The duties being various, the pay necessarily differs, but, taking free quarters into account, is higher than in the United States, as is of course necessary in a distant and tropical land. Since the industrial difficulties of 1907-8 there has been considerable competition for these billets. An 8-hour day is established by law for employees on the Gold Roll, the quarters are excellent, and the three meals a day provided at a fixed charge are up to the standard of a good hotel. Indeed, the opportunity to share these meals, supplied in large airy rooms, screened by gauze but open to the breeze, made my task on the Isthmus much lighter. From almost any part of the Canal I could reach one of the Commission "hotels" for meal-time, and for 50 cents (2s. 1d.) obtain better food than I have generally been able to get in the tropics at a much higher price. I took pleasure also in my company, for, if I may be permitted to say so, the skilled mechanic of the United States has always seemed to me a most attractive representative of his nation; and here particularly so, where one is in touch with his work. Moreover, each man's job on the Isthmus is part of a vast undertaking, the progress of which he can watch, which fires his enthusiasm, and makes him feel that he has a reward beyond his wage in the privilege of participating in national achievement. [Illustration: STEAM SHOVEL NEAR END OF STROKE.] [Illustration: STEAM SHOVEL, STROKE FINISHED, LOADED WITH SOIL.] I should like in this place to add a word of tribute to the great courtesy and kindness which they show towards ladies, a circumstance which did much to render pleasant the excursions which my wife took on the Isthmus, sometimes in my company and sometimes alone. The number of Americans on the Gold Roll in January, 1908, was about 6,000, the total number of employees on the rolls of the Commission and of the Panama Railroad being then approximately 43,000. The total number of employees actually at work on January 29, 1908, was On the Canal works 25,367 On the Panama Railroad 6,557 ------ Total 31,924 _The Responsible Officials and the Scheme of their Organisation._ The responsibility for Canal construction under the conditions laid down by Acts of Congress is vested in the President of the United States, within the limits of the money which has so far been voted. The President appointed a Commission in 1905 to carry out the work. The first chief engineer appointed was Mr. John F. Wallace, who arrived on the Zone June 28, 1904, accompanied by Colonel Gorgas, U.S.A., head of the Sanitation Department. Mr. Wallace was in favour of a tide-level canal. In April, 1905, the President appointed a second Commission in place of the first, with a changed _personnel_,[24] but Mr. Wallace was retained as chief engineer, and, moreover, became a member of the second Commission.