joseph
Bucklin Bishop as its secretary. Mr. Bishop was made the editor of the
Canal Record, a weekly paper which was the official organ of the
Canal Commission. He is a born investigator and when any matter arose
concerning the work on the canal, about which the chief engineer
desired an impartial report, he usually referred it to Mr. Bishop.
When the matter of organizing the work arose it was decided to arouse
a spirit of emulation and rivalry, and S. B. Williamson, a civilian
engineer, was put in charge of the Pacific end of the canal, with
duties similar to those of the Army engineer on the Atlantic side. Mr.
Williamson proved to be a master of the art of accomplishing a great
deal with a given amount of money, and the cost sheets of the Pacific
end will ever stand as a monument to his efficiency.
The list of engineers and other officials who contributed to the
success of the work at Panama is a long one, but among them may be
mentioned: Col. Chester Harding, who was the resident engineer at
Gatun; W. G. Comber, who headed the dredging work on the Pacific end
of the canal during the early days of the American undertaking, of the
entire canal during the final stages; W. G. Rourke, who was resident
engineer in Culebra Cut for a number of years; Caleb M. Saville, who
worked out the data for the construction of the Gatun Dam; H. O. Cole,
who succeeded S. B. Williamson on the Pacific end work; Lieut.
Frederick Mears, who relocated the Panama Railroad; John Burke, who
had charge of the commissary; Maj. Eugene T. Wilson, the chief
subsistence officer; Brig. Gen. C. A. Devol, who was in charge of the
quartermaster's department; E. J. Williams, Jr., the disbursing
officer; and Col. Tom F. Cook, the picturesque chief of the Division
of Posts and Customs.
To all these, and to scores of others who are not mentioned here
merely because of the limitations of space, the American people owe
the great success at Panama. The organization was imbued with a spirit
of loyalty to the great task, and having its accomplishment singly in
mind there was little room for jealous bickerings and none at all for
scandal and corruption.
Every man who had a part in it always will be proud of his share, and
that pride will be supported and justified by all Americans.