The Birmingham age-herald., 1905-01-14
Wants Panama Canal Conmis-
 sion Reduced to Three
IS NOW TOO INELASTIC
Secretary Taft In Report States That Plans for Taking Up Work In
 Earnest Will Be Completed In Three Months.

Washington, January 1S-President Roosevelt in a brief message transmitted to Congress to-day the first annual report of the Panama Canal Commission, to- gether with letter from Secretary Taft relating to Panama affairs, recommend ing that he be given greater discretion. as he is charged with the responsibility of constructing the canal The Board of Canal Commissioners, he says, should be reduced to five, or preferably three mem- bers, whose duties, powers and salaries should be assigned by the President.
 The Presidents message in full fol- lows:
 ITO the Senate and House of Representa-
 tives;
 T transmit herewith the report of the Isthmian Canal Commission, accompanied by a letter of the Secretary of War, under wohse supervision I have by ex- ecutive order placed the work of the commission I concur with the Secretary of War in the view that the present provision of law by which the work of building the canal has to be done only
  elastic and clumsy, and I earnestly rec ommend a change so that the President, who is charged with the responsibility of building the canal, may exercise great CT discretion In the organization of the personnel through whom he is to dis charge this duty.
 Actual experience has convinced me that it will be impossible to obtain the best and most effective service under the | eral plans for the work must be agreed upon with the aid of the best engineers of the country, who should act as an advisory or consulting body. The con- sulting engineers should not be put on the commission, which should be used only as an executive instrument for the executive and administrative work. The | actual work of executing the general plans agreed upon by the commission after reaching the conclusions of the advising engineers must be done by an engineer in charge, and we now have an excellent engineer. It Is in my judgment | inadvisable therefore to restrict the ex- l ecutive's choice of commissioners to rep resentatives of the engineers corps Of the army or the navy. The commission should consist of five, or preferably of three members. whose respective duties, powers and salaries should be assigned
 
 be placed under the member of the Cab met whom the President desires. Of these men, the one appointed as admin istrator of the canal strip should also serve as minister to Panama.
 THEODORE ROOSEVELT" Much Has Been Done. | Tn his letter, Secretary Taft says the commission has done a great deal of the work of organization and preparation to build the canal. Decided progress has been made in the yerification of the data obtained by the French engineers, and in 1 procuring new data to enable the en- gineers of the commission to determine the proper plan for the canal
 The secretary exjresses the opinion that it may be necessary to increase from ! 10 to 15 per cent the rate of duty that may be collected by Panama on goods destined for the canal zone, and points out that the monopoly now existing on i tobacco will expire in 1906. and will not ! be renewed. so that that market will be open to the United States. He says the question of labor is not free from diff hculty, and 1t will not be easy to secure all the Jamaican laborers required, as the governor of Jamaica Is unwilling to consent to the commissions taking 10000 laborers, except upon a bond of f5 for | each laborer to protect the Jamaican gov II l the poor law of the families left behind. i Offers have been made to supply on trial 1000 Chinamen and a similar number or l Japanese cooles.
 1 The secretary strongly recommends the acquisition by the government of the l.59 per cent stock of the Panama Railroad | company now in private hands which may be secured by condemnation, or | through a lease of the road to the canal commission.
 l Referring to the existing contract be- tween the Panama Railroad company and the Pacific Mail Steamship company, giv- | ing the latter exclusive rights to issue bills of lading on business between San l Francisco and New York, the secretary | says he thinks this contract is invalid under the laws of Colombia. and the laws l of Panama but at any rate 1t Is clear that the United States government can not give consistently and with due re- 1 gard to its own public policy make itself | a party to such a contract. He has direct ed the commission to serve notice on the Pacific Mail Steamship company of the l intention of the railroad to withdra" from the contract at the end of six months.
 Plans Will Soon Be Concluded. | The report says the development or the | final plans for both the deep water chan l mel and the inner harbor at either end | ol the canal including about d mile or 1 the canal line, will be concluded within the next two or three months, in connec- tion with a large amount of filling or low ground, which will be performed in ] the limits of Cristobal and the City Of l Colon. which has a most important bear ing upon the sanitation of that city
 As regards tLe sanitation of the isth- mus, the report says that extreme meas
 ures have been adopted for the prevention | and cure of disease and the Department l n. Health has made an administrative department of the canal zone government. | A large section of the report is devoted to the Panama railroad. The commis-
 sion feels that the government which
 now owns over 80 per cent or the shares of the railroad, owns the entire company. | The commission is ready to phrchase any
 saarss that may be offered at par On