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commission houses, arriving finally at the
one occupied by the chairman and chief
engineer. "Let's go up-stairs and see how
he lives," said one of them. After going
through the rooms another member said
to the colonel: " Pretty fine house ! What
did it cost?" "It was built by my predecessor,
Mr. Stevens," replied the colonel,
stating its cost. "You apportion the
quality of the house to the salary the
man receives?" was the next question.
"Yes," replied the colonel. "Then, if we
were down here working for the Canal we
would each get a house half as good as this,
the house of a $7,500 man?" said the congressman.
"Oh, no," retorted the colonel
with a beaming smile, "if you were down
here working on the Canal you would not
be getting $7,500."
The colonel's smile is famous on the
Isthmus, being put in use usually to temper
the wind of disapproval to the unhappy
victim of it. It is thoroughly
frank and even beatific in character, but
under cover of it he utters the most deadly
of all jests—those that are based on truth.
It may be said of it that, like the bass
drum in a country band, it covers a multitude
of sins.
One other sample of its use may be
cited. A visiting congressman, of the
chronic double-breasted-coat type, while
on a tour of inspection of the locks in the
early period of construction, climbed up
one of the eighty-two-foot ladders that
are embedded in the lock-walls, at the imminent
peril of being hit with concrete
from the buckets that were flying about.
Coming safely down, he strutted over to
where the colonel stood with the other
members of the delegation and, slapping
his bulging chest, asked: " What degree do
you give me for that, colonel?" With
the smile in full play, the colonel replied:
"D. F."
There were occasions when the colonel
did not employ the smile in the presence
of questions and comments by visitors.
High official comment was frequently
disconcerting. One cabinet member, who
was visiting the Canal and to whom the
colonel had devoted himself continuously
for ten days, said on departing: " Colonel,
I wish to thank you heartily for your hospitality
and your courteous attention. I
came here all worn out mentally and I
Personality of Colonel Goethals 145
shall go back refreshed. You have given
me a complete mental rest."
Another official of like rank said, as he
was passing in a launch through the nine
miles of the Culebra Cut, looking at the
banks on either side, which had been seven
years in the making and were from one
hundred and fifty to two hundred feet in
height above the bottom of the Canal: " It
is extraordinary, colonel, that nature
should have given these banks on both
sides the same slope !"
One of the most frequent of the ignorant
questions asked by visitors was in regard
to the dams and locks on the Pacific
side. A congressman who had passed
over the line of the Canal from the Atlantic
entrance to the southern end of Culebra
Cut at Pedro Miguel, and had heard
the full explanation which had been given
to all the members of his party, said: " But,
colonel, I don't see why you have these
locks and dams on this side. Why don't
you sail right out into the Pacific ?'' There
is a tradition that after having this inquiry
addressed to him on several occasions,
the colonel with a perfectly serious
face replied: "That would be all right,
you know, going out, but coming back
vessels would have to go up-stream against
the current."
The pre-eminent gifts of Colonel Goethals
as an administrator have been demonstrated
in many ways, but most conspicuously
in two directions—first, in his
really marvellous capacity for mastering
and retaining details, and, second, in his
ability to win the confidence and inspire
the loyalty and enthusiasm of the rank
and file of the force. His mastery of details
was not confined to the engineering
part of the work, but included all departments
of civil-government administration
and the operation of the Panama Railroad.
He is one of those rare persons whose mental
vision is not hampered by full knowledge
of details. He uses that knowledge
as the foundation for a broad general view
of the field of action, with every portion of
which he is familiar. He is not only able
to see all phases of the problem as it exists
to-day, but to foresee the questions
that will arise in the future and prepare to
meet them. He has in rare degree the
gift of sagacity without which there can
be no successful leadership.