439 Incident of the hinges: Bates, 30; also Cameron, 120.
440 Abandoned French equipment and parts: F. L. Waldo, “The Present Status of the Panama Canal,” Engineering (London), Mar. 15, 1907.
440 “One cannot spend much time”: Lindsay Denison, “Making Good at Panama,” Everybody’s, May 1906.
440 “They showed skill”: John Foster Carr, “The Chief Engineer and His Work, “Outlook, June 2, 1906.
441 “One appreciated more and more”: Eugene P. Lyle, Jr., “The Real Conditions at Panama,” World’s Work, Nov. 1905.
442 Wallace claim to have had a “regular system” in mind: Wallace testimony, Mar. 20, 1906, Hearings. . . an Investigation.
443 “fighting becomes a righteous duty”: Stevens, “The Panama Canal,” A.S.C.E., Transactions, XCI, 949. Wallace and handwritten reports: DuVal, Mountains, 148.
443 “One young man came down”: Karner, 24.
444 “The beginnings of the force”: Wood, 17.
444 “Nothing was said as to how I came to be there”: Frank B. Maltby, “In at the Start at Panama,” Civil Engineering, June 1945.
445 “the cost of explosives, cost of loosening”: Wallace, “Building the Foundations,” in Bennett, 190–191.
445 U.S. has no imperialist designs: Pringle ,Taft, Vol. I, 280–281.
446 Taft wants to revise the I.C.C., wants sea-level canal: ibid., 282.
446 Taft impressed by Wallace: Taft testimony, Apr. 19, 1906, Hearings. . . an Investigation.
446 Wallace has chair reinforced for Taft: Karner, 75.
447 “very superior man”: Davis to Taft, Jan. 6, 1905, quoted in DuVal, Mountains, 151.
447 Wallace and the atmosphere of the old Dingler house: Wallace, “Building the Foundations,” in Bennett, 195–196; also Karner, 13–14.
447 First case of yellow fever: Le Prince, 275. Cases in December, January, on the Boston: ibid., 276.
448 Death of Philip G. Eastwick: Panama Star & Herald, Jan. 30, 1905.
449 Davis calls press stories “cruelly exaggerated”: ibid., Feb. 20, 1905.
450 Remarks by will Schaefer: ibid., Feb. 13,1905.
451 Wallace in Harper’s Weekly: ibid., May 29,1905.
451 “ill-paid, over-worked, ill-housed”: Magoon to Shonts, June 13, 1905, I.C.C. Records.
451 Death of architect Johnson: Panama Star & Herald, May 15, 1905.
451 “ending of many a bright young man”: quoted in DuVal, Mountains, 176.
451 Embittered nurse’s views: N.Y. Tribune, July 6,1905.
451 “A white man’s a fool”: Panama Star & Herald, July 17, 1905.
451 “A feeling of alarm”: Isthmian Canal Commission, Annual Report for 1905, 30.
452 Men feel “doomed”: Gorgas, Sanitation, 154.
452 Gorgas calls for old newspapers: Karner, 69–70.
454 “To say the least”: Panama Star & Herald, June 26,1905.
454 Outbreak of plague: I.C.C., Annual Report for 1905, 35–38.
455 “complicated business”: Wallace to Taft, June 5, 1905, quoted in Pepperman, 109.
455 Magoon to Taft: June 11,1905, ibid., 111–14.
455 Second Magoon letter: June 13, 1905, ibid., 115.
456 “This action, of course”: quoted in Johnson, Four Centuries, 312.
456 “Mr. Wallace, I am inexpressibly disappointed”: quoted in Pepperman, 118.
457 “For mere lucre”: ibid., 121–123.
457 Press reaction: Panama Star & Herald, July 31, 1905.
457–458 Wallace claims to have had yellow fever: “Building the Foundations,” in Bennett, 199.
458 Wallace dislike of Cromwell, claim he stepped aside for others better qualified: Wallace testimony, Feb. 5, 1906, Hearings. . . an Investigation.
458 “thorough case of fright”: Stevens to Taft, Mar. 22, 1906, I.C.C. Records.
17. JOHN STEVENS
No one who studies the American effort at Panama can fail to admire John Stevens, of whom a full-scale biography has still to be written. In addition to the sources cited, I have been aided by conversations and/or correspondence with William Russell and Richard H. Whitehead, who knew Stevens personally, by his son, John F. Stevens, Jr., and his granddaughter, Mrs. John U. Hawks. The remarks and observations attributed to Frank Maltby are from a series of four articles that he wrote for Civil Engineering (June, July, August, and September 1945) under the title “In at the Start at Panama.”
PAGE
459 “pose and draw a salary”: Pringle, Roosevelt, 262.
459 “Mr. Hill told the President”: John F. Stevens, Jr., Speech before the Panama Canal Society, Washington, May 19, 1951.
460 Wallace refuses Stevens’ invitation to talk: Stevens to Taft, Mar. 22, 1906, I.C.C. Records.
460 Stevens confers with wife: John F. Stevens, Jr., Speech.
461 “I became tough and hard”: Marion T. Colley, “Stevens Has Blasted His way Across America,” American Magazine, Feb. 1926.
461 “With respect to supermen”: Stevens, Engineer’s Recollections, 44.
462 “He is always in the right place”: John Foster Carr, “The Chief Engineer and His Work, “Outlook, June 2, 1906.
462 “diplomacy. . . unfit to exercise”: Stevens, Engineer’s Recollections, 36.
462 Things in a “devil of a mess”: Stevens, “Panama Canal,” A.S.C.E., Transactions, XCI.
462 “buttle like hell”: ibid.
462 Shonts’s press conference: N.Y. Tribune, July 15, 1905.
462 Taft cable to Magoon: June 30, 1905,1.C.C. Records.
422–463 “about as discouraging a proposition”: Stevens, “The Truth of History,” in Bennett, 210.
463 “scared out of their boots”: Stevens testimony, Jan. 16, 1906, Hearings . . . an Investigation.
463 “I found no organization”: Stevens, Engineer’s Recollections, 44.
463 Exchange of views on Magoon’s veranda: Pepperman, 132–136.
464 “There are three diseases in Panama”: Bishop, Goethals, 133.
464 “A collision has its good points”: Isthmian Canal Commission, Annual Report for 1905, 121.
465 “The digging is the least thing”: quoted in Eugene P. Lyle, “The Real Conditions at Panama,” World’s Work, Nov. 1905.
465 “regardless of clamor or criticism”: Stevens to Taft, Mar. 22, 1906, I.C.C. Records.
466 $90,000 for screening: Stevens, Engineer’s Recollections, 45–46.
466 Supplies ordered: Minutes of Meetings, 1906.
466–467 “. . . a man was reported ill”: I.C.C, Annual Report of 1905, 32.
467 “Like probably many others”: Stevens, “Panama Canal,” A.S.C.E., Transactions, XCI.
467 Roosevelt’s reply to Welch: Gorgas and Hendrick, 198.
467–468 Advice of Dr. Lambert: ibid., 198–202; also Hagedorn, 240–242.
468 Gorgas’ tribute to Shonts: Pepperman, 6–7.
468 Gorgas’ tribute to Stevens: Gorgas, Sanitation, 155.
468 “The fact is that you are the only one”: Gorgas to Stevens, Apr. 17, 1914, quoted in Stevens, “Panama Canal,” A.S.C.E., Transactions, XCI.
469 Hill dictum: Dictionary of American Biography.
469 “Personally, I have always felt grateful”: Wood, 19–20.
470 “Now I would liken that [French] plant”: Stevens, Report of the Board of Consulting Engineers, 1906.
473 Different specialties wanted: Minutes of Meetings, 1906.
474 Outlook writer’s view: John Foster Carr, “The Silver Men,” Outlook, May 19, 1906.
475 Correspondent’s account of recruiting in Barbados: Edwards, 29.
476 Martinique workers forced ashore: I.C.C, Annual Report for 1905, 56.
476 “I load cement”: Albert Banister in Reminiscences.
477 “and never forget our ice cream”: George H. Martin, ibid.
477 –478 “The West Indian, while slow”: R. E. Wood, “The Working Force of the Panama Canal,” in Goethals, ed., Panama Canal, Vol
. I, 199.
478 Goethals sees only chaos: Panama Star & Herald, Mar. 19, 1907.
478 Funds for baseball fields: William Russell, conversation with the author.
479 “There is no element of mystery”: I.C.C., Annual Report for 1905, 120.
480 Stevens observations to Shonts: Dec. 19, 1905,1.C.C. Records.
483 Views of Chairman Davis: Report of the Board of Consulting Engineers, 1906.
484 “Danger to ships in a canal”: ibid.
485 Stevens’ refusal to endorse any plan: ibid.
485–486 Stevens’ argument for lock plan: quoted in Engineer’s Recollections, 41.
486 “Yes, if it is absolutely safe”: Stevens’ testimony, Jan. 23, 1906, Hearings. . . an Investigation.
486 “If we had [had] you on our side”: Stevens, Engineer’s Recollections, 42.
487 “a peculiar personal interest”: Report of the Board of Consulting Engineers, 1906.
487 “The one great problem”: DuVal, Mountains, 206.
488 “I never regard difficulties”: Hart, 287.
18. THE MAN WITH THE SUN IN HIS EYES
PAGE
490 “And never did a President”: The Future in America, 250.
490 Stevens and Huckleberry Finn: Roosevelt to George Otto Tre velyan, Jan. 22, 1906, Morison, Letters, Vol. V, 137.
490–491 “You all know damn well”: quoted in Alfred D. Chandler, Jr., “Theodore Roosevelt and the Panama Canal,” Morison, Letters, Vol. VI, Appendix, 1547.
491 Stevens’ Aug. 5 letter to Roosevelt: quoted in Stevens, “The Truth of History,” in Bennett, 222.
493 “Mother and I walk briskly”: Roosevelt to Kermit, Nov. 11, 1906, Morison, Letters, Vol. V, 495.
493 “It would have been impossible”: Special Message, 4.
494 Panama declaration: quoted in DuVal, Mountains, 232–233.
494–495 Gorgas and Roosevelt disappear: Gorgas and Hendrick, 206–207.
495 Speeches of Amador and Roosevelt: Panama Star & Herald, Nov. 19, 1906.
495 “He seemed obsessed”: Maltby, “In at the Start at Panama,” Civil Engineering, Sept. 1945.
496 “I have blisters on both feet”: ibid.
498 Roosevelt’s description of Culebra Cut: Roosevelt to Kermit, Nov. 20, 1906, Morison, Letters, Vol. V, 497–498.
498–499 Wells’s response to Niagara dynamos: Future in America, 54–55.
499 Wells’s exchange with Roosevelt: ibid.
499 –500 “We saw him. . . on the end of the train”: Hardeveld, 78.
500 “It is a stupendous work”: Roosevelt, Special Message, 28.
500 “No man can see”: ibid., 15.
500 Message “a corker”: Gorgas and Hendrick, 210.
500–501 Health figures: all from Roosevelt, Special Message, Appendix II.
502 “The least satisfactory feature”: Roosevelt to Shonts, Nov. 27, 1906, Morison, Letters, Vol. V, 504.
503 Roosevelt finds Stevens “impossible to get on with”: Roosevelt to Richard Rogers Bowker, ibid., 629.
503–504 Stevens’ letter of Jan. 30: I.C.C. Records.
505 “If he were a drinking man”: Roosevelt to Richard Rogers Bowker, Mar. 22, 1907, Morison, Letters, Vol. V, 630.
505 “Don’t talk, dig”: Panama Star & Herald, Mar. 1, 1907.
505 “. . . I think he has broken down”: quoted in Bishop, Goethals, 151.
505 “He was not a quitter”: Maltby, “In at the Start at Panama,” Civil Engineering, Sept. 1945.
505–506 Josephus Daniels’theory: Wilson Era, 214.
506 “I’ve just been easing my mind”: Edwards, 495.
506 “The reasons for the resignation”: Stevens, “Panama Canal,” A.S.GE., Transactions, XCI.
506 “well-planned and well-built machine”: Stevens, Engineer’s Recollections, 52.
506 “The hardest problems were solved”: Stevens, “Panama Canal.”
508 Roosevelt’s speech at Colon: quoted in Special Message, Appendix I
509 “What a hell of a life”: R. H. Whitehead, conversation with the author.
509 “He did not amuse himself”: Mrs. Thomas Goethals, conversation with the author.
510 “savage eyes”: Longworth, Crowded Hours, 182–183.
510 Taft, only clean fat man: Mrs. Thomas Goethals, conversation with the author.
510 Summons from the White House: Bishop, Goethals, 141.
510 “He entered at once”: ibid., 143.
510 “He [Roosevelt] expressed regret”: ibid., 144.
511 “command the removal of a mountain”: ibid., 239.
511 “It will be a position of ample remuneration”: quoted in Sullivan, Our Times, Vol. I, 466.
511 “a case of just plain straight duty”: Bishop, Goethals, 149.
512 “The real builder”: ibid., 144.
512 “I believe in a strong executive”: quoted in Morison, Letters, Vol. V, xvii.
19. THE CHIEF POINT OF ATTACK
Were ic not for Goethals’ letters to his son George, included among his papers in the Library of Congress, one might mistakenly assume that he was as devoid of warmth and human emotion as his critics insisted. The letters are a window thrown open upon a sensitive and appealing inner man; for the author they were a revelation and one of the high points of the research.
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529 “The chief point of attack was”: Bishop, Gateway, 184. Yardage figures: ibid., 198, 200.
530 Scientific American illustration: issue of Nov. 9, 1912. A pyramid to top the Woolworth Building: Abbot, 135.
530 Temperature in Culebra Cut: Canal Record, Jan. 20, 1909.
530 A carload every few seconds: ibid., Apr. 1, 1908.
531 System could not be improved upon today: R. H. Whitehead, conversation with the author.
531 Burr statement: Report of the Board of Consulting Engineers; also quoted in Bishop, Gateway, 186.
531 Estimates revised: Bishop, Gateway, 185.
532 Never such affection displayed: quoted in DuVal, Mountains, 266–267.
532 Moves in with Gorgas: Goethals to G. R. Goethals, Mar. 10, 1907, Goethals papers.
532 “Army engineers, as a rule”: Goethals, “The Building of the Panama Canal,” Scribner’s, Mar. 1915.
532 “Mr. Stevens has done an amount of work”: Goethals to G. R. Goethals, Mar. 17, 1907, Goethals papers.
532–533 Suffers through “smoker”: Goethals’ recollections quoted in Bishop, Goethals, 155.
533 “. . . I am commanding the Army of Panama”: Panama Star & Herald, Mar. 19, 1907.
534 Sibert “cantankerous and hard to hold”: Goethals to G. R. Goethals, June 13, 1907, Goethals papers.
534 Morning routine: Bishop, Goethals, 227.
534 “There were only a few lights”: Edwards, 497.
535 “What the Colonel said he meant”: Edgar Young, “The Colonel Passes,” N.Y. Herald-Tribune, Feb. 5, 1928.
535 “It will help bring the outfit into line”: Goethals to G. R. Goethals, May 1, 1907, Goethals papers.
535 “Executive ability”: ibid., June 24, 1907.
535–536 “His conversation and his manners”: Gorgas and Hendrick, 218.
535 Robert Wood’s assessment: Monument, 34.
536 Whitehead view: conversation with the author.
536 Bishop report to Roosevelt: quoted in Goethals, 181.
536 Goethals has had “a veritable ‘hell of a time’ ”: ibid., 180.
537 “It wasn’t so hard”: Samuel G. Blythe, “Life in Spigotty Land,” Saturday Evening Post, Mar. 21, 1908.
537 Goethals’ Sunday-morning sessions were described by any number of reporters and visitors; among the best accounts are: Peter C. Macfarlane, “The Solomon of the Ishtmus,” Collier’s, Dec. 9, 1911; Edwards, 504.
538 “If you decide against me”: Bishop, Gateway, 295.
538 “treated like human beings”: ibid., 294.
538 “I was present at all the hearings”: Bishop, Goethals, 190.
539 “He has absolute knowledge”: ibid., 190–191.
541 “We must get up early”: West Point, 1915–16 Catalog, 5.
543 “He who did not see the Culebr a Cut”: Abbot, 210.
543 Lord Bryce remark: South America, 36.
543–544 Bishop’s description: Gateway, 185–186.
544 Night activities: “Repairing Steam Shovels, “Canal Record, Apr. 13,1910.
545 “Man die, get blow up”: Albert Banister in Reminiscences.
545 Greater amount of explosive energy than in all previous wars: Dutton, 200.
545 Million pounds of dynamite in one shipment: Canal Record, Oct. 21, 1908.
545 Aggregate depth of dynamite holes: Goethals, “Dry Excavation, “in Goethals, ed., Panama Canal, Vol. I, 350.
546 “We are having too many accidents”: Goethals to G. R. Goethals, June 13, 1907, Goethals papers.
546 “The flesh of men flew in the air”: Berisford G. Mitchellin Reminiscences.
546 Worst single disaster: Canal Record, Dec. 16, 1908.
546 sixty-eight shovels: Goethals, “Dry Excavation, “in Goethals, ed., Panama Canal, Vol. I, 351.
547 Record For single shovel: ibid., 354.
547 96,000,000 cubic yards: ibid., 384.
547 Miles of track Within the Cut: ibid., 359.
548 Handling of traffic: ibid., 357–359.
548 Dumping grounds: “Utilizing Spoil, “Canal Record, Apr. 7, 1909.
549 Volume deposited at Balboa: Goethals, “Dry Excavation, “in Goethals, ed., Panama Canal, Vol. I, 369.
549–550 DiversiOn channels a mistake: ibid., 339.
550 Cucarach a “started afresh”: Bishop, Gateway, 187.
550 “It was, in fact, a tropical glacier”: Gaillard, “Culebr a Cut and the Problem of the Slides,” Scientific American, Nov. 9, 1912.
551 “No one could say when”: Bishop, Gateway, 193–194.
551 twenty-Two slides altogether: Goethals, “Dry Excavation, “in Goethals, ed., Panama Canal, Vol. I, 377.
552 Rose van Hardeveld’s recollection: Make the Dirt Fly, 135.
552–553 National Geographic quote: “Battling the Panama Slides,” Feb. 1914.
553 “I personally would say to My fellow men”: George H. Martin in Reminiscences.
553 Sees shovel rise: Gaillard, “Culebr a Cut and the Problem of the Slides,” Scientific American, Nov. 9, 1912.
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