Life — February 22, 1906 — page 6: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

“ While there is Life there's Hope.” VOL. XLVIL, FEB, 22, 1906. 17 West Tuirty-First Street, New York. R. WALLACE, who was for- merly Chief Engineer of the Panama Canal, and who retired some- abruptly from that post of duty, has e Canal Committee of the Senate what he knows about the canal, and incidentally has di- vulged his reasons for resigning. He says that too much red tape, too much William Nelson Cromwell, too many snubs and the certainty of a conflict with Chairman Shonts constituted the inducements that separated him from his job. He intended, he says, to talk these things over with Secretary Taft, but when he went to see the Secretary he found Mr. Cromwell with him, and found Mr. Taft himself in such a congested state of indignation that he said no more than that he had had an offer of a better place at a bigger salary, and intended to take it. Thereupon, as we all remember, Mr. Taft un- corked several demijohns of wrath and gave him a public notice, from which, Mr. Wallace says, his reputation suf- fered irreparable injury. We are sorry for Mr. Wallace, The present administration has a good heart, but rather a hasty temper. Sec- retary Taft is a large man, and when his considerable frame and _ fillings once becomes permeated with resent- ment he is doubtless a formidable mass to confront. It is evident that he seared Mr. Wallace out of command of his mental We don't blame Mr. Wallace for being scared. Tt is a natural human impulse in any man to place distance between himself and an irate Taft, and to restrict his speech until he has perfected his re- tirement. Nevertheless, it resources. was a LIFE: mistortune to Mr, Wallace and an injustice to Mr. Taft, that Mr, Wal- lace did not speak up and free 1 mind before Mr. Taft freed his. ae “RS IRT has not as yet been dug in satisfactory quantities at Pan- ama, but the ¢ project is living pretty well up to its old reputation as a producer of mud. It seems to breed defamation of character. No man can put his hand to the Panama plough ex- cept at the hazard of his reputation. There is a health hazard, too, but that scems to have been materially lowered, There ought to be an arrangement by which every man who takes any kind of a Panama job shall be enabled to leave his reputation on deposit in the Sub-Treasury in New York and get it back unaffected as soon as his term of connection has expired and he has washed his hands. Panama ruined De Lesseps and plastered France with When Uncle Sam toc the evidences of futile and perfidious effort, every chief participator in that isition walked sadly up and de- posited a fragment of his reputation as a moral man upon the altar of his country. If there is any engineer who has sold a professional opinion on the form or route of the canal who does not feel the need of vindication, we do not know his name. The President has worked hard on the canal. The best thing that is said of his services scandals, over cquisi is that they ought to be forgiven be- cause of the purity of his intentions. Secretary Taft has worked like a horse for the canal on a ridiculously inade quate salary. He is one of the ablest and best-natured and most upright per- sons that ever broke away from Ohio, but he seems hardly patient enough and hardly bland enough for a canaf builder. Mr. Wallace ate his heart out for a year or so in the zone waiting for lumber and other things that didn’t come, and quit, and has been extenu- ating his behavior ever since. Poult- ney Bigelow tried to help by describing some defects and has just escaped g ing to jail. A patriot Panaman named Tracy Robinson told Poultney Bigelow there was a swamp back of Colon and was stigmatized as an_ office-seeking sorehead. Mr. Shonts undertook to be chief executive officer of the canal squad, and is under suspicion of draw- ing two salaries and other misdemean- ors, And as for Mr. Cromwell, Mr. Wallace suggests that he is a grafter. The Panama Canal is the dirtiest job in the world. We ought to realize that and make allowances, holding every man’s character in charitable regard so long as it is speckled with nothing worse than Panama mud. The canal will be built. It will cost $300,000,000 or so to build it, and an- other $100,000,000 to keep the builders investigated. But it will be built. HEY say the trustees of the Car- negie Hero Fund cannot spend their income for lack of suitable hero- isms to reward. We beg to suggest that they buy two large silver mugs and present one to Norman Hapgood and the other to Robert J. Collier, in recognition and commemoration of the hardihood of those gentlemen in slug- ging the dragon which had so long subsisted on the helpless members of our politest social group. To slug that dragon was a work of the purest mercy and conducted with commend- able spunk. There is no doubt that tne dragon was fit to be slugged. There is some question whether its victims are not so ineurably doomed to be de- voured by monsters that one deliver- ance will do them no permanent good. However that may be, and whether or not their and succu- lence invites and breeds a new dragon, Mr. Collier and Mr. Hapgood have each fairly won a mug, and ought to have it. submissiveness O one seems to have raised con- stitutional objections to the mar- riage of the President's daughter to an Ohio Congressman, and we presume that to the extent thus illustrated the amalgamation of the legislative and administrative divisions of our Govy- ernment will be held not to violate the intentions of the fathers. comicbooks.com