Rica and Nicaragua the use of the canal and harbors, upon terms to be agreed upon, for all vessels owned by said States and by citizens

thereof.

The sixth section makes a present appropriation of $10,000,000 to carry on this work, and authorizes the Secretary of War to enter into proper contracts for material and work as may be deemed necessary therefor, such work and material to be paid for as appropriations may be made from time to time; and the section fixes the aggregate cost at $180,000,000, to be drawn from the Treasury on warrants of the President.

The purpose of this bill is to concentrate authority and responsibility for the construction of this great work in the hands of the President. It has been believed by your committee that this course would be a safer one to be pursued in carrying out the purposes of the bill, involving the expenditure of so large a sum of money, all the work and all the expenditure to be made at a distance so far from the capital, than any other method that could be devised. We have tried to concentrate authority and responsibility rather than to disperse it among many

persons.

It is not the purpose of your committee to make at this time any argument in favor of the construction of the Nicaragua Canal. For four hundred years navigators and others interested in oriental trade have directed their endeavors to securing a shorter passage to the East than around either the northern or southern limits of the American continent. During nearly all of that period search has been made through all the narrower parts of the continent for some waterway that was supposed to exist connecting the oceans, or for some marked depression whereby water transit could be secured.

For three-quarters of a century the Congress of the United States and the Executive have been making endeavors in this direction. There are among the files of the House of Representatives and in the records of proceedings well-nigh fifty reports made by officers of the Army and Navy, by commissioners or commissions appointed for that purpose, and by committees of the two Houses, all of them attesting the feasibility of the enterprise that this bill proposes to inaugurate. We have upon our desks an exhaustive report made by the Isthmian Canal Commission, of which Adiniral Walker is the head, in which every feature of this enterprise is fully and at length discussed. No doubt is expressed by the Commission as to the practicability of the enterprise. On the contrary, they join with a score of predecessors in expressing their belief that the work can be carried to a successful termination within the limits of reasonable cost and reasonable time. That report, together with a report from this committee filed during the first session of the Fifty-sixth Congress upon a somewhat similar bill, are printed as appendixes, and reference is especially made to the valuable report of the Commission.

All of the great political parties are committed to the policy of the construction of this canal. The Republican party in their last national convention made the following declaration:

We favor the construction, ownership, control, and protection of an isthmian canal by the Government of the United States. New markets are necessary for the increasing surplus of our farm products; every effort should be made to open and obtain new markets, especially in the Orient, and the Administration is to be warmly commended for its successful efforts to commit all trading and colonizing nations to the policy of the "open door" in China.

The Democratic convention, assembled in 1900, used the following language:

We favor the immediate construction, ownership, and control of the Nicaragua Canal by the United States, and we denounce the insincerity of the plank in the Republican platform for an isthmian canal, in the face of the failure of the Repub lican majority on this subject to pass such a bill in Congress.

In the Silver Republican convention, held in Kansas City, Mo., July 4-6, 1900, is the following declaration:

We believe the Monroe doctrine to be sound in principle and a wise nationa policy, and demand and affirm adherence thereto. We condemn acts inconsisten with it and that tend to make us parties to the interests and to involve us in the con troversies of European nations and to the recognition, by pending treaty, of the righ of England to be considered in the construction of an interoceanic canal. We favo the speedy construction of the Nicaraguan Canal, to be built, owned, and defended by the Government of the United States.

The late President McKinley, in the great speech delivered by hin on the 5th of September last at the Pan-American Exposition in Buf falo-the last speech he was permitted to make-used this language:

We must build an isthmian canal which will unite the two oceans and give straight line of water communication with the western coasts of Central and South America and Mexico.

In his message to the present Congress President Roosevelt said:

No single great material work which remains to be undertaken on this continen is of such consequence to the American people as the building of a canal across the Isthmus connecting North and South America. Its importance to the nation is by no means limited merely to its material effects upon our business prosperity; and yet with view to these effects alone, it would be to the last degree important for us t immediately begin it. While its beneficial effects would perhaps be most marke upon the Pacific coast and the Gulf and South Atlantic States, it would also greatly benefit other sections. It is emphatically a work which it is for the interest of the entire country to begin and complete as soon as possible. It is one of those grea works which only a great nation can undertake with prospects of success, and which when done are not only permanent assets in the nation's material interests, bu standing monuments to its constructive ability.

I am glad to be able to announce to you that our negotiations on this subject with Great Britain-conducted on both sides in a spirit of friendliness and mutual goo will and respect-have resulted in my being able to lay before the Senate a treaty which, if ratified, will enable us to begin preparations for an isthmian canal at any time and which guarantees to this nation every right that it has ever asked in con nection with the canal.

Your committee suggests that on the 16th of the present month the treaty referred to by the President was ratified by the Senate of the United States without amendment.

In view of the many thousands of pages written and spoken in advocacy of the immediate undertaking and completion of this work in view of the pledges made by the parties that it should be undertaker and completed, in view of recommendations made by the Presidents of the United States referred to above, and in view of the almost uni versal demand of the American people that Congress should at once do something effective in the inauguration and speedy completion of the Isthmian Canal, your committee content themselves with this brief report, embodying their earnest recommendation that the bill as amended do pass.

January 18, 1902*

THE REPORT OF THE ISTHMIAN CANAL COMMISSION UPON THE PROPOSITION OF THE NEW PANAMA CANAL COMPANY TO SELL AND DISPOSE OF ALL ITS RIGHTS, PROPERTY, AND UNFINISHED WORK TO THE UNITED STATES.

JANUARY 20, 1902.-Read; referred to the Committee on Interoceanic Canals and ordered to be printed.

To the Senate and House of Representatives:

I transmit herewith a report of the Isthmian Canal Commission upon the proposition of the New. Panama Canal Company to sell and dispose of all its rights, property, and unfinished work to the United States for $10,000,000.

WHITE HOUSE, January 20, 1902.

The PRESIDENT:

THEODORE ROOSEVELT.

The undersigned, the Secretary of State, has the honor to lay before the President a copy of a letter from Rear-Admiral John G. Walker, United States Navy, president of the Isthmian Canal Commission, transmitting a report of the Commission upon the proposition of the New Panama Canal Company to sell and dispose of all its rights, property, and unfinished work to the United States for $10,000,000. Respectfully submitted.

JOHN HAY.

DEPARTMENT OF STATE,

Washington, January 20, 1902.

Report of the Isthmian Canal Commission, 57th Congress, 1st Session, Senate Document No. 123. TC773.U5 1902.

The Democratic convention, assembled in 1900, used the following language:

We favor the immediate construction, ownership, and control of the Nicaraguar Canal by the United States, and we denounce the insincerity of the plank in the Republican platform for an isthmian canal, in the face of the failure of the Repub lican majority on this subject to pass such a bill in Congress.

In the Silver Republican convention, held in Kansas City, Mo., July 4-6, 1900, is the following declaration:

We believe the Monroe doctrine to be sound in principle and a wise nationa policy, and demand and affirm adherence thereto. We condemn acts inconsisten with it and that tend to make us parties to the interests and to involve us in the con troversies of European nations and to the recognition, by pending treaty, of the righ of England to be considered in the construction of an interoceanic canal. We favo the speedy construction of the Nicaraguan Canal, to be built, owned, and defended by the Government of the United States.

The late President McKinley, in the great speech delivered by hin on the 5th of September last at the Pan-American Exposition in Buf falo-the last speech he was permitted to make-used this language:

We must build an isthmian canal which will unite the two oceans and give straight line of water communication with the western coasts of Central and South America and Mexico.

In his message to the present Congress President Roosevelt said:

No single great material work which remains to be undertaken on this continen is of such consequence to the American people as the building of a canal across th Isthmus connecting North and South America. Its importance to the nation is b no means limited merely to its material effects upon our business prosperity; and yet with view to these effects alone, it would be to the last degree important for us t immediately begin it. While its beneficial effects would perhaps be most marke upon the Pacific coast and the Gulf and South Atlantic States, it would also greatl benefit other sections. It is emphatically a work which it is for the interest of th entire country to begin and complete as soon as possible. It is one of those grea works which only a great nation can undertake with prospects of success, and whic when done are not only permanent assets in the nation's material interests, bu standing monuments to its constructive ability.

I am glad to be able to announce to you that our negotiations on this subject with Great Britain-conducted on both sides in a spirit of friendliness and mutual goo will and respect-have resulted in my being able to lay before the Senate a treat which, if ratified, will enable us to begin preparations for an isthmian canal at an time and which guarantees to this nation every right that it has ever asked in con nection with the canal.

Your committee suggests that on the 16th of the present month th treaty referred to by the President was ratified by the Senate of th United States without amendment.

In view of the many thousands of pages written and spoken in advocacy of the immediate undertaking and completion of this work in view of the pledges made by the parties that it should be undertaker and completed, in view of recommendations made by the President of the United States referred to above, and in view of the almost uni versal demand of the American people that Congress should at onc do something effective in the inauguration and speedy completion o the Isthmian Canal, your committee content themselves with this brie report, embodying their earnest recommendation that the bill a amended do pass.

January 18, 1902*

THE REPORT OF THE ISTHMIAN CANAL COMMISSION UPON THE PROPOSITION OF THE NEW PANAMA CANAL COMPANY TO SELL AND DISPOSE OF ALL ITS RIGHTS, PROPERTY, AND UNFINISHED WORK TO THE UNITED STATES.

January 20, 1902.-Read; referred to the Committee on Interoceanic Canals and ordered to be printed.

To the Senate and House of Representatives:

I transmit herewith a report of the Isthmian Canal Commission. upon the proposition of the New. Panama Canal Company to sell and dispose of all its rights, property, and unfinished work to the United States for $40,000,000.

WHITE HOUSE, January 20, 1902.

The PRESIDENT:

THEODORE ROOSEVELT.

The undersigned, the Secretary of State, has the honor to lay before the President a copy of a letter from Rear-Admiral John G. Walker, United States Navy, president of the Isthmian Canal Commission, transmitting a report of the Commission upon the proposition of the New Panama Canal Company to sell and dispose of all its rights, property, and unfinished work to the United States for $10,000,000. Respectfully submitted.

JOHN HAY.

DEPARTMENT OF STATE,

Washington, January 20, 1902.

Report of the Isthmian Canal Commission, 57th Congress, 1st Session, Senate Document No. 123. TC773.U5 1902.