The question of the type of canal to connect the waters of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans at Panama is now before the Senate. The resolution adopted January 9, 1906, required

That the Committee on Interoceanic Canals, or any subcommittee thereof, be, and are hereby, authorized and directed to investigate all matters relating to the Panama Canal * *, to send for persons and papers, and to administer oaths, and to employ a stenographer to report such hearings.

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The committee met January 11, 1906, for this purpose, since which date testimony of those connected with the work performed and who have been connected with or who are interested in the work has been taken and their statements are recorded. The printed record of such hearings comprise over 3,000 printed pages.

Your committee has now reached a point in the progress of the investigation where it submits a report recommending to the Senate the adoption of a type of canal to connect the Atlantic and Pacific oceans at Panama.

LEGISLATION.

For convenience it is deemed advisable to briefly recall the legislative history of the canal enterprise and to state definitely the conditions that Congress has imposed respecting the type of canal and its construction.

The Spooner Act, approved June 28, 1902, authorized the President to acquire for and on behalf of the United States the rights, privileges, franchises, concessions, grants of land, rights of way, unfinished work, plans, and other property, real, personal, and mixed, of every name and nature owned by the New Panama Canal Company of France on the Isthmus of Panama, provided a satisfactory title could be obtained. It also authorized the President to acquire for and on behalf of the United States, upon such terms as he might deem reasonable, perpetual control of a strip of land at Panama not less than 6 miles in width, extending from the Caribbean Sea to the Pacific Ocean, and the right to use and dispose of the waters thereon, and also to acquire such additional territory and rights as would, in his judgment, facilitate the objects contemplated.

The second paragraph of the third section of this act contains the following respecting the canal authorized to be constructed:

The President shall then, through the Isthmian Canal Commission hereinafter authorized, cause to be excavated, constructed, and completed, utilizing to that end, as far as practicable, the work heretofore done by the New Panama Canal Company, of France, and its predecessor company, a ship canal from the Caribbean Sea to the Pacific Ocean. Such canal shall be of sufficient capacity and depth as shall afford convenient passage for vessels of the largest tonnage and greatest draft now in use, and such as may be reasonably anticipated, and shall be supplied with all necessary locks and other appliances to meet the necessities of vessels passing through the same from ocean to ocean, and he shall also cause to be constructed such safe and commodious harbors at the termini of said canal and make such provisions for defense as may be necessary for the safety and protection of said canal and harbors.

The President was further required to cause the making of such surveys as may be necessary for said canal and harbors and was authorized to cause such contract or contracts to be entered into as may be deemed necessary for the purpose of excavation, construction, and completion, and defense of said canal and harbors.

The sum of $10,000,000 was appropriated for the project, and further appropriations were assured in the additional amount of $135,000,000.

The Commission for construction was by the terms of said act to consist of seven members, four to be engineers, one to be a naval, and another an army officer, all to be appointed by the President, with the advice and consent of the Senate," said Commission to be in all matters subject to the direction and control of the President." The Commission organized in March, 1904.

On the 26th day of February, 1904, the Hay-Bunau Varilla treaty between the United States and the new Republic of Panama was ratified in Washington and was duly proclaimed. By section 2 of this treaty Panama grants to the United States in perpetuity the use, occupation, and control of the zone of land and land under water for the construction, maintenance, operation, sanitation, and protection of said canal of the width of 10 miles, extending to a distance of 5 miles on either side of the center line of the route of the canal to be constructed in said zone, beginning in the Caribbean Sea 3 marine miles from mean low-water mark, and extending to and across the Isthmus of Panama into the Pacific Ocean to a distance of 3 marine miles from mean lowwater mark, with the proviso that the cities of Panama and Colon, and the harbors adjacent to said cities, which are included in the boundary of the zone above described, shall not be included within this grant.

The Republic of Panama further granted to the United States in perpetuity the use, occupation, and control of any other lands and waters outside of the zone above described which may be necessary and convenient for the construction, maintenance, operation, sanitation and protection of the said canal and its auxiliary canals or other works necessary and convenient for the construction, maintenance, operation, sanitation, and protection of said enterprise and all islands within the limits above described, and in addition thereto the group of small islands in the Bay of Panama therein named; also the right

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to use the waters, streams, lakes, and bodies of water within the limits for navigation, the supplying of water power or other purposes so far as the use of said rivers, streams, lakes, and bodies of water and the waters thereof may be necessary and convenient.

All rights that a sovereign could exercise over the Zone and auxiliary lands or waters were also granted to the United States by Panama.

By act of Congress approved April 28, 1904, the President was directed to take possession of the Zone of land, the control of which was ceded by the said treaty to the United States and directed that until the expiration of the Fifty-eighth Congress the government of the Zone and the exercise of all the powers granted to the United States should be vested in such persons and exercised in the manner which the President might direct.

The further sum of $16,500,000 has been appropriated for construction purposes during the present Congress.

The above cited and quoted provision of law are all the legislation in existence of special pertinence to the construction of the canal or its dimensions and capacity.

TYPE NOT FIXED.

The President remarks in his letter of transmittal that "the existing law seems to contemplate a lock canal," and the majority of the

Isthmian Canal Commission say that the lock plan recommended "is of the same type as that recommended by the Commission of 18991901 and adopted by Congress, at least by inference, in the act approved June 28, 1902," the changes now proposed "being such as Congress could not possibly have intended to prohibit when it adopted the old plan."

The Isthmian Canal Commission in its report dated November 16, 1901, recommended a lock canal having certain physical characteristics, the most noted differences between this project and the one now proposed by the minority for adoption are several, and some of them important, as follows:

The estimated cost of the 1901 project, including sanitation and general contingencies, was $144,233,358, while the project of 1906 was estimated to result in an outlay of $139,705,200, which includes engineering and contingencies, but not sanitation. If an adequate allowance for general above special contingencies be made, and if sanitation be included, so as to bring the two estimates to a parity, it is evident that the cost of the lock canal now contemplated will largely exceed the cost estimated for a different work in 1901, and which estimate, it is said, Congress accepted as the cost of the canal.

That the cost of the work constructed, to conform to the requirements of the Spooner Act, would exceed the cost estimated by the Commission is evident on its face, for this act required that the canal be adequate in capacity to afford convenient passage for the largest ships engaged in commerce and those reasonably to be anticipated. The project of 1901 provided for no greater depth in the excavated channel than 35 feet and for locks 740 feet long and 84 feet wide, while ships are now constructing, and will soon be in service, 788 feet long, 88 feet beam, and drawing 38 feet. The differences between the physical characteristics of the former and now proposed lock canals are so marked, and the probability that the total appropriation made and to be made under the Spooner Act would be insufficient to carry the 1906 lock proposition to completion, convinces your committee that the presumption is without sufficient basis of fact or probability to justify the prosecution of the work unless and until Congress shall grant the requisite authority to that end.

The fact that the President convened a board of the most eminent engineers in the world to advise upon the proper type for adoption: that he considered the said report, together with that of the Isthmian Canal Commission, proves, in the opinion of your committee, that the President did not consider the type, dimensions, and capacity as definitely settled by the Spooner Act.

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CONGRESSIONAL ACTION REQUIRED.

An undertaking of this vast magnitude and of such supreme importance to the commerce of the world, and especially to the military and commercial needs of the United States, should not go forward without an authoritative expression by the law-making power settling definitely the questions of use or nonuse of locks and the dimensions of all the principal component parts of the most colossal work that mankind has ever undertaken and upon which questions the advice of the most competent and experienced engineers in the world was solicited and secured.

The work authorized by the Spooner Act has been initiated and extensive preparations for a rapid prosecution of it have been made. The Canal Zone has been placed in a satisfactory sanitary condition, adequate shelter for the workmen has been provided, hospitals of very large capacity have been made ready, as is evidenced by the opinions of experts who testified before the committee, and we are fortunately now in possession of a vast array of facts and figures affecting the prosecution of the undertaking that have not until now been available. This is due to the fact that the preparatory work has for two years been prosecuted with patient, intelligent judgment and earnest effort by those intrusted with the direction and supervision of the work.

Including the Commission of 1899-1901, the Commission of 1904, the Consulting Board, and the present Commission, including also the two chief engineers who have had charge on the Isthmus, it is found that 28 distinguished men, 23 of them engineers, have since 1899 for considerable periods of time been engaged in studying the vast proposition of dividing the continents and joining the oceans. If there be included also the large number of French and other European engineers and others employed by the French companies, the array of professional men who have aided in the elucidation of the problems becomes still more notable.

It seems to your committee that all the important facts bearing upon the task that confronts us are now sufficiently well known and made patent to the minds of the laymen to not only justify the Congress in deciding the technical questions presented by the President in his message of February 19, 1906, but to require that the representatives of the people discharge the duty which rests upon them at this important juncture to end the discussion which has continued for so many years as to the type, dimensions, and capacity of the Panama Canal.

It is due to the executive branch of the Government that the uncertanties confronting the President as to his power in the premises be settled and disposed of affirmatively once and for all by the only authority competent to pass upon the question-the national legislature.

TWO TYPES.

The study of all these years has resulted in a division among experts on the question as to whether the oceans at Panama should be joined by a canal at one or at several levels, whether lift locks shall be excluded or included, and what the dimensions should be. The officially expressed expert opinion of those chosen to advise on this question, as stated in the first part of this report, is for the sea-level idea by a majority of 8 to 5.

In the address which the President made to the Board of Consulting Engineers on September 11, 1905-all American and foreign engineers of his own selection--he very clearly and forcibly stated the question submitted to those chosen to advise. One quotation only will be made in this report from the very lucid presentation then made:

I hope that ultimately it will prove possible to build a sea-level canal. Such a canal would undoubtedly be the best in the end, if feasible, and I feel that one of the chief advantages of the Panama route is that ultimately a sea-level canal will be a possibility. But while paying due heed to the ideal perfectability of the scheme, from an engineer's standpoint, remember the need of having a plan which shall provide for the immediate building of a canal on the safest terms and in the shortest possible time. If to build a sea-level canal will but slightly increase the risk and will take but a little longer than a multi-lock high level canal, then, of course, it is preferable. But if to adopt the plan of a sea-level canal means to incur great hazard and to insure indefinite delay then it is not preferable. If the advantages are closely balanced I expect you to say so. *There may be reasons why the delay incident to the adoption of a plan for an ideal canal should be incurred, but if there is not, then I hope to see the canal constructed on a system which will bring to the nearest possible date in the future the time when it is practicable to take the first ship across the Isthmus.

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After very careful study of all the literature on the subject and extended hearings of many experts your committee has reached the conclusion that the following propositions are irrefutable:

1. The ideal canal at Panama is the one at sea level.

2. That its construction will be attended by no more, and probably with much less, hazard than the one requiring 170 feet of lockage and enormous earth dams on doubtful foundations.

3. That a sea-level canal will be much safer and more convenient than the other.

4. That but a little longer time will be consumed in its construction than the one with unprecedented lift locks.

5. That the maintenance of the canal at sea level will be much simpler and far more economical in operation and maintenance.

6. That the realizability of the ideal type at Panama is one of the chief advantages of this route.

But several able engineers, all Americans, have dissented from some of these propositions. These gentlemen have, in our belief, given undue weight to the example of the only American work that facilitates the transit between two of the Great Lakes of vessels of considerable size, and they lay very great stress upon the proposition that through the utilization of locks at the Isthmus a result will be accomplished that the President does not even mention in his original instructions or in his address of September 11, 1905, nor in his message to Congress-the estimated saving of cost of the work in money. There was no possible method by means of which ships could be passed between Lakes Superior and Huron save with some lifting and lowering device, for these lakes are at different levels, and the lock was naturally resorted to; yet it is an obstruction, however regarded, and could not and can not be avoided at the Soo, but similar devices at Panama are wholly unnecessary. To permit their introduction at this narrow isthmus, where the oceans are at one mean level and only 50 miles apart, will result in obstructive delays and unnecessary risks, which ought to be avoided and can readily be avoided. The tides of the two oceans now approach so that a distance of but 24 miles separates them, and the highest part between is only about 160 feet above sea level. It seems to us that this obstacle should be wholly removed, and not left in part even to be scaled or climbed over.