GEORGE W. GOETHALS 205 ity, coupled with driving energy, which have been character- istic of many great railroad builders. The men at Panama were instinctively opposed to the new plan of control by army officers. Government work had a bad name. This spirit of hostility was shown at a meeting at Corozal soon after Goethals arrived. Goethals was present, but Stevens was not. Every reference to Stevens was greeted with prolonged cheering. When the toastmaster introduced Goethals it was with an ironical speech conveying the general sentiment of hostility toward army control. It was intimated that now the work would have to be carried on with due cere- mony and that when an officer appeared everyone would have to stop and salute. Goethals talks best when he is angry. He made the direct, hard-hitting speech of the man of action; ** words like blows, '* as one listener described it. He said that he wanted no salut- ing on the zone, that no man would be judged by the salutes he gave but by the work he did, and he wanted it understood that he was there, not for ceremony, but to dig the canal. Goethals was as good as his word. Shoulder straps and brass buttons among officers employed in canal work have been notable for their absence at Panama. Goethals himself has not once worn his uniform. But it is a wonderful thing down there today to see the men salute the Colonel as he passes. It is no military salute, however, but the engineer waving his hand from the cab of his engine, the steam-shovel man (both hands on his levers) nodding his head, and the Colonel making an equally friendly response. Goethals 's first appearance was thus auspicious, but it was only the beginning of the battle.
- Wait until the Colonel tackles the labor unions 1'* said the
prophets of the hotel verandas. The American workmen at Panama, who fill all of the high- skilled positions, were of a fine type, and most of them were strongly organized in unions. Stevens had accepted the pri- vate enterprise view of the labor problem and dealt with the unions as he would with a hostile state — by truce and treaty.
