Geo. W. Goethals,
Chairman and Chief Engineer.
Some of the foreman did not talk much for a while, they had been so used to swearing, but the Colonel’s orders were obeyed.
The work then moved along smoothly and Colonel Goethals was looking forward to the end of his labors, when one day an engineer on the Panama Railroad paid no attention to the signals and let his train run into the rear coaches of another train, killing the conductor.
This engineer was drunk, and it is against the rules of any railroad for an intoxicated person to be in its employ. Colonel Goethals had the engineer arrested and put in jail. However, the man belonged to a labor union, and this union sent a committee demanding that he release the engineer by seven o’clock that evening. If he did not, they would order all the men working along the canal to strike. This meant that the work on the canal would stop, and it might be weeks before it would be resumed. They would wait, they said, for his answer until seven o’clock that evening. Colonel Goethals listened to the committee, then shook hands with them and went to his home.
Seven o’clock came, then eight. The committee was worried. They telephoned Colonel Goethals and asked for his answer. He replied in surprise that they had it. They said it had not reached them. He reminded them that they intended to strike at seven o’clock if the man was not released, and then said, “It is now eight o’clock; if you call the penitentiary, you will find the man is still there.”
The leaders did not want to strike. They had expected to make Colonel Goethals do what they wanted. Then they said, “Do you want to tie up the work down here, Colonel”?
“I am not tying it up,” he told them. “You are. You forget that this is not a private enterprise, but a government job.”
When asked what he was going to do, his answer was: “Any man not at work tomorrow morning will be given his transportation to the United States. He will go out on the first steamer and he will never come back.”