The Washington herald., 1912-01-03
URGES FREE USE
OF PANAMA CANAL
q. s. Ships Should Not Pay
Tolls, Says Nagel.
PROBING THE COST OF LIVING
Secretary of Commerce and Labor,
I'm Annual Report. Also Recon-
mends improvements nj Ems
Island and Additional Inspectors
for Immigrant Ships.

Secretary Nagel. OF the Department
OF Commerce and Labor, in his ann IaI
report, transmitted to the Pres ldout
yesterday. calls attention to needed iui-
provements at Ellis Island, makes roc
concentrations for additional inspectors
and physicians for ships carrying I'M
migrants. and advocates that American
ships be allowed the use OF the Panama
Canal free of tolls.
Secretary Nagel commends the Bu-
reau Of Corporations for the work IL
has done IN the past year, and in this
connection he gives his views In regard
To the Sherman antitrust law and the
needed supplementary legislation. His
views on the latter subject are partlc-
ularly interesting, inasmuch as he is
being considered by President Taft for
appointment to the Supreme Court. He
SAYS:
The decisions OF the Supreme Court
of the United States in the Standard
OIL and American Tobacco Company
cases have brought forcibly to public
attention a fact that has been repeat
edly presented In the reports OF the
department That fact is the impera-
tive need for the positive administra-
tive regulation of the. great Industrial
corporations.
Secretary Nagel says the Bureau of
Labor Is engaged in a number OF inves-
LEGATIONS. among which, perhaps, the
most Immediately interesting Is the In
quiry into the cost OF living. This report
says the Secretary. promises to be thor
ough and TO provide a basis for inteIli-
gent discussion OF this question. In ad-
dition, reports are being prepared on con-
ditions Of employment in the iron and
steel Industry, on the employment of
women and girls in the larger cities. on
Industrial diseases In various Industries,
and on the labor laws Of the principal
industrial countries OF the world.
Wants Physicians on ships.
Secretary NageI recommends that in
spectors and physicians be placed on
ships carrying large numbers OF iu1mi-
grants. and that heavier fines be Inn
posed upon steamship companies for
bringing aliens suffering from contagious
diseases He also recommends that pro-
vision be made for the continued protec-
ton OF immigrants after landing, even to
the extent of having receiving stations
at important inland points
According to the report. the number of
aliens who entered the country during
the past fiscal year was considerably
smaller than the number that entered in
the fiscal year 1910. In 1910 the number
vious year. The money carried by these
aliens averaged SO a person in the last
year. During the year 2,S4s aliens were
rejected as belonging to the excluded
classes.
Secretary Nagel commends the work
of the Bureau OF the Census and says
that a large amount OF work In further
OF the thirteenth census
ought to be performed during the fiscal
year 1913 He says the 1910 census cost.
ali told, about Sl3,0oo0O0.
In commencing the work OF the Bureau
OF Navigation. the Secretary touches on
canal tolls as follows:
Free Canal Tolls
THE subject OF Panama Canal tolls Is
vital to the future of American mer-
chant chipping. The Panama Canal Is
being built in the belief that IL will bene-
At all sections Of the country and nearly
every form OF American industry. Our
merchant ships and ship yards are as
to the nation as our battle ships
They have at least a claim to equal con-
sideration IN canal legislation and ap-
with other American indus
tries. Every argument to tax the Amerf-
can merchant ship which uses the canal
would apply with equal force to a tax
directly on American cotton, lumber, fruit,
coal, grain and other cargoes carried by
the ships through the canal II Il FEAST
BILE to use the canal for the promotion
Of American navigation in a manner con-
sistent with treaty obligations, with prec-
edent at home and abroad and without
fixed policy of untaxed navigation on i'm
proved waterways"