James E. Homans, editor

“ During the building of the canal the government furnished all employees with free medicines, free medical attendance, and free hospital and burial services. It dispensed about a ton of quinine a year, provided camps where laborers who were not ill enough to go to the hospital could rest and be treated, and ran one or two hospital cars on every passenger train that crossed the isthmus. The value and importance of the medical care given under Colonel Goethals' supervision can be estimated from the fact that in 1913 there were 48,000 patients in hospitals, camps, and quarters. ”

“ Should a ship approaching the locks by any chance break the big fender chain, it would ram the safety gates, instead of coming into collision with, and perhaps seriously injuring, the operating gates. In building the locks, spillways, and dams of the Panama Canal upward of five million barrels of concrete was used — enough to build a row of houses from Chicago to St. Louis. The importance of military protection for the canal was recognized as soon as Colonel Goethals had brought the great work within even a distant view of completion. ”

“ This enabled the men who would have been dismissed to continue work for many months, with no disadvantage to the government. While yellow fever had been pretty well driven out of the Canal Zone, under the supervision of Dr. William Crawford Gorgas, there was still a great deal to be done to keep the rone in a perfect sanitary condition when Colonel Goethals became chief engineer in 1907. Mosquitoes, which science has shown to be responsible for both yellow fever and malaria in the tropics, had to be fought, and it was not long before they were practically exterminated. ”

“ He was not an engineer and had but a limited knowledge of the science of engineering, yet he undertook to lay out the work himself, acting upon data which a professional engineer would have deemed insufficient or unreliable. ”

“ Goethals. His mother and father both were of sturdy Holland stock, and for centuries the Goethals family has been noted in the Netherlands for producing alike great soldiers and distinguished scholars. Several of them fought so valiantly against the Paynim in the Crusades that their names are still reverently preserved in the historical records of old Flanders. Always the Goethals men have been known for their capacity and readiness to do big things. Col. George Washington Goethals, the builder of the Panama Canal, is essentially a self-made man. ”

“ In all of these undertakings, he showed extraordinary ability in handling large forces of men, and which, while doubtless due in part to his training as an army officer, must be credited largely to some personal quality in himself that closely approached genius. ”

“ The heaviest armament at each end of the canal consists of a sixteen-inch gun. These are the largest weapons in possession of the United States if not the largest in the world. Each gun is 50 feet long and weighs 284,000 pounds. It hurls a projectile 6 feet long, which weighs 2,400 pounds and contains 140 pounds of high explosive. The secondary defenses at each end of the canal consist of six 14-inch guns, six 6-inch guns, sixteen 12-inch mortars, and eight 4 7-10-inch howitzers. ”

“ Baseball made its usual strong appeal to the Americans at Panama. Colonel Goethals — an ardent lover of the “national game” — with the commission, encouraged ball-playing in every way, furnishing grounds, special trains, and opportunities for practice, and many big games between isthmian ball teams were hotly contested and largely attended. ”

“ Long before Colonel Goethals became a member of the Isthmian Canal Commission, there had been much argument in the United States Congress — and out of it — as to the relative values of the Nicaragua and Panama Canal routes. Men whose judgment admittedly demanded serious consideration were on either side. ”

“ When this finding became known in Paris, the directors of the New Panama Canal Company immediately resigned, and at a general meeting of stockholders it was decided to offer to sell out to the commission all assets, rights, and interests for the sum of $40,000,000. The importance of a waterway through the Isthmus of Panama, both strategically and commercially, had long been recognized by the U. S. government, and it first entered into a treaty with New Granada, the then possessor of the isthmus in 1846. ”

“ There were slides perpetually, and only constant vigilance and hard labor enabled man to con- quer these freaks of nature at last. In one slide with which Colonel Goethals had to contend seventy-five acres of the town of Culebra broke loose and moved foot by foot into the canal, carrying with it large hotels and club houses, besides many smaller structures. ”

“ That is to say, that the change should be an evolution, and that persons who had “made good” during the construction work should be preferred in filling positions under the new régime. He carried out this policy conscientiously. In supreme control, subject only to the supervision of the Secretary of War, Colonel Goethals worked hard on the task of reorganization. In accordance with his recommendations, a department of operation and maintenance, having charge of the completion of the canal and its operation, was appointed. ”

“ It was estimated that a lock canal might be completed in eight years, at a further cost of $100,000,000. A new agreement was signed 10 Dec., 1890, with the Colombian government, which granted an extension of ten years for the completion of the work. Joseph Brunet died, and he was succeeded by Achille Monchicourt. The latter procured a further concession by which Colombia granted an extension until 31 Oct., 1894, for the organization of a new company, and ten years from that date for the completion of a canal. ”

“ It was stipulated that the members of the reorganized commission were to dwell on the isthmus and personally supervise the work under their charge. Among the disadvantages against which Colonel Goethals had to fight was the prejudice among the men against a military administration. The former chief engineer, Mr. Stevens, had been very popular and there was a feeling of interrogation with regard to the new chief engineer which easily might have become downright antagonism. ”