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"The President shall provide a method for the determination and adjustment of all claims arising out of personal injuries to employees thereafter occurring while directly engaged in actual work in connection with the construction, maintenance, operation, or sanitation of the canal or of the Panama Railroad, or of any auxiliary canals, locks or other works necessary and convenient for the construction, maintenance, operation, or sanitation of the canal, whether such injuries result in death or not, and prescribe a schedule of compensation therefor, and may revise and modify such method and schedule at any time; and such claims, to the extent they shall be allowed on such adjustment, if allowed at all, shall be paid out of the moneys hereafter appropriated for that purpose or out of the funds of the Panama Railroad Company, if said company was responsible for said injury, as the case may require. And after such method and schedule shall be provided by the President, the provisions of the act entitled "An act granting to certain employees of the United States the right to receive from it compensation for injuries sustained in the course of their employment," approved May thirtieth, nineteen hundred and eight, and of the act entitled "An act relating to injured employees on the Isthmian Canal," approved February twenty-fourth, nineteen hundred and nine, shall not apply to personal injuries thereafter received and claims for which are subject to determination and adjustment as provided in this section.

"Sec. 11. That section five of the act to regulate commerce approved February fourth, 1887, as heretofore amended, is hereby amended by adding thereto a new paragraph at the end thereof as follows: From and after the 1st day of July, 1914, it shall be unlawful

for any railroad company or other common carrier subject to the act to regulate commerce to own, lease, operate, control, or have any interest whatever (by stock ownership or otherwise, either directly, indirectly, through any holding company or by stockholders or directors in common, or in any other manner) in any common carrier by water operated through the Panama Canal or elsewhere with which said railroad or other carrier aforesaid does or may compete for traffic, or any vessel carrying freight or passengers upon said water route or elsewhere with which said railroad or other carrier aforesaid does or may compete for traffic; and in case of the violation of this provision each day in which such violation continues shall be deemed a separate offense.

"Jurisdiction is hereby conferred on the Interstate Commerce Commission to determine questions of fact as to the competition or possibility of competition, after full hearing on the application of any railroad company or other carrier. Such application may be filed for the purpose of determining whether any existing service is in violation of this section and pray for an order permitting the continuance of any vessel or vessels already in operation, or for the purpose of asking an order to install new service not in conflict with the provisions of this paragraph. The commission may on its own motion or the application of any shipper institute proceedings to inquire into the operation of any vessel in use by any railroad or other carrier which has not applied to the commission and had the question of competition or the possibility of competition determined as herein provided. In all such cases the order of said commission shall be final.

"No vessel permitted to engage in the coastwise or

foreign trade of the United States shall be permitted to enter or pass through said canal if such ship is owned chartered, operated or controlled by any person or company which is doing business in violation of the provisions of the act of Congress, approved July 2, 1890, entitled "An act to protect trade and commerce against unlawful restraints and monopolies" or the provisions of sections 73 to 77, both inclusive, of an act approved August 27, 1894, entitled "An act to reduce taxation, to provide revenue for the government and for other purposes," or the provisions of any other act of Congress amending or supplementing the said act of July 2, 1890, commonly known as the Sherman Anti-trust Act, and amendments thereto, or said sections of the act of August 27, 1894. The question of fact may be determined by the judgment of any court of the United States of competent jurisdiction in any cause pending before it to which the owners or operators of such ships are parties. Suit may be brought by any shipper or by the Attorney General of the United States." *

Approved August 24, 1912.

CHAPTER XI.

REPEAL OF THE EXEMPTION ACT.

While the toll exemption law of 1912 was before Congress and before its passage, England began to question its legitimacy, when compared with the limitations of the Hay-Pauncefote treaty. She in a friendly way made inquiries which might be considered a protest.

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r The discussion continued until Mr. Taft's office expired and was unfinished when President Wilson assumed office. No other nation so far as the public know, except England has filed a protest against the exemption. But it was announced that several of the prominent nations of Europe would not, nationally, take part in the Panama Exposition to be held at San Francisco.

Many people interpreted this to be the result of the passage of the act to exempt our coastwise trade from tolls. The European nations took a very important part in recognizing the independence of Panama and thereby, in their unanimity, Panama became a nation de jure.

No nation at this day and age can live to and for itself. We are in the "Brotherhood of Nations" and are a very important part of the world's civilization. We are obliged to agree and harmonize with the world's highest code of honor; and should in the words of Jefferson have "a decent regard to the opinions of mankind."

President Wilson meeting trouble in diplomatic adjustment of some international questions, which he did

not disclose, and in order to place such matters in a more favorable situation for our nation, he on March 5, 1914 appeared before Congress and delivered an address asking for the repeal of the toll exemption act, which had become a law under President Taft's administration.

ADDRESS OF PRESIDENT WILSON TO CONGRESS,

MARCH 5, 1914.

"Mr. Speaker, Mr. President, gentlemen of Congress I have come to you upon an errand which can be very briefly performed, but I beg that you will not measure its importance by the number of sentences in which I state it. No communication I have addressed to the Congress carried with it graver or more farreaching implications as to the interest of the country, and I come now to speak upon a matter with regard to which I am charged in a peculiar degree by the constitution itself with personal responsibility.

"I have come to ask you for the repeal of that provision of the Panama Canal Act of August 24, 1912, which exempts vessels engaged in the coastwise trade of the United States from payment of tolls, and to urge upon you the justice, the wisdom, and the policy of such a repeal with the utmost earnestness of which I am capable.

"In my own judgment, very fully considered and maturely formed, that exemption constitutes a mistaken economic policy from every point of view, and is, moreover, in plain contravention of the treaty with Great Britain concerning the Canal concluded on November 18, 1901. But I have not come to urge upon you my personal views. I have come to state to you a fact and a situation. Whatever may be our own difference of opinion concerning this much debated meas

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