The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-12-13
UNDS FOR THE CANAL
EMERGENCY APPROPRIATION I!
 CONSIDERED.
Duties of Mir. Bishop, Press Agent of the Commission, nre Subject of Inquiry by the Senate
 COmmfftee.

Washington, Dec 12.-The emergency appropriation bill to provide the Isth- milan Canal Commission with the funds to carry on the construction of the Isthmian Canal will contain no general legislation. This was decided by the Senate Committee on Appropriations at a meeting lasting all of today and at which 10 was agreed to report the meas ure appropriating $1l.000.000. the amount named by the House bill.
 The first aection of the bill in rela- tion to the issuance of bonds was stricken out. A bill containing this feature was introduced in the Senate by Mir. Teller and will be dealt with by ths Finance Committee. The bill was amended so as to provide that in future no expen 1itures should be made for the canal except by authority of Congress and when appropriations have l been made.
 Secretary Taft of the War Depart mont; Theodore Shonts, Chairman of the Panama Canal Commission; Joseph B, Bishop, Secretary and other officers of the canal including the purchasing agent of the Commission and assistant purchasing agent, were before the Com nrittee and were subjected to pointGd inuu;ries as to the manner of making expenditures.
 MT. Taft and Mir. Shonts urged that the aDDrODTldLlOD DC ICaSCA tO VAOs- 500 COG, the amount named in the bill before it was amended in the House. They admitted, however, that $l1,0O0.- 900 would be sufficient to carry on the work until April.
 The examination of Mir. Bishop, who had been referred to in House debates as a press agent" for the Commission was of a personal nature and nc was asked to define his duties.
 bat in addition t0 aCt- ing as Secretary, he Is sort of diplo- naatic ..gent charged with meeting any possible coatingelcy that may arise. In the absence of Mir. Shonts and W. Leon Penperman the Assist ant Chief of Ad- nniaistration. MT. Bishop says, he as- sumes the duties in Washington even to the extent of signing checks and that he deals directly with the Secretary Of War in relation to canal matters. He said he was the historian for the Com mi. sicn. He acr7itted that to some eN- tent this informa'i on was used for the public press.
 Tn his capacity of literary secretary. Mir Bishop declared that he was not expected to create public sentiment but to keep it normal In explanation he said that there had been deter mined effort on the part of opposition interests to direct public feeling against the car al and that before he entered the employment of the Govern nent his services had been sought by those interests at more liberal compen- sation than he is now receiving
 When he was asked to name the in" terests MT. Bishop specified the Mica raEua, the Tehuantepec and the Da- rien canals, and ventured to surmise that the transcontinental railroads also were concerned in the opposition to the canal In reply to questions as to the
 H.A nAAd hn he had no positive information that they were opposing the canal.
 Mir Shonts defended the action of the commission in employing a literary sec retary, saying that practically every railroad or corporation of any charac- ter found the services of such an agent ''of inestimable value" The appropria- tion committee took up the question of making reports by officials of the Canal Commission and that in regard to the provisions of bill adopted by the Sem ate Committee on Interoceanic Canals last Congress. were agreed upon. These provisions were placed in the House bill as amendments and entered into detail in the manner of requiring re- ports to be made to Congress. If the Finance Committee reports promptly the Teller bill in relation to the bonds it is possible that in the interest of saving time this may be returned to the bill as new section and the other amendments decided on by the appro- priations committee were dropped tenn porarily to be dealt with later by the Isthmian Canal Commission
 The effect of this would be to place the Appropriation Committee on record against general legislation and give the bond feature of the House bill the endorsement of the Finance Committee and at the same time avoid a new bond bill in the House. Senator Allison will have charge of the bill on the floor. It will be reported to the Senate early tomorrow.