by Ira E. Bennett, 1915
CZBrats
March 24, 1999
Chapter XXXV
Building the Foundations
by John F. Wallace
The first intimation I had of my name being
considered in connection with the position of chief engineer of the Panama Canal was the
following letter which I received from Mr. William Barclay Parsons:
At Sea, between Cuba and Colon,
April 3, 1904
My dear Mr. Wallace:
On this trip from New York to the Isthmus the Commission has been giving earnest
consideration to the selection of a chief engineer, realizing that a very great measure of
our success will depend on that official.
The man for this position must possess exceptional qualifications. He must not only
be an engineer, but must also be an administrator and executive. He must have mature
judgment, and yet energy of accomplishment. He must be well known and favorably
known. Among those who have been considered as so qualified naturally your name
occurs, and the Commission desires to know whether if a tender of this position were made,
it would be seriously considered by you. Owing to a previous professional engagement
with the British Government I will be obliged to leave Panama in advance of the other
members of the Commission and will arrive in New York on April 19th so as to sail for
England on April 26th. The other members of the Commission and I would very much
like to have you and me to meet to talk this matter over so that I could communicate with
them prior to my leaving for Europe. Would it be possible for you to be in New York
some time between the dates mentioned, on say the 21st or 22d of April? If you can
do this we can discuss the whole thing and I can give an answer to my associates.
I can imagine that you will be disinclined to think of severing your connection with the
Illinois Central, but on the other hand you would attach your name to the greatest piece
of construction ever undertaken.
Hoping that you will be able to meet me, I am,
Yours sincerely,
William Barclay Parsons.
Pursuant to the suggestion of Mr. Parsons, I had an interview with him in New York, in
which he explained to me the desire of the other members of the Isthmian Canal Commission
as well as himself to secure my services as the principal representative of the commission
on the isthmus, in full charge of all matters connected with the construction of the
canal, with the title of chief engineer.
Mr. Parsons stated that as the commission was charged with the responsibility for the
construction of the canal under the direction of the President, and as it was necessary
for the commission, the duties of which would be largely administrative and legislative,
to keep in close touch with the President and the legal, financial, and executive
departments of the government, it was thought wise at a recent meeting of the commission
on the isthmus to put the actual execution of the work under the charge of an
administrator with the title of chief engineer, in order to obtain that prompt action,
unity of purpose, and efficient execution which could only be accomplished through a
single executive whose authority under and responsibility to the Isthmian Canal Commission
should be properly balanced.
Mr. Parsons explained that on taking an informal ballot I had been the choice of such a
large majority of the commissioners that it was decided to consider me for the position;
and on account of his having to go to Europe he had left the isthmus a week earlier than
the commission and had been delegated to take the matter up with me in a preliminary way
and find out if I would be willing to confer with Admiral Walker and the commission on the
subject upon their return to the City of Washington.
On the following Wednesday, May 4th, I visited Washington and had a conference with
Admiral Walker and the commission, in which the communication made to me by Mr. Parsons
was confirmed and the further explanation made that it desired not only the services of a
technical engineer, but an administrator and executive with engineering knowledge and
experience, preferring a man of my type and qualifications familiar with business methods
used in the conduct of large enterprises, rather than to select an engineer who might have
better technical qualifications alone.
At this meeting I did not accept the position, but outlined my views in regard to the
authority that should be delegated to me and my responsibilities to the work, and laid
particular stress on the fact that I could not give satisfactory service unless I was
given an absolutely free hand in the conduct of the work; that I could not be expected to
take orders or instructions from any individual member of the commission, but that the
commission should decide matters of policy and organization relating to the general plan
and conduct of the work, and its instructions should come to me, through the chairman, in
the form of resolutions passed by the commission, and that my communication with the
commission should be through Admiral Walker, its chairman.
In connection with my employment I want to say that Admiral Walker took particular pains
to state that my tenure of office and obligations in undertaking the work were as outlined
in a letter of instructions on this point which President Roosevelt had communicated to
the commission from which I quote the following:
"I believe that each one of you will serve not merely with entire fidelity,
but with the utmost efficiency. If at any time I feel that any one of you is not
rendering the best service which it is possible to secure, I shall feel called upon to
disregard alike my feelings for the man and the man's own feelings, and forthwith to
substitute for him on the Commission some other man whom I deem capable of rendering
better service.
"Moreover, I shall expect if at any time any one of you feel that the work is too
exhausting and engrossing for him to do in the best possible manner that he will of his
own accord inform me in order that I may replace him by some man who to the requisite
ability joins the will and the strength to give all the effort needed. But so long
as you render efficient service of the highest type in the work you are appointed to
perform you may rest assured of my hearty support and backing in every way.
"These are the conditions under which you have been appointed and under which I shall
expect you to proceed. I shall furthermore expect you to apply precisely the same
principles in the choice and retention of the subordinates who do the work under you as I
have applied to your choice and shall apply in your retention."
The admiral particularly impressed upon my mind the fact that no tenure of office could be
conferred upon me by the commission except under the conditions mentioned in the
President's letter above quoted, and that at any time I felt I could not perform my duties
in harmony with the policy of the administration, or for any reason felt that I could not
fully support that policy, the obligation rested upon me to resign, in which views I fully
concurred.
Upon my arrival on the isthmus I immediately placed Mr. Carleton E. Davis in charge of all
work connected with water supply, sewerage, street paving, and other physical work
necessary to be carried on in connection with such plans for sanitation as the commission
might adopt as the result of recommendations of Colonel Gorgas and myself, it being
understood that the chief engineer should have charge of the physical execution of the
larger sanitary work and that Colonel Gorgas's department should have charge of the
sanitary policing and such other sanitary work as could be conducted directly by and under
his department. On account of the prevalence of yellow fever on the isthmus at this
time, preparation for proper health protection was considered essential and paramount.
In this connection, it was necessary that an abundance of pure water should be provided
for the various towns and settlements along the line, proper sewerage systems established,
and in Panama and Colon that the streets should be properly paved.
Within three weeks after my arrival on the isthmus a general scheme for a water supply at
Panama was devised, and Engineer Davis and his staff, under my general directions,
immediately set to work and prepared plans for the water supply for Panama and for Colon,
also a sewerage system for Panama as well as street paving.
A site for a reservoir was selected west of the Panama Railroad line in the vicinity of
Culebra cut, and an old reservoir which had been constructed under the French was enlarged
and plans made for a secondary reservoir in the immediate outskirts of Panama.
during August complete plans and specifications for the water supply were submitted to the
Isthmian Canal Commission for approval.
This was followed by plans for a sewerage system, and for the street paving of Panama.
As soon as the plans were approved by the commission actual construction commenced, and
all the work with the exception of the street paving, the material for which had not
arrived, was practically completed during my administration.
General Davis, Colonel Gorgas, and myself all considered these sanitary works as
fundamentally essential to enable Colonel Gorgas to eliminate the plague of mosquitoes,
which the medical department considered to be the chief, if not the sole method of yellow
fever transmission.
Coincident with these works, Colonel Gorgas with a force under his immediate direction,
started an extensive campaign of fumigation, the draining of marshes, cleaning up of
vegetation, and other means for the elimination of mosquitoes.
The importance of the water works, however, consisted in the fact that the principal
supply of water during the dry season, in both Panama and Colon, was provided through the
storage of rain water in cisterns, most of which occupied the interior courts of
residences and business houses. In these reservoirs the species of mosquito which
transmitted yellow fever was constantly breeding and the elimination of these mosquitoes
was impossible as long as these cisterns were maintained.
At that time Panama had absolutely no sewerage except a few individual sewers that emptied
directly into the harbor, and a sewerage system could not be established and made
efficient without an abundance of water supply to flush the same. Again, the
sanitary department found it very difficult to keep the streets free from accumulations of
filth and garbage without a smooth surface that could be readily cleaned and flushed with
an abundance of water.
It may be of interest to note that while I was assured by the authorities in Washington
that my requisitions would be promptly filled for the water and sewer pipe necessary to
make this installation -- which could have been made within ninety days after the receipt
of the material, and might have prevented the series of epidemics which occurred during
the following dry season -- they were not filled in a way that enabled the principal water
main to be laid and put in use until some eight months later.
One of the first difficulties which I met in the initial organization was the fact that it
was necessary to provide suitable and sanitary living quarters for the men before any
large force was brought on the isthmus. It was a difficult matter to properly adjust
the relation between the new forces necessary to start he initial organization in various
parts of the work, and also to prepare sanitary quarters for the men who were brought to
the isthmus to perform this service.
A building department was at once organized and put in charge of Mr. M.O. Johnson, with a
staff of building mechanics necessary to rebuild the French quarters and to provide new
quarters.
Under his supervision the hotel at Corozal was planned and constructed also the one at
Culebra, and a large number of buildings for quarters for the various officers, members of
the staffs and the employees of all grades.
Another difficulty encountered was the inability to get requisitions filled for the proper
wire netting which the sanitary department considered necessary to protect the men from
the attacks of mosquitoes.
Here it might be well to mention that at Colon and Panama it was necessary to protect the
employees from yellow fever mosquitoes, whose radius of action was small and which seldom
went beyond the boundaries of the houses in which they bred, and in the outlying districts
between Panama and Colon, as well as in Panama and Colon, to protect them from the kind of
mosquitoes which transmitted malaria, which was considered by the sanitary department as
fully as important as protection from the yellow fever mosquitoes, the malarial mosquitoes
having a larger radius of movement and invading the settlements from their adjoining
breeding places in the swamps.
It was not until several successive epidemics of yellow fever had occurred that the
authorities at Washington finally awoke to the fact that our requisitions for the material
necessary for these preventive measures must be fully and promptly filled, the great
pressure from Washington the chief engineer being to commence active operations in the
actual excavation of material, to the constant clamor of the American press to "make
the dirt fly."
The first construction operations that were undertaken were at Culebra. We had come
into possession of a large amount of machinery used by the French company -- dredges,
excavators of various types, steam locomotives, dump cars, and all sorts of construction
appliances and apparatus. It was the desire of the commission to experiment
sufficiently with this material to determine its economic efficiency or inefficiency
before finally adopting or discarding it.
As it was impossible to provide the work with entire new equipment before active
operations commenced and as it was desirable to gradually train and build up a force, the
work of excavation was at first carried along the lines followed by the French company,
utilizing the native labor then available and gradually organizing the work and engaging
American superintendents and foremen, in order that they might be trained to the
utilization of such labor as was available and become acclimated and familiar with the
conditions that were to be contended with.
from: The History of the
Panama Canal
by Ira E. Bennett, 1915
CZBrats
March 24, 1999