Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-02-23
At THE WHITE HOUSE
Making Up the Canal Com
mission Slate.
Mr.. CARRIER DECLINES
FIVE MEN HAVE ALREADY Aov
CEPTED PLACES.
Legislation Made Necessary by Rattle
cation of the Panama Treaty-Fur-
ther Adjournment Talk.

| No'S'iu uct tHe fanaina canal His inten.
ton to have none but the highest class
| men OF the country on the commission has
already been shown by the names of those
already picked to become members The
| trouble the President is having is that
the places will probably not pay enough
10 lnduce professional men of large in
come TO give up their work and enter the
government service. An instance of this
is the declination of John CARRIER of San
francisco OF the offer made to him by the
President Mr.. CARRIER could not afford to
| give up his work. The salaries of the
| commissioners are to be fixed by the Pres
| 1dent, under the terms of the Spooner
amendment Of the last Congress, until
Congress has agreed upon the pay. The
| compensations of various engineers and
otner employees under the commission ars
| to be fixed by the commission.
| The President has been casting around
| for some one to fill the vacancy made by
Mr.. CARRIERS declination. He may offer the
place to some other man from California,
| but 1t will not be to DR.. Chester Rowell,
who has been ndorsed by the California
legislature and senators for a position,
| When the President has completed the COM
| mission he will send the names to the Sem
| ate, the law prescribing that they shall be
named by and with the advice and consent
| of the Senate.
! With the declnation of Mr.. CARRIER there
are still five men known to have been Of
| feree places on the commission who will
probably accept These are Rear Admiral
| Walker, head Of the former isthmian COM
mission; Gen. George w. Davis, u. S. A.,
retired; Alfred Noble. the engineer of the
| Pennsylvania railroad; Col. Frank Hecker
of Detroit, and B. M. Harrod of Louisiana,
| one of the engineers on the Mississippi
| river in the employ of the state of Louisi-
ana. These five men are believed to have
accepted positions. Regarding Mr.. Mobiles
| acceptance there has been some doubt, az
| the Pennsylvania railroad has declined to
/ part with his services, but an arrangement
| is said to have been made by which Mr..
Noble will serve without severing his con-
! nection with the great engineering plans OF
| the railroad.
/ The Spooner amendment stipulated that
of the seven members of the commission at
least four must be engineers and at least
| two must represent the army and navy.
/ Admiral Walker and General Davis carry
| out these requirements. while the selection
| of Mr.. Noble and Mr.. Harrod- make up the
| other two engineers spoken of. The Prest-
| dents intention is that the other three men
shall be competent business and profess
sional men, having great executive ability.
Colonel Hecker is the man who took charge
of the immense transportation interests of
the government during the Spanish-Ameri-
can war favor to General Alger. them
Secretary of War.
Necessary Legislation.
1t is believed that Congress will fix the
salaries of the commissioners before ad-
journing the present session. This Is one
of several points that must be made clear
before work is begun on the canal.
Legisla ton will be required on a number
of points to make the record clear and
leave nothing open for dispute. Another
natter that must be provided for is the
question of the payment of the money to
the republic of Panama. The Spooner
amendment provided that when the Presi-
dent had arranged to secure a satisfactory
title to the property of the New Panama
Canal Company he was authorized to pay
$4o,OC0,OOO for the property; when he had
obtained by treaty control of the necessary
territory from Colombia he was authorized
to pay the republic of Colombia" such sum
as shall have been agreed upon, which was
$40. 100000.
There is nowhere any warrant for pay.
ing that sum to the republic of Panama,
and the laws of the country distinctly de-
clare that no money may be paid out of the
treasury except upon the appropriation or
Congress
There is likewise doubt whether bonds to
pay for the construction of the canal can
be issued under the terms of the Spooner
act, and the republ can leaders will there
fore arrange for legislation covering all the
disputed points-authority to pay Panama,
salaries of commissioners, authority to is
sue bonds and any other matters that may
need new dressing.
There will not be single politician on the
canal commission If the President has his
way. There were hundreds of politicians,
past and present who had been pushed
for places on the commission. and who
of landing but the President disappointed
all the hopes by making up slate without
the name of single politician.
The Question of Adjournment.
Republican leaders who visit the Presi-
dent continue to predict an extremely early
adjournment of Congress. Senator Aldrich,
an old hand in congressional adjournment
experiences said today that there ought to
be, and probably would be. an early ad-
journment, Just as early as possible He
does not fix a date, but feels that il moth
ing UNEXPECTED intervenes April 10 will
come near icing the time for quit ng work.
Senator Fairbanks ieels that Congress
is well on the road TO closing its work
within the next forty days or even less.
II think we ought to get away from here
by April IT, the Indiana senator said to-
day. Everybody wants to get away that
llcans agree that there is no reason for
delaying adjournment this year
Senator Foster Of Louisiana, who had
called to talk about a canal commissioner
with the President, agreed with Senator
Fairbanks.
Senator Nelson of Minnesota said he
could not give an idea of the date for ad-
jearnment- 1t may be early or late" he
said, but do not believe we will get OF
from here as early as May 1. 1t may be
as late as June 1.
The Cabinet Meeting
The cabinet meeting today did not give
more than an hour and half to discussion
of affairs that arose. number of the cab
met officials were absent. The most im-
portant subject talked over was the recent
landing of marines and the shelling of the
Insurgents in San Domingo. The President
and Secretary Hay agreed that no other
course could have been pursued. The same
course will be followed should there be a
repetition of the action of the insurgents
at other points I'm San Domingo.
YrI,. eff, +tr,tx >fnsr 10
but there was nothing new requiring sAri-
Gus consideration
Features Of the Tree Planting.
The planting of two fern leaf beech trees
by President and Mrs. Roosevelt at the
east entrance of the White House. yester-
day afternoon was watched by a large
number OF persons. who stood outside tho