Show 1 WA E GIVES I CA CANAL JAl FACTS t Panama Scheme Will Result in Tremendous Waste 1 r of Money Noney DIFFICULTIES OF THE WORK IMPOSSIBLE FOR GOOD ENGI ENGINEER ENGINEER NEER TO SERVE New Nev York Feb P F Wal Wallace Wallace lace formerly chief engineer of the Panama canal has contributed anar tide to the March number of the En Engineering Magazine recounting his oh ob observations arid and experiences during the year in which he was In charge of the 4 construction work In the canal zone In article Mr declares it to be his belief that it will require more time and money to a high level canal on the plan under the pre present nt method of gov t L control than it will to con construct construct a it sea level Jevel canal provided the work is accomplished by modern effi efficient cl nt methods Re He advocates either placing the work in the hands one en eng g with unlimited authority or 1 letting the work to one large contract contractIng contracting Ing firm The article says In part Of the factors which exercise the ti greatest deterrent influence in the accomplishment ac accomplishment of satisfactory results under direct government control the first Is found in the laws governing of public funds The official and the commercial Ideals are evidently diametrically opposed In modern ordinary affairs the prin principle principle ciple of audit before payment is adopt adopted i ed the government audit system on f the contrary Is based upon the principle prin principle ciple of audit after payment Washington a Trouble It should be apparent to every thinking man that when work must be conducted 2000 miles away from the ilie I seat of government a policy imposing the necessity of referrIng all import important ant questions to Washington and sub submitting submitting them there to men who necessarily rily cannot be conversant with the condIti conditions ns on the isthmus unless they are informed by the parties on the ground cannot give satisfactory re results suits no matter how honest or effi efficient dent the supervising officials may be beI beI I may perhaps feel too strongly on this point but my experience at Panama my occasional contact with govern governmental governmental mental methods reaching back to a service of five years as assistant en engineer r on river and harbor improve improvements improvements ments has convinced me that attempts tt to garry rry on constructive e work under F the direction of Washington bureaus especially when the work IS arge corn com complicated and distant from the seat of government are conducive of extravagance extravagance and waste as to both time and money I am emphatically of the opinion that governmental functions on the isthmus should be confined v ively ely to a general supervision of the 4 work and enforcement of such simple ordinances and sanitary regulations as may be necessary to secure the peace a and the hE health aIth of the community afF af affected F by the constructive work The question of control of the corn the rate of wages paid by th subcontractors and a host of other de details details tails make it necessary to my mind for a single contracting organization to control the entire work Either the work should be put into the hands of one strong man with practically un unlimIted unlimited limIted authority combining the tech and scientific training of the en engineer with the administrative and ex cx executive t ability of a man of force with this should be coupled the separation of aU all matters connected with thIs work from the control of the ordInary gov government government departments at Washington but under such supervision only as to Insure the government that his admin administration is efficient or the same re rc result suIt sult should be accomplished through letting of the work to a 3 contracting firm large enough to control under one management the entire constructive work on the isthmus under broad and I general specIfications and under such general supervIsIon as may appear to toc c congress to be proper EngIneer Must Drift In conclusion the arti artie e says If the experience had not been so soI I serious I should look back to my first connection with this enterprise and the experIence gained therewith and smile to think I had been boen so innocent as to suppose myself able to overcome the thelong long ong settled Influences heretofore Indi Indicated or to impress my individuality upon the work or to employ in It the methods with which I had been faint i lay for years The usefulness of any man who might be called in as an en engineer engineer of demonstrated capacity to su supervise an en enterprise ot of this character is naturally measured by the extent to which he may be permitted to USe his own methods and make available the result of hIs past experience To ex cx expect that any peri person on who is really Qualified to conduct the work will ra radically radically change his methods which have been the outcome of a lIfetime of ex cx experience and adapt himself to moss grown government methods is to ex cx expect the Impossible It demands that thata a m n should be content to Ignore the instincts of his profession and to sub subject subject himself to the varIous influences brought to bear upon him drifting along in a perfunctory way satisfIed to draw his compensation hoping that in some way or other he may be able eventually to see the work completed 4 or wasting the best years of his life in inthE inthe thE partial accomplishment of it |