770 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XXIII. No. 594. 



Stevens in postponing the exeavatory work 

 means that a lot of highly-paid specialists 

 — transitmen, levelmen and others— have 

 been practically without occupation, though 

 still, of course, retained on the pay-roll. 

 And of the fact that idleness, in a tropical 

 country, breeds demoralization in a work- 

 ing force, the history of the Panama Canal 

 affords numerous instances. One of the 

 first acts of the new administration was to 

 abolish the quartermaster's department 

 under Capt. E. L. King, and turn over 

 the matter of paying the laborers to the 

 auditing department, who have handled it 

 very badly. Frequently the laborers have 

 been compelled to wait over two pay-days 

 (more than a month), although they live 

 on the credit system, and the Chinese store- 

 keepers refuse to trust them beyond the 

 first pay-day. 



With the shut-down of the work on the 

 Culebra cut, a great many of the men from 

 the states were sent home, and consequently 

 skilled artisans have been scarce. Car- 

 penters have been in brisk demand, but it 

 has been difiScult to induce a sufficient num- 

 ber to remain upon the isthmus. In con- 

 structive work, the great difficulty (as 

 under the Wallace administration) has 

 been to secure supplies. The department 

 of supplies under Paymaster B. C. Tobey, 

 U.S.N., has always been a great stumbling- 

 block to the progress of any work on the 

 isthmus, and it was the inefficiency of this 

 department, as much as anything else, that 

 led to Mr. Wallace's throwing up his hands 

 in despair. However, not all of the trouble 

 has been on the isthmus. The Washington 

 end of the department, under Colonel Ed- 

 wards, of the Bureau of Insular Affairs of 

 the War Department, is encumbered in its 

 action by much red tape and meaningless 

 routine procedure. 



Engineer Stevens has earned for himself, 

 we are told, the title of 'The Sphinx.' (If 

 he has, it seems to us a creditable nickname. 



in these days when public officers, as a rule, 

 talk too much!) Stevens has discharged 

 scores of men in an attempt to bring about 

 changes for the better. There is much 

 petty jealousy, which vents itself in fac- 

 tional rows. The men sent on by the civil 

 service are far below the standard of the 

 men chosen by selection under the Walker 

 Commission. As a glaring instance might 

 be cited the case of a high engineering offi- 

 cial who has been sent to the isthmus at a 

 high salary, after having been discharged 

 by the Walker Commission of 1901-2 for 

 gross inefficiency as a transitman. This 

 criticism applies not only to the specialists 

 and the technical men, but to the mechanics 

 as well. There are 11,000 men on the 

 roster building houses and doing sanitary 

 work for the sanitary department. At the 

 present rate of progress it will take more 

 than a year— perhaps two years— before it 

 will be possible to think of actual canal 

 building. The purchase of a few new 

 steam shovels does not mean very much 

 under the circimistances. Everything 

 drags along at a snail's pace. Mr. Shonts 

 has told the advisory board that the ex- 

 cavation work could not be done at the 

 figures obtained under the Wallace regime 

 ( 650,000 cubic yards were taken out in the 

 first year at less than fifty cents per yard). 

 The present administration fixes a price of 

 not less than eighty cents per yard. 



At the Panama end, the engineer I have 

 been quoting went on to say, work under 

 Eesident Engineer Harper is practically at 

 a standstill, and has been very adversely 

 affected by quarantine. At Culebra the 

 engineer parties in the canal prism under 

 Resident Engineer Nichols and the outside 

 work under Ruggles have been accomplish- 

 ing very little of interest, except some cross- 

 section lines and some borings on the canal 

 line. A gang of men are changing the 

 railroad track from the high, narrow, Bel- 

 gian rails to the heavier new rails. Prepa- 



