A BILL TO PROVIDE FOR THE OPENING, MAINTENANCE, MAY 28, 1912 Printed for the use of the Committee on Interoceanic Canals PART 10 WASHINGTON PANAMA CANAL. TUESDAY, MAY 28, 1912. COMMITTEE ON INTEROCEANIC CANALS, Washington, D. C. The committee met at 10 o'clock a. m. Present: Senators Brandegee (chairman), Bristow, Perkins, Page, Jones, Townsend, Johnston, Percy, Thornton, and O'Gorman." The CHAIRMAN. Mr. Secretary Stimson, I have taken the liberty of inviting you to appear before the committee this morning to express any views that you think we ought to have and give us the benefit of any ideas that you have about the pending legislation. STATEMENT OF HON. HENRY L. STIMSON, SECRETARY OF WAR. Secretary STIMSON. Mr. Chairman, I am very glad to appear. I do not know that I can add anything to what other witnesses can testify, perhaps more directly, but I shall be very glad to give my views. In what form would you care to have me take it up-in a discussion of the bill itself? you The CHAIRMAN. If you prefer, you may take up the House bill, H. R. 21969, and anything that you see in it that you think can be improved upon, let us have your views upon that. that. Anything that think would be unwise or against public policy, mention it to us, and, if you prefer, the committee will ask you questions about each section or wait until you have entirely finished and then ask such questions as they desire. My suggestion is that you proceed in your own way without interruption until you have finished, and any Senator who desires to ask any questions may make a memorandum of them and ask them after you have finished. Secretary STIMSON. Then I shall be very glad to adopt that course. My department is interested in this bill, particularly in the administrative features, the features which create an administrative government of the canal. It is particularly interested in that at the present time, because there is pressing urgency for the passage immediately of such portions of the bill. The present bill as it comes from the House in general is satisfactory to the department. It follows the line which, I think, is the one required for the creation of an operating establishment and a government for the zone. I have some suggestions and criticisms to make in general; but as a whole the bill follows the line of creating an administrative government which is purely executive, and that is the one which I believe is best adapted to the situation. I have explained my views several times and I do not know that there is any need of going over them here. The CHAIRMAN. You have explained them in addresses in various parts of the country Secretary STIMSON. And also before the House committee. The CHAIRMAN. And I should like to have them in this record also. Secretary STIMSON. In general I regard the problem which faces the Government in the operation of the canal as a purely administrative problem. In other words, I think we should follow out in the operation of the canal substantially the same course that Congress has followed in regard to the construction of the canal. You will remember that Congress in the former legislation virtually told the President to go ahead and construct the canal. In substance I think the most satisfactory policy now would be to tell the President to go ahead and operate the canal, and that is substantially what this bill has done in regard to the creation to an administrative government. The problem down there is purely executive. After the canal is finished instead of a population on the zone of, as at present, some 35,000 or 40,000 actual laborers, not counting their families, there will be a labor force of about 2,500. There will be less of a general population then by just about that proportion than there is now. The problem will be to see that the gates are opened and shut and protected, and the rest of the governmental machinery follows from those cardinal features. The zone, as I think the chairman of the committee of the House expressed it, is merely the banks of the canal. We submitted-I do not know whether it was to you also, Mr. Chairman-but we submitted to the House committee a bill which was drawn up by Judge Feuille, the law officer of the Isthmian Canal Commission, and it is in the record of the House. That presents more briefly and concisely than I can express it, my views on this subject. It has been followed largely in the present bill, and I think I will just resubmit it without discussion as the best statements I can make of that. It is found on page 945 of the hearings before the House Committee on Interstate Commerce. The CHAIRMAN. I will ask you to look at this first bill in this file here [indicating], which is a bill which Judge Feuille handed to me down on the Isthmian Canal Zone. I had it printed. I did not introduce it in the Senate. I had it printed for the use of the committee to see if there was anything in it that would be of help to the committee. See if that is the bill referred to. Secretary STIMSON (after examination). I think that is the bill. There were one or two slight amendments, and, I think, improvements, added up here in the department after Judge Feuille sent it to us, but they were very slight, and they could be easily found by comparison. On this subject, as to which there has been no substantial difference of opinion since the matter has been under legislative consideration, as to the character of the government, before I go into details. I wanted to read into the record a statement which I have just received from Col. Goethals, which sets forth the necessity for immediate legislation. In other words, why it is important that we should get authority to create an operating force and government there as soon as possible. This is an extract from a letter dated May |