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M A R I N E, R E V 4 8 CHIEF ENGINEER WALLACE ON PANAMA CANAL It was at great personal sacrifice that Mr. John Findley Wallace, the general manager of the Illinois Central rail- road, accepted the position of chief engineer of the Panama canal. He had been offered a place upon the commission itself but had declined and it was only at the earnest' request of President Roosevelt that he later consented to be chief engineer. But the nation has the assurance under Wallace's direction the engineering work will be' done as well as it can possibly be done. A Mr. Wallace was educated as ai engineer in Monmouth College, at Monmouth, TIl., which was established by his father, Rev. David A. Wal- lace, who was: its first - presi- dent. In 1869 he entered. the service of the .Carthage and Quincy railroad as a rodman - and was assistant engineer in the United. States engineering © corps: at': Rock «Island. from 1871 to 1876.. During this time he excavated a channel through the St. Louis chain of rocks by machinery of his own: de- sign and construction, an undertaking in which the gov- ernment previously had failed. In 1879 Mr. Wallace was ap- . pointed. chief engineer for the Peoria and Farmington rail- way, which was located, con- structed and operated by Mr. Wallace as superintendent. Later he was in charge of construction for the Iowa Cen- tral' and «built several great bridges. During 1886 he was engaged as assistant engineer of surveys for the Union Pa- cific, and later went with the Santa Fe in charge of a sys- tem of improvements on the Mississippi river, which should control the river above the Sibley bridge, which bridge he also constructed. Mr. Wal- lace later constructed the joint entrance of the Illinois Cen- tral and Santa Fe into Chicago and the Alton terminal im- provements. In January, 1891, Mr. Wallace was selected to take charge of the Illinois Central's world's fair business, and worked out and put into operation a plan that became the wonder and admiration of the engineering and railroad worlds. His work was rewarded by the appointment to the position of chief engineer for the company, and as such, and later in the posi- tions of assistant to the second vice president, assistant gen- eral manager and general manager, he had charge of the vast improvement and reconstruction work which has placed the Illinois Central in the fore rank of the big western railway systems. : Chief Engineer Wallace recently returned to the United States after a whole summer spent in the Isthmus making personal observations and outlining the work of the various engineering 'sections. In an interview upon his return he stated : "During my three months' stay in Panama I completely covered the entire strip, which is about 10 miles wide and 47 miles long, at least twenty times, making thorough observa- tions. At present there are about 1,500 men in the field. Of MR. JOHN F. WALLACE, CHIEF ENGINEER PANAMA CANAL. this number 500 are in the sanitary department. under Colonel Gorgas, who is assisted by Colonel Le Garde, Major Ross and Major Carter, the last-named being chief quarantine officer. "There are at work six divisions of the engineering corps, -each in charge of a resident engineer, and these report to me as chief engineer. There are subordinates in each engineering corps, suchas assistant clerks and superintendents, while the 'rest of the men at work in connection with the canal are laborers. The engineering and clerical departments are al- most entirely Americanized, and nearly every arriving steamer brings fresh additions from the' United States.. The ma- jority of the common, as well as a few of the skilled, labor- ers..are English-speaking ne- groes from Jamaica. "The. reason . that: Panama has hada bad -name .in the popular mind is owing to the fact that until recently the heterogeneous population has paid but little attention to the ordinary. laws of health. . Un- der such conditions it was nat- ural that . those.' that drank hard, were not: careful as. to food, did not boil or sterilize their drinking-water and other- wise disregarded the ordinary hygienic precautions, should find the country unhealthful. Most of the men who now hold responsible: positions.in con- nection with the canal work are sober, industrious and am- bitious, many of them being college bred. They find the health conditions in Panama excellent, and sickness among them bears but a small per cent to the total now inhabiting the Isthmus. The mean tenipera- ture this summer was about. 84°, and I do not remember having passed a summer in the United States when the weather was more pleasant than it has been on the Isthmus. "The sanitary corps has given especial attention to stamping out malaria and yellow fever. Of all the men at work on the canal this summer but two died of yellow fever, and but one of them, a man sixty years old, was in the employ of the government. The idea that yellow fever is prevalent in the -- Isthmus is erroneous. It, as well as the malaria fevers pre- valent in tropical countries, is being eradicated by the scientific measures brought to bear by the sanitary department of the Isthmian government. Of the work done by the French company before the United States bought the canal, per- haps 15 per cent can be utilized. It all depends upon the plan finally decided upon for the completion of the canal. Whether the: canal is 'to' beat. 'sea" level, 'or' 30,°- Go 'or 90° ft. above sea level, will not be determined until the surveys of the engineers now in the field have been completed. Some of the machinery turned over to the United States by the French company is still useful, but much new machinery must be bought, as a great deal of that in use by the Frenchmen is either worn out or not up to the requirement of modern methods. "The preliminary work of thoroughly surveying the canal route with a view of determining at what level the canal is to be cut and the exact line it will follow will consume all the