Mr. Taft as Secretary of War. From that time until his retirement from the office of President, March 4, 1913, the construction was constantly under his supervision. Sometime this history must be written. The chief crises in this work as he has recited them were the organisation of the force under the Commission, the adjustment of the relations of Panama to the work under the treaty, the change of engineers from Mr. Wallace to Mr. Stevens, the consideration by an International Commission, with a divided report, as to the proper type of the Canal, whether sea-level or lock, the very close fight in Congress to sustain the Administration view in favor of the lock type, the settlement of the issue whether the Canal should be built by contract or by Government agency, the selection of a successor to Mr.

Stevens when he resigned, and the placing of the work under Army engineers and the selection of Colonel Goethals as the man to take the responsibility, the adjustment of critical labour troubles, and the confirmation by a Commission of the security of the foundation of the Gatun Dam. These were the points of critical importance in Mr. Taft’s Administration. In deciding the questions which came to him, it was necessary for him to visit the Canal seven times in as many years, and I went with him on three of his visits. The contrast between the Canal when we first visited it and were the guests of Mr. Wallace, the first engineer, and as it was when we were the guests of Colonel Goethals in 1912, when the Gatun Lake was more than half filled and nothing but the slides in the Culebra Cut remained for excavation, it is most interesting to look back upon. I was twice the guest of Colonel and Mrs. Goethals, and the beautiful view of the Canal Valley from the windows of their house in the town of Culebra, which has now disappeared, will long remain in my mind.