Ancon Hill the Best Site.

295

KIE FOO YUEN

Importer, and Wholesale and Retail Dealer in Groceries. Commission Merchant. Exporter of Native Products.

Agent for the Cuban and Pan-American Express Company.

P. O. Box. No 71.

Opposite Market, Colon, R. P.

Ancon Hill the Best Site.

While on the Isthmus, the committee also considered the matter of quarters for Employes and adopted a resolution authorizing the Chief Engineer to proceed with the work at once. A resolution was also passed declaring that Ancon Hill and adjacent territory afforded the best site for erecting permanent quarters for the Commission, Zone officers, and certain classes of employes, together with offices and hospitals, and that the Commission be recommended to despatch a landscape architect to the Isthmus to devise a plan for artistically developing this site.

This resolution was the first step toward building the Ancon of today. At that time there had not been a building put up at this point, outside of the Ancon Hospital grounds, and corral yard. The Hotel Tivoli had not been dreamed of, the new Zone administrative building had not been planned, and the site now dotted with cottages and apartment houses was then only a pasture. Goats browsed contentedly on Gobbler's Knob and "El Tivoli."

Old Commission Disbanded.

"It became apparent," says Secretary Taft in his annual report for 1905, "during the six months succeeding the appointment of the first Commission that the body of seven men as organized was not an effective force for doing

the work required in the construction of the canal. The members of the Commission themselves agreed that as constituted, good results could not be expected from it. You (President Roosevelt) had submitted to Congress during the winter of 1904-5 a recommendation for an amendment to the law by which you should be given a free hand in the number of agents to be selected by you for the work which the act of Congress made it mandatory upon you to perform, and informed Congress that the method of construction by a commission of seven was clumsy and ineffective. The House of Representatives gave the requested power in a bill which it sent to the Senate. There the bill met determined opposition, and in the short session it was entirely possible for its enemies to defeat it. It became very apparent that radical action was necessary if better work was to be secured. By your direction, in March, 1905, 1 requested the resignation of the then canal commissioners, which were at once tendered."

Under Executive order of April 1, 1905, the organization of a new commission became effective, the members being Theodore P. Shonts, Chairman; Charles E. Magoon, also to be Governor of the Canal Zone; John F. Wallace, to be member as well as Chief Engineer; RearAdmiral Mordecai T. Endicott, U. S. Navy; Brig. Gen. Peter C. Hains, U. S. Army (retired); Col. Oswald H. Ernst, Corps of Engineers, U. S. Army, and Benjamin M. Harrod. The salaries were fixed at $7,500 for each member per annum, the Chairman in addition to receive the sum of $23,500 annually; the Chief Engineer, $17,500 annually, and the Governor of the Canal Zone, $10,000 annually.

The first meeting of this Commission was held April 3, 1905, and an executive committee appointed consisting of Messrs. Shonts, Wallace and Magoon. It was then arranged that Mr. Shonts should assume charge of the Washington office, the making of contracts, the purchase of material, and general executive control of the whole business of the Commission. Mr. Wallace was to take complete

Old Commission Disbanded.

297

charge of the engineering and construction work on the Isthmus, while Governor Magoon who succeeded Gen. Davis, assumed control of the Zone administrative functions, and the sanitation work, with Col. Gorgas in direct charge of the latter. Mr. Shonts drafted into service to assist him in the reorganization of the Washington office, Col. Edwards, formerly Chief of the Bureau of Insular Affairs; David W. Ross, General Purchasing Agent at a salary of $10,000 per annum, and E. S. Benson, as Auditor, at the salary.

Wallace Quits the Canal.

same

The resignation of Chief Engineer Wallace came like a clap of thunder out of a clear sky. It was remotest from the thoughts of anyone in any way connected with the undertaking from the President down. While it was generally known that he was dissatisfied with the working methods of the first Commission, the reorganization by which he was delegated almost plenary powers in the field of construction and engineering, tended to the belief that he would put his shoulder to the wheel with renewed vigor. He had been summoned to the States shortly before this to discuss plans for the future, and had been back on the Isthmus but six days, when on June 28, 1905, he forwarded a cablegram to Secretary Taft announcing his desire to leave the service.

"I was greatly taken aback," reports the Secretary of War, "for I heard indirectly from reliable sources that he had received an offer of a much higher salary, and that he was determined to accept the offer and give up this job. Mr. Wallace came north and at an appointed interview stated to me that he had received an offer of $65,000 and had accepted it, that he was anxious to assist me and the members of the Commission, as far as possible, with his advice, and would be glad to continue as a member of the Commission, but that he could not and

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would not go back to the Isthmus at all. I gave Mr. Wallace a full opportunity to state all the reasons that actuated him in withdrawing, but this is the only one he mentioned."

It is quite probable that the question of health entered considerably into Mr. Wallace's decision. At the time. he returned from the States, yellow fever had been doing a pretty brisk business for several months, and the prospects for its abatement did not look particularly good While on the Isthmus, Mr. Wallace continually guarded against possibility of infection. His residence was the first to be screened, and every possible precaution taken to prevent the introduction of the disease by mosquito infection.

Mr. Wallace's place was filled without loss of time by the appointment of Mr. John F. Stevens, an experienced railroad man, who was on the eve of departing for the Philippines to supervise important railroad works for