< * - » r-T -1 When the I Jnited States Senate, a sliort time before the Adjournment |of Cou greHH, unexpectedly voted for a lock canal across the Isthmus of Panama, thus concurring with the House, the President said: ««As soon as I receive official notice of the action of Congress, I'll tell Shouts to cut loose," Theodore p. shonts, chairman and executive head of the Isthmian Canal Commission, soon received this word from Mr. Roosevelt, and he, in turn, lost no time in passing it -OS to John JR. Stevens, chief engineer of the Commission and his right-hand man. •r many weary month?, pf preparation c r w tu deter -- „r"' cl n;iU these two men mine the VK t l, e actual con- \ „c„v have h the bluest j struction worK c 6 .nv,vi 7tnrewr' uiiueruißl!TJJTWm and along the whole length of the canal route the dirt is flying with characteristic American energy. It is a peculiar fact that until both Mr. Shonts and Mr. Stevens were selected for their present work, their existence was undreamed of by the great Ameri can public, which now has their names on its lips daily. When the President determined to re organize the Canal Commission he nat urally looked about for the proper man to head it. Elihu Root refused the task; he was wedded to the law. Henry C. Frick did not want it; he had already done his work. One day Paul Morton, then in the cabinet as Secretary of the Navy, suggested the name of Theodore P. Shonts, a friend of his. As the good old expression has it, the President took to Mr. Shonts at once, and when the latter frankly stated that he would not consider taking the posi tion unless he could have full authority, and his judgment would be final in all matters wherein there was a difference of opinion, that settled it. Mr. Shouts was straightway offered the position un der this condition, and as promptly ac cepted, thus leaping from obscurity, as president of a third-rate railroad, to in ternational prominence, as executive head of the world's greatest engineering un dertaking. HOW SHONTS WON HIS WIFE. That Mr. Shonts has a habit of ac complishing to the queen's taste what he sets out to do, is illustrated by two inci dents furnished by his career. As young men will do, there came a time when he fell in love with a young lady. She was the daughter of General Francis M. Drake (afterwards Governor of Iowa) and a musical enthusiast. Somehow, Shonts got it into his head that to win her he would have to become proficient in music, and, nothing daunted by the circumstance that from his earliest boyhood he had never been able to carry a tune or distinguish one note from an other, he set resolutely to work to master the art. It was hard work, but he kept at it, and before long he was being com plimented by Miss Drake on his unsus pected accomplishment. Still later he was rewarded for all his trouble by gain ing from the young lady's lips the word he longed most to hear. To this day, music is one of Mr. Shonts' hobbies. He has only two—the other is work. The second incident occurred in Chi cago, the Shonts' home town. A rail road contractor who harbored a griev The Cameron County Press. ance against Mr. Shonts called on him in his office for the express purpose of "getting even with him." As soon as / Mr. Shonts became aware of the con- \ tractor's intentions he sprang to the door, locked it, and fifteen minutes later, when the door was unlocked, the caller sneaked through it, as badly thrashed as any ! man that ever walked in shoe leather. In telling of the ericounter, Mark Morton, a brother of Paul, said: "The chairs were broken, and the room looked as if a typhoon had swept through it." In other words, Mr. Shonts had simply wiped up the floor with his man. Prominent railroad men are authority for the statement that probably no man is -ore accurately informed on all the details of railroading than is Mr. Shonts. Acquisition of right of way, construction, the handling and choosing of men, opera tion, traffic, finances, the relation ofa rail road to the public—all of these problems, among others, have been wrestled with by him at some time or other since the day he gave up his newly begun law prac tice, at the solicitation of his father-in law, and joined him in the work of building the lowa Central. Mr. Shonts dpes not need the salary that Uncle Sam pays him. His income from his private fortune exceeds a hun dred thousand dollars a year. He likes to do things. It is a passion with him, "PICTORIAL.COLOR AND MAGAZINE SECTION" EMPORIUM, PA., AKitST 13, 1906. and it was in this spirit that he under took the biggest task of his career. THE RECORD BUILDER OF RAILROADS. An equally restless and hard worker is Mr. Stevens, lie is every bit as true a friend and a good hater. He also is able to inspire the enthusiasm of men under him. He, too, knows railroading from top to bottom, is of the Middle West, and accepted the President's offer largely because of his love of doing things that look hard. In the twenty-nine years that he was connected with railroads in some engi neering capacity Mr. Stevens managed to construct more miles of railroad than any other man in the world down to date. He began to build track in '76, as engi neer and superintendent of surveys of the Sabine Pass and Northwestern Rail way. Two years previously he had begun his engineering career as assistant city engineer of Minneapolis. He was then twenty-one. When he left the railroad world he was chief engineer and second vice-president of the Rock Is- janu ana racmc. His greatest engineering feat was ac complished while he was in the employ of the Great Northern, James J. Hill's road. At the same time he had his most thrilling adventure, or, rather, series of adventures. It was in 1890, the year that he went with the Great Northern as principal as sistant engineer, that he undertook to get the road across the Cascade Moun tains and Washington State. To find a pass in the mountains through which the road could be run, and to locate the line, Engineer Stevens disappeared one day in the wilderness with two Indian guides and a pack mule. There befell adventure sufficient in scrambling up mountains, skirting yawning precipices, treading vir gin territory; but on top of all this the guides turned deserters and the pack mule lay down and gave up the ghost. Imagine yourself in an untamed coun try under such circumstances. Would you push on intrepidly? That is just what John F. Stevens did, and he not only discovered Stevens Pass (named after him by a grateful employer), but in addition located the line so admirably that it remains unchanged to this day. This bit of strenuous endeavor made Mr. Stevens chief engineer of the road five years after going with it, and some time later he became its general manager. As such he did much to make the road the wonderful property it is to-day. From the Great Northern he went to the Rock Island, as chief engineer and fourth vice president. "l'l.L STICK," SAYS STEVENS. Mr. Stevens was born down East fifty three years ago. To be exact, his birth place is West Gardiner, Me. He is three years older than Mr. Shonts, who was born in Crawford County, Pa., but was raised in lowa. Mr. Stevens did not go west until he had given up teaching school for engineering, being led to take the step largely because he had an uncle who was a famous engineer in his day. "I am going to stick," Mr. Stevens announced, when it became news that he was to succeed John F. Wallace as chief engineer of the canal. The man's dogged determination and his ability to preserve a cheerful face and crack a smile in the face of apparently insuperable difficulties, are leading cnar acteristics. They have done a lot to win him the devotion of the men who work under him, as well as to pull him triumphantly through numerous tight places.
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers