A 56851 5 A iSPORIAT IARR PROPERTY OF 1 '7 ART ES SC IENT IA VERITAS If/! 'o. ';: ". *., *: * ' *' ' o..'.......... '~.. I WILLIAM L. SIBERT The Army Engineer EDWARD B. CLARK / p I,4~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 1 IZ-. I _~I IIY —I-_P - - -_ _ _~ -. :- ____1II- ----~- _F ---~ ----~- --- —_ — WILLIAM L. SIBERT THE ARMY ENGINEER * * Major General, Retired; Builder Gatun Locks and Dam, Panama Canal; an Ocean Terminal, Mobile, Alabama; the first five dams, 9-foot channel, Ohio River; Organizer and Director, Chemical Warfare Service, United States Army, World War; Chairman of Board to Determine Economic and Engineering Feasibility of the Boulder Dam Project BY EDWARD B. CLARK Colonel, United States'Army, Res. ILLUSTRATED PHILADELPHIA DORRANCE & COMPANY, INC. -;--;.- —.I ----------- -~~- -- -~ —.000 -. -, -,uL ~n;.i9~' ~~' V,I-4P -"'~-r*t ' Transportation / I2 < COPYRIGHT, 1930 DORRANCE & COMPANY, INC. All Rights Reserved MANUFACTURED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERIOA * ', o c *'.. s -CONTENTS CONTENTS I WHEN HE FOLLOWED THE FURROW.... 11 II OF THE STOCK OF THE PIONEERS...... 17 III THE STRIPLING SOLDIER............. 25 IV THE PATHWAY TO HIGH ACHIEVEMENT 31 V TO THE FIELD OF THE PHILIPPINES.... 39 VI KEEPING THE LINES OPEN........... 46 VII THE BATTLE OF THE CARABAOS....... 58 VIII BOSSING A RAILROAD................. 68 IX FROM ROADBED TO RIVERBED.......... 76 X A GAME OF BRIDGE.................. 85 XI ON TO PANAMA..................... 96 XII A CONFLICT OF OPINION............. 106 XIII BUILDING GATUN AND CHAINING THE CHAGRE........................ 116 XIV BOTH LIGHT AND SERIOUS........... 129 XV UNDER THE RED CROSS IN CHINA 138 XVI As YESTERDAY, SO TODAY............. 148 XVII PROMOTED TO GENERAL RANK........ 155 XVIII As CHEMICAL WARFARE CHIEFTAIN... 159 XIX AT WORK FOR HIS NATIVE STATE..... 171 XX MAKING A NEW PORT OF MOBILE 184 XXI THE PROBLEM OF BOULDER DA..... 193 I II I I II i II I.... —. -- -- - - 3-l ILLUSTRATIONS FACING PAGE MAJOR GENERAL WILLIAM L. SIBERT.. Frontispiece CLASS OF 1884, UNITED STATES MILITARY ACADEMY, ON GRADUATION...................... 32 CLASS OF 1884 FORTY YEARS AFTER GRADUATION. WEST POINT, JUNE 11, 1924................ 48 LIEUTENANT SIBERT AND "BUSTER".......... 64 REBUILT BRIDGE ACROSS BAMBAN RIVER, P. I... 80 "CAPTAIN SIBERT SAYS BRIDGES MUST COME UP" 86 GENERAL THEODORE SCHWAN AND MEMBERS OF His STAFF AFTER CAPTURE OF BATANGAS, P. I. 96 THE SIBERT FAMILY AT HOME IN PITTSBURGH JUST PRIOR TO LEAVING FOR PANAMA............ 112 THE TUG "GATUN," FIRST VESSEL TO PASS THROUGH ANY LOCK IN THE PANAMA CANAL. SEPT. 26, 1913............................ 128 GATUN SPILLWAY........................... 144 GATUN LOCKS AND DAM, COMPLETED.......... 144 GENERAL SIBERT AND HIS FIVE SONS, THE WORLD WAR................................... 160 CLEMENCEAU AND GENERAL SIBERT IN FRANCE 176 MRS. SIBERT WITH SOME OF THE GENERAL'S HOUND PUPS............................. 192 AIR VIEW, PORT OF MOBILE.................. 196 VIEW OF PROPOSED BOULDER DAM AND POWER HOUSE, LOOKING UPSTREAM................ 204 I II FOREWORD For thirty years gone by I have known the subject of this biographical sketch and have followed along over ground where he has worked, at Manila, at Bowling Green, at Louisville, at Pittsburgh, and at Gatun; over Laguna, de Bay; over the Green and Barren Rivers; over the Ohio; around the shores of Gatun Lake, man-made body of water that is the drux, the basis and the essence of the existence of the Panama Canal. Everywhere there are loyal men who keep alive with them the memory of this leader of men, known as such by sterling qualities of mind, heart and soul. The Corps of Engineers claims General Sibert with all of the pride that attaches to an appreciation of high achievement and duty well done in the service to which all are devoted by virtue of education, training, and endeavor. If this sketch shall serve to bring home to those who will have the future in their care, the opportunities there are for service, and the manner in which service is rightfully performed, it will have served not the least of useful' purposes. None who know the man can believe that even the weight of three score years and ten will force him into a retirement from the service of his fellow-man. Buti if such be the case, a rest will have been well earned, and with a clear conscience he can listen to FOREWORD the music of the hounds reverberating in starlit nights among the wooded hills of old Kentucky. LYTLE BROWN Major General Chief of Engineers, U. S. Army WAR DEPARTMENT Office of the Chief of Engineers Washington April 3, 1930 I WHEN HE FOLLOWED THE FURROW It was a United States Senator who said in the course of a debate on farm relief that if something were not done to make the farmer prosperous and his life happy the country would lose its main source of supply of great Americans. He let his statement stand without elaboration and without illustration. Neither was needed, for the history of the United States supplies facts enough to prove the truth of the words. Achievement in all fields of American endeavor largely has had its origin on the American farm. The soil has given its sturdiness to leaders in all fields of constructive striving. Early farm life imparts some quality which ultimately makes for mastery. It was not merely for its emotional effect that the supporters of men named for high political preferment dwelt upon the fact of their log cabin origin. The cabin went its way, giving place to the more substantial farmhouse; but the conditions making for character and physical stability remained the same and will remain the same so long as the agricultural life holds its attractions for stalwart men. This is the life story of a farm-bred American engineer, one of the world's greatest engineers, and, 11 12 WILLIAM L. SIBERT if we can accept the estimate of the great Frenchman Bunau-Varilla, the world's greatest engineer, William Luther Sibert, Major General, United States Army, retired. The engineer, whether civilian or soldier, never is a non-combatant. His work almost invariably is to overcome. He not only is a builder but a reclaimer. He must meet the enemies, fire and flood. He must chain or unchain rivers, create lakes, reclaim swamps, bridge torrents, and dredge the silt from river beds so that commerce may float its way to the sea. The military engineers, of whom Sibert is one, changing their labors, as occasion and duty come, between the fields of war and of peace, front today the enemy man, and tomorrow the enemy nature. In war, in the wake of a retreating enemy, the military engineer must be at the front of the advance, rebuilding under the fire of the foe the bridges, the causeways and the roads that have been destroyed, in order that the advancing army may move quickly to the consummation of its victory. In retreat, the engineer must take position at the rear of his own columns to destroy the bridges and to block the avenues of the enemy's quick approach -and always under fire. Possibly the fact not generally is realized, but an engineer must be, in a high sense, an artist. He is as true an artist probably as the architect. He does what to the layman is seemingly the impossible, for using the severe rules of mathematical precision, he builds things of beauty wedded to utility. FOLLOWING THE FURROW 13 It is the energy of engineering which has made possible through all times the continuing life of civilization in the new lands sought out and staked out by the pioneers of the wilderness. The prime proof of the constructive work of an engineer officer is its continued stability through the pressure of time and the elements. It was the quality of his construction in the early manhood of William L. Sibert, when as a lieutenant of the Army he carried out the assignments of authority, that led later to the singling out of Sibert for the chieftainship in greater and more commanding fields of engineering. In American history the name of William L. Sibert will be connected inseparably with many great world achievements alternately in peace time and in war time. The nine-foot project in the Ohio River, which President Hoover designated as an instrument of commerce from which untold blessings would come, was largely due to the initiative of Sibert, when in charge of the Pittsburgh district, in convincing Congress that the five dams under construction in the Ohio River should provide for a nine-foot depth instead of a six-foot depth as an extension of the Pittsburgh harbor. This action practically determined the channel depth for the entire river. He served as a member of a board making the survey and project for the entire river and preparing the report that ultimately caused Congress to adopt in 1910 the Ohio River project, the completion of which has just been celebrated. 14 WILLIAM L. SIBERT The great dam, locks and spillway at Gatun in the Panama Canal were his work. They have stood the test of time and the test of nature's more than occasionally varying moods. They stand today as they stood on the day of their completion, stable and almost with a seeming consciousness that they must fulfill a duty imposed upon them by a dominant will. In the year 1914 the directing authorities of the Red Cross turned to William L. Sibert as the man best fitted to investigate flood conditions in China and to formulate a plan by which the disasters occurring and recurring through the centuries might be averted. Commanding progress was accomplished in this labor when the beginning of the World War of necessity halted the work. When the United States entered the war with Germany in 1917 William L. Sibert was assigned to the command of the First Division of United States regulars. He organized and trained this first unit of the American Expeditionary Forces and in June, 1917, he led his men to France. Later when the urgent necessity became apparent that there must be a constructive engineer and organizer in control of the Chemical Warfare Service, then in the primitive stages of formation, the administration at Washington selected General Sibert for service as the chief of this branch of the combatant forces. He brought the Service quickly to a high point of efficiency and maintained it there until the Armistice brought the conflict to a close. When the day of retirement came Sibert perhaps FOLLOWING THE FURROW 15 thought that rest for the coming years was his portion, but a call came from his native state, Alabama, and willingly he undertook to transform the almost decadent port of Mobile into a modern ocean terminal, a work that had as an accompaniment a thorough study of the movement of world trade that might bring to Mobile a new, lasting and prosperous commercial life. When the actual labor of the rehabilitation of the Port of Mobile was coming to a close, the Secretary of the Interior turned to William L. Sibert to ask him to undertake a new duty. The proposed Boulder Dam in the Colorado River had become a matter of controversy, engineering and economic problems being involved concerning which there were differences of opinion and more than occasionally acrimonious argument. General Sibert was appointed, with the sanction and approval of the President of the United States, Calvin Coolidge, as a member of the board of engineers and geologists whose duty it was to report upon the safety, the economic and engineering feasibility and the adequacy of the proposal to construct the Boulder Dam. The General was chosen Chairman of the Board. An energetic and exhaustive investigation of all the factors in the case was conducted in the field by Chairman Sibert and his colleagues. The resulting report cleared up all the misunderstandings, answered all the questions, and gave a definite plan for the completion of the project. The report won from the Secretary of the Interior the commendation that it was one engineering report that instantly 16 WILLIAM L. SIBERT was understandable. The Congress of the United States read the report, stopped discussion and argument, and within two weeks gave it virtually unanimous approval. The estimated cost of this project was $165,000,000. These, from what probably would be the point of view of the American public, are the outstanding and successful labors in the life of the military engineer, Sibert, but there were other, figuratively and occasionally literally speaking, rock-founded achievements of the earlier service of this American constructor. One of them, in which he bore a leading building part, was the widening and deepening of the ship channel in the connecting waters of the Great Lakes flowing by the City of Detroit. The result of this work is realized today when looking on the commercial fleets which pass unimpeded from Lake Superior to Lake Erie. II OF THE STOCK OF THE PIONEERS On a farm which only forty-one years before had been a part of the hunting ground of the Cherokee Indians, William Luther Sibert was born October 12, 1860. The farm belonged to his father, also a native of Alabama. It was located in Little Will's Valley, Etowah County, Alabama. David Sibert, the General's grandfather, came to the state from Abbeville County, South Carolina, in 1819, the year that saw the admission of Alabama to the Union. The pioneer grandfather looked about him for a living place. In Big Will's Valley about two miles west of Keener, Alabama, he found what he wanted. The land was owned by the Cherokees and with their chieftains he entered into an agreement of purchase. The actual land which he bought was the site of an Indian village with about eighty acres of cleared land round and about it. It was there that the Sibert family, in its new soil, took root. The Cherokees of the village were as proud of their chief building as any city resident today is of the most commanding of his town's skyscrapers. The particular pride of the Cherokees was centered on a large log house, thatch-covered, in which their greatest chief and warrior had lived. The trees furnishing the timber for this residence of the chief17 18 WILLIAM L. SIBERT tain had been hacked down by the Indians with stone axes and the bark peeled off. It was into this substantial Indian lodge that David Sibert and his family moved, to begin once more the pioneer life which had had its beginning in the State of South Carolina. David's two older sons, John W. and Henry, built on Will's Creek the first mill that Will's Valley had known. Here was the beginning of the building career of the Siberts. First the mill on Will's Creek, Alabama, and last the Gatun Dam on the Chagres River, Panama. The Siberts had the mill but no stones for the grinding of wheat and no cloth for the bolting of the flour. There were none to be had. The nearest source of supply apparently was France. To France therefore the Siberts sent for stone and cloth and then waited until their purchase could come by sailing ship to Mobile and up the river by flat boats, thence to be hauled overland one hundred and fifty miles to the mill site. The stones for the grinding of corn were a local product. They were made from the millstone grit rock found on the nearby Lookout Mountain. The mill proper, a two-story structure, was built of hewn timbers and sided with split laths. The turbine wheels were the handiwork of the brothers, John W. and Henry Sibert. Will's Valley rapidly was becoming well populated, for the pioneers thither followed one another faster and faster. To supply the people of the valley with flour and corn meal it was necessary to operate the mill day and night and more than occasionally on Sunday. STOCK OF THE PIONEERS 19 This mill of the Siberts produced flour for a century for it was not closed down and abandoned by the owner until the year 1918. It was in Abbeville County, South Carolina, that, so far as the definite records go, this branch of the Sibert family first appeared in America. It was there that the great-grandfather of 'the General lived. This ancestor, presumably the first of the stock to make his way to this continent, married a Miss Wilmore of Virginia. They were Protestants and all available information indicates that they came from the Alsace-Lorraine country-sometimes Germany and sometimes France-and that they left that country during the religious persecutions which were recurrent in parts of Europe at that period. The name is met frequently today in the AlsaceLorraine country and it is and has been spelled S-i-b-e-r-t. General Sibert's father served in the Confederate Army from the beginning to the end of the war between the States, except for a comparatively short time when he was at home invalided as a result of a serious wound received in the Second Battle of Bull Run. This wound incapacitated him for service in the infantry and caused him to enter the Quartermaster's Department. After the war the effects of the injury forced him to give up farm life and in 1867 he moved to Gadsden, Alabama. The father and a few of his companions did not surrender at Appomattox, but concluded that since they were mounted they would make a run for it across country to Alabama. The General tells of 20 WILLIAM L. SIBERT the horse that his father rode back from the scene of the surrender. The tip of one ear had been shot off and one eye was out. When the Sibert family moved to Gadsden it was a small isolated country town with no railroad connection with the outside world. There was, however, a trade route from Rome, Georgia, down the Coosa River. Not long after this the Alabama Great Southern Railroad was constructed and the City of Birmingham founded. During the early manhood of the General's father the only trade connection that Gadsden had with the outside world was over Sand Mountain to the Tennessee River at Guntersville, Alabama, and thence by flat boat to New Orleans. The first contact of young Sibert with the military end of things was during the Civil War when he was about five years old. A detachment of Union cavalry looking for horses was raiding Little Will's Valley where the Sibert family lived. It was known that this detachment was in the neighborhood and all of the horses had been run out into the mountains and hidden except one two-year-old mule named Mike. Mike, like his patron saint, St. Michael, was militant. He himself was no saint but he was a soldier. He never had been bridled and he resented strenuously any intrusion into his stable. When an uninvited one entered, his tactics were to turn his heels toward the door and to open his batteries. The Union soldiers, knowing nothing of Mike's militancy, intruded on his domain, whereat Mike brought his batteries instantly into "action rear." STOOK OF THE PIONEERS 21 After two or three attempts to capture the altogether formidable enemy one of the Union soldiers said to another, "Let that damn little old mule alone, we don't want him anyhow." After this Mike was a marked mule in the neighborhood; his right to be recognized as a Confederate veteran instantly was acknowledged and for the rest of his life he was treated as a grateful country always should treat the veterans of its service. Mike had a way of his own. When working in the field, none too strenuously probably, and he heard the horn blow for dinner, he would stop hauling endeavor instantly and would neither "get up" nor "back" until he was taken out of harness and headed toward home. This habit of Michael's became fixed. One morning about nine o'clock a party of fox hunters crossed the farm and blew their horn for their dogs. To Mike that was the dinner horn and nothing else. No further labor would he do, and the reward of an insistence, which some unthinking ones might call mulish obstinacy, came, for he was unhitched and taken to the farm and fed a second breakfast before he would return to the working world. Young Sibert went to a country school. He started when five years old on the road to higher education by the foot-path way, for he was compelled to walk two miles to the schoolhouse. When he was seven his father moved to Gadsden where the school was of the primitive type in which one teacher taught all grades of pupils and all subjects of study. There were no classes in arithmetic. The pupils in 22 WILLIAM L. SIBERT that study would take the book, work out the problems and go through the volume from cover to cover as soon as they could accomplish the task. The teaching consisted in periodical oversight of the student's progress and the expression of approval or disapproval of the student endeavor. By the time he was eleven years old young Sibert had finished and knew his arithmetic and elementary algebra. He took kindly to mathematics; but his own word concerning this period of his pupilage is to the effect that he did not make corresponding progress in the study of other subjects. It was this lack of a well-rounded preliminary education that militated against him in his college work and later at West Point. It does not seem, however, to have interfered in the least with his success as a student, for he graduated from West Point with a standing sufficiently high to gain for him a commission in the United States Corps of Engineers. There were hard times in the South immediately following the war between the States. So it was that when Sibert was fourteen years old the family went back once more to the farm life and for three years the boy worked on the land. During that time there was a change for the better in the financial condition of the family and there glimmered the light of a chance for a college education. During this second period of farm life Sibert did all kinds of work; after crops were "laid by" he cut and hauled cross-ties, cleared land and did anything which came to hand which he thought in any STOCK OF THE PIONEERS 23 way might increase the family income, hoping the while for an opportunity ultimately to get an education. Repeatedly in later life General Sibert has said that the three years of hard work on the farm, cultivating crops and doing all other kinds of farm labor, was one of the firmest foundation stones of his education. He learned then what a day's work was and also what it meant. This was of value to him when he was passing through the lower grades in the Engineer Corps of the Army. It was not possible to fool him as to the amount of work a man ought to do in a day. During these three farm years it was impossible for the boy to pursue his studies. He had occasional opportunity for recreation and this he found in hunting-opossums and coons at night, squirrels and other game by day. These field pursuits were his recreation then and largely have been his recreation since. Today General Sibert owns, on his Kentucky farm, a pack of foxhounds said by judges of such things to be unexcelled in the foxhound world. Having his difficulties in keeping the stock of foxes in the country contiguous to his farm undisturbed, he buys some of the animals every year and turns out a sufficient number to supply the demand of the trappers and of himself. There was no high school for young Sibert, but when he went from the farm to Gadsden at the age of seventeen, he worked hard for one year under a competent tutor and managed virtually to cover an entire high school course in a4 twelve-month. In the 24 WILLIAM L. SIBERT fall of 1878, when eighteen years of age, he entered the University of Alabama. At that time board and tuition were given at the ends of succeeding school years to the student from each Congressional district who had made the best scholastic record for the preceding twelve months. Sibert won these gifts and continued his course at the University until, because of his record there, he was offered an appointment to the United States Military Academy at West Point by Congressman William H. Forney. No cadet had graduated from the Congressional district in which Sibert lived since the Civil War. mI THE STRIPLING SOLDIER In 1880 the appointment to Uncle Sam's school was accepted and Sibert, having passed his entrance examinations, became a cadet at that institution. The authorities of the University of Alabama permitted Sibert to remain at that institution until it was time for him to report at the Military Academy. During the remainder of the time passed at the University, Sibert was tutored by Dr. Parker, the head of the Department of Languages, on the subjects upon which he would be examined to determine his qualifications for admission to the school on the Hudson. Years afterwards, C. F. Parker, a son of Sibert's tutor, was appointed to West Point and in later years was associated with the then Captain Sibert in the operation of the Manila & Dagupan Railroad in the Philippines. It was proposed to appoint Lieutenant Parker to the position of Treasurer of the Railroad. General E. S. Otis, then in command in the Philippines, remarked that Parker did not have rank enough for the position, upon which the Lieutenant naively replied to the General, "That is something you can remedy." Parker was appointed. When the young Alabamian reached West Point 25 26 WILLIAM L. SIBERT II he found there, among the other candidates for admission, a South Carolinian, David DuBose Gaillard, with whom he afterwards was associated as a fellow Commissioner in the great work of constructing the Panama Canal. After the West Point examinations were completed the successful ones were sent to camp on the plateau with two of the senior classes, the first class and the third class. The second class was on furlough. The new cadets at West Point for the first year of their soldier careers are known as "Plebes" and their first camp is known to them as Plebe camp. Cadets Sibert and Gaillard tented together for the two months of the camp's duration, and when they went into barracks for the fall and winter season they roomed together. The first night in Plebe camp a first classman opened the flap of the Sibert-Gaillard tent and, his eye falling on Gaillard who was slim and not very tall, asked for his given name. Gaillard answered "David, sir." The first classman's eye sought out the sturdy and towering form of Sibert who was standing at attention in another part of the tent. "Oh, yes," said the first classman, "you are David and this is Goliath." To this day in the Army, Sibert is known to his familiars as "Goliath." At West Point for all time the cadets have roomed together in barracks, have messed together, have marched together, drilled together, and actually, in the literal sense of the word, have lived together. The associations necessarily are much more closely knit than they are in any other institution of the land THE STRIPLING SOLDIER 27 unless possibly it be the Naval Academy at Annapolis. There are few things to happen at West Point to mar the record of peaceful personal relations between the cadets. The boys there, however, have the same human frailties that the boys of other institutions have. But, of course, the regularity of the life and the discipline imposed, together with the inculcated doctrine of bear and forbear, do much to make for a happy routine of life. When between cadets there arise personal differences which if allowed to run their rankling course might bring friction and discord into the boys' ranks, the habit has been and still is to allow the differing twain to settle their troubles by what must bluntly be called a fist fight. Such encounters, of course, are arranged for without the knowledge of the authorities, but also they are conducted with an entire spirit of fair play and with a cadet referee who sees to it that there is fair play. When a fight of this kind is finished the victor and the vanquished shake hands and are friends ever after. The thing is settled once and for all. There are many cases of cadets who have fought at West Point who have been through life the closest personal friends. A combat involving only two frequently has saved the corps of cadets from the threatenings of bitter factional trouble. This war school, therefore, is and always has been a model as a peace school. When Sibert was a cadet trouble came between two cadets with both of whom he was friendly. He agreed to act as referee of the encounter which he knew to be unavoidable. He saw to it that there 28 WILLIAM L. SIBERT was fair play and when the affair was over the two contestants shook hands, the vanquished congratulated the victor and the victor congratulated the vanquished on his pluck. Foes became friends. It was while Sibert was still a Plebe at the Academy that a third classman, called a "yearling" in the parlance of the school, was thought to have imposed beyond the limit of endurance upon one of the Alabamian's classmates. The Plebe class as a body decided that the aggrieved one was too small a man physically to meet "the oppressor" and so, with the entire agreement of the imposing one and of his yearling classmates, a Plebe of the proper size and weight was selected to meet the "tyrannically inclined" upon the fisticuffs' field of honor. It happened that the Plebe chosen as the champion of his smaller classmate was a farm-bred boy and perhaps it was because of this that the yearlings thought he could not possibly be familiar with the principles of the noble art of self-defense and of individual offense. That was where the yearlings made their mistake. The farm-bred boy, who was just the size and weight of his opponent, had on his own initiative taken lessons in what might be called "ring give and take." He thrashed the yearling thoroughly, a somewhat unusual occurrence. However, in that fight friendship was cemented and the twain later entering the Army of the United States were comrades along the road to high service achievement. Mathematics in all its forms may be called the backbone of the scholastic body at West Point. Pro THE STRIPLING SOLDIER 29 ficiency in its various branches counts more in general class standing than proficiency in any other study. When he matriculated as a cadet Sibert was well-grounded in what might be called minor mathematics. During his entire course in this subject, basic and applied, from algebra through engineering -the steps being geometry in its various branches, trigonometry, calculus, natural and experimental philosophy-he stood among the first five cadets of his class. In some of the other studies in which he had not been so thoroughly grounded, he stood high but did not attain the rank which he secured for himself in the study for which he had a marked liking and apparently an instinct. He graduated number seven in his class and was appointed a second lieutenant of the Corps of Engineers. The Class of 1884 was the first class up to that time which had contributed seven graduate engineers to the military service of construction. It might be said here that the cadet who graduated number one in the Class of 1884 achieved a scholastic record which never before had been equalled at the Academy and never has been equalled since. The cadet who accomplished this was H. Irving Hale, of Colorado, who some time after graduation left the service to engage in engineering work in civil life. When the call came, however, he returned to the service of his country and became a Brigadier General of Volunteers in the Army of the United States, serving through the Philippine Insurrection. He is now living in retirement in Denver, Colorado. The Class of 1884 was the smallest class that has 30 WILLIAM L. SIBERT graduated from the Military Academy since the days of the Civil War. On graduation it numbered thirtyseven members. IV THE PATHWAY TO HIGH ACHIEVEMENT Commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the Army's Corps of Engineers, Sibert left the cadet life behind him to enjoy the few short weeks of what is known as graduation leave. This rest and recreation period over, he received orders to report to the School of Application at Willet's Point, now Fort Totten, Long Island, New York. It was while at this post-graduate school that he met his first wife, Mary Margaret Cummings, of Brownsville, Texas, who became the mother of his six living children: William Olin, Franklin Cummings, Harold Ward, Edwin Luther, Martin David, and Mary Elizabeth. Mrs. Sibert died in San Francisco, in the spring of 1915, and is buried in the National Cemetery in that city. In the year 1887 Sibert graduated for the second time from a school of military engineering instruction and was assigned as an assistant to Major D. W. Lockwood, who was in charge of the work within the Second Cincinnati River and Harbor district. Within a year Sibert s commanding officer assigned him to take local charge of the improvement of the Green and Barren Rivers in Kentucky, with station at Bowling Green in that state. This gave to the young officer an assignment to semi-independent work in the field of his profession. 31 32 WILLIAMA _ L. SIBERT Some time in the 1830's the Kentucky state authorities had constructed a system of locks and dams on the Green and Barren Rivers to furnish dependable navigation from Bowling Green, Kentucky, to a point on the Ohio River about ten miles above Evansville, Indiana. The Green & Barren River Navigation Company held a lease on these improvements at the time they were transferred to the United States, and the State of Kentucky deeded these locks and dams to the Federal Government on condition that it would extinguish the unexpired term of the lease to the navigation company. The necessary changes were provided for by a Congressional appropriation and Lieutenant Sibert's first duty in the premises was to take over this property from the State of Kentucky. A study of the conditions on the two rivers disclosed that a large part of the existing work was in a dilapidated condition. One of the walls of Lock No. 1 on the Barren River was in an unstable state while the river wall of Lock No. 3 on the Green River had collapsed; the dams were rotted away and continuous navigation was impossible. Sibert, under the direction of his chief, Major Lockwood, made a study of the entire situation and then submitted plans and estimates for the rebuilding and replacing of the entire system. He did the work, which required four years' time for its completion, and which cost about $800,000. All of this was done by means of hired labor, and engagement in it gave Sibert a construction experience highly advantageous to him at a time which virtually marked the beginning of Class of 1.884, Unitetd,St;tos Milit;lry Afnidelmy, on g'a l linlion. PATHWAY TO ACHIEVEMENT 33 his career as a practical engineer. The lessons learned on these relatively small Kentucky streams were serviceable to Sibert later in his great work on the Panama Canal where, as in the Kentucky case, hired labor wholly was employed. To this day commerce in the Kentucky valleys of the Green and Barren Rivers has been moved wholly on the waters of the two streams, the facilities being ample without the adjunct of a railroad. The improved channels today constitute the vehicles through which large quantities of Kentucky rock asphalt are brought to Bowling Green, Kentucky, and to the railroads, thus facilitating the marketing of the material. The rest of the Union never has allowed Kentucky to forget the fact that it knows no Army rank below that of Colonel. When Second Lieutenant Sibert was pursuing his labors in the valleys of the Green and Barren Rivers, his occasional hours of recreation were passed in hunting. On these occasions he had the companionship of a native who invariably addressed him as "Lieutenant," which seemed to be entirely in keeping with the facts and the proprieties of the occasion. Years after when Sibert ha,& completed his great building work on the Panama Canal, he returned to the scene of his early Kentucky labors to go shooting again with his oldtime field companion. Three days they were together and for three days the companion addressed Sibert as Lieutenant, something which in no way disturbed the amour propre of the officer, but did arouse his curiosity. 34 WILLIAM L. SIBERT When leaving his friend, Sibert remarked somewhat casually, "You must think that promotion is slow in the Army. I notice that you are still calling me 'Lieutenant', while in fact I am now a Brigadier General." "Pardon me, General, I thought Lieutenant was your given name! " When the old lock and dam systems on the Kentucky rivers had been remodeled and repaired, Lieutenant Sibert was ordered to report to General 0. M. Poe, of the Corps of Engineers, at Detroit, Michigan. At that time work was beginning on the twenty and twenty-one foot channel in the connecting waters of the Great Lakes, which included the building of a new replacement lock, one much larger than the old one, at Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan. The entire work was divided into eight sections and Sibert was given local charge of the four sections extending from the lower end of Lake Huron to the upper end of Lake Erie; and in addition to this his services were utilized by General Poe as an assistant in any part of the district to which he chose to direct him, including that portion of the work at Sault Ste. Marie. The Great Lakes proper, of course, have a depth sufficient for any navigation, but the connecting waters-St. Mary's, the St. Clair and Detroit Rivers -were obstructed in that earlier day by shoals and rock which limited navigation to such an extent that ships could not economically take care of the great volume of available and waiting commerce. It always is problematical what the results of river PATHWAY TO ACHIEVEMENT 35 improvement may be, and the associated engineers on this connecting channel work frequently discussed the probable commercial effects of this Lakes-connecting channel. The hope was expressed in these discussions that eventually the commerce through the Great Lakes and their connecting waterways might equal that passing through the Suez Canal, which at that time was about 10,000,000 tons annually. The results exceeded anticipation and even hope, for in 1923 there passed through the locks at the Sault about 90,000,000 tons of commerce. The lock constructed by Canada on its side of the Falls at St. Mary was, of course, utilized in passing this tremendous tonnage. It is not possible always when channel work is in process of development to know what its ultimate effects may be on various industries. Sometimes these effects fall into the class of the unexpected and occasionally the unthought of. It was the construction of the 21-foot channel in the connecting waters of the Great Lakes which revolutionized the iron and steel business in the United States and placed it first among the nations of the world as a steel producing country. It became possible to transport the iron ores of Michigan by the water route to Lake Erie ports and thence by rail to the coal producing sections of Pennsylvania and West Virginia, and this at a cost so low as to make possible the commanding position which the iron and steel business of the United States holds in the field of that industry. Following the construction of the connecting chan 36 WILLIAM L. SIBERT nel there was instant and rapid railroad development between Lake Erie and the manufacturing district of Pittsburgh as well as between the steel mills of Pennsylvania and Ohio and the markets for their products. This development is considered as one of the marvels of an industrial age. The adequate improvement of the water route through the connecting channels of the Great Lakes was the first striking and comprehensive illustration of what a new and economical line of transportation bringing together raw materials needed in industry can do for the development of a nation. There is a direct commercial and industrial connection and development relation between this channel connecting the waters of the Great Lakes and the completion of the Panama Canal in 1914 and of the nine-foot channel in the Ohio River in 1929. With both of these projects General Sibert was also associated, taking a leading part and bearing a heavy responsibility in each enterprise. The Panama Canal and the nine-foot channel of the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers provide an economical commercial connection between the great industries which have been named and the, high seas on both sides of the American continent. Thus is completed the chain from raw material to finished products and from finished products to markets in this country and in the other countries of the world. The work of connecting-channel construction in the Detroit district occupied Lieutenant Sibert for two years. In this engineering project he was an assistant, but the quality of his labors earned for PATHWAY TO ACHIEVEMENT 37 him an independent command. He was placed in sole charge of the River and Harbor District at Little Rock, Arkansas. The district included the Arkansas, White, Current and Black Rivers and several minor streams. When he was placed in charge of this western engineering district, Sibert had been promoted to a First Lieutenancy. He had at this time the distinction of being the only officer of the Corps of Engineers of Lieutenant rank to be given independent charge of a river and harbor district. The work in the Little Rock, Arkansas, territory was in its nature entirely different from that of any other engineering project with which Sibert had been connected. It involved the regulation of the Arkansas River, a silt-bearing stream with easily eroded banks and bottom, its characteristics being virtually the same as those marking the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers. Streams of this type must be kept in one place and the crossings between the bends properly shaped so that the available water will make as deep a channel as is practicable. In order to learn the possibilities latent in this situation, Lieutenant Sibert submitted a project for regulating and controlling the flow of the water in a twenty-mile reach of the Arkansas River immediately above the city of Little Rock. A sufficient appropriation was made to carry out this experiment. The result showed that it was practicable to prevent the erosion of the bends and to control the flow of the water from one bend to another. It was, however, also shown that the low water of the river thus 38 WILLIAM L. SIBERT controlled was not sufficient to create a navigable channel of practicable width and depth. As a result Congress made no further appropriations for regulating the flow of the stream. The navigation, therefore, was confined to the periods of high and medium flow of the water. TO THE FIELD OF THE PHILIPPINES After the Little Rock experience it was school once more for Sibert. He was ordered to the Engineer School of Application at Willet's Point, New York, and assigned to duty as an instructor of Civil Engineering, having as a companion duty the command of "B"' Company of the battalion of his Corps. It was with this Company that he had served as a Second Lieutenant. A few months were spent in instruction work at Willet's Point, and then Captain Sibert was ordered to proceed at once with his Company to the Philippine Islands. This was immediately following the American occupation of that former Spanish possession. In that day the necessity for preparation for emergencies of whatever kind was not realized as thoroughly by the people as it presumably is or ought to be today. The War Department doubtless had its own views on the subject but it took the lessons of the Spanish War, soon perhaps to be forgotten by the general public, to bring the country temporarily at least to a realizing sense of the life, property and money-saving virtue which lies in proper preparedness for war if war must come. The Quartermaster Department of the Army had arranged for a special train of tourist sleepers to 39 40 WILLIAM L. SIBERT transport Sibert's command from New York to San Francisco. When the Captain with his company reached Jersey City it was found that the railroad company had neglected to provide the cars called for by the provisions of the contract. Instead, the railroad management had provided a train of day coaches, contenting itself with the word that the sleepers would be provided when the command reached the city of Washington. Captain Sibert declined to entrain his company until the railroad authorities should supply the equipment to which they had pledged themselves by contract. He took this position as a matter of principle, but in addition to this he realized the trouble and delay that there would be in transferring the troops with their baggage, supplies and general equipment from one train to another at a stage of the journey where no such transfer was contemplated. The railroad officials came to terms. They had no tourist sleepers, presumably taking it for granted that anything they supplied would be acceptable, contract or no contract. They took the only course open to them and forthwith a train of first class Pullman sleepers, stripped of all unnecessary hangings, was brought on to the tracks and Sibert and his sergeants, non-coms and privates started on their western journey, traveling first class. While the command was passing through New York City, two former soldiers who had been out of the service only a short time came to the trainside and expressed an earnest desire to get back into the FIELD OF THE PHILIPPINES 41 army and to go with the company to the Philippines. The two "ex's" could not enlist in Sibert's outfit because it had its quota. The first Sergeant came to the Captain saying that "A" Company, already in the Philippines, needed men and that these two former regulars were good soldiers, adding that if he could take them to San Francisco they could be enlisted in "A" Company there and taken across to the Islands. Sibert asked the Sergeant how the men could be taken to San Francisco when "B' Company's travel order authorized the transportation of a specified number of men only. Top-Sergeants are nothing if not resourceful. This one told his captain that if he would turn the matter of the transportation of the two men over to him he had little doubt that he could manage it satisfactorily. The sergeant borrowed piecemeal from some of the members of the command uniform enough to transform the two applicants for service from civilians into soldiers, at least so far as appearance went. The "Top," shortly after the train started westward, went to the Captain and told him that he had given instructions to his comrades that whenever the conductor started to count the men on the train they were to begin what might be called a general shuffle of the company pack. In other words, they were to evince restlessness enough by constant moving about to give the conductor a counting job in which accuracy of result hardly was likely. Several times between New York and San Francisco the conductor would go to Captain Sibert to 42 WILLIAM L. SIBERT say that it was curious but that every time he counted the men he got a different number, and he asked how many men there were in the command. Sibert told him that he had transportation for a certain number of men and that it was up to the conductor to do his own checking. The two "ex's" anxious for another "hitch" in the service were landed safely in San Francisco and there they were enlisted in "A" Company and started for the goal of their desire, the new possessions of the United States. Now it seems that the railroad officials did not think it was entirely in keeping with the propriety of things that a company of engineers, mostly enlisted men of course, should travel first class from New York to San Francisco, especially as the terms of the contract entered into carried a provision for tourist sleepers only. There seemed to have been an ignoring of the fact that in the first instance the company had failed to live up to its agreement. As soon as the train had passed through Washington, Captain Sibert received a wire from a chief railroad official that the company would exchange the Pullmans for tourist sleepers in Cincinnati. This meant, of course, that the command would be put to the trouble of the transfer of all the impedimenta of various kinds with which the soldiers were equipped. However, Captain Sibert sent reply by wire that he would not consent to a change. Finally he yielded but only after arrangements were made to furnish a private car for the commissioned officers, an extra FIELD OF THE PHILIPPINES 43 car for a kitchen and tourist sleepers of quality for the enlisted personnel. Everything went along smoothly until "B" Company reached St. Louis. There the railroad company operating from the Mississippi River to San Francisco notified Sibert that his command must transfer their baggage to box cars belonging to the carrier company. The sub-railroad officials seemed inclined to force the change, whether or no, so Sibert calmly put four sentries in each car with rifles and fixed bayonets, and told them that if anyone tried to enter-well, to keep him out. He did take care, however, to tell the sentries not to bayonet anybody, but this precautionary order was not known to the railroaders and so when the yard men looked on the bayonets at the car doors they concluded that the job of transferring the equipment of the company, willy-nilly, was an unhealthful one. The journey to San Francisco was resumed without equipment transfer and without mishap. When "B" Company reached the Coast it was ordered to embark on the City of Para, which was an old cattle ship. In addition to Sibert's outfit a battalion of Negro infantry and a dismounted squadron of cavalry were embarked on the vessel. Hammocks were swung in the hold of the ship, one hammock to each man of the entire outfit. "B" Company was the last unit to go on board. The ship sailed at once. Whites and blacks were together in the hold of the ship. Many of the latter went aboard loaded to the guards with liquor. There was no orderly 44 WILLIAM L. SIBERT procedure and they had thrown a large part of their equipment into the hammocks intended for Sibert's men who could find few, if any, resting places. Then something worse happened. The instant the ship passed through the Golden Gate it encountered a rough sea. The "overloaded" Negroes became seasick and the usual results followed. Colonel Jacob Augur was the ranking military officer on board. To him Sibert went to ask him to order the officers of the Negro battalion to confine their men to their own hammocks and to make them remove their baggage from those intended for "B" Company. The Negro battalion's officers, all of whom of course were white men, went into the hold to carry out the orders issued by Colonel Augur. Not an officer could stay there long enough to enforce his commands. They went down and then came up as seasick as any trooper or doughboy in their outfit. It was no unwelcome news to "B" Company's men when they were told that they could sleep on deck all the way to Manila and use their hammocks solely for baggage transport service. This was in the old days and things are better now, but the experience was enough to try the tempers of any military outfit. These engineers were all old soldiers and they met the situation with the same stoical complaisance with which later they met hardships and dangers in the field in the Philippines. Yes, things were not in those days as they are today. The water supply on the City of Para was inadequate and the cooking arrangements altogether FIELD OF THE PHILIPPINES 45 insufficient. It was necessary to distil water and the men stood in line waiting their turns for a drink. They took it even when it was nauseatingly warm. There was a feeling aboard that the City of Para was not altogether seaworthy. This is not conducive to a feeling of comfort, even for soldiers. However, nothing could be done about it and the suspected unseaworthy condition of the ship simply was added to the general sum of things as just one more affliction. There was a landing at Honolulu, however, that lasted long enough to give opportunity to increase the vessel's water supply and to install proper cooking facilities. VI KEEPING THE LINES OPEN When Sibert arrived in the Philippines with the campaign opening before him, he was told to report to an officer who was junior to him in the Corps of Engineers but who held the temporary rank of Lieutenant Colonel of Volunteers. This was Lieutenant Charles L. Potter, who was acting as Chief Engineer of the Department of the Pacific and of the Eighth Army Corps which was under the command of General E. S. Otis. "B" Company's first station was at San Fernando. Its duties were to accompany all reconnoitering parties, to make road sketches, and to secure all possible information for the making of adequate maps. A detachment of the outfit went into the field under the escort of a company of colored infantry. Suddenly the concealed Insurgents opened fire on the advancing troops. Now nearly all the members of the colored outfit were recruits and they broke and ran, while a few seasoned colored soldiers who had seen service in Cuba stood their ground and with the members of the engineer detachment and their officers returned the Insurgents' fire and covered the retreat back to a position where reorganization was effected. A few days after this field incident, a troop of 46 KEEPING THE LINES OPEN 47 cavalry was reconnoitering in the same neighborhood when suddenly a Negro soldier bolted out of the jungle and joined the outfit. Asked how he came to be where he was, he said that when his company was fired on the week before, he took to a hiding place in the jungle, and knowing that he certainly could live nine days without food, he had made up his mind to stay where he was until somebody came out after him. Then he added, "Thank de Lawd, you'se here!' The Quartermaster Department at this time was engaged in reconstructing the Manila & Dagupan Railway. The duty of inspecting this work was assigned to Captain Sibert and he added this to his map and reconnaissance labors. It was his report, after completing the inspection, that brought about the transfer of the railroad construction work to the Corps of Engineers. Almost immediately following this Lieutenant Potter was mustered out as a Lieutenant Colonel and was returned to his rank of Lieutenant in the Corps of Engineers. This change made Sibert the senior Engineer Officer on duty with the troops of the 8th Army Corps and quickly he was made Chief Engineer of that Corps and, as a corollary, Chief Engineer of the Department of the Pacific. This brought with it no increase in rank but automatically it made Sibert a member of the staff of General E. S. Otis. A day or two after his appointment as Chief Engineer Sibert was at his office desk in Manila at six o'clock in the morning, making arrangements for the shipment of tools and appliances to the field 48 WILLIAM L. SIBERT of action. It appeared that General Otis also was an early riser, for Sibert had been in his office only a few minutes when an orderly from the General's headquarters came in to inquire for a certain map. It was found and sent to the General. It developed that the Commanding Officer made it a habit to arrive at his office at sun-up to work for a couple of hours before any of his staff appeared. Sibert took a leaf out of Otis' book and became an early riser himself. He was at his office at six A. M. sharp every day. General Otis soon discovered this up-at-dawn habit of his Chief Engineer Officer and so instead of sending an orderly for a map, he got in the habit of sending for Captain Sibert, who would take the map along with him to headquarters. The result of this was that Captain Sibert was brought into close contact with the plans that were being made for the operations of the 8th Army Corps and, learning the trend of the Otis mind, he worked hard to have map information available ahead of the time that the General expected it at hand. In the fall of 1899 the commands of Generals Arthur MacArthur and S. B. M. Young began a movement to the north under the direction of General Otis. It was this which made the reconstruction of the Manila & Dagupan Railway highly important as a military aid to the campaign, and General Otis directed Captain Sibert to take direct charge of the rebuilding of the road while still attending to his general staff duties. As they were pushed toward the north by the Class of 1884 forty years after graduation. West Point, June 11, 1924. KEEPING THE LINES OPEN 49 American troops the Philippine Insurgents virtually had destroyed the railroad from San Fernando to Bamban and had damaged it badly in many other places. The track had been torn up and the rails hauled to the north, where they were stored at Tarlac as the Filipino forces fell back. The ties were burned and the bridges were dynamited, and because this was the rainy season the roads were of the muddiest, thus making highly difficult the forwarding of rations, munitions and general materials to the troops. There were no railroad supplies in the Islands, no rails and no ties, and so it was that no gaps could be filled in except by the expedient of robbing the yards and sidings of their tracks. This was done and rail transportation was made possible. General Otis had ordered a shipload of ties from Japan, but they had not arrived by the time that he began the northern advance. The railroad had been rebuilt from San Fernando to Angeles before the troop movement started, but it was necessary to forward rations from Angeles to Bamban by trains of carabao carts. The Insurgents had wrecked several engines at the bridge spanning the Bamban River. Their scheme of destruction was to run the engines under steam over the high bank and thus to a plunge into the river. Occasionally they varied this destructive operation by putting two locomotives on the same track, one headed one way and one the other, and then starting them along a rail path to their own destruction by full steam, head-on collisions. 50 WILLIAM L. SIBERT One locomotive that would run after being patched up a bit was taken out of the wrecks at Bamban. Its tender virtually was a ruin but the locomotive was serviceable for short distances. Flat cars hurriedly were rehabilitated and the rails that the Insurgents had stored at Tarlac were brought to Bamban. Then an arrangement was made with the Quartermaster Department by which the 200-odd carabao carts used in bringing rations to Bamban were to bring one rail each to the end of the rebuilt part of the road. In the meantime ties had arrived from Japan and several miles of track were laid and so in this way the gap was filled. The railroad was narrow-gauge and the rails were light. Lieutenant Michael Lennehan was the Quartermaster who cooperated with the construction force and facilitated the hauling of the material via the carabao cart route. The distance that his "bull train" was operated was reduced gradually day by day until the gap was closed. The bridges constituted the most difficult features of the reconstruction situation, and in addition the Tarlac River, breaking into an unusual flood, had washed out three-quarters of a mile of track just north of the river's town namesake and had made a new channel for itself into another stream, finally discharging its waters into Manila Bay instead of into the Lingayen Gulf, these points being a long distance apart. The flood waters also washed out the south abutment of the bridge across the Bamban River, thus causing the span to fall into the stream. An attempt was made by the Insurgents to wreck KEEPING THE LINES OPEN 51 two other bridge spans. The piers consisted of two cast-iron, concrete filled cylinders. Using dynamite the Insurgents blew one of these cylinders into two pieces. Its settlement, however, was vertical and therefore it did not fall altogether. One corner of the bridge canted down with the vertical settling of the cylinder. The enemy was nothing if not fertile in destructive schemes. He shifted the track so that the center of the road was directly opposite a bridge girder. Locomotives were sent at full speed against one of the girders, the destructionists hoping to knock the remainder of them off the piers, the dynamite having failed, from the enemy point of view, to do its full duty. The native engineer, after starting the locomotive, jumped. The bridge spans, after the shock of the impact of the locomotive with the girder, were moved a few inches longitudinally, but they kept their places on their piers. It was then that Captain Sibert was confronted with the problem of making bricks without straw. He had the job of rebuilding a bridge without any material. At Murcia, about two stations above Bamban, there was stored a large quantity of hewn mahogany logs, evidently intended for export. This timber was brought down and used for the making of trestles and for the building of temporary piers for the bridge. With nothing but timber available for the work, it was necessary to build as an approach to the old abutment a trestle 30 feet high and 125 feet long; to raise the short span, and to support one corner of 52 WILLIAM L. SIBERT the center span. The crib piers were built simply by smoothing the faces of the timber pieces and placing them one on another. No filling was placed in the cribs. It became necessary, in order to construct the trestles, to rob the old railroad track of its fish plates and spikes, and thus the bents were put together. The most difficult task was the removal of the upper portion of the broken pier. It leaned toward the temporary crib supporting the truss, and to remove the pier without knocking the crib down was the problem. A quadruple block and line were obtained from Manila. To remove the pier this block and tackle were employed, with eight mules, to exert as strong a pull as possible on the top of the pier, while at the same time a charge of dynamite was inserted in the old break. The pull of the mules was intended to give direction to the pier when it was freed after the discharge of the explosive. The mules were straining away at their job when the dynamite went off. The pier fell, missing the crib by a scant few inches. The mules landed on their heads and the harness became entangled, but the pier movement was accomplished successfully. When the short span had been jacked up on temporary cribs, it was necessary to move it three or four feet longitudinally in order to bring it back to its old seat on the piers. This was a hard job without any appliances other than four jacks. The thing was done by setting two jacks under the span's two ends in an angling position, thus raising the span which when it had been lifted a certain height caused KEEPING THE LINES OPEN 53 the jacks to fall forward, thus each time gaining an inch or two of distance. Although the span was light, it was a ticklish operation to accomplish this result on piers without either spikes or fill. The bridge finally was completed. While Captain Sibert was on the ground examining the bearings in different places, a troop train was run over the structure without any previous notice having been given. This, however, proved its factor of safety and the bridge went into use. So was completed the work on the remaining gap between Manila and Tarlac. The labor of solving the washout and the change of channel at Tarlac was unfinished. When the waters had subsided it was learned that the depth of the new channel except for a narrow space on the north side ranged from two to six feet. The track for the entire breach had been broken on the north side and swung at right angles to the pier. It remained practically intact. An examination showed that the bed of this new stream was quicksand and the problem of crossing it without any pile drivers or other appliances was difficult to solve. It was at this point that the experience Sibert had had on the Arkansas River proved of service. At Tarlac the Filipinos had stored a large quantity of bamboo matting, material which they used to build the sides and partitions of their houses. The bamboo slats in this matting were an inch or more wide, making the material quite substantial. The plan adopted for bridging all the shallow part of the stream was to sink matting in 50-foot squares on the sites of small piers to be built of railroad ties, 54 WILLIAM L. SIBERT to place wooden girders on these piers, and to superimpose the ties and rails on these girders. It was believed that the water would scour the sand from around the edges of the mats and that therefore the edges would continue sinking until the scouring ceased, thus leaving a protected mound of sand to support the piers. The work was carried out successfully. A regiment of troops was called upon to pick up the three-quarters of a mile track and to swing it bodily around to an emplacement on the girders. Occasionally a soldier would get beyond his depth but the others would hold him up until his feet got on firm ground. All this work was tiring and the engineer troops were worn out; but they kept at their task willingly because they knew that the call was insistent for rations for the troops that had crossed the stream and gone north into the enemy country. There were always some troubles arising, seemingly at times insignificant, but nevertheless bringing temporary pause to the engineering effort. When the track had been brought back to its old position it was found to be about five inches too long and there was nothing at hand with which to cut the rails. While Captain Sibert, who had been at work for forty-eight hours, was wondering what he could do, an old track foreman came along to say: "Captain, just let me throw a few kinks in that line; they will take up that extra length and we can push cars of rations across by hand tonight, using pinch bars at the angles to keep the cars on KEEPING THE LINES OPEN 55 the track, and tomorrow we can rustle some track chisels and cut off the rail." The Sergeant's plan was carried out and it worked beautifully. The railroad problem of the movement to North Luzon was then virtually solved. In this rebuilding of the Manila & Dagupan Railroad line Captain Sibert had available for the service "A" and "B" Companies of the old Battalion of Engineers, every one a veteran and capable of accomplishing virtually any field engineering feat. The experience of these men in railroad work necessarily was limited but they were ingenious and willing. The Company shoemaker was put in charge of a spike-driving gang. When he was asked if he could do it his answer was that while the "pegs" were a bit big he was sure he could drive them. The work, however, was too extensive for the force at hand and about six hundred Chinese laborers were employed to assist. This addition of Chinamen, however, proved to be a mistake. It was shown, as doubtless it had been shown before, that a white man will not work alongside a strange race of people whom he is likely to look upon as inferiors. The result of the Chinese experiment was that every American soldier became a boss. One day three soldiers were found bossing one Chinaman who was hard at work. During the railroad reconstruction work the engineers took part in many minor engagements with the enemy. There were only a few mules in the Philippines during this period and they were regarded as more precious than men. In the capture 56 WILLIAM L. SIBERT of the town of Polak mules were used in transporting and then in moving a battery of light artillery into position at the front. When this battery was within rifle range of the town the mules were taken out and the battery was put into action, engineer troops taking the place of the mules to move the guns forward as conditions demanded. Lieutenant H. B. Ferguson of the Engineer Corps was in command of this detachment and when he reported the incidents of the attack to Captain Sibert he remarked that while he had never been a stickler for relative rank, he really felt that on battle occasions like this, engineer troops ought to outrank mules. However, the engineers started out to do anything and everything that they were called upon to do even if the duty was to sacrifice their precious hides to save the seemingly more precious ones of Uncle Sam's mules. Just before General MacArthur's expedition started north along the Manila & Dagupan Railway, United States troops held the country from Manila north to the Abacan River near Angeles. The first work that Captain Sibert's command was called upon to do was to repair the bridge over this stream. The approach to the structure was built of wood. The Insurgents had run engines and cars on to the bridge and had burned the wooden approach. The removal of the locomotives and cars and the rebuilding of the approach were not paticularly difficult tasks except for the fact that the enemy had dug a trench across the railroad four or five hundred yards to the north and from it amused themselves with rifle practice KEEPING THE LINES OPEN 57 every day with the engineer force as their targets. The rifle fire was ineffective but considerably disturbing and so Captain Sibert got in touch with Lieutenant W. L. Kenley of the Field Artillery and asked him if he wouldn't install some guns at the bridge position at night, so that when the Insurgents opened rifle fire next morning he could reply satisfactorily with 3-inch guns. The artillery was installed without the knowledge of the Filipinos and the next morning when they began their target practice the artillery took on a little target practice of its own. The Insurgents found the quarters in their trench somewhat more than uncomfortable and they started on the back track. The bridge was built without further trouble. VII THE BATTLE OF THE CARABAOS In October, 1899, General Otis at the request of General Theodore Schwan, who was organizing an expeditionary force to penetrate Cavite and Tayabas provinces to garrison the towns captured and to occupy the country, authorized Captain Sibert to serve on General Schwan's staff during this advance into the enemy country. A company of engineer troops went with the expedition. It was commanded by Captain Francis Shunk who later was overcome physically by his arduous efforts in the field and was compelled to return to Manila. Captain Sibert served somewhat in the capacity of General Schwan's Chief of Staff. He participated in all the engagements of the campaign. In the prosecution of the movement into the objective provinces it was frequently necessary to dispatch reconnoitering parties ahead of the occupied positions and it was soon found that these parties had difficulty in approaching during night hours the towns that recently had been garrisoned by American troops. Prior to this time a number of American sentries had been approached stealthily by Filipinos, surprised and "boloed." The natural result of this was that all sentries were under a high nervous strain and frequently on hearing the slightest noise would begin to fire. 58 BATTLE OF THE CARABAOS 59 As an illustration of what a sentry's nerves can do to him, a certain fight which afterwards became famous as "The Battle of the Carabaos," and which took place in the dark hours of one night, might be cited. A western regiment had stationed its sentries on outpost duty and they, like their brethren of other nights, were keenly and nervously alert to any after-dark noises. Several of them "heard things without seeing things" and they turned loose with their rifles. They fired fast and furiously and soon the entire regiment took part and practically expended all its ammunition, blazing away at the midnight wall. Finally it dawned upon the westerners that there was no responsive fire, and so the outfit returned to its blankets. Sunrise the next day showed that the casualties beyond the front line of the firing were five innocent carabaos whose grazing movements had disturbed the equanimity and set on hair-trigger edge the nerves of the generally phlegmatic westerners. One night when Captain Sibert, with a small command, was approaching an American outpost, he called his First Sergeant and told him to have the men sing "America" and start the tune while still at a considerable distance from the line so that the sentry would know that the advancing patrol was composed of American troops. The First Sergeant said the idea was a good one but he suggested to the Captain that the troops be authorized to sing "Annie Rooney" which, according to the Sergeant's idea, was a better and livelier song and one that would be much more easily recognized. 60 WILLIAM L. SIBERT At three o'clock on the afternoon that the Schwan expedition started, the engineer company was directed to construct a ferry across a near-by river. It was exceedingly difficult to get proper material for the ferry and for the corduroy approaches, and yet despite these troubles the ferry was completed by two o'clock on the following morning. There was little rest at this time for any of the troops engaged in this advance. The engineer company, after working nearly all night, joined the advance at 8:30 A. M., at Binacayan. Captain Sibert, with thirty of his engineers and with a light wagon and the necessary tools, was assigned to the advance guard while Lieutenant H. W. Stickle accompanied the main body with the remainder of the engineering outfit. Captain Sibert's detachment was actively engaged with the enemy throughout the entire day. The front line experience of this little detachment of engineers at that time furnishes an example of the duties which officers and men of this Corps are expected to undertake in battles of whatever magnitude. The engineering company again was placed in the advance guard movement toward Rosario. At Novaleta an escort wagon was obtained and loaded with lumber. The engineers cut new roads for the wagon trains and for the guns of the artillery. Upon arriving at Rosario the main body of the command moved against San Francisco de Malabon. Captain Sibert, with his command of engineers, took part in the general engagement which was precipitated in front of the latter place. The engineers alternately BATTLE OF THE CARABAOS 61 were fighting and making the seemingly impassable roads and rice fields serve for the passage of wagon trains and artillery. Soldiering is serious enough business but it has its lighter side even in an enemy country. If there were no fun in an army its casualty lists probably would be higher and its list of victories smaller. In this Philippine advance of General Schwan and in other campaigns in the early part of the Island operations, the carabao was the only draft animal that could negotiate what were roads in name but not in fact. It was necessary to give the animals. a chance to get into the water periodically to cool off, for otherwise they apparently would go mad and run amuck like unto the habit of certain humans in the Islands. This combination of fact and circumstance gave birth to a new command in the army tactics of the Islands. The Sergeant in command of a carabao train would halt his outfit periodically and in his bellowing Top-Sergeant voice would order, "Soak-Your-Bulls!" General Schwan gave explicit orders at the outset of the advance that there should be no unauthorized foraging. In this he emulated General Sherman on his famous march to the sea. At the end neither General could contemplate with entire complaisance any high marks of strict obedience to initial orders. There was to be no foraging, and consequently the meals in General Schwan's headquarters mess consisted largely of hardtack, bacon and coffee. Now Captain Sibert had an orderly by the name of Lysle who hailed from the hills of Kentucky. This Ken 62 WILLIAM L. SIBERT tuckian was fertile in expedients and his foraging qualities showed that probably he had exercised them aforetime in other fields. It was Sibert's desire to do something to improve the quality and the quantity of the mess, so one afternoon he called Orderly Lysle to him and in front of the. General gave him three silver dollars telling him to buy, if he could, some chickens and some eggs. The next day both chickens and eggs were forthcoming and the next day, but not in front of the General, Lysle returned the three silver dollars to Sibert saying that he found no one at home. The same performance and the same three silver dollars resulted in permanent improvement of the Headquarters mess. General Schwan ate of chickens and eggs and was none the wiser as to whence or how they came. On this expedition the engineer company acquired a pointer dog that some conscienceless master had trained to catch chickens. Therefore it was not always necessary to use silver dollars to camouflage a bit of foraging. To each of the companies engaged in that campaign had been assigned six Chinese litter bearers. The Chinamen, of course, were not always engaged in the task of litter bearing and in their off time, which was most of the time for that matter, their services were requisitioned for cooking purposes. During a day's march, whenever the pointer dog saw a chicken he would make for it and when he once overtook his quarry he would hold it down with his front feet, and one of the Chinese BATTLE OF THE CARABAOS 63 litter bearers instantly would dart out of ranks, grab the, chicken and put it in a sack. Usually by the time the company had reached camp at night there would be plenty of chicken for the supper and the breakfast of all concerned in the eating. If any of the higher ranking officers were about, the Chinamen would not leave the ranks and the pointer, after holding the chicken down for a while, reluctantly would let it go and sorrowfully rejoin the command. Now while discipline of course always must be maintained, an officer in the field, frequently, because of the prime necessity of the case, must be blind to some few of the things that campaigning soldiers incline their hands and their heads to do. It was on October 10th of this year of the campaign with General Schwan that Captain Sibert, with a detachment of engineers and a battalion of the 13th Infantry under Captain Woodbridge Geary and a part of a battery of artillery under Captain H. J. Reilly, made a reconnaissance on the road toward Buena Vista in order to connect if possible with a column commanded by Major J. W. Bubb. On this reconnaissance the enemy was developed in full strength and an engagement ensued. The Filipinos opened fire on the reconnoitering party and Geary was killed at Sibert's side. The two soldiers had been fellow students at West Point, though in different classes. Captain Reilly of the artillery, known for his daring and energy in the field, was tireless always in his efforts to keep his guns at the extreme front of the advance. Later he met his 64 WILLIAM L. SIBERT death in battle as a member of the American force which with the Allies made the march to Peking during the Boxer Rebellion of the year 1900. General Schwan brought his entire command to the support of the reconnoitering party. The enemy was defeated and scattered. The campaign of General Schwan, one of constant hardships and of considerable and tenacious fighting, was successful in attaining its objective. The official records show that the engineer detachment met all the campaign requirements in a commandingly efficient manner. The services rendered by Captain Sibert during the course of this expedition drew from General Schwan the following official letter written not long after the return of the expeditionary force to Manila. Headquarters Department of the Pacific and Eighth Army Corps Manila, P. I., Adjutant General of the Army February 11, 1900. (Thro' Chief of Engineers), Washington, D. C. Sir: I was lately in command of an Expedition whose object was the military occupation of the provinces of Cavite, Batangas, Laguna, and Tayabas, after the expulsion of the insurgent forces therefrom. The difficulties to be overcome in the territory specified, in which the insurrectionary movement had its origin, inherently great owing to the lack of wagon roads over which to carry supplies, were much increased by the hostility of the population to the United States Gov F-1 f II J Lieutenant Sibert and "Buater." BATTLE OF THE CARABAOS 65 ernment. Yet the task set the Expedition was practically accomplished within the space of three weeks. I know of no individual officer who contributed more to the success of the movement than did Captain William L. Sibert, Corps of Engineers. Not only as an Engineer officer, in the surmounting, removal and avoidance of road obstacles, were his services brought into requisition; his good work extended to, and had the effect of facilitating and expediting, every operation that was undertaken in the course of the campaign. To me he proved, as he did on a former expedition, a safe and most valuable prop. I cannot sufficiently emphasize my appreciation of the services of this accomplished, discreet, and withal modest officer. Though my acquaintance with the officers of the Army is quite extensive, I know of none who possesses the qualities requisite in the commander of a volunteer regiment in a higher degree than Captain Sibert; or who, by reason of his past service, better merits the appointment of colonel of volunteers. It is hoped the War Department may see its way clear in the future to recognize in some marked way the excellent work he has rendered in the field and with troops. Very respectfully, (Sgd.) THEO. SCHWAN, Brig. General of Vols. In addition to the writing of this letter, General Schwan sent an accompanying note to General John M. Wilson, the Chief of Engineers of the United States Army. This is the note: My Dear Gen'l Wilson: I send this letter through you, to the A. G. Perhaps I ought to have sent it to you. But my main object in writing it is to have it incorporated in Capt. 66 WILLIAM L. SIBERT S.'s efficiency record, which I believe is kept in the A. G. 0. I cannot find words which adequately express the high opinion I have formed of Capt. Sibert. I remain, my dear Gen'l, Faithfully your friend, (Signed) THEO. SCHWAN. Feb. 12, 1900. It was not long after Captain Sibert had completed his duties in the field as Engineer Officer and as a member of the staff of General Schwan that there came to him from the office of the Chief of Engineers in Washington this letter: Office of the Chief of Engineers United States Army Washington, March 13, 1900. Capt. W. L. Sibert, Corps of Engineers, U. S. A. Commanding Battalion of Engineers, 8th Army Corps, Manila, P. I. Captain: I have to acknowledge, with many thanks, the receipt of your letter of the 5th ultimo, transmitting copy of your interesting report of operations for November, 1899. I congratulate the battalion upon the splendid work it has done and you upon your gallant and excellent services. Very respectfully, (Signed) JOHN M. WILSON, Brig. Gen., Chief of Engineers, U. S. Army. At a time a little later Brigadier General G. L. Gillespie, who had succeeded General Wilson as Chief of Engineers, recommended that Captain Wil BATTLE OF THE CARABAOS 67 liam L. Sibert be brevetted as a Lieutenant Colonel of United States regulars and that he be appointed a Brigadier General of Volunteers. It is rarely that such an honor as this comes to an officer of junior grade. The paragraph recommending Captain Sibert for high Volunteer rank found place in a letter written by General Gillespie to General H. C. Corbin, the Adjutant General of the United States Army. This is the paragraph: "I respectfully recommend that Captain William L. Sibert, Corps of Engineers, Chief Engineer of the Expeditionary troops under the command of Brigadier General Schwan, U. S. Volunteers, to Northern Luzon, October 7-14, 1899, be brevetted major, U. S. Army, and Lieutenant Colonel, U. S. Army, for distinguished services as Engineer and on the firing line, October 10, 1899, on the Buena Vista road, where he contributed in a marked degree to the success of the operations of that day, and that he be appointed Brigadier General of Volunteers for 'soldierly conduct and excellent service throughout the campaign' in Northern and Southern Luzon." From the field where the Schwan campaign successfully was concluded, Captain Sibert was ordered to return to Manila to take up another duty. VIII BOSSING A RAILROAD An engineer officer of any army is expected to be able to turn his hand to anything which has so much as a suggestion of the mechanical about it. When Sibert reached Manila he was ordered to run a railroad. Put into the language of orders from headquarters, this meant that he was to take charge of the operation of the Manila & Dagupan Railway and inaugurate thereon a service for both freight and passengers. During the time that had lapsed since the American operation the railroad had been used only for military purposes. The authorities came to the conclusion that because the country directly tributary to the line then was occupied by American troops, it was wise to encourage the inhabitants to get back into the usual routine of life as quickly as possible. The road's available rolling stock was limited while the accumulation of rice, sugar and other commodities along the right of way was considerable. Sibert was made General Manager and Chief Engineer of the road in charge of operation and he undertook this work in addition to other duties. The operating force of the road was made up largely of men who had seen army service and who at the expiration of their enlistments had chosen to 68 BOSSING A RAILROAD 69 stay in the Philippines. Now many of these operatives before their enlistment in Uncle Sam's forces had been employees of railroads in the United States, who for one reason or another had been blacklisted. Taken as a whole the force was not altogether what it might have been from the viewpoint of the moralist. Some conductors were carrying on a private passenger business to their own cash benefit. There were no passenger cars but there were plenty of passengers who were entirely contented to ride on top of the freight cars so long as they could go where they wanted to go. Most of the patrons of the freight car roofs were Chinamen and Filipinos. They would sit down on the roofs of box cars with their feet doubled under them, hoping of course but never expecting that they might reach their destination without being held up for their fare. Some of the conductors of the trains knew in advance that so far as the passengers were concerned hope and expectation were futile. As soon as the train left Manila they would travel along the tops of the cars and collect fares from the willing and unwilling. Later they might divide with other members of the train crew the loot, equitably or inequitably as the mood dictated. The Filipinos, prior to the time that the Americans had succeeded in driving them back and capturing the line, had wrecked and burned so much of the equipment of the Manila & Dagupan Railway that there was a great shortage of rolling stock. It was necessary, of course, to provide for the Army's needs before those of the civilians could be given 70 WILLIAM L. SIBERT consideration. Therefore only a portion of the freight offered could be transported, and the problem became how to distribute the cars equitably among the applicants who wanted to ship goods. General Otis had instructed the people of the towns along the railroad to organize local governments; and in order that cars for freight purposes might be distributed as fairly as possible, the Presidentes of the villages were requested to make up lists of the local shippers, giving in each case the volume of the freight which was awaiting transportation. It was expected that these lists would form a basis for the equitable allotment of cars. It was not long, however, before a merchant at one of the up-country stations came to Captain Sibert's office in Manila to ask if he could not pay there the twenty-five dollars that the Presidente of his village had informed him it was necessary for him to fork over before he could get his name on the shippers' list. This seemed to prove that the plan adopted was neither productive of fair play nor conducive to the maintenance of a high standard of morals in the ranks of the Filipino officials. It developed also at this time that many rice and sugar merchants along the line of the road were willing to pay twice as much as the officially established rate for a car, provided they could get it. Soon it was found that there was a case of collusion, for the purpose of getting easy money, between an American camp follower and certain conductors on the line. The camp follower was an enterprising American, who if he had directed his energies into BOSSING A RAILROAD 71 other channels probably might have accumulated a competency by honest methods, but the prospect of quick profits had turned him from the straight and narrow. This man, who had "followed the camps" to look for chances to turn a dishonest penny here and there, had traversed the line of the railroad a few days before it was opened for freight and passenger traffic and had approached the sugar and rice merchants offering to furnish them with so many cars each day. He fixed his own price which was just double the rate that the railroad management had fixed as equitable. The merchants who wished to get their goods to market paid willingly the fifty dollars demanded for each car. Of this sum, twenty-five dollars was turned in to the railroad and the remainder was divided between the thrifty sharper and some of the conductors of the freight. trains. It did not take long to turn this shady business up to the light. The American who had taken on the job if not the title of a general freight agent, was called upon one night at his residence by a patrol of soldiers and was placed in the Bilibid prison incommunicado. Of course the government was anxious to prosecute this fertile-minded gentleman and so Captain Sibert called on a Chinese merchant who had been furnished cars under the arrangement made with the sharper. The merchant was told that he had been swindled into paying double the rate that he should have paid for the transportation of his freight and that the man who had made the arrangement with him was a fraud and the transaction fraudulent. 72 WILLIAM L. SIBERT Then Sibert told the merchant that if he would testify against the accused, he probably would get half of his money back and that the culprit would be punished for perpetrating the fraud. It seems likely that no man of any other nation on earth than China would look at the matter in the way this Chinaman looked at it. He steadfastly declined to go into court as a witness or to have anything to do with the prosecution. He said he had made a contract with the man and that a contract was binding whether it was made with man, God or the devil. With a Chinaman the fulfilment of a contract, however made, is a religious duty. No one seemed to be particularly anxious to get out a writ of habeas corpus; the camp follower was in prison without any seeming possibility of preferring provable charges against him. So far as Sibert knows he is in limbo yet. Following this experience it became necessary to try something else. The provosts marshal of the various towns were asked to make out a list of shippers giving the amount of freight that each one desired to ship, and on the basis of these lists cars were assigned from Manila to the carrying task, the hope being that in this way a fair distribution of transport facilities might be made. The shippers pretty generally seemed to think that there might be a way to secure for themselves more cars than the officials ordinarily would be inclined to allot to them. So each sent his most attractive daughter into Manila to ask for cars; in other words, a battery of beauty was brought into play. BOSSING A RAILROAD 73 Sibert met this situation in his own way. There was a hard-hearted old bachelor at hand who not only was much of a misanthrope but had an ingrained aversion to "the woman in business." Unmoved by the appeals of pulchritude, the bachelor made the distribution of cars on a business and not on a beauty basis. The problem was solved. Before long, under Sibert's management, the railroad was able to transport all the necessary supplies to the army and in addition to satisfy most of the demands of private trade. The road, after paying for its operation out of the commercial traffic, cleared each month about fifteen thousand dollars which promptly was turned into the Philippine treasury. The supervising force running this railroad never before had been engaged in rail operations. It was compelled to overcome all kinds of difficulties, some of which did not fall into the class ordinarily called physical. Along the line of the road a score of different dialects were spoken. It is easy enough to realize what this Babel jumble meant to the harassed ones who were trying to reduce things to plain railroad English. Railroad officials from the United States occasionally visited Captain Sibert's office for the purpose of asking how the enterprise was getting along. One order that had been issued by the Captain was appreciated by the visitors. It is something more than possible that they would have been glad if they could have extended the order to cover all the railroad rights of way in the United States. Sibert's order was that any Filipino who 74 WILLIAM L. SIBERT permitted his water buffalo to get on the track was to be fined twenty-five dollars. After this order was issued few water buffaloes were allowed to enter any kind of dispute with a moving locomotive. An English company owned the Manila & Dagupan Railroad, its title of course running back into the days of the Spanish occupation. As soon as it was practicable the company applied to the authorities for the return of the road to its owners. The interest on the railroad bonds had been guaranteed by the Spanish government. In return for this obligation Spain had the right to fix the freight rates, and since the cost of operation of the road had increased greatly since the old Spanish days, the English company in asking for the return of the property asked also for the establishment of new and more remunerative freight charges. General Otis had some things to do in addition to his purely military duties. The English company's request for higher freight rates was referred to the General. He decided that when the United States purchased the Philippines it did not take over any obligation to guarantee interest on railroad bonds, and he declined to take any action in the matter of freight rates that even would suggest an assumption by the United States of any obligation to pay the interest on the bonds. Moreover he did not want to give the railroad company unlimited power in the matter of fixing rates. Some time afterward General Otis decided that as a military necessity he was empowered to fix temporary rates for freight without recognizing BOSSING A RAILROAD 75 in any way the arrangement between the Spanish government and the English company. This he did and the transfer of the railroad property to the English company was made in June, 1900. Not long after this the Philippine Commission, with William Howard Taft at its head, arrived in the Philippines. General Otis, his duty done, was relieved from command and with him Captain Sibert returned to the United States. In his report on General Wheaton's expedition to the Lingayen Gulf, in which so much depended upon the work of the engineers in building and repairing bridges and railroad track, General Otis referred to Captain Sibert as follows: "The work of repair requiring a high order of engineering ability and great celerity, that the advancing troops might receive supplies, was performed by Captain Sibert, of the Engineer Corps, with two engineer companies and 300 Chinese laborers, the troops making the minor repairs to the road as they advanced. Two-thirds of the rolling stock had been destroyed or rendered unserviceable, and that all was not destroyed was due to the ignorance of the insurgents, whose method of destruction appears to have been very primitive. Through service over the entire railway from Manila to Dagupan was effected by December, '21." IX FROM ROADBED TO RIVERBED When Captain Sibert landed on the shore of his native land he found that he had been ordered to turn from the roadbed of a railroad to the channelbed of a river. He was ordered to take charge of the River and Harbor District at Louisville, Kentucky, which included the Green and Barren Rivers, the scene of his early work as a Lieutenant, and also the work on the Kentucky River and with it the improvement of the Falls of the Ohio at Louisville. The time in the Kentucky city was spent in doing the routine duties which the immediate task imposed. After one year in Louisville Sibert was ordered to Pittsburgh and there he was placed in charge of the improvements on the Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers and on that part of the Ohio River lying within the State of Pennsylvania. In late October, 1929, President Hoover joined with the officials of the Ohio Valley Improvement Association in a celebration of the completion of a nine-foot channel in the Ohio River from Pittsburgh to Cairo. This channel is the development of a project initiated by William L. Sibert when as a Captain he undertook the river work, with headquarters in the City of Pittsburgh, twenty-eight years earlier. 76 FROM ROADBED TO RIVERBED 77 Sibert kept station at Pittsburgh until March, 1907, and his services there constituted one of the most active periods of his official life. He finished the uncompleted Lock and Dam No. 10 on the Monongahela and built Locks and Dams Nos. 11, 12, 13 and 14 on that stream. On the Ohio River he built Dams 2, 3, 4 and 5 and completed the sixth dam. On the Allegheny River he completed Locks and Dams 1 and 3 and built Lock and Dam 2 on that stream, a project for this river having been previously authorized by Congress and appropriations made for the work. Not long prior to Sibert 's tour of duty in Pittsburgh the United States had purchased a system of locks and dams on the lower Monongahela from the Monongahela Navigation Company. These locks were dilapidated but nothing had been done toward their replacement. At that time Congress would not, as a rule, appropriate money for a project unless it had previously ordered a survey and an estimate made for the work. When Sibert arrived in Pittsburgh Dam No. 2 on the Monongahela was pumped out for certain repairs and when he inspected it and saw its unsafe condition he made a survey, of his own volition, of Locks 2, 3 and 4 on the Monongahela River and submitted an estimate to the Chief of Engineers for building new double locks near these sites while the old ones were being used. This report and estimate was submitted to his chief. Sibert was afterward ordered to Washington before the Rivers and Harbors Committee and with 78 WILLIAM L. SIBERT the permission of the Chief of Engineers used this report and estimate at the hearing before the Committee. The Committee chairman took the position that since Congress had not ordered this survey the project could not be approved, but Captain Sibert told the chairman of the value of the Monongahela River to the industries of Pittsburgh; that there was then being transported on it as much as ten million tons of freight annually and that if any of these old locks failed, it would be a disaster to Pittsburgh; that he had made this report and estimate to his own chief and presented it, with his chief's permission, to Congress so that if a disaster did happen on the Monongahela River it would be due to Congress and not to the engineers. The result was that Congress approved the project for building these locks, Nos. 2, 3 and 4. Lock and Dam No. 2 was completed entirely in the next working season and the others were rapidly pushed. This prompt action on the part of Congress, when the facts were presented to it, probably prevented a serious situation in navigation necessary to the great city of Pittsburgh. While Sibert was engaged on the work of improving the upper Ohio there was a project for a minimum navigable depth of six feet between the dams, but in this plan the entire stream was not included. Now Sibert did not wish to complete the dams in the upper Ohio River to provide for a depth of only six feet, because the draft of the barges used in the stream for shipping coal, iron and steel already had been increased to eight feet and consequently could make the river trip only during freshet periods. FROM ROADBED TO RIVERBED 79 However, the six-foot project had been adopted by Congress and the money had been appropriated for completing these dams. To Sibert came the thought that if the harbor of Pittsburgh were extended down the Ohio River to Beaver-in which stretch were all the locks and dams then under construction-providing therein a depth of nine feet, the serious error of completing such dams at six feet could be avoided. It was also thought that if this were done it would fix the nine-foot project for the entire stream. This course was decided upon in a conference between Sibert and Captain William B. Rodgers, his principal co-worker in the Pittsburgh district, and Rodgers undertook and did succeed in having inserted in the Rivers and Harbors bill a provision calling for the survey of the Pittsburgh harbor with a view to its extension down the Ohio River. As soon as Congress ordered this survey, the work on the five dams in the Ohio River, then under way, was limited to such things as did not interfere with completing the dams so as to provide a navigable depth of nine feet. Sibert made the examination and survey of the stream between Pittsburgh and Beaver and submitted estimates for making a depth of nine feet at pool stage in this reach of the river. The opponents of the plan to increase the depth of the Ohio River did not grasp the meaning of the law under the provisions of which the survey was made, and the Chairman of the Rivers and Harbors Committee, when confronted with the report and the estimate, stated that Congress had not authorized any survey 80 WILLIAM L. SIBERT that involved changing the project depth on the Ohio River. Then Sibert had an opportunity to present all the details of the case to the Committee, before which he appeared in Washington. When he returned from Washington he had authority to change the project depth of the Ohio River between Pittsburgh and Beaver from six feet to nine feet as an extension of the harbor of Pittsburgh. He had delayed the work on the movable parts of Dams 2, 3, 4 and 5 and had completed only that portion of the construction which could be made common to either a six or a nine-foot project, and he afterward so modified the movable parts of these dams as to make the foundations already constructed serve the purpose of a nine-foot river depth. This move of Captain Sibert, assisted by Captain William B. Rodgers, who through his friend, Senator Matt Quay, had inserted in the Rivers and Harbors bill the necessary legislation, practically established the nine-foot project for the entire stream, and the five dams then under way were completed, giving a nine-foot depth at least four years before the general project was adopted for making nine feet in the entire stream. Virtually as soon as Congress had sanctioned the extension of the Pittsburgh harbor from Pittsburgh to Beaver, providing for a depth of nine feet, it was asked to order a new survey of the river from Pittsburgh to Cairo with a view of providing a nine-foot depth the entire length of the stream. A Board of Engineers, known as the Lockwood Board, of which Sibert was named as the junior Rebuilt bridge across Bamban River, P. 1. FROM ROADBED TO RIVERBED 81 member, was appointed to make the river survey and to submit a plan for improving the whole length of the stream so as to provide a navigable depth of nine feet. The survey was made, the project was submitted and the probable commerce of the stream was estimated. The findings, in report form, were presented to Congress and presented in a manner convincing enough to cause the lawmakers to adopt the plan which included the construction of fiftythree locks and dams on the Ohio at a cost of about one hundred and twenty millions of dollars. Congress adopted this project in 1910. Captain Sibert in a paper read before the Engineers' Society of Western Pennsylvania on September 23, 1902, eight years before the adoption of the nine-foot project, made the following statement: "The world is looking to the far East as a probable market for large quantities of iron and steel products. Partly in anticipation of this, the United States has authorized the construction of an Isthmian Canal; this, in addition to giving Pittsburgh water transportation to the far East, will open up to the same system of transportation the markets of Mexico, Central and South America. "By means of hydraulic dredges, a least depth of nine feet at low water has been made practicable in the Mississippi River from Cairo to the Gulf. If a similar depth were made in the Ohio, from Pittsburgh to Cairo, by the time the Isthmian Canal is completed, Pittsburgh would then be in a position to place her products at tidewater at a cost that would enable her products to compete favorably in the world's markets. " 82 WILLIAM L. SIBERT Four years thereafter the five dams under construction in the upper Ohio actually provided a depth of nine feet, and four years later the general project for making nine feet in the Ohio River from Pittsburgh to Cairo was adopted. The work finally has been completed and in October, 1929, Major General Sibert, as a guest on the flagship Cincinnati, dedicated No. 53, the last lock of the series, and had the satisfaction of inspecting between Pittsburgh and Cairo a work which in plan form was urged by him for adoption nearly thirty years before. While on duty at the Pennsylvania city Sibert was compelled to solve several separate problems which were perhaps more difficult than those involved in the construction of the' locks and dams. Industries on the banks of the Monongahela and the Allegheny were encroaching on the beds of these streams by the indiscriminate dumping of slag in the river along the banks, which by this process were built out to an extent to lessen materially the streams' carrying capacity. This interfered with navigation and increased the flood heights at and near Pittsburgh. Then Sibert undertook the task of establishing definite harbor lines on the two rivers, upstream from Pittsburgh, the lines established extending throughout the industrial districts. The harbor line plan between Pittsburgh and Davis Island previously had been studied by a board of engineers but no definite demarcations had been fixed. It was FROM ROADBED TO RIVERBED 83 a difficult undertaking to establish these lines and to give them a lasting basis. Every railroad entering the Pittsburgh district had lines running along these streams and each road was zealous in its attempt to extend the banks in order to make more room for its tracks. Every abutting industry also desired to do dumping on its own account, thus increasing its acreage. Every interested concern, railroad and factory, was jealously fearful that some other company would be given preferential treatment in this matter, one or more being allowed to extend their acreage while the others would be compelled simply to hold their own. After giving the matter study Sibert worked out a plan which provided as nearly as was practicable equal treatment for all owners of riparian rights, and as soon as the interested parties were convinced that all were to be treated alike, opposition faded. Nevertheless after the harbor lines had been established, the railroads and the industries seemingly forgot all about their acquiescence in the plan and went on with their filling work regardless of the fixed harbor lines. Then Sibert, who in the meantime had been promoted to the rank of Major, invoked the law and took the drastically effective course of arresting several railroad division engineers for attempting under the cover of darkness to extend the banks of the river so as to make room for more trackage. Thus certain chiefs of great corporations underwent a new experience. They had underestimated the 84 WILLIAM L. SIBERT courage of Sibert to enforce obedience to the laws of the land. One of the greatest of the iron and steel companies was compelled to remove material which it had dumped into the Monongahela River at points beyond the harbor line and to do this it was put to an expense of more than $100,000. This compelling of obedience, if not of respect for the laws, moved the riparian rights owners perhaps reluctantly into a new and to them possibly humiliating mood. It was not long before they began to observe the law and to recognize the hard fact that the harbor lines established by Sibert, with the approval of the Secretary of War, marked the boundary of navigable waters of the United States and that beyond these lines they dare not trespass. If this sharp line of action had not been followed the streams would have been so narrowed as to cause serious damage to the city of Pittsburgh, if not to jeopardize its safety when the flood waters came in the seasons of rains and melting snows. The day finally came when the people of Pittsburgh showed definitely their appreciation of the firm stand taken by Major Sibert in this controversy. When he left the city in the spring of 1907 to take up his work on the Isthmian Canal, he was given a banquet in the Duquesne Club by two hundred and fifty representative citizens, and there was presented with a silver loving cup as a mark of the appreciation of his labors for the commercial interests of Pittsburgh. x A GAME OF BRIDGE It was while at work in the Pennsylvania city that an inspection disclosed to Sibert the fact that the clearance and width of span of all the bridges on the Allegheny River within the harbor district of Pittsburgh and of many of the bridges on the Monongahela were insufficient for a free use at all times of the stream channels. He consulted with the representatives of the navigation interests and a study was made of the situation, particularly with reference to the obstructions to navigation actually presented by the bridges over the two rivers. In this study and in every subsequent proceeding Major Sibert had the advice and assistance of Captain William B. Rodgers of Pittsburgh, whose desire was that after his death the Allegheny and the Monongahela should be as free for the use of his descendants as they had been to him in his early river days. It was necessary for the District Engineer to use stronger measures than those of persuasion to induce the railroads to raise their bridges to unfetter commerce. When the conferences between Sibert and the representatives of navigation interests were completed a complaint instantly was lodged with the Secretary of War. In explicit terms it was 85 86 WILLIAM L. SIBERT stated that the bridges in question constituted obstructions to the free use of navigable streams which were under the jurisdiction of the United States. Following the complaint, proceedings were instituted under Section 18 of the River and Harbor Act of March 3, 1899. This precipitated a fight. Pittsburgh Dispatch, September 11, 1903 "CAPTAIN SIBERT SAYS BRIDGES MUST COME UP" It was believed by Sibert and his "free river" advisers that the attempt to force a change in the height and spans of the bridges would precipitate a battle with the Pennsylvania and Baltimore & Ohio systems as well as other interests. This virtual certainty of a major struggle with the railroads did not give pause to the Major. His feeling was that the course which he was pursuing was in the A GAME OF BRIDGE 87 high interest of navigation and in that of preserving to the people the free use of their streams. The railroad interests and private bridge companies were busy. They asked a politically powerful representative in Congress, hailing from the Pittsburgh district, to secure through his influence the removal of Major Sibert from his Pittsburgh post. Captain William B. Rodgers heard of this attempt of the railroads to oust Sibert, thus to give them a possible chance to move his successor to their way of thinking. The Captain went to see the Congressman and told him that if Major Sibert's station was changed it would be seen to that on the issue of removal alone the Congressman's constituents would defeat him for re-election. Word came to Sibert from Washington that a change of station was contemplated for him and that it was probable he would be sent to Leavenworth to attend the Staff College. The Pittsburgh Congressman, however, declined to pay heed to the prayers of the railroad representatives and Sibert remained where he was, to continue his efforts to remove from the Allegheny and the Monongahela the bridge obstructions to navigation. Two of these bridge cases, that of the Union and of the Brownsville bridges-the latter owned by the Monongahela Bridge Company-ultimately reached the Supreme Court of the United States. The structures had been built under the authority of the State of Pennsylvania prior to the time that the Federal Government had assumed jurisdiction over the bridging of navigable streams. They were the first 88 WILLIAM L. SIBERT cases of the kind to reach the highest court in the land, and because of this Major Sibert's part in all the proceedings was of high importance in the final adjudication. The Government won its contention, and the bridge companies raised their bridges. The Supreme Court of the United States adopted in its decision in the Brownsville bridge case Major Sibert's definition of an unreasonable obstruction to navigation. In finding for the Government, the Supreme Court as a part of its decision in the case said this: "Under date of May 23, 1904, Major Sibert made a report to the Chief of Engineers, from which it appears that the parties interested were given a hearing, all parties being present. That report stated: '3. These hearings, as this office understands it, were held for the purpose of securing and forwarding such information as would enable the Secretary of War to decide whether or not there is good reason to believe that the bridge in question is an unreasonable obstruction to navigation. 4. Stripped of all unnecessary verbiage the question for determination is: Is there good reason to believe that a bridge that prevents the better class of towboats actually navigating the Monongahela River, the commerce of which stream is about 10,000,000 tons annually, from passing under it for 17.7 days per year and prevents the packets actually navigating said stream from passing under it for 52.1 days per year, all as determined by the official records kept by the United States, an unreasonable obstruction to navigation? * * * * * This office is of the opinion that the following should constitute the grounds upon which a conclusion should be reached as to whether or not any particular bridge unreasonably obstructs navigation: 1st. Every bridge A GAME OF BRIDGE 89 should be so constructed as to permit the passage under it or through it, with reasonable safety, of the average sized boat actually navigating the stream, at all practical stages of water. 2nd. Any bridge that does not permit the passage of such boat at such stages of water needlessly obstructs the use of the river highway and exists under conditions that are not reasonable, since it is impracticable to raise or lower a stream and it is always practicable to either build a bridge high enough and of sufficient width of span to allow the passage of such boats at such times as mentioned above or to place a draw in the bridge. 3rd. Where the topographical conditions are such that bridges can be made of such heights, without prohibitive cost, as to permit at all navigable stages of water the passage of boats best suited to the river commerce, it is for the best interest of both the land traffic and the river traffic that bridges be so constructed... Based upon the foregoing, this office is of the opinion that there is good reason to believe that the bridge owned by the Monongahela Bridge Company, at Brownsville, Pa., is an unreasonable obstruction to navigation. * * * * * "It is urgently insisted that the defendant did not have such a hearing as it was entitled to have under the law on the question whether the bridge was in fact an unreasonable obstruction to navigation. This is a mistake. The Bridge Company had full notice of the action of the Engineer Officer (Sibert), who, under the order of the Secretary of War, made a tentative examination of the facts, and it appeared at the regular, final hearing before that officer, with liberty to contest the facts and introduce any evidence pertinent to the case. It does not appear that it offered any evidence that was rejected. It was not subjected to any mode of procedure that interfered in any degree with a full and fair disclosure of the material facts. "The Engineer officer, after the hearing before 90 WILLIAM L. SIBERT him-the Bridge Company being represented at the hearing-found that the bridge was an unreasonable obstruction to navigation. He reported to the Secretary of War all the facts that were adduced before him and which constituted the basis of his conclusion. And the decision of the Secretary was based on the facts so reported to him. That, it must be assumed on this record. It does not appear that the Secretary disregarded the facts, or that he acted in an arbitrary manner, or that he pursued any method not contemplated by Congress." Colonel T. P. Roberts, a civil engineer of Pittsburgh, shortly after this prepared an article in which he related in an interesting way some of Sibert's activities in that city. An extract from his paper is quoted below: "An episode of Major Sibert's experience in Pittsburgh worthy of more protracted treatment will be merely glanced at here. Reference is made to the question of raising certain bridges over the Allegheny River. "The navigators protested to the War Department that these structures were entirely too low and that they should be raised to correspond, at least approximately, with the height of the bridges over the Monongahela River. Hearings were ordered by the War Department to be held under Major Sibert's auspices, as District Engineer, who was to accompany his report of findings with the documents, plans, etc., presented before him. Perhaps never before in the history of the Engineer Corps was one of its members ever beset by abler and more persistent attorneys on the contending sides. The lawyers were there on both sides and many times they threw up such clouds of arguments that the poor germs of truth were totally hidden from view. The crowds in daily attendance A GAME OF BRIDGE 91 for there were several weeks' time taken-were so large that Major Sibert was granted the use of the United States Court rooms for the hearings. The arguments and presentations simulated closely a court trial, and rulings had to be made by the Major which sometimes sounded like the decisions of a law judge. "One of the oldest of the lawyers engaged in the case asked the writer one day what the Government paid the! Major. 'A Major's pay,' was the answer. 'Well,' he replied, 'that's pretty tough. The Major has mistaken his calling. In a year's time he ought to be able as a consulting attorney to earn five times that pay. Where did he get his ideas of law, anyhow?' This question the writer submitted to the Major sometime after the hearings were over. He laughed heartily, while admitting that he had never read a word of civil law, but continued in saying that he supposed the law after all had a commonsense foundation, and things must be right or wrong accordingly as facts would appear to indicate; therefore it was important not to let the facts be obscured. "In this particular instance, the perorations of the attorneys failed to conceal the truth from the Major's mental vision, as was proven during the later regular trials of this case and its final determination by the United States Supreme Court, exactly as the Major foresaw would, or should, be the result. "There are modest, unassuming but highly capable men in this world whose bumps of self-esteem are nil. Such virtues in men have peculiar and endearing charms for those who know the possessors. Major Sibert is one of these men." Captain William B. Rodgers, who stood at Sibert's right hand in his struggles for unimpeded navigation in the Pittsburgh district, was in the strongest meaning of the words, a river man. He began his waterway life as a deck hand on a steam 92 WILLIAM L. SIBERT boat. He loved the rivers and he wanted to rise in their service. He studied and was rewarded with successive licenses as a pilot and a steamboat engineer. Finally he saved enough money to build him a towboat and he entered into the business of towing barges for concerns engaged in river commerce. This river man was keenly intelligent and indomitably willed. He realized that in the success of Sibert's efforts to keep the channels deep, free and unobstructed lay the future prosperity of riverborne commerce. Andrew Carnegie, the steel man, knew Captain Rodgers intimately and had confidence in his integrity, his courage and his judgment. One day in the early nineties, strikers at the Carnegie works took possession of the Homestead plant and the steel man made up his mind to send a force of detectives there to drive out the strikers and to restore the plant to its owners. Captain Rodgers, who owned a boat, was sent for and asked to tow a barge with the detectives on board to the Homestead mills. Rodgers agreed to do the work. When his boat came to a point near the plant, the strikers opened fire on both boat and barge and started to wade out into the river with the intention of boarding and taking forcible possession of the craft. The detectives, their leader wounded, did little or nothing in the work of repelling boarders. The task fell to Captain Rodgers, who with a few of his crew risked his life to repulse the charge. The strikers were driven back and the Captain, while still under fire, managed to carry out his mission. The reward of courageous service came to Captain Rodgers. Andrew Carnegie and Henry W. Frick A GAME OF BRIDGE 93 lost no opportunity to forward his towing business and his other work in the harbor of Pittsburgh. Finally Captain Rodgers became a man of wealth. He bought and operated two coal mines which afterward were sold to the Monongahela Coal & Coke Company. In addition he organized a sand and gravel concern which did a large business, because at that time concrete was beginning to replace stone in masonry. Afterward the Captain became President of the Allegheny Trust Company, but so long as he lived and along whatever line of life he walked his chief heart interest lay in means to improve the inland waterways of his country. There was another man with whom Sibert came in contact, at first, after the manner of speaking, antagonistically, while directing the river improvement work in and about Pittsburgh. This was George Gordon Crawford, today the President of the Tennessee Coal, Iron & Railroad Company, the unit of the United States Steel Corporation in Alabama. Immediately after Major Sibert had established harbor lines beyond which no industry could trespass, several of the affected ones asked that changes be made so as to make room for a track here or a building there. The selfishness of most of these requests was so evident that Sibert often asked the petitioners at the outset of the interview if their real purpose in calling on him was not to get just a little more property and to get that at the expense of the navigable capacity of the river. One day Mr. Crawford called and made a re 94 WILLIAM L. SIBERT quest like unto those that had been made before. Sibert put the same inquiry to Crawford that he had put to his earlier callers. Crawford's answer to the inquiry concerning selfishness was a blunt "No," and then he added that what he was asking for was in the direct interest of navigation, notwithstanding the fact that the concession would give him a better location for one of his buildings. Sibert was willing to be fair. He looked into the matter and learned to his satisfaction that the change asked for by Mr. Crawford, while it did put the line forward in a few places, moved it back in other places and as a whole improved the navigation situation. A public hearing was held; the Crawford request was granted, and this was the beginning of an acquaintance and friendship between Crawford and Sibert that has lasted through all the passing years. During his turn of duty at Pittsburgh Sibert was compelled to meet several threatening situations and to make prompt decisions without;referring the cases to senior authority. A short time before he went to Pittsburgh a dam had been built on the Allegheny River. During a flood accompanied by an ice gorge at the dam, the height of the river was raised so that it dug around the abutment a new channel which enlarged rapidly and caused the raging waters to threaten industries worth millions of dollars. It was necessary not to wait upon the order of doing but to do at once. Sibert directed that the dam be blown up with dynamite so as to open up A GAME OF BRIDGE 95 the regular channel of the stream and thus make it possible to save the threatened property. The men who placed the dynamite in this dam were of heroic stuff. From a skiff rowed to a point at some distance above the dam anchors were thrown overboard and from these moorings the dynamiting crew let the skiff down to the edge of the dam over which the water was raging. They placed dynamite in charges of five hundred pounds each in several places, exploded it, and continued the operation until the structure was breached sufficiently to allow the river to pass and to make practicable the checking of its encroachment on the threatened property of the industrialists. In discussing the question of the Engineer Corps of the Army building the Panama Canal, and in speaking of the slow progress made on some of the river and harbor work of the country, the New York Sun on January 30, 1907, made the following remark which referred to the dynamiting of this dam by Sibert: "No charge of dilatoriness can be brought against the officer who a few weeks ago saved a million dollars' worth of property by assuming the responsibility of blowing up $80,000 worth of dam. A contractor would have let the property go for fear of being called upon to pay for the dam." William L. Sibert's work at Pittsburgh was coneluded. He was called to a higher plane of labor. President Roosevelt in March, 1907, appointed him a member of the neWly formed Isthmian Canal Commission and he was directed to proceed to Panama to have part in the construction of the waterway connecting the world's two greatest seas. XI ON TO PANAMA The proved value of Sibert's work had drawn to him the attention of authority. His appointment as a member of the Isthmian Canal Commission, charged with the work of constructing the waterway, was a direct recognition of the worthiness of his engineering labors from the day that he undertook his first assignment on the Barren River to the day that he completed his work on the harbor of Pittsburgh. His early engineering experiences were of a kind to fit him for labor on the greater work to which he was now directed to devote his energies. In the Life of William C. Gorgas, written by his widow, Marie D. Gorgas, and Burton J. Hendrick and published by Doubleday, Page & Co., it is said that the resignations one after another of the civilians who had been appointed as Chief Engineers of the Panama project had created an unpleasant impression in the public mind. So it was that President Roosevelt and Secretary of War Taft decided that some radical departure was necessary in order to give continuity and permanence to the Canal organization. "This is the reason that they created a new Canal Commission, composed chiefly of army officers. Men selected from the government services had at least one advantage over those taken from 96 I* I '/' F - ` '' _J I j General Theodore Schwan and members of his staff after the cap~ture of Batangas, P. I. ON TO PANAMA 97 civil life. They could be depended on to stick to the job." The members of the Isthmian Canal Commission appointed by Theodore Roosevelt were Major George W. Goethals, Corps of Engineers, as Chairman and Chief Engineer; Colonel William C. Gorgas, Medical Department, United States Army, Chief Sanitarian; Major David DuBose Gaillard, Corps of Engineers, United States Army; Major William L. Sibert, Corps of Engineers, United States Army; Commander H. H. Rousseau, Civil Engineer, United States Navy; Senator J. C. S. Blackburn and Jackson Smith, the latter two being the Commission's civilian members. The order was that all of the Commissioners were to reside on the Isthmus and to aid in the prosecution of the work. A sailing route to Cathay is said to have been the dream of Columbus when he set forth from Palos to sail into the unknown. The dream has been realized, for today the Panama Canal exists. The early navigators found the North American continent "in their way" as they sought for a sea route to the Far East. At the outset this continent was believed to be the eastern shore of Cathay. This belief held until Balboa, on a September day in the year 1513, looked upon the Pacific Ocean from a mountain top on the Panama Isthmus. From that time on there was continuous and systematic searching for a passage through which ships could make their way from the waters of the Atlantic to those of the Pacific. No such passage was found and the great naviga 98 WILLIAM L. SIBERT tors turned their attention to a plan for the connecting of the two great oceans by a strait or canal through the Isthmus of Panama. Credit, it is said, must be given to Hernando Cortez for the original conception of an Isthmian waterway. Under his order an examination was made of four routes across the narrow parts of the two American continents. Included in this study were the Nicaraguan and the Panama routes, the comparative merits of which through the years were subjects of discussion, surveys, estimates, and-acrimony. From the discussions, examinations and reports made some hundreds of years later than the day of Cortez, it can be learned that the United States favored the route through Nicaragua while the French favored the one through Panama. The French company succeeded in obtaining the necessary rights from the Colombian government to construct a canal across the Isthmus. It began the building of the waterway, but eventually financial difficulties prevented the Frenchmen from completing their project and so they expressed a willingness to sell their Isthmian rights and their Isthmian property. The engineering plans of the French were well laid. Their work had progressed under conditions which later the Americans were not compelled to face for any great length of time. Disease was one of the dread enemies of the French Company. At that time it was not known that the stegomyia mosquito transmitted the germ of yellow fever. The French therefore, lacking knowledge, were unable ON TO PANAMA 99 to combat the enemy. Money troubles came on the heel of sickness and the end of the French effort soon was in sight. Some time after the French Company had ceased its operations and announced its willingness to sell its rights and its property, a United States Board of Engineers made a study of the situation and reported that if the French concessions could be bought for a sum not exceeding forty million dollars, the purchase by the United States would be a wise one, for, the report added, in the engineers' opinion the Panama route was the most feasible one for the construction of an interoceanic canal. The United States Government purchased the rights and property of the French Company and accepted the report that Panama offered the best field for the Canal work. By the authority of Congress the first Commission, charged with the preliminary work of canal construction, was appointed on March 3, 1904; a second Commission was appointed just one year later. The Chief Engineer appointed under authority of the first Commission was John F. Wallace. He served for about a year and then resigned. Following the Wallace resignation, John F. Stevens was named as Chief Engineer. He entered on the work in June, 1905, but a decision as to whether the waterway should be a sea-level or a lock canal was not reached until a year later. In the spring of 1907 Mr. Stevens sent in his resignation, and Theodore Roosevelt, then President of the United States, made his announcement that he would 100 WILLIAM L. SIBERT appoint a commission that could not resign. Then there followed the appointment of the members whose names already have been given. General Sibert has paid a tribute to the character of the work done by Mr. Stevens in the year in which he was chief of the working force on the Isthmus. In Sibert's words, Mr. Stevens "was handling the project in a masterly way, had created a fine working organization, practically had completed that part of the construction plan which covered railroad transportation of the material which was to be removed and that which was to be emplaced. His work was basic and it was fortunate that his conceptions were commensurate with the undertaking. The Commission of 1907 therefore had the advantage of the work accomplished by Mr. Stevens as well as of the "foresight, skill and ability displayed by the French under DeLesseps' regime." All questions as to type of canal had been answered. The members of the Commission therefore had charge of the waterway through what has been termed the construction period and its duties were defined in the following Executive Order signed by President Roosevelt, January 6, 1908: "The Commission, under the supervision of the Secretary of War and subject to the approval of the President, is charged with the general duty of the adoption of plans for the construction and maintenance of the canal; with the employment and the fixing of the compensation of engineers or other persons necessary for the proper and expeditious prosecution ON TO PANAMA 101 of said work; with the making of all contracts for the construction of the canal or any of its needful accessories; with the duty of making to the President annually, or at such other periods as may be required either by law or the order of the President, full and complete reports of all their actings and doings and of all moneys received and expended in the construction of said work and in the performance of their duties in connection therewith; and with the duty of advising and assisting the Chairman in the execution of the work of canal construction, with the government and sanitation of the Canal Zone and with all matters of sanitation in the cities of Panama and Colon and the harbors thereof, and with the purchase and delivery of supplies, machinery and necessary plant." It was Major Sibert s experience in lock construction at the " Soo " Canal in Michigan and in the Ohio, Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers that led to his being charged with the design and construction of all the locks, dams and regulating works on the Panama waterway. He served in this capacity from March, 1907, to June 30, 1908. After Colonel H. F. Hodges was appointed as a member of the Commission, the work was distributed and Sibert was placed in charge of the Atlantic Division, which comprised the construction of the Gatun locks, dam and spillway, the excavation of the seven miles of canal from Gatun to the Atlantic Ocean and the construction of a breakwater in Colon harbor; and, in addition, he was given the supervision of all the municipal engineering which lay within his division's limits. Panama, at the time the Army engineers began 102 WILLIAM L. SIBERT their work, was a wilder place than it is today. When Sibert went to Gatun to begin his work of lock and dam construction, one of his first tasks was to clear a part of the jungle and to build him a house on a hill overlooking the scene of his labors. The country about Gatun and actually in it resembled the Bronx Zoo. The exhibits, however, were not behind bars. There were tiger cats, tapirs, deer, and boa constrictors, while other snakes were plentiful and even less pleasant. When his house was within a few days of completion, the Major moved in with his family. The first night when the members were sitting in a big ground floor room, one of them, inspired probably by the somewhat uncanny surroundings, started to tell a ghost story. A climax to it came before it was expected; an opossum crawled out from behind the piano and clattered across the bare floor of the sitting-room. The women folk took to chairs. The Major, having hunted opossums early in life on his father's farm, knew this first cousin of the critters of his boyhood and started after him with an umbrella. Now in tropical houses, or at any rate in those built by the Army on the Isthmus, the partition walls do not reach to the ceiling, an open space being left for ventilating purposes. The opossum took to the wall, made its top and vanished into space. A 'possum hunt was inaugurated but the quarry could not be found. The female members of the family were hesitant about taking to their beds with a "beast" prowling about. They had a fearful realization that the jungle visitor could make his way ON TO PANAMA 103 unimpeded into any bedroom, and into any bed for that matter, that afforded a hiding place. However, the night passed and the next day the opossum was found in a pantry taking his ease in a barrel of excelsior. The next night at an hour coincident with that of the opossum's arrival, a coon pried open the screen door and walked into the sitting-room. There was a cat present, not of the tiger species, which resented the visitor's intrusion and offered to put up a fight. The coon gave the cat one slap on the jaw and proceeded quietly through the sitting-room into the dining-room. It was captured but it proved to be a wandering pet of some neighborhood family. Not long after the downfall of one early tropical night a tiger cat, a none too pleasant animal for close companionship, came to the house but contented itself with a caterwauling serenade. Snakes were frequent visitors to the yard and would have been frequent visitors to the interior of the house if screens had not barred their way. One night when Sibert entered his house at rather a late hour, he saw by the faint light in the hall a fer-de-lance, an exceedingly poisonous snake, lying on the mat at the foot of the stairs. With an umbrella as a weapon, the soldier dispatched the snake. It never was learned how the fer-de-lance succeeded in getting into the house for every approach had a wire mosquito-net protection. Sibert then as today was a huntsman. He found kindred spirits among the force of men employed at Gatun and a hunting club was organized. The Major 104 WILLIAM L. SIBERT sent to the United States for a pack of hounds and in a short time tiger cats, tapirs, deer and other jungle residents moved to safer quarters some distance away from the site of the Gatun Dam. One day before the jungle was cleared away from the site of the Gatun Dam, two members of the hunting club were wandering around through the dense thickets when one of them who had no fear of snakes found a boa constrictor about eleven feet long enjoying a nap. The snake had just comforted itself with a big meal; therefore it was not only sleepy but seemingly semi-torpid. The discoverer of the snake thought that he would catch it alive and take it with him to Gatun as a trophy. His partner, Grant, known as "Daddy,"' was told of the plan of capture, which was to slip up, grab the snake with one hand just behind its head, and to be ready with the other hand to catch its tail when it tried to coil around the captor, which is the manner of constrictors. The hunters had their machetes with them and the daring snake-catcher told Daddy that if there was failure in the endeavor to catch the snake by the tail, after it had been grabbed just back of the head, he must stand by to cut the critter in two. The plan, however, worked beautifully and the snake was brought to Gatun alive, put into a box and there kept for a long time. Opossums were the "chief of the constrictor's diet." It would squeeze an opossum into a lozenge, breaking all its bones, before the satisfying swallowing process. It became so much of a task to keep the constrictor fed that finally its death was decreed. Its hide, tanned, now has a place ON TO PANAMA 105 where anyone who chooses to visit a farmhouse at Bowling Green, Kentucky, may look upon it as one of the more or less prized possessions of a retired Major General. XII A CONFLICT OF OPINION There were some differences of opinion between the engineers employed on individual sections of the work on the Canal and the Chief Engineer and Administrator, Colonel Goethals. In fact, at times there was considerable friction at Panama; but no knowledge of this ever was allowed to reach the American public, because the men who were charged with the high duty of completing the Canal realized that differences were best settled on the spot and that no linen, even with only one or two spots on it, should be washed in public. There was a sharp difference of engineering opinion between Major Sibert and Colonel Goethals concerning the design of the locks and dams of the waterway. One of the variations of view concerned itself with the location of the locks on the Pacific side of Panama. In the adopted plan three locks were placed in flight at Gatun on the Atlantic side, while on the Pacific side one lock was given place in the plan at Pedro Miguel and two locks in flight at Sosa Hill, La Boca. Sibert maintained that the Atlantic side plan should be followed on the Pacific side and that there, as at Gatun, there should be three locks in flight instead of one pair of locks with another at a short distance. 106 A CONFLICT OF OPINION 107 Secretary of War Taft, in transmitting reports and recommendations proposed by the majority of the American members of the Board of International Consulting Engineers as to the type of canal across the Isthmus, recommended the sanctioning of the adopted project except as to the location of the locks at Sosa Hill. There was a fear of the possibility of their destruction by hostile ship fire because of their proximity to the Pacific shore line. Sibert's first investigation concerned itself with this question of lock location on the Pacific side. He bore well in mind the military question raised by the Secretary of War concerning the proposal to locate the locks at Sosa Hill. A study of the situation soon convinced Sibert that to protect the locks on the Pacific side from gun fire from the sea, it would be necessary to change the proposed site from Sosa Hill to a point near Miraflores. Borings established the fact that suitable foundations existed there for two locks in flight. Study and boring experiment, however, had not proceeded far enough definitely to determine the question as to whether or not there existed at Miraflores a suitable foundation for three locks in flight. When the investigating work was at this stage, Major Sibert went to the United States on leave and during his absence without consulting him in any way, although he was in charge of lock design, the adopted plan was changed so as to provide for two locks at Miraflores and one at Pedro Miguel. Sibert strongly favored the location of three locks at Miraflores, provided a suitable foundation could be found 108 WILLIAM L. SIBERT there to sustain them. After his return from leave he continued his borings and established the fact that beyond peradventure the three locks in flight could be built advantageously upon the site which he favored. With his own opinion in the case held firmly, Sibert had comparative estimates made for two projects, one for three locks at Miraflores and one for separate locks, one at Pedro Miguel and two at Miraflores. His plan was not sanctioned, but today engineers and economists feel that it had been better if his judgment in the case had been taken. The matter at issue between Colonel Goethals and Major Sibert over these lock locations never was passed upon by the Isthmian Canal Commission. During a visit of the Secretary of War to the Canal Zone, Sibert, in writing, asked permission to discuss with him the plans of the locks on the Pacific side. The Secretary declined to grant the request. In a book written by William L. Sibert and John F. Stevens, The Construction of the Panama Canal, published by D. Appleton & Co., this question of the locks is discussed clearly while seemingly with no trace of rancor. The excerpts follow: "These estimates showed that the three Iocks on the Pacific side could be built in flight in one structure for about $4,000,000 less than if separated. This saving resulted largely from the following facts: "First, that only one set of guide and flare walls aggregating a length of about four thousand feet would be needed if the locks were in one structure, A CONFLICT OF OPINION 109 while two sets of such walls would be necessary if the structures were separated as stated. "Second, that only twenty lock gates and thirtythree sets of gate valves were necessary if all locks were together, while twenty-six gates and fifty-one sets of valves would be needed if the locks were separated. The six extra sets of gates would also require a material increase in length of lock walls to accommodate them. "Third, the smaller number of expensive machines for operating the gates and valves. "Fourth, only one emergency dam would be needed in the first case, and two in the second. "The estimates also showed that the operating and maintenance cost would be about $250,000 a year less for the three locks in flight. "The advantages and disadvantages to navigation afforded by each of the propositions were discussed. One line of thought led to the conclusion that the navigation interests and the water-supply question would be best met if all the locks of the Panama Canal were separated by material distances, and that where this could not be attained it should be approximated as closely as possible, and that not more than two locks should be built together if it could be avoided; it being thought in the beginning that the saving of water due to the use of intermediate gates could not be effected in a flight of three locks. "These intermediate gates divide the 1,000-foot lock chamber into two smaller chambers of lengths sufficient to accommodate to the best advantage ships of commerce not exceeding 550 feet in length. Ships of this class constitute over 95 per cent of the world's shipping which may reasonably be expected to use the Canal. "It was also pointed out that a ship breaking through the upper gates in a flight of locks would be 110 WILLIAM L. SIBERT more surely and completely wrecked than if it broke the upper gate of a lock where only one lift existed. General H. L. Abbott proved that, if the boats going from Colon to Panama were always passed through the same flight of locks-the west side, for instanceand those going the opposite direction through the east flight, that the same saving of water could be accomplished by the use of intermediate gates in a flight of three locks as could be if the locks were separatedwithout any cross-filling devices-which devices are of doubtful utility when the locks are used to maximum capacity. "The advocates of the three-lock design contended that it would probably make very little difference to a ship whether it plunged down one fall of thirty feet, or three; that it would be wrecked anyway; and that the damage to shipping would, in the three-lock design, be largely confined to the ship actually breaking the lock gates; while if the locks were separated, many other ships might be involved in the disaster on account of quickly draining the levels between locks and grounding the ships in such levels. "It was pointed out in the case of the flight of locks at Gatun that the upper miter-sill, which is about twenty-five feet above the general lake bottom in that vicinity, would limit the available depth in Gatun Lake, with the water flowing through the locks, to about thirty-one or thirty-two feet, and that, as the lake fell there would be no unusual difficulty in stopping the flow before the largest draft vessel would ground in the anchorage space south of the locks. That is, should such a catastrophe happen, the damage to shipping would be limited to the ship breaking the summit level. "It was also pointed out that should such an accident happen the damage to the Canal would be practically limited to the wreckage of the lock gates A CONFLICT OF OPINION 111 involved in the collision. The flow of about 100,000 cubic feet per second, which might result from breaking the summit level could not damage the masonry of the lock walls or floors and there was nothing below the locks to be damaged except the sea-level section of the Canal. This section is 500 feet wide and 41 feet deep and would carry 100,000 cubic feet with a mean velocity of about 5 feet per second, or less than 4 miles per hour. In that part of channel immediately below the locks where the guide wall divides it, the velocity should not exceed 7 miles per hour. To have no essential structures below the locks leading to the summit level of a canal, which in this case was a reservoir 164 square miles in area, was considered a material advantage. "It was also pointed out that should a lock gate be carried away at Pedro Miguel, there would develop almost immediately in the section through the Culebra Cut, which was then planned with a width of 200 feet, a current velocity of about 10 miles an hour which would imperil all vessels in such cut and would fill to overflowing in about thirty minutes the small lake between Pedro Miguel and the two locks at Miraflores. This might result in serious injury to the earthen dams and fills at Miraflores unless the spillway in the dam at that place was surely operated in a very short space of time. "It was pointed out that, if three locks were placed at Miraflores, the size and depth of the lake would be so increased over that in the two-lock project that, should a lock gate be carried away at Miraflores, the lake would fall so slowly that all ships in the Culebra Cut would probably have time to safely pass into either Gatun or Miraflores lakes before currents could be developed in that cut destructive to shipping. "The congestion and consequent difficulties to navigation brought about by providing a lock at the end of a long narow channel such as the Culebra Cut, due 112 WILLIAM L. SIBERT to the fact that ships accumulate and pass each other at locks, was pointed out. It was also pointed out that large ships could not pass each other in a 200-foot channel and that in order to attain the maximum number of lockages per day, it might be necessary to dispatch ships through the Cut in fleets and that lakes at both ends of the summit level would facilitate this. "The advantage of such lakes was still further emphasized by the fact that dense fogs are frequent in the Culebra Cut during the year, especially in the rainy season. These fogs rise from eight to ten P. M. and disappear about sunrise. The records showed that navigation would experience practically no difficulty in the sea-level parts of the Canal on account of fogs. "It was pointed out that the ability to pass ships to the summit level and have there a commodious harborage, where they could await the disappearance of the fog, would be a material advantage. "It was also pointed out that the greatest chance of accident in passing a ship through a lock was in entering the lock from the pool level above, as evidenced by the construction of duplicate lock gates at both ends of a lock next the summit or other levels, and by the construction and maintenance of expensive devices to stop the flow of water through a lock so situated, should its gates be caried away. Such entrance would take place only once if the three locks were in flight in one structure, and would take place two or three times if the locks were built at two or three sites. "A board of seven consulting engineers reported confidentially to the President that the better plan would be to build three locks at Miraflores. The matter was never passed upon by the Isthmian Canal Commission. An extended and bitter public discussion was then being carried on in the papers of the United States concerning the type of the canal. Changes in the adopted project could be utilized, it was thought, by the advocates of the sea-level plan in their arguments. a 4 J i i The Sibert family at home in Pittsburgh just prior to leaving for Panama. A CONFLICT OF OPINION 113 Changes in plans were classed as admissions of weakness in the lock-type canal. "It is interesting to note, in this connection, that the Annual Report of the Panama Canal, 1914, shows that the three locks on the Atlantic side of the Canal cost $2,130,000 less than the three locks on the Pacific side notwithstanding the fact that the sand, stone and cement in a cubic yard of concrete in the Atlantic locks cost $2.01 more than in a cubic yard of concrete in the Pacific locks. "The decision afterwards to widen the Culebra Cut to 300 feet will reduce the current in that cut to 61/2 miles an hour in case such an accident as that described above should happen. The many devices adopted to prevent accident to the lock gates, of course, make it very improbable that any such accident will occur, and the entrance to Pedro Miguel Lock can be still further widened, and thus minimize the disadvantage of having a lock at the end of a long narrow section of a canal." Well, in every controversy somebody is right and somebody is wrong. Bluntly, a comparison of the cost of maintaining and operating the flight of locks at Gatun in the years 1926, 1927 and 1928 (exclusive of neriodic overhauling) and that of the three locks on the Pacific side-the one at Pedro Miguel and the two at Miraflores-shows that the average cost per year of the Gatun locks was $470,646, while the average cost of maintaining and operating those toward the Pacific shore was $870,214. These figures indicate that having the locks on the Pacific side separated, instead of three in flight, is costing the Government nearly $400,000 a year, considerably more even than the $250,000 estimated by Sibert. 114 WILLIAM L. SIBERT The indications today are that the locks on the Panama Canal soon will be unable to accommodate the world's largest ships. When the Canal plans were made, the Commission believed that locks 100 feet wide and with a usable length of 1000 feet probably would meet the needs of the future so far as commerce was concerned, but inasmuch as the Canal also must meet the probable coming needs of the Navy, the matter of the lock size was referred to the General Board of the Navy for an opinion as to what the future requirements were likely to be. The Board, after studying the matter, decided that the proposed width of the locks should be increased by ten feet, making them 110 feet wide. The proposed length of 1000 feet was considered sufficient. Commerce through the Panama Canal has reached a greater volume than was anticipated. Today it seems quite certain that the waterway's capacity will be reached in the relatively near future. Provision already has been made by Congress for a survey for increasing the facilities of the Canal by the construction of additional locks at the sides of those now existing. This, when done, will set forward the time when the work must be started to provide another Isthmian route from ocean to ocean. Congress has authorized a plan to increase the water supply of the Canal through the means of another dam across the Chagres River in the neighborhood of Alhajuela. When built, this second dam will impound enough water not only to increase materially the supply for the Canal but to generate the elec A CONFLICT OF OPINION 115 tricity needed in the waterway's operation. This will release for navigation purposes a large part of the water which it is now necessary to divert for the use of the power plant at Gatun. XTTT BUILDING GATUN AND CHAINING THE CHAGRES The Panama Canal, as designed and built by the United States, is much larger than the waterway that was contemplated by the French. The plan for a larger waterway was necessitated by the great increase in the size of ships since the French had ceased their work. A greater water supply also was needed for the use of a Canal of the greater type. Therefore, the need was for a dam located as near to the mouth of the Chagres River as conditions would permit, for it was vital that the Gatun Lake, which was to be created by the impounded waters, should have as great storage capacity as possible. So it was decided to construct the dam at the point nearest the Atlantic Ocean that would provide suitable sites for locks! and dam. While the majority opinion was that a site at Gatun fulfilled the various conditions better than any other site, nevertheless there were many to question the feasibility of building a dam at the place virtually fixed upon. The majority of the International Board of Consulting Engineers expressed the opinion that "no such vast and doubtful experiment should be indulged in." Furthermore, this Board expressed the belief that it would require two 116 BUILDING GATUN 117 years longer to do the work at Gatun than it would require to build any other extensive part of the waterway. Sibert was in favor of the Gatun site and there the dam and locks were built and the great lake, formed by the impounded waters of the Chagres, was created. For twenty miles of the waterway's length the Gatun Lake provides passage for the ships of commerce and of the Navy. The dam at Gatun is a mile and one-half long. It was built across two geological gorges, the rock bottoms of which were from two hundred to two hundred and fifty feet below sea level. It was found that these great fissures were former beds of the Chagres River. When the side and bottom of the channel were definitely developed by borings, the geologists concluded that in this location there had been a subsidence of about 300 feet. The gorges were filled with a soft sea mud, and how to construct a dam on foundations like these with a 200 foot mud depth, was the problem with which Major Sibert was confronted. It had been held by the International Board of Consulting Engineers prior to the time the borings were made that the gorges were filled with a sandy clay mixture which would have considerable bearing capacity. In the original design made by these engineers the slope of the upper face of the dam was much steeper than the actual conditions proved to warrant as the construction proceeded. Therefore, the design was changed as the slides in the dam during its construction indicated was the 118 WILLIAM L. SIBERT necessary thing to do. Ultimately an original 1 on 3 slope was supplanted by a slope of about 1 on 8 on the upper face and by 1 on 11 on the lower face. In order to superimpose as small a load as practicable upon the dam's underlying material, its projected height was lessened by thirty feet. The fact that the Gatun Dam extended the entire way across the Valley of the Chagres from hill to hill, made the diversion and control of the intractable stream during the construction of the dam a serious problem, and this was especially true when the channels made their way through the soft mud. Fortunately, nature had provided a hill in the valley's center which afforded a suitable rock foundation for the control works and for the spillway channel, the bottom of which was fixed at ten feet above sea level. Matters ran along fairly smoothly until it became necessary to make the final diversion of water into the spillway channel. This rerouting involved building a diversion dam across one of the old geological gorges whose sides and channel were mud, and this soft, undependable material had a depth of 200 feet. At one of the meetings of the Congressional committee charged with the work of making appropriations for the Panama Canal, Sibert was asked this question: "If the Gatun Dam should fail, how will it fail?" His answer was to the effect that if it failed the failure would be due to the inability of the material underlying the dam to carry the load, and BUILDING GATUN 119 if such should prove to be the case, this material would slide out and lower the dam's crest. The Chairman of the Panama Canal Commission, Colonel Goethals, criticised Major Sibert for making such an answer, intimating that it showed a lack of faith in the success of the project. The question asked Sibert, however, was a direct one and it is his nature always to make a direct answer expressing his best judgment in any case. The history of the slides which occurred in the dam with that of the explorations made thereafter proved that Sibert was right in his statement. When a section of the dam between the locks and what is known as Spillway Hill was reaching completion, a settlement of from ten to fifteen feet occurred at the dam's crest for a total length of 1,000 feet. There was a sharp discussion as to the cause of it, Sibert contending that it had its origin in the material underlying the dam and was not in any way caused by lateral pressure in the hydraulic fill. Again he was proved to be right. Then there loomed something which looked like trouble for Sibert. He never had suggested that the Gatun Dam would fail in its mission, but he had said that if it did fail the failure would be due to a certain reason. Apparently a senior authority thought that this honest expression of an engineer's opinion constituted disloyalty to the waterway scheme. Sibert also had held that water pressure would exist under the floor of the upper flight of locks at Gatun and under the floor of the spillway 120 WILLIAM L. SIBERT channel just below the dam. This engineering opinion, coupled with the other one, caused the Secretary of War, who probably had been prompted in the premises, to ask the Chief of United States Engineers, General Marshall, to take Sibert away from Panama and to find for him another assignment. The writer of this life of Major General Sibert has been told by a person of unquestioned integrity that General Marshall told the Secretary of War that if the difference of opinion between Sibert and the Chief of the Panama construction work was on a question of engineering, he felt that Sibert was right. Secretary Taft, for at that time he held the War portfolio, told the Chief of Engineers that the difference of opinion did concern the proper engineering methods in the case. Then Marshall asked permission to look into the problems personally. He finally reported to Secretary Taft that Major Sibert was right and that in his opinion the War Department was fortunate in having in Panama not only a good engineer but one who was not afraid to stand for his convictions. Sibert was not relieved of his work at Panama and speedily provision was made that the floors of the Gatun Locks and those of the spillway channel should be built as he desired that they should be built, so that beyond any doubt they would be able to resist the upward water pressure induced by the lake. BUILDING GATUN 121 Before a final decision was made on these engineering questions, a Board composed of civilian engineers were taken to Panama by Mr. Taft. These civilians were asked to study the problems presented by the floors of the locks and the floor of the spillway channel below the dam. They made the study, turned in a report which never was made public; but Major Sibert was told to build the floors after his own plans. His engineering judgment thus was vindicated. Although Columbus did not know it, he first put foot on New World material which later was of service in the building of the Panama Canal. The stone and the sand used for making concrete for the Gatun Locks were brought from the seashores of Porto Bello and Nombre de Dios, two of the landing places of Columbus. So it was that from these places a large part of the material was obtained for use in making a passage across the barrier that confronted him in his search for a route to Far Cathay. In excavating for the sand at Nombre de Dios the wreck of an ancient sailing ship was found fifteen or twenty feet below the surface. The men who did the digging and those who watched it came to believe that this old craft was the boat that Columbus was reported to have abandoned somewhere along the shores of the Caribbean. One of Sibert's early duties was to start a search for a sand supply for the locks and spillway concrete. With Major Edgar Jadwin, recently Chief of 122 WILLIAM L. SIBERT Engineers of the United States Army and now a Lieutenant-General on the retired list, he paid a visit to the country occupied by San Blas Indians, who lived on coral islands in San Blas Bay. A seemingly suitable and adequate supply of sand had been tentatively located on the Bay. Sibert and Jadwin, with a few others, decided to visit the place and see for themselves the nature and extent of the sand thought to be available. The San Blas Indians were, and presumably still are, wary of the white man. Their suspicion of his motives and his likely deeds is said to be an inheritance from the days when their forefathers were maltreated and even tortured by the early Spanish explorers, notably by Balboa. Major Sibert in the book on The Construction of the Panama Canal (D. Appleton & Co.) gives this description of his visit to the San Bias Indians: "The tug on which this party came was a strange sight to the Indians. As soon as the island on which the Chief lived came into plain view one could see, looking through a glass, all of the women seeking a hiding-place, as seems to be the custom in that country when strange men appear. "As this tug drew near the island a naked Indian boy about ten or eleven years old was noticed in a small dugout pulling frantically for the shore; his fear and his efforts were so appealing that the tug stopped in order to give him time to safely reach land without crowding him too much with the tug. These Indians are efficient sailors and learn to handle a boat when very young. "When the inspection party reached the island on BUILDING GATUN 123 which the Chief lived they ascertained that he was not at home but that he would be home in the afternoon and that if the party returned it could then find out whether or not he would receive them. "In the meantime an inspection was made of the deposits of sand and of the country generally thereabout, and at the appointed time the inspection party proceeded to the island on which the Chief lived. In the meantime a great many Indians had come to this island from the surounding islands. The contemplated visit had probably excited the Indian community more than it had been excited for a long time. "When the party landed on the island it was led through a labyrinth of Indian dwellings and finally conducted into the Chief's quarters. This old Chiefabout seventy years of age-was seated upon a block of timber and he motioned the visitors to a seat on the sand at his feet-the floor of the house being sand. An air of solemnity surrounded the whole proceeding. "This Chief was told of the intention of the United States Government to connect the Atlantic and Pacific oceans by a canal so that boats could cross in a short time; he was told how this would improve the trade of the Indians; and how it would increase the price of his cocoanuts and his ivory nuts. The old Chief listened to the story and after it was finished, stated that God had given the Indians that country, the land and water, and the sand that was under the water, and that which God had given the Indians they would neither sell nor give to the white man; and, after another attempt was made to present further arguments, with a wave of his hand, he said: 'There is no need to talk further'. "The Chief was informed that permission could be obtained from the Republic of Panama to get this sand and that it could be taken, but that the United States preferred to pay for it and would pay for all of the sand procured from their territory if suitable arrange 124 WILLIAM L. SIBERT ments could be made. The Chief replied that he owed no allegiance to the Republic of Panama and would not permit the United States to take the sand. "From this interview it was evident that sand could not be procured from the San Blas Indian country without bloodshed. In addition, it seemed a pity to disturb a life that was so unique and strong, in an Indian way at least. (The sand was finally obtained at Nombre de Dios, one of the places at which Columbus landed.) "Permission was asked to anchor for the night, which was granted on condition that the party leave early next morning and never return. "The discipline of these people, the power of the Chief, and the respect of the tribe for him, as shown during this visit, were remarkable. "The physical condition and strength of these island Indians attracted one's attention immediately, and the reason for it in this tropical country was sought. Investigations showed that there was no fresh water on the little coral islands where the Indians lived and, consequently, no breeding-places for malarial or yellow fever mosquitoes, such mosquitoes never breeding in sea water. This, coupled with the fact that the malarial mosquito does not bite or feed in the daytime, when the Indians were on the mainland looking after their banana and cocoanut plantations, largely furnishes the reason why these particular Indians were not cursed with the two worst tropical diseases-yellow fever and malaria." Prior to granting the interview with Sibert and Jadwin the San Blas Chieftain had sent all his woman folk into hiding. There was some curiosity on the part of the visitors as to where the female part of the population had gone. Their curiosity later was satisfied. BUILDING GATUN 125 Night came down during Sibert's and Jadwin's interview with the San Bias natives who were crowded about the visiting party. Every few minutes one of the young Indians would feel of Sibert's clothes, apparently wishing to find out of what they were made. Finally the Major, becoming a little nervous over the clothes plucking and the general crowded conditions, asked for a light. Over the audience chamber was a loft with a large central opening. When the light was brought in Sibert looked up in time to see a score of women withdraw their heads to seek the cover of darkness. The women, unseen, had been interested listeners to the conference since its beginning. When the International Board of Consulting Engineers had said that it probably would take two years longer to build the Gatun Locks and Dam than it would any other element of the great work, Major Sibert determined if it were humanly possible to plan the work so as to eliminate the twoyear handicap and to finish it coincidently with the completion of the other elements. To do what he wanted to do it was necessary to place concrete at a faster rate than ever it had been placed before. There are more than two million cubic yards of concrete in the Gatun Locks. In addition to this, there is an immense amount in the dam that supports the control works at the entrance to the spillway channel. Sibert learned quickly that in order to finish the lock work on time, it would be necessary virtually to double the world's maximum 126 WILLIAM L. SIBERT rate of placing concrete. For months on months an average of 3,000 cubic yards of the material a day were placed in the Gatun Locks alone by means of only one plant. In one month the concrete emplacement was 89,000 cubic yards. No work was done at night or on Sundays. The magnitude of the task, giving thought to the coordination of works that was indispensable, can be judged by the knowledge that it was necessary to tow all of the stone and the sand across an arm of the Caribbean Sea to the scenes of the labor. It was this stone and sand work which was a part of the duties of Major Sibert's assistant, Major Edgar Jadwin, who now is Chairman of the board appointed to restudy the Nicaraguan Canal problem and with it the problem of the enlargement of the facilities at the various lock sites on the present Canal. Captain Stickle, of the Corps of Engineers, was in local charge of the quarry and of the production of the crushed stone at Porto Bello. During the first year of the work at Porto Bello, 240 inches of rain fell. Under this deluge at the time of the opening of the quarry everything slid that could slide and the situation was wet with troubles. Major Sibert told Captain Stickle that the stone must come, and the junior continually was urged to speed up the supply. Stickle was faithful in the face of the elements and other things. For a whole month he made no verbal answer to Major Sibert's importunities but at the end of one period of thirty days he sent this wireless to Sibert at Gatun: BUILDING GATUN 127 "Fifty-eight inches of rain this month. Everything over fifty inches considered an act of God." The proper preparation of the foundation of the lower end of the Gatun Locks, including the bases for the flare walls, presented one of the most difficult problems connected with the construction. Suitable rock for foundation purposes was in some places as much as seventy feet below sea level and it was covered with soft mud which when disturbed would flow and assume slopes as flat as 1 vertical to 13 horizontal. Out of a study of the situation came a decision to build a temporary reinforced concrete dam across the end of the locks proper so as to keep out the sea water and to allow the work of the installation of the lock gates and the machinery to proceed, and to use dredges to make the excavation for the guide and lower flare walls. The Canal section from the Atlantic Ocean to Gatun had been completed to within 1000 feet of the locks, and a channel just big enough for the passage of a dredge was dug connecting this channel with the lower end of the locks. A dredge was then placed at work making the excavation at the north end of the lock site to a depth of 40 feet below sea level. An earthen dam was then placed between the dredge and the ocean, shutting off all connection with the sea, and water sufficient for the operation of the dredge was pumped into the pit in which the dredge lay. This enabled it to continue work, lowering itself as the excavation proceeded, and ulti 128 WILLIAM L. SIBERT mately the machine found itself grounded on rock 55 feet below sea level and there it remained pumping out slides as they approached the foundation area until the guide and north flare walls were completed. After this work was done water was let into the area and the dredge was refloated. It then removed the bank that had been left as a coffer dam and thus completed the Canal from Gatun to the sea. Probably no other dredge engaged in engineering work has had a similar history. The locks at Gatun were ready for the passage of ships in September, 1913, and on the 26th of that month the Tug Gatun was safely passed from the sea-level section of the Canal to the summit level, and because all the other locks of the Canal are similar in structure, this test was a test of all of them as well as a test for the Canal itself. Thus that part of the waterway which the International Board of Engineers thought would require two years longer to build than any other element of the work, was completed first. The other Canal units, the Culebra Cut and the locks and dams on the Pacific side, were nearing completion and the age-old dream of a practicable route across the Isthmus shortly was realized. 1 _ ktb, i-.t,,, -Aw - tt- ~ c~. t -it -I t The tug Gatun, first vessel to pass through any lock in the Panama Canal. Sept. 26, 1913. XIV BOTH LIGHT AND SERIOUS During the construction of the Canal there were some earth tremors at Panama, not rising perhaps to the dignity of earthquakes but something more pronounced than a mere trembling of the ground. The tremors persisted, occurring quite frequently, and naturally enough the inhabitants of the Canal Zone became nervous. Some of these disturbances were strong enough to shake vases from the mantelpieces of the officers' quarters. Things of this kind occurred in Major Sibert's domicile, and while he continually was trying to make it emphatic to the members of his household that the tremors could not shake a wooden house from its foundations, the shakings nevertheless were disconcerting. Mrs. Sibert had employed Jamaican negroes as servants. One of them had been in Martinique during the time of the Mount Pelee disaster and she was exceedingly nervous. One evening when the earth was afflicted with a trembling fit, the girl fell on her knees just inside the doorway and began fervently to pray. While Mrs. Sibert under all ordinary circumstances had a firm belief in the efficacy of prayer, she felt that in this instance the yard was a safer place than the 129 130 WILLIAM L. SIBERT parlor. The Jamaican girl at her devotions was blocking the doorway. Mrs. Sibert took her by the shoulders, raised her up, and said, "Don't you know that the best place to pray during an earthquake is out of doors?" There were no earth tremors at Panama during the days of Canal construction that were serious or even threatening. The earthquake history of Panama contains no pages as serious as the history of a great section of the country in the lower Ohio River and Mississippi valleys. In 1811 there was an earthquake of sufficient intensity to create Reelfoot Lake in Tennessee and to cause the lowering of a great section of country in Arkansas and Missouri now known as the "Sunk Lands." On the Isthmus the spire of the Cathedral at Old Panama, which does not seem to be a particularly stable structure, has remained in position for over three centuries, while other structures are still standing that certainly would have been destroyed by an earthquake of much intensity. During the years of the work at Panama there were only two hotels on the Isthmus at which transients could obtain accommodations. At all of the places where the larger elements of the work were being developed, there were eating houses for the white men and negroes, one at each place for the American whites, another for the foreign whites, and one for the negroes. When distinguished guests would go to Gatun to remain through the lunch hour, Major Sibert usually invited them to his home BOTH LIGHT AND SERIOUS 131 for their mid-day refreshment. Whenever Mrs. Sibert intended to visit the United States she took the precaution to instruct the Jamaican servants how to prepare three palatable and sufficient lunches, designating them as Lunches 1, 2 and 3. This little arrangement reduced the lunch problem of the Major to a minimum. When he knew that he was to have guests he simply would telephone the house to prepare one of these luncheons, giving the number, and the number of people who were to be present at the board. When Theodore Roosevelt went down to South America on an exploring expedition after he had left the Presidency, his wife, with a small party, accompanied him for a part of the way. They left him in South America, to return to the United States via Panama. When Mrs. Roosevelt and her party arrived at Gatun, Major Sibert, after personally showing them the lock-building operations, invited them to have luncheon at his quarters. From his office he called up, his house and directed the cook to prepare lunch No. 1 for five people, and unfortunately remarked that Mrs. Roosevelt would be in the party. No sooner had the cook heard this than she passed the word quickly among all of the Jamaican servants of Gatun that the "Queen of America" was to have lunch "at our house today." It is hardly necessary to mention perhaps that these Jamaicans were brought up under the British flag and had an ingrained respect for royalty. 132 WILLIAM L. SIBERT On reaching the house, Sibert instantly noticed that every piece of bric-a-brac and silver, no matter what part of the quarters it hitherto had graced, had been brought down and placed on parade in the main living room which also was the place of reception for guests. This caused the host some embarrassment but he said nothing. He led his guests into the dining room. He expected Lunch No. 1, but the cook had views of her own. She had prepared Lunches 1, 2 and 3, and in they came, course after course. Sibert didn't know what was the matter, but he went through with the meal as best he could. Occasionally the Major thought he detected a glint in the eyes of Mrs. Roosevelt. Luncheon finally was over save for the serving of coffee. Sibert told the butler that they would drink their coffee in the reception room. In a few minutes the Jamaican major-domo appeared with a huge silver waiter, three feet in length by two in width, upon which, lost in area, were five tiny after-dinner cups of coffee. The camel's back broke. Sibert went out into the kitchen and asked the big Jamaican cook in language not lacking in force, what she meant by all this ridiculous parade. She rose and with Jamaican dignity informed him that she knew how to entertain royalty! The Major went back to the sitting room and told the thing from beginning to end to Mrs. Roosevelt. He may not have known it but the "Queen of America" had been alive to the fun of BOTH LIGHT AND SERIOUS 133 the thing from the beginning and had been put to it to keep her amusement under control. Putting it in an entirely familiar way, she had been having the time of her life. However, Sibert found sympathy and understanding that the humor could not conceal. The Panama Canal was completed in 1914 and shortly after it was opened to the commerce of the world the engineers and the sanitarians returned to new fields of labor in the United States. While the work on the Isthmus was continuing, friends of the engineers in charge of the chief integral parts of the construction were surprised that the names of these great workmen seldom if ever appeared in the newspaper and magazine accounts of the progress of the project. Seemingly one man was building the locks, creating the lake, digging the Culebra Cut, and making the Isthmus sanitary. The writer of this biography looked vainly at that time for any assignment of credit to Sibert, Gaillard, or to anyone else whose engineering skill was employed to perfect the waterway. So far as the sanitary end of the enterprise was concerned, William C. Gorgas occasionally was given a modicum of credit, but on one occasion the writer read a long article in a metropolitan paper giving the praise for the turning of the Panama pesthole into the most healthful place on earth, to a chief member of the Commission who knew nothing about sanitation, stegomyia mosquitoes, yellow fever, malaria, or chilblains. 134 WILLIAM L. SIBERT However, when the work on the waterway was virtually completed, a long series of articles written by an independent investigator appeared in many papers of the United States, which while giving credit to the chief administrator of the Canal operations for his fine work, also gave due recognition by name to the engineers and the sanitarians who for seven years had toiled ceaselessly to bring their works to that point of perfection which they reached. The people of the United States and Congress with them learned then virtually for the first time of the high achievements of the men who had built the locks, dams, cuts, lakes and other construction elements of the Canal. Congress took the information, acted upon it, and gave promotion to the faithful. The Panama Canal is a fact. It is in successful operation and is fulfilling the predictions which the most hopeful ones made for its future. The volume of the world's commerce has increased; ships of greater length, beam and tonnage constantly are being launched. There are other reasons, the students of the situation hold, which seemingly make it necessary that further means shall be taken to provide unfettered passage from sea to sea. On this special matter, General Sibert recently expressed his views. He holds that the Government of the United States should begin the construction of a Nicaraguan Canal, not entirely because of the increase in commerce through the already constructed waterway but largely because of South and Central American political conditions. So far as BOTH LIGHT AND SERIOUS 135 the increase in commerce alone is concerned, General Sibert believes that the capacity of the Panama Canal can be increased materially by building locks by the side of those already constructed. Means are now being taken to increase the water supply sufficiently to serve these additional locks. Political conditions rather than present commercial necessities, he thinks, make the construction of the new waterway vital to the interests of the United States, especially since such a canal must ultimately be built. Following the line of General Sibert's thoughts on this subject, it seems that the countries of South and Central America are irritated because of certain happenings which have come in the wake of the signing of a treaty between the United States and Nicaragua that gives Uncle Sam the sole right to build a canal across the Central American state. Especially irritating to the countries of South and Central America seems to be the fact that United States troops are maintained in Nicaragua to keep that country from anarchy and to prevent it from entering into arrangements with other states that might jeopardize its treaty rights. When in the administration of Theodore Roosevelt the Canal Zone was taken over, a deep impression was made upon the Latin American countries. They asked, "What does the Monroe doctrine mean? Does it mean that the United States says to other nations 'Thou shalt not take' when it intends to take itself " This instance, General Sibert believes, coupled 136 WILLIAM L. SIBERT with the occupation of Nicaragua by American troops and other operations in the West Indies, has increased the feeling of suspicion in South American countries that the program of the United States is not altogether based on unselfishness. "If," says General Sibert, "the Nicaraguan question could be settled by the actual construction of a canal in accordance with the treaty, one of the sorest spots in the relations between the United States and South America would be healed. There would be no repetition of the Colombian incident. Nicaragua treated as a sovereign power alone would be concerned and there could be no question at all concerning the rights in the case of either the United States or of Nicaragua." If the United States shall undertake the building of the Nicaraguan Canal it probably will be necessary to enter into a treaty with Costa Rica, for the San Juan River for a portion of its length forms the boundary line between that country and Nicaragua. General Sibert believes that it will take several years to settle all of the questions affecting the right-of-way and its definite line. As Sibert views the general matter of Isthmian canals, the development, of the airplane and the submarine has increased materially the difficulties of maintaining unimpeded the operation of the great waterway. He does not think that the Panama Canal can be destroyed but he believes there always will be a chance to put it temporarily out of commission by the explosion of a well directed bomb. Lock gates, he thinks, might be crippled and canal BOTH LIGHT AND SERIOUS 137 operation stopped at a time when its use would be essential to war-time operations. Because of these dangers Sibert thinks that two canals will be far better than one and that the second should be built as soon as preliminary arrangements for its construction can be made. If a radical government should get control in Nicaragua, it might abrogate the treaty with the United States under the pretense that it was obtained under duress. If Uncle Sam's rights in this case were to be maintained by force, the cost of maintaining them might be as great as that necessary for the building of the second Canal. XV. UNDER THE RED CROSS IN CHINA Through the ages the Chinese people living in the valleys of the Huai and other rivers periodically have suffered from conditions of flood. The history of the Huai River district is so interwoven with that of the Yellow River and the Grand Canal, that work done to meet conditions in the Huai alone cannot be separated from that done for the same stream combined with the Yellow River. It is said that the last time the Yellow changed its course one million Chinese were drowned. The whole history of this district as well as that of other of the valleys of China is charged with stories of disaster. Floods and subsequent famines had taken their heavy toll of lives. The American Red Cross in several different years had been called to the service of ameliorating, in so much as was possible, the sufferings of the people following the invasion of the lands by the waters of the Huai, the Yellow and other rivers. To Miss Mabel Boardman, at that time Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Red Cross, the thought came that it might be possible, through plans devised by American engineers, to control the waters of the Huai at least sufficiently to minimize the dangers and to reduce the suffering which always followed in the wake of a flood. 138 RED CROSS IN CHINA 139 There were obstructions in the way of the fulfillment of her plan, but Miss Boardman was not discouraged by knowledge that before she could see her wish realized it would be necessary to make arrangements with a foreign government, to secure the passage of an Act of Congress, and to get the proper authority for the loan of an engineer officer of the United States Army to undertake the task ahead. These three things were accomplished and in the spring of 1914, after an agreement had been reached with the Republic of China, a board of engineers was appointed by the American Red Cross to make a study of the conditions in the Huai River valley and to formulate a plan for flood prevention. The members of the Board were Colonel William L. Sibert, Chairman, Daniel W. Mead and Arthur P. Davis. The engineers reached China in June, 1914, and established their headquarters in Shanghai. From there the members went immediately to Peking to pay their respects to Yuan Shih Kai, then President of China. The Manchus had been dethroned but were still living in the Forbidden City. The President gave the engineers an audience and contented himself largely with saying that he believed that the floods in the Yellow and Huai Rivers were due to the deforestation of the country. The call on Yuan Shih Kai was little more than a formality. By the order of the President a Chinese, Yen Yeting, was detailed to act as interpreter for the Board of Engineers. Mr. Yen never had been outside of 140 WILLIAM L. SIBERT his native land but he spoke English perfectly and the extent of his general knowledge was such that Colonel Sibert and his colleagues soon realized that it would be better for them to brush up on English literature if they were to be unhappy enough to be led by Mr. Yen into a discussion on the subject. An order was sent out by President Yuan Shih Kai to all the magistrates in the sections of the country to be visited by the engineers that they were to extend every courtesy to the Board, and to give every aid possible to their work. Now as it happened the engineers soon found that these instructions were to be the cause of certain trials and tribulations. Chinese officials are given over to the banquet habit whenever there is an excuse for a call to the dinner table. Every magistrate considered it his duty, privilege and honor to bid the engineers to a feast. There were many feasts, and many hours were consumed in the eating thereof. The visitors soon became surfeited with food and embarrassment. The courses served at each dinner were so numerous that even an engineer whose education was based on mathematics lost count of them before he had been six hours in his seat. Moreover, the nature of the food was to them as much of a puzzle as the wheel and axle problem had been in their earlier educational days. Again, moreover, they were compelled to eat everything with chopsticks, or at least to try so to do. Each of these banquets-the word dinners doesn't serve the descriptive purpose-lasted the greater part of RED CROSS IN CHINA 141 the night. The participants were permitted to rest for a time after an inconceivable number of courses had been served. At these times they took their ease on couches, returning after the respite to renew the attack. Mr. Yen, the Chinese interpreter, one day told Colonel Sibert that Americans didn't seem to enjoy their money as much as the Chinese would if they had the same amount. When he was asked what he would do with his money if he had it, Mr. Yen answered, "I would eat six meals a day." Several times within the range of recorded history, the Yellow River has changed its course. The last change was in 1852 when the river's course was so diverted that it emptied into the Yellow Sea fully 250 miles north of its former outlet. The river bed was changed for 400 miles of its length and the waters spread into a channel between ten and fifteen miles in width. It was a decade before the Chinese could build levees and control the stream in its new location. When a thing of this kind happens in a country so densely populated that the people in normal times barely can subsist, the ensuing suffering can be imagined. When the Yellow River took the course occupied prior to its change in 1852, it assumed possession of the channel of the Huai River from Hungtse Lake to the sea and there remained for 500 years. During that time the country lying to the south toward the Yangtse River was flooded every year. The Chinese built a cut-stone wall 35 miles long and 20 feet high on the southeast side of the Lake to pro 142 WILLIAM L. SIBERT tect the outlying country. Although this wall would provide protection against a rise of 20 feet in the Lake, the Chinese mind still demanded something additional in the way of protection. There was a superstition in the country that bulls were able to prevent floods, so two huge cast-iron bulls were made and placed on top of the wall to assist, if not to complete, the work of flood protection. The Chinese did nothing in a niggardly way in those days. They gave the bulls hearts of gold and other organs of silver. After a time the Chinese found out that the bulls were not fulfilling their mission. The rains descended and the floods came. A surgical operation disclosed the fact that some fearless Chinaman had robbed the animals of their interior treasures, and learning of this, the first Emperor of the Manchu dynasty had the bulls repaired and their lost organs replaced. They were still doing duty, or at any rate trying to do it, when the American engineers looked on the wall. This wall, while it served to check the overflow of waters to the south, flooded the country above it to such an extent that it was necessary to provide openings in the masonry to allow the waters to pass through. During its 500 years of depredation the Yellow River filled the Hungtse Lake with sediment until its bottom was ten feet higher than the cultivated land to the south and east, and in addition to this the old bed of the Huai River from the Lake to the sea was filled to such an extent that the filling was above the level of the surrounding country. The natural result was that the waters of the Huai RED CROSS IN CHINA 143 had no adequate outlet to the sea even after the Yellow River had made up its mind to change its course and had carried out its intention. The Chinese Minister of Agriculture said the Huai River needed a dose of salts but that he did not know how to administer it. The problem that confronted the American engineers finally was reduced to a plan to provide an outlet that would carry off the flood waters. A plan was devised to accomplish this, and at the same time to reclaim the bed of the Hungtse Lake which was 500 square miles in area. This land, when sold, would have paid for the entire reclamation work and the Red Cross probably could have financed the work, which would have been carried through had not the great war come to disturb conditions in all lands. During the conflict there was friction between Japan and China, which of itself would have prevented the prosecution of the labor of reclamation. Since the war closed the Chinese have not had a sufficiently stable government to undertake any essential internal public improvements. The members of the Engineering Board took with them to China fifteen American engineers and assistants. The party spent considerable time in the interior of the country and, as General Sibert has said, received many impressions and drew many conclusions, some of which may have been wrong but all of which certainly were interesting. As an example of Chinese courtesy may be given an incident connected with the visit to Tsingkiangpu on the Grand Canal. The magistrate at that place 144 WILLIAM L. SIBERT came down in state to call on the Americans, who were living in a houseboat where they had their own cook and a supply of American food. The Chinese official offered the visitors his house but they courteously declined to accept. The magistrate told them he was exceedingly sorry that he was compelled to leave the next day to go to a distant point to settle a grasshopper dispute. In order, however, that the Americans might be comfortable until his return he sent down to the boat five sedan chairs, each manned with four coolies accompanied by six servants of various duties in life. The visitors therefore were compelled to add twenty-six men to their retinue, and not only generally to look after them but to feed them and pay them. The financial burden, however, was not heavy for it amounted to just ten cents a day for each member of the added force. The burden of looking after twenty-six Chinamen, however, was somewhat onerous and the Americans cut their stay short. The magistrate had gone to a distant place to end a "grasshopper dispute." The country at this time was scourged by flights of these insects, which were more numerous perhaps than ever they were in Kansas in the days of crop devastations. At the time that the magistrate was endeavoring to arbitrate the "dispute," the grasshoppers were young, unable to fly and just big enough to hop along, billions in numbers, eating every green thing which came in their way. The Chinese in the stricken districts turned out by the hundreds with flags, gongs, brushes and n:a`~~-:~~ ~ t".Y ~v-,r~ - r . ~ rM `~ " t,b "' *.s ~.'*"t~ a:C.~; ~~: h- U*. , 9 -~ ~4n~~. a a c -r ~r d,e -n -~ ( ~- ~ —~ -- ~I " 4~: a~ ' ~x ` S` *""' c. ~~ P~r ~ ~Y ,~ ~~ ~r, "' * ~P 18 s;, * m- *~ *-~i; '1SBbi r- -~L 'pa9 LT Ip -t-2, "' "a,. & ~a"t r: '' ~ P"( ' ~~~-~~~*c,;, +:Ja. '" 'B*. "lpbp.~,.. X I~ i~ 66~ ~~ i *,~: B~:lsPa " zjL'~sd 4' ~\~ ~ —-"' 18 r;X" d as. s.,~3 Lk.Sk*.jsb'E*6119qis]~ a xar., r iitlln 8l'illwny. 8818itPS11PghP;I Gatun L,(cks anTd 1)am, completed. RED CROSS IN CHINA 145 brooms. When the grasshopper drivers of one province reached the boundary line of a neighbor province they encountered an army of drivers engaged in the same work of chasing grasshoppers. Each force was trying to drive its own grasshoppers on to the land of the opposing force. Hence the row. The understanding of the Americans was that the magistrates of the two provinces settled the affair by putting the opposing forces at work digging a ditch which was so deep that after the grasshoppers were driven into it they were unable to hop out. When the insects once were in the ditch dirt was thrown on them. The American engineers heard of this method of arbitration and had an opportunity to praise their host, whom they met once more, upon the sterling quality of his wisdom. Conditions may have changed somewhat in China since the visit of the American engineers flying the Red Cross. At that time the Chinese whom they met seemed to be wholly industrious and cared little or nothing who their ruler was or what the character of their government was so long as they could have a house full of boy babies and rice enough to make the family rounds. A girl baby was looked upon as an economic burden. When she married she went to another family and there her work became an asset to the household, but in babyhood and in childhood the girl in many cases was looked upon as a liability; when there was not food enough for all the members of the family, girl babies frequently were put out to die. General Sibert saw several Chinese girls that as 146 WILLIAM L. SIBERT babies had been rescued from starvation by missionaries. One of the surveying parties of the expedition found a live baby that had been put out to die. It was raining and the leader of the survey went to a nearby village to try to get somebody to take the child, offering five dollars to anybody who would undertake to send it to a mission. No one would respond. The engineer went back to find the child dead. There is, or was at that time, an unwritten law among the Chinese to the effect that any person who saves the life of another assumes responsibility for the one saved and must support him in case he cannot support himself. It is for this reason that one Chinaman ordinarily will not assist another in distress unless they are of the same family. The average Chinaman will, or would in another day, not long past, stand by and watch another Chinaman drown without offering to give a helping hand. Every foreigner who intends to penetrate the interior of China must have with him a Chinese boy who can speak pidgin-English at least, to attend to all his arrangements. The traveler who is able to do so takes with him two boys, a No. 1 Boy and a No. 2 Boy. It is the duty of No. 1 Boy to take charge of everything while No. 2 Boy acts largely as his assistant. No. 1 buys and undertakes all necessary negotiations in his master's behalf with the Chinese people. Following an immemorial custom of the country he keeps for himself a certain percentage of the cost of all purchases and this percentage, picturesquely and perhaps entirely prop RED CROSS IN CHINA 147 erly, is called "squeeze." A foreigner cannot buy Chinese products in the interior for half what the native can buy them for and the price which No. 1 Boy pays when he renders the bill to his employer includes the squeeze. No. 2 takes charge of the traveler's baggage and attends to his laundry. When Colonel Sibert went to Shanghai he was met by his wife and daughter. Mrs. Sibert was anxious to find out about the condition of her husband's clothes. She opened his valise and began to inspect the articles therein. Suddenly No. 2 Boy, who was watching this performance, ran to her, pulled the valise away and said, "That's my master's!" Naturally Mrs. Sibert resented this violent invasion of her rights as a wife, but the rights of No. 2 Boy also had to be upheld to a point that would "save his face." When in China Sibert wore a cork helmet constantly. When he left the country he gave it to No. 1 Boy and told him to dispose of it in some way. No. 1 said, "Me keep it till you come back." The General has felt a strong inclination ever since to return to China to see if Tuan still cherishes his cork helmet, and he has little doubt that if he should return to find Tuan still alive he would find his helmet waiting for him. Time is nothing to a Chinaman. XVI AS YESTERDAY, SO TODAY It was sixteen years ago at this writing that the Red Cross sent the American Board of Engineers into China to look over the flood and famine lands. Changes have taken place in the country during the elapsed time, but in large measure China, save for the disturbed political conditions of the present, is much the same today as it was yesterday and for all the other yesterdays of recorded and unrecorded time. General Sibert has given directly some of the impressions made upon him during the months that he spent in conducting his survey in the valleys of the Eastern land. "Ancestor worship seemed to me," the Gereral said, "to be the curse of China. As a result of it age, and in many cases extreme age, controls everything, and thus the initiative of youth is lost and little or no progress can be made. Each generation does things as preceding generations did them. Crops are gathered and winnowed as in Biblical times. I have photographs of farm processes that well could be used to illustrate a Bible commentary. But with it all, the Chinese know many things. When I first boarded our houseboat I saw a Chinaman moving a cane back and forth in a large earthen 148 AS YESTERDAY, SO TODAY 149 vessel of water. I saw that the water gradually was being cleared and I asked the Chinaman what he was doing. I found that the cane had been pierced with small holes and that it was full of powdered alum. This alum, in dissolving, clarified the water. The use of alum for clearing water is a practice that we recently have adopted in some of the modern plants using rapid sand filtration. This means of clarifying water I found had been used in China for centuries. "Our agricultural colleges lately have been showing us how the legume-the pea, the bean, the clover and other growths-extracts nitrogen from the air and fixes it as a nitrate in the soil. Through these same plants the Chinese have maintained the fertility of their soil for ages. They do not understand the theory, but they know the fact. "When the ancient civilization of Greece and Rome began to develop the mechanical arts, the ways of the East and the West separated. In the Orient the best minds continued the further expansion of rational philosophies, while the West, unhandicapped by caste or by ancestor worship, learned more and more how to apply the laws of nature to produce usable results. The East itself learned many facts but made no deductions. Its engineers, however, did relatively great things, even wonderful things, in the early ages. but they never learned the laws controlling the flow of water in streams or in canals. "There are evidences that the practical Chinaman strove four or five hundred years ago to put into 150 WILLIAM L. SIBERT operation essentially the same plans for controlling the floods of the Huai River that our Engineering Board adopted. Had these people turned to steel and mechanics and had they had a religion that did not involve the worship of their grandsires, they might be our teachers today. "The Grand Canal is more than a thousand miles long. Its bed was dug by hand and the digging began before the beginning of the Christian era and was completed before America was discovered. Similar excavation work still is done in China by man labor. The dirt is removed in baskets at as low a cost as three and a half cents per cubic yard. This is cheaper than the most modern machine possibly can do the work, thus showing that the human machine is the most efficient of all when the entire cost of its operation is the price of the rice fuel that it consumes. "In the voyage up the Huai I saw a temple on a high hill overlooking the river. I asked what it was and was told that it was built in honor of an engineer whose name was Yu and who lived 4,000 years ago. Tradition, and also seemingly trustworthy history, credits him with fixing the course of the Yangtse, the Yellow, the Huai, and the Tze Rivers. Granting that the information was correct, this Chinese engineer, Yu, probably was the first engineer to attempt to prevent floods by constructing a continuous line of levees along the banks of a stream. "When I expressed to a native my regret that the Chinese mind had not continued its early trend toward science, a trend that led to the building of AS YESTERDAY, SO TODAY 151 the Great Wall, the Grand Canal, and other equally great works, he replied simply that the Chinese civilization had continued longer than any other. I attributed that continuance more to the absence of neighbors that had learned the mechanical arts than to any qualities inherent in the Chinese civilization. "My belief is that ancestor worship and the consequent development of the family as almost the sole interest in life, is the underlying reason for no community spirit, no concert of action, no national aspiration, and no progress in China. "We hear much about the position of inferiority which the Chinese women must take, and while it is a fact that a Chinese man and woman seldom see each other before their marriage, the mother is just as potent a factor in the management of household affairs as the American woman is today in her home, especially if she has sons. "One day our boat was being towed on the Grand Canal by twenty men making their way along the bank. It had been raining hard and the current in the canal finally became so swift that the men could make no further progress and so we tied up. Then the problem of obtaining food for the twenty towers had to be solved. There were so many robbers in that part of the country that we were provided with a soldier guard. I sent two of the soldiers to a nearby village to buy food, but they returned saying that there was no food to be had. Then I took an interpreter and went to the village. The head man told me that they had no grain ground and no food of any kind. 152 WILLIAM L. SIBERT "All of the people of a small village had gathered about to see the strangers. My eye fell on a woman about forty years of age. I thought from her poise and her general appearance that probably she had something to say in that town. With the interpreter I went over to her and showed her some money. When she saw it she said she could get food for us, and the food was forthcoming. I discovered later that our soldier escort never paid for anything, but laid thieving hands on whatever it wanted. On the night of the day that the food was purchased, I heard the firing of guns in and about the village. Later I discovered that the object of the shooting was to give notice to the robbers in the vicinity that the villagers had guns for their protection. These people evidently believed in publishing their preparedness. "The poverty of China was appalling. The interior of the country in 1914, with no industry but farming, would have made an interesting study for Malthus. The population had increased to the limit of the food supply. Lack of transportation and of mechanical development forced the people to use fire for no purpose except for cooking, while all about them vast coal fields lie undeveloped. Since that day steps have been taken to give to the people of the interior some knowledge of sanitary methods and of medicine. Some doctors have been developed in the communities, but it appears to me that an industrial commission to study the manufacturing possibilities of the various villages and to provide proper instruction in other means of making a live AS YESTERDAY, SO TODAY 153 lihood than by agriculture would be a supreme blessing. "Agricultural work in any country can reach a limit of production, but with a combination of agriculture and manufacturing, growth can continue unchecked for centuries. Common labor in Japan at the time of our trip to the East received four times as much pay as the Chinese coolies. This was due to the demand in Japan for workmen for manufacturing enterprises. A Chinese laborer received six or seven cents a day in gold and this gave him the means to maintain only a bare existence. "Robbers infested a large part of the territory that was under examination by the American engineers. It was not at all an unusual occurrence on entering a village to see a robber's head nailed to a post at the side of the road giving access to the community. The head was displayed as an object lesson to live robbers. The military command at Tsingkiangpu would not permit us to go into any robber-infested country without an escort of soldiers. "One night when the Board's boat tied up to the bank of the Grand Canal the soldiers forming the guard gathered up all the gongs that they could find in the nearby country and paraded for some distance up and down the banks of the Canal beating the gongs and making literally an unearthly noise. A question as to what it was all about brought the answer that the noise was made to let lurking robbers know that there was a military detachment with our outfit." 154 WILLIAM L. SIBERT Things in China, certainly as late as sixteen years ago, seemed in a large measure to be hind side before. In talking one day to a native, Colonel Sibert said that he wouldn't be surprised to see the sun rise in the west in China; that everything seemed to be done backward. He added that the people rowed backward, sawed backward, read backward, put their guest of honor on the left of the host, and generally ended the meal with soup. The native looked at Sibert and asked simply, "Who began first" ' The members of the Board of American Engineers submitted to the American Red Cross and to the Chinese Government a plan to accomplish the object of its mission to China. The World War came on and of necessity the report was tabled for further action. Some day unquestionably the project will be carried to completion. It is perhaps not too venturesome to say that the likelihood is that when the reclamation labor is undertaken it will be carried on along the lines laid down by the Americans who went to the China valleys sixteen years ago to survey the fields of flood and famine. XVII PROMOTED TO GENERAL RANK Almost immediately after Sibert, then a Lieutenant Colonel, returned from China and had completed his report, he was assigned to duty as Division Engineer with station at Cincinnati. This took him back to his old post and to the old problem of completing the project for canalization of the Ohio River. In the early days on the Ohio he had had a chief part in formulating and presenting to Congress the plan for the permanent improvement of that stream from Pittsburgh to Cairo. At a meeting of the Ohio Valley Improvement Association in 1906 Sibert had suggested to the members that it would be an admirable thing to finish the improvements on the Ohio River by the time of the completion of the Panama Canal. At the time this suggestion was made Sibert had no thought that he was to be one of the constructors of the Isthmian waterway. However, on arriving at Cincinnati for his second tour of duty on the Ohio, he found that only relatively small progress had been made on the project during his absence in Panama. Not long after Sibert's return to Cincinnati he was promoted by a Special Act of Congress from field rank to that of a General Officer. Congress 155 156 WILLIAM L. SIBERT probably had kept more closely in touch with the work of the building of the Panama Canal than with any other engineering project ever undertaken by the Government. The committees of Congress directly charged with the duty of considering questions affecting the waterway had held meetings frequently on the Isthmus, where they inspected the work and became familiar with the members of the Commission. So it was that on the completion of the Canal, members of the Commission were given the thanks of Congress and were promoted directly by Special Act. The officers so promoted were: Colonel George W. Goethals, Chairman of the Commission; Brigadier General William C. Gorgas, Sanitary Expert; Colonel H. F. Hodges; and Lieutenant Colonel William L. Sibert, all of the United States Army; and Commander H. H. Rousseau, of the United States Navy. Colonel David DuBose Gaillard had died on completing the Culebra Cut. Under the Act's provisions Lieutenant Colonel Sibert was promoted from the rank of a Lieutenant Colonel of Engineers to that of a Brigadier General in the Line of the Army. It always has been Sibert's belief that it is a mistake to reward Engineer Officers for service in their special field by promoting them in the Line of the Army. It was believed at the time and still is believed that promotion into the Line instead of in the Engineer Corps was due to the fact that the Army's Chief of Engineers objected to the creation of two Brigadier Generalships in his Corps, and also to the filling of these grades by men who had PROMOTED TO GENERAL RANK 157 been employed on the Panama work. The reason for the latter objection naturally was that those so advanced probably would be promoted to the position of Chief of Engineers when vacancies occurred. This the Chief believed would be a detriment to officers just as deserving or possibly more so but who had not had an opportunity to serve on the Isthmus. The promotion into the Line of the Army was resented by officers of the Line. One Line Major General in talking with General Sibert on the subject said that Congress might just as well promote a doctor as an engineer to the grade of a General Officer of the Line, and that the recent action of the lawmakers practically was equal to an intimation that the training of officers to command troops was time wasted. There existed in the Line of the Army an inherent jealousy of the Engineer Corps. This feeling, it is thought, grew out of the fact that in the Civil War Engineer Officers had been highly successful as commanders of Line troops. The Special Act of Congress giving promotion to the Panama Canal engineers made a Major General of Colonel George W. Goethals, who, as soon as promotion came to him, retired from active service on the strength of the Congressional Act which authorized all the promoted ones who had served a certain period of time in the construction of the Canal to retire whenever they chose. Goethals having removed himself from the situation, Harry F. Hodges and William L. Sibert were the two remain 158 WILLIAM L. SIBERT ing engineers to find themselves suddenly made general officers in the Line. The Army authorities apparently didn't know what to do with them. Sibert finally was ordered to duty in command of the Coast Artillery on the Pacific Coast. This branch of the service in a great measure is a scientific one, and, as it did not involve a general command of mobile troops, it was thought to be the best place to utilize the services of a man whose life work had been in the scientific field of engineering. XVIII AS CHEMICAL WARFARE CHIEFTAIN In the spring of 1917, immediately after the United States had declared that a state of war existed with Germany, Brigadier General William L. Sibert was promoted to the rank of Major General in the Regular Army and was ordered to the East to take command of the First Division of American troops designated for overseas service. Sibert sailed with his division for France in June, 1917, and he remained in command of it throughout virtually the entire time of its training. He was with it when its members shed the first American blood on the field of France. Just before sailing for France General Sibert was married to Miss Juliette Roberts, of Pittsburgh. She died after a short illness in September, 1918, during the flu epidemic. General Sibert had a service flag with six stars upon its field. Five sons went with him into the war: Lieutenant Colonel Franklin C. Sibert, Infantry; Major William 0. Sibert, Chemical Warfare Service; Major Harold W. Sibert, Corps of Engineers; Lieutenant Edwin L. Sibert, Field Artillery; and Corporal Martin D. Sibert, Infantry. It became evident in the early days of American participation in the war that chemicals were to 159 9 __0 - - --- --- ~ —, --- ——. — 160 WILLIAM L. SIBERT hold a chief place as weapons of offense. The chemical field was a scientific one. The need of speed of supply and transport was pressing. Notwithstanding the fact that the first gas attack in the World War, made by the Germans against the Canadians at Ypres, occurred early in 1915, about two years before the United States entered the conflict, nothing had been done in this country in the-way of preparation for chemical warfare. General Sibert was ordered from France to the United States and shortly after his return was charged with the duty of organizing the Chemical Warfare Service. When the First Division sailed for France in June of the first year of the war, no gas masks of American make were available for its use. It was necessary to call on the French for a supply. Not long after the Division landed 25,000 "provisional" masks were sent to France; these, however, never were used. French masks were supplied continually to the Americans until the day came when suitable ones could be made in the home country. The order for the first 25,000 American masks was given on May 15th, 1917, about a month before the sailing of the First Division. It is to the credit probably of American ingenuity that any type of gas mask could be designed, made and forwarded for use within the space of a month. These masks, however, were crude and not entirely serviceable. From the day the World War started until June, 1918, more than a year after the United States entered the war, no organization existed in this coun Lieutenant Colonel Malor Franklin C. Sibert Hai-old IV. Sibert Lieutenan t Edwin L. Sibert Major Major General Corporal William 0. Sibert William L. Sibert Martin D. Sibert General Sibert and his five sons, the World War. CHEMICAL WARFARE CHIEFTAIN 161 try that covered the entire field of Chemical Warfare. The research and experimental work had been carried on by the Bureau of Mines, largely at the American University Experiment Station in Washington; the task of furnishing toxic gases, material for smoke screens and incendiary bombs had been assigned to the Ordnance Department; the manufacture of gas masks had been undertaken by the Medical Department; the Chemical Warfare troops were organized as an Engineer Regiment and were sent to France as a component part of the Engineer troops. There was no coordination. Each agency was working independently. The War Department was alive to the futility of the existing disarrangement. None of the agencies connected with gas service with the exception of the chemical warfare troops and the Ordnance Department had any understanding of the military value of the work that they were doing. The condition verged on the chaotic. The Secretary of War and his advisers knew that something must be done and done quickly. The needs in the case caused the creation of a distinct service into which were brought all the elements entering into chemical warfare, its offensive, its defensive, and its medical features. On May 11, 1918, General Sibert was assigned to the task of unifying the various working branches and given full charge of all the different -elements. He received the title of Director, Chemical Warfare Service. The duties which Sibert performed as Chief of the Chemical Warfare Service in time of war after 162 WILLIAM L. SIBERT ward became those of the officer who succeeded him in time of peace. In the Army Reorganization Act of June 4, 1920, these duties are set forth as follows: "The Chief of the Chemical Warfare Service under the authority of the Secretary of War shall be charged with the investigation, development, manufacture, or procurement and supply to the Army of all smoke and incendiary materials, all toxic gases, and all gasdefense appliances; the research, design, and experimentation connected with chemical warfare and its material; and chemical projectile filling plants and proving grounds; the supervision of the training of the Army in chemical warfare, both offensive and defensive, including the necessary schools of instruction; the organization, equipment, training, and operation of special gas troops and such other duties as the President may from time to time prescribe." From a book called Chemical Warfare, published by McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc., New York, and written by Amos A. Fries and Clarence J. West, this is said of the service of General Sibert as the first Chief of the unified service: "In order to improve these conditions (lack of coordination) Major General Wm. L. Sibert, a distinguished Engineer Officer who built the Gatun Locks and Dam of the Panama Canal and who had commanded the First Division in France, was appointed Director of the Chemical Warfare Service on May 11, 1918... "General Sibert brought with him not only an extended experience in organizing and conducting big business, but a strong sympathy for the work and CHEMICAL WARFARE CHIEFTAIN 163 an appreciation of the problem that the American Army was facing in France. He very quickly welded the great organization of the Chemical Warfare Service into a whole, and saw to it that each department not only carried its own duties but cooperated with the others in carrying out the larger program, which, had the war continued, would have beaten the German at his own game." Major General Amos A. Fries, from whose book this quotation is taken, was the Chief of the Chemical Warfare Service in the American Expeditionary Forces. After the war he succeeded General Sibert as Chief. Clarence J. West was a Major in the Chemical Warfare Service and a member of the National Research Council. There was a thorough appreciation by the military authorities that the United States absolutely was unprepared, in so far as chemical industries were concerned, to prosecute successfully a modern war. Sibert knew this before he undertook the task of making effective that which not only was ineffective but which lacked the means of generating efficiency. The country was unable to meet its own peace demands for chemical products. It became necessary, in order to meet the situation, to quadruple the chlorine supply of the country and to increase the supply of phosphorus to a point ten times greater than that necessary in peace time. It soon became evident to Sibert that the use of lethal gas in the conflict had created a demand on chemical ingenuity and chemical resources that was virtually insatiable. Before the 164 WILLIAM L. SIBERT war Germany had control of the world's market in coal tar products, particularly in dyestuffs. The products and by-products of the plants producing these materials are necessary to the making of high explosives, gases, and fertilizers. The lack of a supply of proper materials in the United States put a burden upon the Chemical Warfare Service greater than that borne by any other war activity. It met it, General Sibert has said, largely through the ability and ingenuity of its chemists and chemical engineers "all of whom flocked to the colors and gave a service which the country never should forget. " On Armistice Day there were being produced in the United States more of the lethal gases than in England, Germany and France combined. In addition to this a new gas more deadly than any in existence was discovered and had reached the stage of volume production when the day of peace came. The General Order providing for the Chemical Warfare Service authorized the following organization: Director..............Maj. Gen. Wm. L. Sibert Administration.......Brig. Gen. H. C. Newcomer Overseas............. Brig. Gen. Amos A. Fries First Gas Regiment... Col. E. J. Atkisson Research Division..... Col. G. A. Burrell Development Division. Col. F. M. Dorsey Gas Offense Division.. Col. Wm. H. Walker Gas Defense Division.. Col. Bradley Dewey Proving Division..... Lt. Col. W. S. Bacon. CHEMICAL WARFARE OHIEFTAIN 165 The personnel authorized consisted of 4,066 commissioned officers and 44,615 enlisted men. Provision was made for three gas regiments of eighteen companies each. The Service, however, never reached its full strength because the Armistice put a stop to further enlistments and the granting of further commissions. In the popular mind the use of gas in warfare is inhumane, and one of the first questions to be discussed in the United States after the Armistice was whether or not the Chemical Warfare Service should be continued as a permanent branch of the Army. Coincidently with an attempt of the Military Affairs Committee of Congress to find an answer to this question, General Sibert made a public statement on the subject, which essentially is as follows: "While the use of toxic gases was one of the instruments of warfare it was responsible for from twenty-five to thirty per cent of our Army casualties. This shows it to have been one of the most effective weapons of war. In view of this no argument for its retention for offensive purposes is needed. "The records show also that when the armies were provided with masks and other defensive appliances, something less than four per cent of the gas casualties were fatal. These figures, I think, meet one of the chief objections brought against the use of gasthat of its inhumanity. So far from being inhumane, it has been proved that it is one of the most humane instruments of warfare, if we can apply the word 166 WILLIAM L. SIBERT humane to the killing and wounding of human beings which, of course are the objects and aims of war. "Of the casualties which resulted in death, far fewer were caused by gas than by bullets, and of the remainder of the gas casualties the greater number were left without permanent injury. This, I think, helps further to prove that the argument that gas as compared with other of war's weapons is inhumane, is not sound. "Another objection that has been made to the use of gas is that it is likely to cause casualties among non-combatants, populations behind the lines. It is true that gas does drift with the wind for considerable distances and in the future use of it this would mean simply that greater areas must be given over for battle purposes. Anything that makes an enemy yield more territory for war purposes takes just that much from agriculture, or it may be from manufactures. Additional sacrifice of territory for war uses is therefore another element of the weapon's effectiveness. It will be necessary, of course, to remove the non-combatant population from a greater depth of territory immediately in the rear of the fighting forces than formerly was the case. This effectively will prevent the gassing of women and children and of non-combatants generally. "Surprise is one of the main elements sought for in warfare. There is no weapon that contains greater possibilities for surprise than gas. A single substance, the nature of which had been kept secret, might determine the tide of battle-something that would penetrate gas masks would make an enemy as CHEMICAL WARFARE CHIEFTAIN 167 helpless as the English were at Ypres when the Germans sent over their first cloud of chlorine. " When General Sibert was asked if he thought that gas would be used in future wars, he said: "Based on its effectiveness and humaneness, it certainly will be an important element in any future war unless the use of it should be prohibited by international agreement. As to the probability of such action, I cannot venture an opinion. "The United States, singularly enough, did not join the leading world powers in signing the agreement entered into at The Hague Conference of 1899 to refrain from the use of projectiles whose only object was to give out suffocating or poisonous gases. German representatives signed the agreement and their Government ratified it in September, 1900. The United States, as has been said, took no action. The declaration was not binding in case of war in which a non-signatory power was a belligerent. Seemingly the tales of the destructiveness of gas as a weapon of warfare have led people generally to believe that it is not only the most deadly of all weapons but that it causes more suffering when its effects are not fatal than wounds from bullets or high explosives. Officers who served in the Medical Corps in the field during the great war have testified that ten times as many men die from missile wounds as from gas wounds. A national organization of former Army surgeons has gone on record as favoring the retention of gas in warfare because 168 WILLIAM L. SIBERT it is the most humane weapon in the use of the armies. There are lethal gases and non-lethal gases. The tear gas is used by the police of many American cities to put an end to riots and to capture barricaded and armed criminals. The more ignorant a class of people is the more likely it is to lose self-control and to be thrown into a panic by gas, with its element of mystery. It is hard for leaders of a mob to maintain anything like order in the ranks if there is a suspicion of gas in the air. Concerning this matter of the panicky feeling so easily produced by the "mystery of gas," General Sibert tells the following story: "No gas was made at the big Army plant at Edgewood, Maryland, until all the buildings were up and all the machinery installed, but such a veil of secrecy was thrown over the operations that the civilian laborers employed believed that chlorine, phosgene, mustard and all the other poisonous things had been generated in large quantities. They were constantly on the alert to escape the sudden death that might be their fate in case some kind of leak occurred. "One day one of the employed chemists who had a small amount of chlorine in his possession threw it over some raw lime. A workman near by detected the odor and yelled, 'The gas is loose!' He started down the road screaming warnings as he went. The drivers of several horse-drawn trucks turned their teams and lashed them into flight. The drivers yelled and the running horses raised clouds CHEMICAL WARFARE CHIEFTAIN 169 of dust. There were hundreds of employees and others in the immediate vicinity. The dust cloud was taken for a gas cloud and there was a wild stampede. "A man in a Pennsylvania Railroad watchtower, catching the panic, stopped traffic on the road for forty-five minutes in order not to kill the fleeing mob that was crossing the railroad tracks. An officer on duty who was caught in the full tide of the stampede was seized with symptoms of gas poisoning. He fell down and almost instantly gave every sign of illness of the various types that he had been studying in a printed pamphlet, including violent seasickness. Fear sometimes does queer things to a man. "The panic in a more or less acute form involved about three thousand persons. They all saw gas, smelled gas, and were affected by gas, but there was no gas to see, to smell, or to affect. Imagination did the whole thing. After this stampede of three thousand civilians it was impracticable to employ them in this plant and the officer in charge at Edgewood was forced to call for soldiers to complete the work." In early September, 1918, just two months to a day before the war ended, former President Theodore Roosevelt wrote a long letter to General Sibert touching on a Chemical Warfare Service subject. The last paragraph in the letter was this: 170 WILLIAM L. SIBERT A / hI #. m yV ab...i f #Ot yoThe Chemical Warfare Service exists today. It is a separate branch of the Army and is commanded by a Major General. It has thus far survived all the attempts of the pacifists and of those who have misunderstood its mission in war, to destroy it, and today it is a healthy institution. The Service has proved its value to the civil life of the country. Gas under its direction is now used to destroy insect pests and to support the arm of the authorities in enforcing the laws. It is now generally understood by the masses that it is better to meet gas than high explosives on the field of battle. General Sibert was awarded by the United States Government the Distinguished Service Medal for the part that he played in the World War. He was also appointed by the French Government, Commander in the Legion of Honor, Napoleon's Legion. XIX AT WORK FOR HIS NATIVE STATE Congress, in a provision of the Panama Canal Act, had given General Sibert the right to retire from active service at any time that he so desired. In the spring of 1920 he was ordered to Camp Gordon, Georgia, to the command of the Fifth Division. He had completed forty years of active service in the army of his country. On arriving at the Georgia camp and looking over the old cantonment he decided that the shade of sugar maples on his Kentucky farm was the more alluring, and he wired to Washington an application for retirement. In April he went to his Kentucky farm which overlooks the wanderings of the Barren River, which was the scene of his first engineering work of any magnitude. Army and civilian friends of the General, when they heard that he was to take up the farm life near Bowling Green in the Blue Grass state, asked why he had selected such an out-of-the-way place to spend the rest of his life. His answer was that he had been virtually all over the world and that nowhere had he found a place where the average man was so willing to quit work to go fishing or hunting as was the average man in Kentucky In the year 1914 the General had told friends in 171 172 WILLIAM L. SIBERT Bowling Green, where three of his children were born, that if they would find him some good farm land off the main road where the automobiles would not run over his fox hounds and that was near enough to the knobs which the red fox frequents, and let him know of the place, he would buy it. His farm awaited him in the spring of 1920. On arriving at his newly bought acres Sibert bought a pack of fox hounds, a bird dog or two, some saddle horses and a few registered Jersey cows. He had his farm and his industrial and hunting outfit. It was the beginning of the fulfilment of a dream that had been his during his two-score years of service in the United States Army. In June, 1922, General Sibert was married to Miss Evelyn Bairnsfather, of Edinburgh, Scotland. Forward-looking citizens of Alabama, the native state of Sibert, hoped for its industrial development and thought that in promoting it the state, as a state, should give its aid. The main proposal was the construction of a modern ocean terminal at Mobile, Alabama's only seaport. For the prosecution of this work Sibert was called from his retirement. It was the call of the homeland and he responded. Alabama's constitution of 1901 forbade the state from entering into works of internal improvement and from lending money or credit in aid of such work. It, therefore, became necessary to amend the constitution before labor could start on the Mobile enterprise. An amendment giving the needed authority was voted upon by the people in 1920 and was defeated. The friends of the project, however, re WORK FOR HIS NATIVE STATE 173 fused to lose hope and two years later the matter was once more put before the people and by them approved. The amendment which finally was sanctioned enabled the state "when authorized by appropriate laws passed by the Legislature, to engage in the work of internal improvement, of promoting, developing, constructing, maintaining and operating all harbors or seaports within the state or its jurisdiction at a cost not exceeding ten million dollars." The enabling act which gave effect to this amendment was approved in September, 1923. By the act the Governor was empowered, with the advice and concurrence of the State Docks Commission, to sell state bonds not to exceed in the aggregate the sum of $10,000,000 for carrying on the work. These bonds became a general obligation of Alabama. As soon as the enabling act had been passed by the Legislature, George Gordon Crawford, President of the Tennessee Coal Iron & Railroad Company, was appointed Chairman of the Commission. He accepted it under an understanding with the Governor that he would hold the place only until he could find a suitable man to take over the Chairmanship permanently. It is fairly well known that Mr. Crawford had his successor in mind. His only fear was that the "man in mind" might not be willing to leave his nook of retirement. Chairman Crawford went to Kentucky and persuaded General Sibert that he should go to his native state and undertake the 174 WILLIAM L. SIBERT construction of Mobile's ocean terminal. The General's brothers also urged him temporarily to forsake his farm and to enter once more on the active life. Sibert agreed to take the place offered and he became the Commission's Chairman and the Chief Engineer and General Manager of the ocean terminal project. He made only one condition to his acceptance of the position-that politics should be banned from the work and everything connected with it. General Sibert went to Montgomery for a conference with Governor William W. Brandon. He urged the General to undertake the work and told him that if he would do so, he, the Governor, would not even so much as recommend a man for a job, adding, "Some people may think that is an easy promise to keep, but to a politician, especially to a professional politician, it is the hardest promise to keep that a man can make." General Sibert was appointed Chairman of the Alabama State Docks Commission in November, 1923. In the beginning he promised to hold the position for one year only, believing that within the year he could give proper study to the commercial possibilities of the Port of Mobile and that if the result of the study showed that the expenditure of the state's money would be justified he would continue at the task. William W. Brandon's successor in office, Governor Bibb Graves, told the General that he would adopt and pursue the policy that had been agreed WORK FOR HIS NATIVE STATE 175 to by his predecessor in office. The result was that the Mobile work was done in the same manner that a private individual would build something for himself. Engineers and others who have visited the Port of Mobile since the completion of the work, have expressed surprise that the project as completed was kept within the limits of the original appropriation of ten million dollars. The extent of the Mobile terminal project and the hopes and ambitions of the people of Alabama in promoting it and carrying it to conclusion are given in an article written by General Sibert for the July (1929) number of the Review of Reviews. Dr. Albert Shaw, the editor of the magazine, when asking General Sibert to write the article made this statement concerning the action of Alabama in authorizing the building of the port: "Nothing more genuinely constructive has been undertaken by any state since New York opened the Erie Canal in 1825." This is General Sibert's article on the Mobile terminal: "The people of Alabama visualized the coming industrial development of the state on account of its varied mineral resources, its water-power possibilities, and its proximity to the sea. They realized that an export market for Alabama's products would be found in the less industrially developed countries to the south and west, such as the West Indies, Mexico, Central and South America, and the Pacific world, made accessible by the completion of the Panama Canal. They had some of the vision 176 WILLIAM L. SIBERT seen by Theodore Roosevelt upon the completion of the Panama Canal when he said, 'The age of the Mediterranean is past; the age of the Atlantic is passing; the age of the Pacific is here.' They knew that water transportation on the Mobile, Tombigbee, Black Warrior, Alabama, and Coosa Rivers furnished a cheap freight connection from the manufacturing centers of the state to tidewater, which, in connection with a modern, efficiently operated ocean terminal, would give Alabama at least an equal opportunity in the available markets. "The state itself undertook to build and operate the terminal because a large initial expenditure of funds would be required, and because it was felt that no power less than the state could bring about those changes in railroad location at Mobile that were necessary in providing a suitable site, one that could be reached by all land and water carriers under the same conditions as to cost and convenience. "It was realized that in the struggle for foreign trade the manufacturing plants of competing countries would be located on the sea, with no transportation cost to tidewater, and that in this country, not only manufacturing costs but the cost of transportation to tidewater and the cost of placing commerce upon vessels would be determining factors in the location of enterprises which could successfully enter into competition in the markets of the world. "It was realized that the full development of a IQir % b o: I4 7 14 t In WMNM J Clemenceau and General Sibert in France. WORK FOR HIS NATIVE STATE 177 port could not take place unless there existed a great public terminal equally avaliable to all railroads and steamships entering the port. The Congress of the United States enunciated this thought in The Rivers and Harbors Act of March 2, 1919, as follows: It is hereby declared to be the policy of the Congress that water terminals are essential at all cities and towns located upon harbors or navigable waterways and that at least one public terminal should exist, constructed, owned and regulated by municipality, or other public agency of the state and open to the use of all on equal terms. The construction of such a port was looked upon by the State of Alabama as a fitting contribution toward its expected industrial growth. "The bane of many municipal and state-operated public utilities was eliminated in connection with the Alabama ocean terminal by the two Governors who held office during the construction-Honorable W. W. Brandon and Honorable Bibb Graves-announcing that they would not permit any political interference with the State Docks Commission in the building and operating of such terminal. They were in accord with the enactment of the following law, approved January 17, 1927, which makes the State Docks Commission self-perpetuating: The members of the Commission as now constituted shall hold office until their respective terms expire under the existing law and until their successors shall 178 WILLIAM L. SIBERT be elected or appointed and confirmed as hereinafter required. When a vacancy shall occur on the Commission, by expiration of term of office, by resignation or death of any member, the remaining members of the Commission shall elect his successor, provided that any Commissioner or member so elected shall hold office and exercise the powers thereof from the date of his election until his confirmation or rejection by the Senate, and if confirmed, until the expiration of the term for which he was elected. "In the early history of the country, each railroad built its own docks, the first one entering a port, naturally obtaining the best site. Roads that came into the port later had difficulty in connecting with the ocean and were placed under a handicap when it was necessary for them to use the docks of another road. "No one railroad could afford to build facilities for handling all the varieties of commerce entering and leaving a port, because the volume of many commodities in the freight territory of that road would be insufficient to justify the cost of special facilities. The scheme of each railroad owning its own docks-which was a natural and sometimes a necessary means of developing foreign trade in the early days-has proved to be largely responsible for the inadequate ocean terminals in many ports of the United States. Railroad docks seldom earn carrying charges and are looked upon simply as a means of diverting freight to the owning line; the revenue comes from the line haul. This situation WORK FOR HIS NATIVE STATE 179 has deterred private capital from developing ocean terminals. "The ideal condition at a seaport is for all the docks to be under one control, because it is then commercially feasible to build special labor-saving appliances for certain items of freight where the combined tonnage of all the roads and steamships is sufficient to justify such facilities. "One railroad, for instance, might not have enough cotton to justify the installation of a high density compress with suitable storage warehouse and transit sheds, while the cotton brought to the port by all the roads would justify such a plant. "No one railroad would bring to a port enough flour to justify a fumigator and reconditioning plant to handle weevil-infested flour, while all the roads would. "No one railroad, at many ports, would bring enough coal to justify a bulk material handling plant such as the one at Mobile, while all the roads would. "The size of the site selected at Mobile was commensurate with the hope and faith of the people, in the growth of the industries of the state. It comprises about 560 acres of land with 9362 feet of ocean front, within the city of Mobile, thus providing room for building additional piers and other facilities as needed. "In planning for the port as constructed and for its future extensions, it was necessary to move the main line of the Louisville & Nashville Railroad 2,000 feet westward from the water front for a -LCL_~ I~-1 — YI~L*L- L —C —L_-ILL~ r~-ILC~ --- __~~ 180 WILLIAM L. SIBERT length of three miles and to remodel the yards of other railroads in order to bring the Louisville Railroad back to its old tracks through the city proper. It was also necessary to excavate a new channel and divert a navigable creek from a portion of this site. "In making provision for the entrance of all railroads into the site it was necessary to construct a Terminal Railway extending about five miles from Mobile to the northwest. This permits the entrance of two roads, and at the same time provides a way for any new railroad that desires to enter Mobile to reach the docks and the city and to connect with,all other roads at small expense. "In connection with this Terminal Railway is a large Interchange Yard into which all railroads enter and in which all railroads and the docks have receiving tracks, thus facilitating the interchange of traffic among all agencies at minimum cost. "The Mobile River at its mouth has a tidal variation of about two feet. Its water surface is never raised by floods in the Alabama streams, on account of its proximity to Mobile Bay and the wide delta at its mouth. However, this part of the Gulf of Mexico is visited on the average once in every ten years by a tropical storm. One of these storms raised the water surface as much as 9% feet. In consequence of this, the docks, warehouses and other structures are placed at an elevation of 11 feet above low water, thus freeing freight from any chance of damage by storm water. WORK FOR HIS NATIVE STATE 181 "It was recognized that a port, with large seasonal movements of such freight as newsprint paper, fertilizer material, cotton bagging, cotton, and asphalt, demands extended shipside warehouses to make practicable their distribution, and especially in the case of cotton to provide means for the owners to hold and sell when they wish. "Shipside warehouses in which freight can be held are impracticable in many cities on account of the built-up condition of the waterfront and the cost of land. This condition did not exist at Mobile because the entire tract of land purchased was a tidal swamp and not very valuable, with no industries on it. These qualities outweighed the cost of raising this extended site ten feet. "In that part of the plan already constructed, about twenty acres of reinforced concrete warehouses, sprinklered, have been built for the accommodation of commerce. In addition to caring for the large seasonal movement of certain commodities, these warehouses provide room for accumulating the lighter and more remunerative part of the cargoes of ships. "A concerted effort is now being made to interest capital in the manufacture, within the state of Alabama, of as many items in this lighter part of the cargo as are justified by conditions involving raw material, labor supply, and fuel. In the fulfilment of this hope, there has been an expenditure of $45,125,000 in the Mobile River basin on plants which have recently started operation or which are 182 WILLIAM L. SIBERT now in the course of construction, not considering developments in the great Birmingham district. It is further estimated by those closely in touch with the development of this state that there will be an additional expenditure of $87,500,000 on new industries in the Mobile River basin in the next five years. "Besides these expenditures, the old established industries are spending approximately $20,000,000 a year in capital extension. The public utilities, exclusive of railroads, are spending an average of $10,000,000 yearly. "Of course it was recognized that Mobile was not only Alabama's port but the logical outlet of a vast country to the north. Its topographical location placed it on a parity with other Gulf ports in the export trade of the great Northwest, such as foodstuffs bound for the West Indies, Central America, and Europe; farm machinery and automobiles for South America and Europe; tobacco for Europe and the Far East; and cotton and lumber for Europe. This same country can advantageously import sugar and asphalt from Cuba; newsprint paper from Canada; sisal, coffee and bananas from Mexico, Central and South America; jute and cotton bagging from India; marble from Italy. "The Port of Mobile welcomes commerce from other states, because it brings more ships and extends the markets for the products of Alabama as well as of thd entire country traversed by the railroads entering Mobile. "The same relationship between port and hint WORK FOR HIS NATIVE STATE 183 erland exists that in 1850 so appealed to the imagination of the people of Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, and McCracken County, Kentucky, as to cause them to provide $4,802,276 in cash and obtain from Congress a land grant of more than one and one-half million acres to build the Mobile & Ohio Railroad connecting the Port of Mobile with the then potentially great commercial country to the north and west. That heroic and far-seeing act exhibited the faith of the American people in the commercial development of their country." XX MAKING A NEW PORT OF MOBILE During his forty years' service in the army William L. Sibert had established and maintained a reputation for fair dealing. It was necessary in the reconstruction of the Port of Mobile to deal largely with contractors. There are times when construction firms never are certain whether a low bid for work even with the proper assurance that it will be well done will secure the contract for the bidding firm. In the case of the work at Mobile, prospective contractors knew from previous personal experience in work directed by Sibert, or had learned from other contractors, that he always was square, and they felt that the lowest bidder, financially and otherwise able to do the work, would get the job. In his long engineering career Sibert had learned that to secure fairness the inspectors must be acquainted thoroughly with the type of work under construction and thoroughly conversant with what constituted standard practice as pursued in great contracts. It was known by the prospective bidders that in disputes between inspectors and contractors a fair decision on controversial matters could be secured from the Chief Engineer. Every question as to letting of contracts was settled in open sessions 184 NEW PORT OF MOBILE 185 when the bids were canvassed. From New York, Chicago, Atlanta, New Orleans, and other cities came proposals for the completion of the larger elements of the Mobile project. It was possible to award the contracts advantageously. The rehabilitation and the increase of dock and waterway facilities at Mobile necessitated the purchase of 560 additional acres of land, virtually all of which was a swamp. Human nature of a certain kind always manifests itself when opportunities arise. The owners of these marshy acres demanded an exorbitant price for their property. General Sibert anticipated something of this kind. Accordingly he planned three locations for the terminals, any oie of which could be used,-two in the city of Mobile and one north of it. He prepared the plans in sufficient detail to show that any one of the three sites was practicable, while in his own mind he had a preference for the site that finally was selected. When the swamp land owners learned that their property might not be needed they had something of a change of heart. Visions of midcity prices for outlying marshes vanished. With no recent sales as a guide, it was a difficult problem to determine the actual value of the land in the swamps. A Board composed of three wellknown and reputable citizens of Alabama was appointed by the Governor to assess the swamps. After the members had studied the situation they were unable to find any measure of value for such property and ultimately decision was made that its 186 WILLIAM L. SIBERT worth was that for which it was assessed for taxation under the laws of Alabama, such assessment being based upon sixty per cent of the supposed actual value of the land. The owners of the swamps, for which in fact there was no use except for such purposes as were proposed, were told that unless their property could be bought for the assessed price the dock would be built north of Mobile. Virtually all of the land was procured at the assessed value. The few pieces remaining unsold were condemned and taken over. The method employed enabled the state to procure the swamp land at a price much smaller than was expected. It has been estimated that Alabama saved at least one million dollars by the manner in which the swamp lands were secured. By the insistence of Sibert politics had been eliminated from the work of construction at Mobile, land had been bought at its proper and not at an inflated value, and the way had been paved for the progress of the work to a successful, a stable and economic conclusion. Here is an editorial which appeared in the Atlanta Constitution of December 11, 1927: "When in September, 1923, the State of Alabama passed an enabling act which authorized the expenditure of ten million dollars in construction of great port terminals at Mobile, the authorities charged with administration of this fund made one decision which has had more to do with the successful prosecution of the undertaking than any other factor. NEW PORT OF MOBILE 187 "They called upon Major General William L. Sibert, U. S. Army, retired, a distinguished son of Alabama, to undertake the project as chief engineer and general manager. At that time General Sibert was enjoying a well-earned rest on his farm in Kentucky, following his retirement from the Army in 1920 at the end of 40 years of hard work and with the distinction of being one of the world's greatest engineers.... "The whole South owes a debt of gratitude to the genius of General Sibert, which made possible the rapid, scientifically perfect completion of a project which, in other hands, and under other circumstances, might easily have degenerated into a pudding of political plums." On the occasion of the opening of the new terminals to commerce in June, 1928, A. Lane Cricher, the Assistant Chief of the Transportation Division, U. S. Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce, wrote this letter to General Sibert: "This opening will mark a new era for the development of Mobile and the entire hinterland. Transportation facilities breed traffic. The type of facilities you have now completed for Mobile are among the most upto-date and scientific in the entire shipping world. They will be of immense value in stimulating further export and import trade, as well as an enormous asset to the production and manufacturing interests of the State of Alabama. "You and your Commission are to be congratulated highly for the excellent program of work that has been followed out. The future for the port is indeed bright. " From George Gordon Crawford, President of the 188 WILLIAM L. SIBERT Tennessee Coal, Iron & Railroad Company, General Sibert received this letter: "Permit me to congratulate you upon the excellent manner in which the ceremonies were planned and executed in connection with the dedication of the Alabama State Docks. "The day in Mobile made me very happy. You must feel in part compensated for the sacrifice that you made in coming out of your well earned retirement to do this splendid work for your State. "You must realize, as I certainly do, that you built the best port that has ever been constructed for a port served by five railroads and you must realize that the cost per unit of car capacity and ship berth capacity is lower than that of many inferior railroad and water terminals. "I believe that the greatest happiness in life comes from creative work. I think a little girl gets more kick out of the little dresses she makes for her doll than she gets from the possession of a doll which was given to her. "To do creative work on such a grand scale as you have done in many localities may have accustomed you to the thrills that come from creative work, but it is doubtful if all the other splendid work, all things considered, has been as well done as this work at Mobile. "Many hearty congratulations and best wishes." When General Sibert had accepted the position of Chairman and Chief Engineer of the Mobile work, George Gordon Crawford told him that he was willing at any time to give any assistance that he could in the construction of the ocean terminal. He and the teneral have been friends for twenty-five years NEW PORT OF MOBILE 189 and had come together on many occasions when matters connected with other public works were under consideration. While Mr. Crawford is the head of a great steel industry and a constant and hard worker, he finds time always, General Sibert says, to do his full duty as a citizen. In Sibert's opinion Crawford is one of the outstanding men of his country, fair, considerate, energetic, and alert to assist in any undertaking for the public good. In the work at Mobile as in all other works of great magnitude there are always happenings to show that humor never is far away from the field of the serious. Sibert tells two stories concerning the early part of the labor of transforming the outlying swamp land of Mobile into a site fitted to sustain docks, warehouses, railroads and other industries. Although the great swamp was within the Mobile city limits, it was virtually in the same unexplored condition as when Bienville founded Mobile. A man who tried to walk through the marsh was lucky if he escaped being mired to his waist. When the work of reclamation began it was found that a black mother bear with three cubs, several bobcats and many other wild animals were living safely and snugly in the center of this city swamp. In the work of reclamation several hundred negroes were employed cutting the small timber from the few high spots in the area. One day General Sibert heard loud cries and saw that there was something of moment exciting the negro workers. 190 WILLIAM L. SIBERT They were running away from the point where they had been at work, stumbling, falling, and yelling while they tried to make the high road. Finally one of the blacks reached the road and there fell down panting. A strange negro who was on the road ran up to the man and said, "What's the matter, nigger?" The man between his spasms said, "Bar!" The stranger on the road looked at him contemptuously and said, "Nigger, don't you know if you look a bar in the eye, he'll run the other way?" "Yes," the exhausted one replied, "but I couldn't run fast enough backwards to look him in the eye." The swamp land was the scene one day of an experience which one of the foremen had with a bobcat. Virtually all of the marsh being low it was necessary to fill it up to a mark above the hurricane tide height in the Gulf of Mexico, a work which involved a fill of at least ten feet. This fill was made with a 20-inch suction dredge which pumped material from the river bed. The work was started in the middle of the marsh. The pipe line delivering the material ran from the dredge to the dumping place through high swamp grass. The foreman visiting the work decided that he would walk back to the dredge along the line of the pipe. He had gone about one hundred yards from the fill, where the pipe changed direction slightly, and looking ahead he saw a bobcat coming his way and also traveling along the line of the pipe. Both man and cat hesitated. All members of the NEW PORT OF MOBILE 191 cat family hate to get their feet wet, and the foreman on his part did not fancy jumping off the line into the mud which he knew to be several feet deep. So the hesitation of man and beast continued. Finally the foreman decided to stamp heavily on the pipe line and the bobcat decided to get off. A workman on one of the side lines who had watched the performance, told Sibert afterwards that when the foreman passed the point from which the cat had jumped he made the best time that ever had been made on a pipe line. The Commission that constructed the Mobile terminal was composed of Major General William L. Sibert, former Governor Charles Henderson of Troy, Alabama, and Mr. Frank G. Blair of Tuscaloosa, Alabama. General Sibert, the Chairman and Chief Engineer, was the only engineer member of the Commission. Governor Henderson and Mr. Blair were men of varied business and administrative experience. They served the interests of their state at Mobile without pay. Their long and successful business careers made them valuable members of the Commission. The engineering features in the construction of an ocean terminal are no more important than the solution of the transportation and commercial problems necessary to its success. Governor Henderson and Mr. Blair aided materially in the solution of these problems. They remained members of the Commission until the terminal was completed and put in operation. They performed a high public service. 192 WILLIAM L. SIBERT Mr. Blair is still a member of the Commission. A year after the Mobile work virtually had been completed Governor Henderson resigned from the Commission, feeling that his work was done. The remaining members of the Commission elected Mr. R. A. Christian of Mobile to take the place made vacant by the Governor's resignation. As a representative of the Port of Mobile, General Sibert was named a few years ago as a member of the American Association of Port Authorities. At the annual convention of that body in Quebec in September, 1929, he was elected President of that Association for the ensuing year. 0 ' -.it I IA. Or7 ' -.41 b8 -~i Mrs. Sibert with some of the General's hound pups. I XXI THE PROBLEM OF BOULDER DAM In June, 1928, President Calvin Coolidge, under the authority of the Congress of the United States, sanctioned the appointment by the Secretary of the Interior of a Board of engineers and geologists to examine the proposed site of a dam to be constructed on the Colorado River and to study and to report upon conditions in any way found to be related to a project which for a long time had been a subject of controversy. The engineer appointees were Major General William L. Sibert of Mobile, Alabama; Daniel W. Mead of Madison, Wisconsin; and Robert Ridgway of New York. The geologists named were Charles P. Berkey of New York City and Warren J. Mead of Madison, Wisconsin. General Sibert was chosen Chairman of the Board. The resolution of Congress under which the members of the Board were appointed, was this: "Resolved that the Secretary of the Interior is hereby authorized and directed to appoint a Board of five eminent engineers and geologists, at least one of whom shall be an engineer officer of the Army on the active or retired list, to examine the proposed site of the dam to be constructed under the provisions of H. R. 5773, 70th Congress, 1st Session, and review the 193 194 WILLIAM L. SIBERT plans and estimates made therefor and to advise him prior to December 1st, 1928, as to matters affecting the safety, the economic and engineering feasibility, and the adequacy of the proposed structure and incidental works; the compensation of said Board to be fixed by him for each respectively, but not to exceed $50.00 a day and necessary traveling expenses, including a per diem of not to exceed $6.00 in lieu of subsistence for each member of the Board so employed for the time employed and actually engaged upon such work; and provided further that the work of construction shall not be commenced until plans therefor are approved by said special board of engineers. No authority hereby conferred on the Secretary of the Interior shall be exercised without the sanction and approval of the President." Centuries ago the Gulf of California extended about 200 miles farther into California than its present northern shore limit. The Colorado River emptied into the Gulf near the present boundary line between the United States and Mexico. This stream carried an unusually large amount of silt. Through the years it gradually built a bar into the California gulf until it actually cut the Gulf in twain, shutting off the northern area of water entirely from the ocean. The water from this northern lake gradually evaporated, leaving what is now known as the Imperial Valley, which in some places is as much as 230 feet below the level of the sea. The water from the Colorado River now is conducted by means of a canal into the Valley, making it one of the most PROBLEM OF BOULDER DAM 195 productive pieces of irrigated land in the whole country. Thirty years ago this Imperial district was a desert. Under irrigation the property value of the Valley has risen from virtually nothing to $150,000,000. The crops produced in this area yearly have a market value of $25,000,000. In flood seasons the Colorado River at times breaks over its levees and flows into the Imperial Valley, from which it has no outlet. As a result the inhabitants of the land constantly are threatened by the danger of floods. The Bureau of Reclamation of the Department of the Interior for many years had been studying conditions in the river and valley section of the country with a view to finding means to prevent floods, to irrigate a much greater valley acreage, and incidentally to develop electricity sufficient to pay for the completion of the adopted project. The Bureau recommended finally that a dam be constructed across the Colorado River about forty miles from Las Vegas, Nevada, where the stream forms the boundary line between Nevada and Arizona. Doubts had been expressed as to the engineering feasibility of the proposed dam, which if and when built would be more than twice as high as any construction of like kind known to the history of engineering. Doubts also were expressed as to the economic feasibility of the work. These doubts involved the question as to whether the electric energy that could be developed with such a dam 196 WILLIAM L. SIBERT would pay the interest on its cost and amortize the expenditure within a period of fifty years. There were those to express skepticism as to the safety and adequacy of such a dam as the Reclamation Bureau proposed to build, and to this was added criticism of the methods which it was proposed to use in the building of the structure. The shafts of the critics also were aimed at the project for an All-American Canal to connect the Imperial Valley with the Colorado River near Yuma, Arizona. Both houses of the Congress of the United States had debated the questions, not always entirely without heat. There had been doubt and delay. Finally the President, and Congress with him, wanted to have the matters at issue clarified and if possible settled for all time. The result was the passing by Congress of the resolution, which already has been given, and its approval by the President. Under the resolution of Congress the Board of engineers and geologists was to study matters affecting the safety, the economic and engineering feasibility, and the adequacy of the proposed structure and incidental works. This gave to the members a broad field for investigation and for findings. Outside of mere questions of policy the Board members were to report upon subjects which had been the basis of the arguments in the Senate and the House. The Board adhered strictly to the duties defined in the law, but as has been said it had a large field to explore. I " ' — ~""d' INPP M Iasaro;~~,~ bk. Air view, Port of Mobile. PROBLEM OF BOULDER DAM 197 It was found that two unusually hard problems were to be solved in the construction of the Boulder Dam; one was the diversion of the flow of the river in flood times around the site of the dam, while another had to do with the preparation of a foundation for the dam on rock a hundred and twentyfive feet below the river bed, the intervening material being sand, gravel and boulders. It had been held by those who made the original plans which had been submitted to the Board for study, that this excavation could be accomplished and a part of the dam built to the height of low water in one working season of about nine months. Consequently the provisions made for diverting the river were sufficient only to take care of the flow during the low and medium water stages. The members of the Board finally concluded that the proposed work could not be done between flood seasons, and that the only safe way by which the dam could be built was to provide diversion channels sufficient to carry by the site the waters of any flood likely to occur. Therefore, plans were laid down diverting 200,000 second feet of water in tunnels to be excavated in the rock cliffs on either side. This plan materially increased the contemplated cost of the dam. Four tunnels about fifty feet in diameter and about a mile long were believed to be necessary to divert the water during the period of construction and to provide a spillway when the construction was completed. This plan was intended to prevent any material amount of water from running over a dam of such height and also to make it 198 WILLIAM L. SIBERT possible to locate a power house on the down-stream edge of the dam. The members of the Board in their findings also widened the base of the dam as it previously had been planned, feeling that the structural scheme should be a conservative one, because otherwise any failure would mean the destruction of all of the life and the property along the Colorado to its mouth and in the Imperial Valley. This proposed change for safety's sake also increased the original estimate for the cost of the structure. In the original project there was a provision for a canal which should lie entirely in United States territory and which should extend from a point on the Colorado River near Yuma to the Imperial Valley. Of this projected canal ten miles lay in a country of sand dunes, some of which rise as high as a hundred and fifty feet above the level of the mesa. The Board believed that this canal should be retained and in sanctioning its retention its estimated cost was increased materially so as to line with concrete that portion through the sand dune section, and give that section a slope that would carry drifting sand through it to a place lower down, from which it easily could be removed. The original estimate of $125,000,000 as submitted for the dam, canal and appurtenant structures, was increased to $165,000,000 in order to provide for the added expense made necessary by the proposed changes. In the original law it was planned that the cost of the canal from Yuma on the Colorado to the Im PROBLEM OF BOULDER DAM 199 perial Valley would be paid for by the returns from the sale of power at the dam. This would mean that the people of the Imperial Valley would have their water delivered to them practically without cost. The Board believed that the land to be irrigated and improved by the water brought through the canal should pay for the cost of the waterway. In any irrigation project, payments of certain costs are provided for in this manner. It was the expressed belief of the members of the Commission that the building of the Boulder Dam would result in stimulating industrial and agricultural development in Southern California. To that section of the state about 300,000 people go each year with the sole view of there making their homes. All that is necessary to care for this continuing influx of settlers is water; and the feeling of the Board members was that as an economic proposition the people of the United States would be repaid by the growth and the development of the Southern California section for the cost of the improvement, even if the power developed at the dam might not be able entirely to amortize the incurred debt, within the time specified by the law. The attitude of the engineering profession of the United States toward the findings of the Boulder Dam Commission is shown clearly by the following editorials under December, 1928, dates taken from The Engineering News-Record: "THE BOULDER DAM REPORT (Dec. 13, 1928.) "Public service of unusually high type is reflected 200 WILLIAM L. SIBERT in the report of the Engineering Board of Review on the Boulder Dam project. Responding fully, sanely and unequivocally to the queries placed before it, the report answers the major doubts with which Congress and the general citizen were disturbed last spring in the discussion of this contentious issue. It illuminates many points in which the main issue has been obscured. It accomplishes these things by means of broad and wise treatment of the subject-and herein the report is distinguished. All too often the work of a board or a committee exhibits less wisdom than is possessed by its individual members; in the present instance the excellence of the results embodies the conjoined wisdom of the group. "What does the board set forth? It gives full answer to four major questions. First: it declares that the proposed 550-foot dam is feasible, is capable of being safely and readily built. Last spring, it will be recalled, suspicion was cast upon the feasibility of this great structure; at a time when bitter opposition was being centered upon the project on the score of power and of Arizona royalty claims, the failure of the St. Francis dam served as basis for intimations that the proposed dam would not be safe, since, apparently, no dams were safe. The report states positively that it is safe, whether placed in Boulder Canyon or in Black Canyon. The board takes an extreme attitude of conservatism in its comment on the design, and this cannot reasonably be criticised, for in a work of such character and magnitude it is indeed wise to purchase extra insurance. But in fairness one should note that the prior design is not condemned as either unsafe or radical. Second: it finds that the project will be effective to carry out the specific combination of purposes for which it was devised-namely, flood control, silt removal, flow equalization for most efficient water supply, and power generation. Here also important PROBLEM OF BOULDER DAM 201 doubts were at issue, having been raised by many claims, based on small-scale facts and interpretations, that the combination of hydraulic functions is not practicable. Therefore, the clear-cut judgment expressed by the board is highly valuable. Here again a most conservative attitude is taken. The board rates the total flow lower, and the possible flood flow higher, than heretofore estimated-a sound procedure in a review by an appellate tribunal of a stream having such limited records and such picturesquely varied phenomena as the Colorado. The board's figures may not be nearer right than those previously calculated, but they are on the safe side. Third: it concludes that the canal into the Imperial Valley can be built and maintained successfully, contrary to what had been claimed by many critics. Fourth: it holds that the power by-product of the dam is needed and is valuable, and that the project will pay, after due deduction (which, as we understand the past proceedings, has previously been contemplated) of flood-protection charges and the cost of the Imperial Valley canal. Significant and unreserved is the board's statement that the near-by territory has a power demand large enough to absorb the output of the project. This verdict sweeps away most of the background of the antagonism displayed by some of the utility interests-though the most farseeing have long appraised the situation in a more progressive light. "Several auxiliary questions are also disposed of by the report, but these four are of outstanding moment. They are sufficient to strip the project of much of the doubt in which it has been veiled and to place the central issue fully and fairly before Congress. "The board confined itself to the questions which it was instructed to answer, and therefore it did not touch many of the sore points of the Boulder dam case. But it is for Congress to decide whether this 202 WILLIAM L. SIBERT great, costly and far-reaching enterprise of controlling a menacingly wild river for the protection and development of the Southwest is a proper and a desirable national function; to decide, among other things, whether the Colorado River compact is a secure basis for the utilization of the water; to determine how the inevitable involvement of power production in the project shall be dealt with; whether the Imperial Valley canal is a constructive method of improving the dangerous status of water supply at the Mexican border; whether it is best to allot the stored water by states or to leave it subject to the established doctrine of beneficial appropriation under the remarkable circumstances surrounding the use of the lower Colorado; and whether the insistent claims of Arizona for power royalties ought to be recognized. "These and related questions were not before the board, and they would have been dangerous obstacles to a clear and firm disposal of the question specifically placed before it. That the board kept its studies and judgment free of these complications is a matter for sincere congratulations." "QUICK RESPONSE (Dec. 20, 1928.) "Engineers can take a just satisfaction in the prompt passage of the Boulder dam bill by the United States Senate almost immediately after the report of the engineering board of review was laid before that body. The engineers had passed cogent and convincing judgment on the technical questions at issue; they left to the legislators the policy questions, as we pointed out last week. The Senate's action is a proper response to the board's work. It means that the legislators accepted and indorsed the findings of the engineers-their conclusion that there is no reason to entertain fears concerning the safety of the structure or the feasibility of the project-and therefore felt PROBLEM OF BOULDER DAM 203 able to dispose of the policy questions without further misgivings. In doing so the Senate killed the demand for state power royalties, as well as the demand that power development be left to private interests except as a last resort. The action of the Senate represents one of the most significant steps in legislation for public development in many years. With the strong prospect that the House will promptly approve the Senate bill-having passed a slightly different bill last spring-the long-drawn-out case of the Colorado River conservation and development is going forward rapidly to its final stage." "A MOMENTOUS DECISION (Dec. 27, 1928.) "During the week Congress passed and the President promptly signed the bitterly contested measure for the control of the Colorado River. Events moved rapidly since the favorable action of the Senate on Dec. 14. Even before our last issue left the presses, the House of Representatives accepted the amended bill as just passed by the Senate, and a few days later the President approved it. So ends a long campaign for one of the greatest public-works projects of the day. The Boulder dam bill has become law. "The government's decision is momentous. Complete regulation of the flow of a great river-a primary need of the Colorado situation-is to be undertaken; for the first time the federal government takes upon itself such regulation. Its action in large part rested on the compelling reason that the delta region must be freed of the menace which now overhangs it; nevertheless a most important precedent has been set. To pay for this regulation, power-development profits are to be drawn upon, so far as they are realized. "Of even greater moment, perhaps, is the meaning of the decision on the power question, since the in 204 WILLIAM L. SIBERT volvement of power and the allocation of the expected power profits formed one of the great fighting points of the project. Enactment of the law implies the view, on the part of the government, that power production, flow equalization and water conservation are logical parts of an inseparable whole in this instance, to be considered jointly both in the conception of the project and in the evaluation of its economic factors. The question here at issue is only in part of strictly engineering character, as we remarked on previous occasions; to an important degree it is a policy matter, a proper subject for legislative decision on broad grounds of national attitude. Congress has declared that, in such a case as this one, the power phase shall not be carved away from the other phases of the problem, and shall not be entitled to have its profit or loss accounting segregated. That this policy has been determined by the enactment is in some respects the most significant feature of the new-made law." The report of this Colorado River Board was given not only the general approval of the engineers of the country, but it met with apparent approval from the officials of the United States Government. The future of the Boulder Dam project cannot, of course, definitely be foretold, but it is certain that there has been a general endorsement of the wisdom of the conclusions reached by the Board of engineers and geologists appointed for the purpose of making a comprehensive study of the conditions. At the time that this is written General Sibert has finished his task of building a new ocean terminal at the city of Mobile, the seaport of his native state. When certain matters connected with railroad trans View of proposed Boulder Dam and I'ower House, locking up-stream. PROBLEM OF BOULDER DAM 205 portation are concluded, together with the adjustment of affairs so that the seaport may secure its fair share of the country's export business and a final study of conditions so as to insure that a firm foundation for the future has been established, his task will be over and then he will seek what he thinks is to be a state of permanent retirement on his farm on the banks of the Barren River in Kentucky. There he will have his flocks of sheep, his herds of cattle and his pack of fox hounds. Country life with its occupations and its recreations always has had for him a strong appeal. Incidentally, the General's favorite fox hound, "Sooky," won the Field Trial Championship in the All-Age Race at the annual meet of the National Fox Hunters' Association in Nashville, Tennessee, in November, 1929. One hundred and sixty dogs competed in this race, which lasted for three days. For two days the ground was covered with snow, making the test a severe one. It was in the Barren River district of Kentucky that William L. Sibert virtually began his work as an army engineer. It is in the same region that he soon is to seek retirement; but there are those who, knowing his career, believe that if the call to duty shall come to him again he will not fail to respond. In a book about the early canal work of the French on the Isthmus of Panama, Colonel Bunau-Varilla, one of the chief engineers of construction, refers to William L. Sibert, one of his American successors in the Isthmian labor. He calls him "the engineer 206 WILLTAM L. SIBERT without fear and without reproach." The General's friends are content to let stand the Frenchman's estimate of his character. THE END Date Due UIERSITY OF MICHIGAN 3 9015 01637 4384 Trarisp. UG 1283.oS5 059 Clark,.E. B. William L.Sibert ccl930)i .:., I ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~"