Norwich Bulletin Newspaper, December 7, 1910, Page 10

" NORWICH BULLETIN, WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 7, 1910 ”&! be able when called upon by a friendly nation to redeem its solemn promise by treaty to secure to the cltizens or subjects of that nation resident in the United States freedom from violence and due process of law in respect to their life, liberty and property. T also and for the ssme general rea- sons strongly commend to the favera- Lie action of the comgress the emact- ment of a law applying to the diplo- uiatic and consular service the princi- nles embodied fn section 1763 of the lievised Statutes of the United States, | in the clvil service act of Jan. 16, 1888, and the executive orders of Jume 17, 1906, and of Nov. 26, 1909. The excellent results which have at- tended the partiai application of eivil service prineiples to the diplomatic and consular services are an earnest of the benefit to be wrought to both branches of the forelgn service. The marked improvemeat in the comsular service during the four years sinee the prin- ciples of the civil service agt were ap- plied to that service in a lmited way and the good results already notice- able from a etmilar application of eivil service principles te the diplomatlc | service a year ago convince me that | the emmctment Into law of the genernl | principles of the existing executive reg- | wlations coul net fall to effect further improvement of both branches of the fovelgn servies, eoffering as it would By itz assuznnce of permanency of tenure and promotien on merit an in- ducoment for the emiry of capable young men Into the service amd an in- cemtive to thowe already In to put forth their best efferts to attain and main- tain that degrge of efficiehey which the | interests of our intermatlonal relations | and commerce demand. | Duriag meny years past appeals have heen made from time to time to con- gress in favor ef government owner- ship of embassy and legation premises abroad. The arguments in favor of | such ownership have been many and oft repeated and are well known to the congress. The acquisition by the government of suitable residences and @fMces for its diplomatic officers, espe- cfally in ¥e capitals o4 ¢he Latin Amer- lean states and of Euvope, is g0 impor- tant and necessary to an improved Afplomatic servico that I have no hesi- tation in urging upon the congress the passage of some measure similar to that favorably reported by the bouse committee on forcign affairs on Feb. 14, 1910 (report No. 438), that would autborive the gradual and annual ac- quisition of premises for diplomatic ase, The work of the diplomatic service is devold of partisanship. Its importance should appeal to every American citl- sen and should receive the generous gongideration of the congress. TREASURY DEPARTMENT, Estimates For Next Year’s Expenses. Where Savings Have Been Made. Every effort has been made by each department chief to reduce the esti- mated cost of his department for the ensuing flecal year ending June 30, 1912. I say this In order that congress may understand that these estimates thus made present the smallest sum which will maintain the departments, bureaus and offices of the government and meet its otber obligations under existing law and that a cut of these estimates would result in embarrassing the executive branch of the govern- ment in the performance of its duties. This remark does not apply to the river and harbor estimates, except to these for expenses of maintenance and the meeting of obligations under au- thorized coutraets, nor does it apply to the pubile building bill mor to the navy bullding program. Of course as to these comgress could withhold aay part or all of the estimates for them without interfering with the discharge of the ordinary obligations of the gov- erument or the performance of the functions of its departments, bureaus end offices. The final estimstes for the year end- iag June 30, 12 as they have been sent to tho treasury on Nov. 29 of this year for the erdinary expenses of the government, including those for public buildings, rivers and harbors and the navy bullding program, amount to $630,- 49401812 This 1s $52,964,887.26 less than the appropriations for the fiscal year ending Jone 30, 1911. It is 816.- £83,133 44 loas than the total estimates, including sapplementail estimates sub- mitted to congress by the treasury for the year 1914, and is $6,574,650.80 less thatt the original estimates submitted by the treasury for 1911, These figures do not Include the ap- propriations for the Panama canal, the poliy In respect to whiceh ought o be and {5 to spend as much each year as can be economically and effectively expended in crder to complete the ca- udl as promptly as possible, and there- | fore the ordinary motive cutting down the expense of the government does mot apply to appropriatjons for this purpese. It will be noted that the eqtimates for the Pamama caual for the ensuing year are more than $56,- DO0000, #n fucrease of $20.000.600 over the amount appropristed for this year, | a difference due to the fact that the estimates for 1012 include something over $15,000,000 for the fortification of | the canal. , Against the estlinutes of expendi- | taves, $080,404,083.12. we bhave es mated recelpts fox mext year $680,000,- 000, making a probable surplus of or- dinary receipts over ordinary expendi- tures of about $50,000,000, or, taking | into account the estlmates for the Pan- | ama eanal, which are $56,9%0,847.69 | and which will ultimately be paid in houds, it will leave a deficit for the next year of about $7,000,000 if con- | gress shall conclude to fortify the ca- nal. The eoet of the fortifications Is | abeout $19,000,000. Should theze be no wporoprintions tids year for fortifica- ions, then there wotld be, even in- | cludlug the Panema canal appropria- tion, a sawplas of abont $12,000,000. The treasuzy department iz one of the original departments of the gov- croment. With the ges In the mo systera made from time to time with the creation of nation- :: £ was thowght necessary to : bgreans apd drvisions, mehichi wite aided In-a sofpenthad bap- | country. | ing great econotaies have been effoct- | hazard way and resulted in a @upli- cation of duties which might well now be ended. This lack of system and eeonomic ce-ordination has attracted the atten- tion of the head of that department, who has been giving his time for the last two years, with the aid of ex- perts and by comsuiting his bureau chiefs, to its reformation, and at the risk of being tedious, bk merely to illustrate the character of the reforms that are possible, I shall comment on a number of changee that are being made or ought to be made by legis- lative aid. ’ The auditing system in vogue is as old as the government, and fhe meth- ods used are amtiquated. There are six auditors and seven assistant au- ditors for the nine departments, and under the present system the only function which the auditor of a de- partment exercises is to determine, on accounts presented by disbursing of- flcers, that the object of the experdi- ture was within the law and the ap- prevriation made by congress for the purpose on its face and that the ealeu- lations in the aceounts are correct. He dees not examine the merits of the | transaction or determine the reason- ablenese of the price paid for the ar- | ticles purchased, nor does he furnish any substantial check upon disburs- ! ing officers and the heads of depart- ments or bureaus with sufficient promptness to emable the government to recoup #self in full measure for unlawful expenditure. A eareful plan is being devised and ‘will be presemted to congress with the recommendation that the force of audi- tors and employess under them be greatly reduced, thereby effecting sub- stantial economy. But this economy | will be small compared with the jarger | economy that can be effected by con- . solidation and change of methods. The possibilities In this regard have been shown in the reduction of expenses and the importance of methods and efficiency in the office of the auditor for the postoffice department, who, without in the slightest degree impair- ing the comprehensiveness and effi- ciency of his work, has cut down the expenses of his office $120,000 a year. Again, in the collection of the reve- nues, especially the customs revenues, a very great improvement has been ef- fected, and further improvements are contemplated. By the detection of frauds in weighing sugar upward of $3,400,000 have been recovered from the beneficiaries of the fraud, and an entirely new system free from the pos- sibilties of such abuse has been de- vised. The department has perfected | the method of collecting duties at the port of New York so as to save the government upward of ten or eleven | milllon dollars, and the same spirit of change and reform has been Infused into the other customs offices of the The methods used at many places are archaic. There would seem to be no reason at all why the surveyor of the port, who really acts for the col- lector, shoulid not be a subordinate of the collector at a less salary and di- rectly under his control, and there is but little reason for the existence of the naval officer, who is a kind of local auditor. His work s mainly an ex- amination of accounts which is con- ducted again in Washington and which results in no greater socurity to the government. The naval officers in the various ports are presidential | appointees, many of them drawing 2zood salaries, aud those offices should be abolished or with reduced force made part of the central auditing sys- tem. There are entirely too many eustoms digtricts and too mauny customs col- lectors. These districts should be eon- solidated and the collectors in charge oI them who draw good salaries, many of them out of proportion to the col- lections made, should be aboilshed or treated as mere braneh offices, in ac- | cordance with the plan of the treas- ury department, which will be present- | ed for the comsideration of congress. | As an illustration, the coat of collect- ing $1 of revenue at typical small | ports like the port of York, Me., was | $50.04. At the port of Annapolis, Md., ! it cost $309.41 to collect $1 of revenue; | at Natchez, $52.76; at Alexardria, Va., | $122.49. i It is mot essential to the preventing | of smuggling that customs districts should be inecreased in number. The violation of the eustoms laws can be quite as eesily prevented and much more economically by the revenue cut- ter service and by the use of the spe- elal agent traveling force of the treas- ury department. A reorganization of the special customs agents has been | perfected with a view to retaining only those who have special knowledge of the customs laws, regulations and usual | methods of evaslon, and with this im- | provement there will be no danger to the government from the recomrmend- ed consolidation and abolition of cus- toms districts, An investigation of the appraising system now in vogue in New York city has shown underappraisement and a sacrifice of the interests of the gov- erpment, which is in the course of | being remedied by reorganization and the employment of competent experts. Prosecutions have been instituted grow- ing out of the frauds there discovered and are now awaiting hearing in the ' ederal courts. | Very great improvements have been made in respect to the mints and assay offices. Diminished appropriations have been asked for those whose continu- ance 18 unnecessary, and this year's es- timate of expenses is $326,000 iess than two years ago. There is an opportu nity for further saving in the abolition of several mints and assay offices that have now become unnecessary. Dur- ing the past year 100 unnecessary em- ployees have been dropped from the Philadelphia mint. Modern machinery has been Installed there, more and bet- ter work has been done, and the appro- | priations have been consequently di-| minished. In the burega of engraving and print- | ed. Uselees divisions have heen sbel- ished with the result of saving $440,- | 000 this year in the total expenses of the bureau despite Increased business. The treasurer's office and that of the division of public momeys in part caver the same fumctions, amd this is awo true of the office of the regisier and much misrepresentation. the division of loans and currency.| the authority of the maximum and min-, Plans for the elimination of the dupli- cation in these offices will be presented to congress. 4 The office of the comptroller of the currency is one most important in the preservation of proper badking meth- ods in the mational banking system of the United States, and the present comptroller has impressed his subordi- nates with the necessity of o conduct- ing their investigations as to establish the principle that every bank failure is unnecessary because proper inspection and notice of threatening conditions to the responsible directors and officers can prevent it. Public Buildings. In our public buildings we still suf- fer from the method of appropriation which has been so much criticised in connection with our rivers and har- bors. Some method should be devised for controliing the supply of public bulldings so that they will harmonize with the actual needs of the govern- ment. Not only are buildings appropri- ated for by congress which are not needed and bulldings left unappropri- ated for by congress which are needed, but when it comes to the actunal con- struction there has been in the past too little study of the building plans and sites with a view to the actual needs of the government. Postofice buildings which are in ef- fect warehouses for the ecopomical handling of transpofiatkm of thou- sands of tons of mail have been made monumental structures and often lo- cated far from the convenient and eco- nomical spot. In the actual construe- tion of the buildings a closer scrutiny of the methods employed by the gov- srnment architects or by arebitects em- ployed by the goverument has resuif- ed in decided economies. It is hoped that more time will give opportunity for a more thorough reor- ganization. The last public building bill carried authorization for the ulti- mate expenditure of $33,011,500, and T approved it because of the many good features it containmed, just as I ap- proved the river and harbor bill, but | it was drawn upon a principle that ought to be abandoned. It seems to me that the wiser method of prepar- ing a public building bill would be the preparation of a report by a commis- slon of government experts whose duty it should be to report to con- gress the government's needs in the way of the construction of public buildings in every part of the coun- try, just as the army engineers make report with reference to the utility of proposed improvements in riveérs and harbors, with the added function which I have recommended for the army engineers of Including in their recommendation the relative impor- tance of the various projects found to be worthy of approval and execution. Revenues. As the treasury department is the one through which the income of the government is collected and its ex- penditures are disbursed, this seems a | proper place to consider the operation of the existing tariff bill, which be- came a law Aug. 6, 1909. As an in- come produclng measure the existing tariff bill has never been exceeded by any customs bill in the history of the conntry. The corporation excise tax, propor- tioned to the net income of every busi- mness corporation in the country, has worked weil. The tax has been easily collected. 1ts prompt payment indi- eates that the incidence of the tax has not been heavy. It offers. moreover. an opportunity for knowledge by the government of ‘the general condition and business of all corporations, and that means by far the most important part of the business of the country. In the original act provision was made for the publication of returns. This provision was subsequently amended by congress and the matter left to the regulation of the president. | I have directed the issue of the needed | regulations and have made it possible | for the public generally to know from | an examination of the record the re- | turns of all corporations the stock of which 1is listed on any public stock exchange or is offered for sale to the general pubiic by advertlsement or otherwise. The returus of those corporations whose stock is not so lsted or offered | for sale are directed to be open to the inspection and examination of cred- itors and stockholders of the corpora- tion whose record is sought. The re- turns of all corporations are subject to the inspection of any government offi- cer or to the examination of any court in which the return made by the cor- poraticn is relevant and competent evi- dence. The Payne Tariff Act. The schedules of the rates of duty in the Payne tariff act have been sub- jected to a great deal of criticism, some of it just, more of it unfounded, and to The act was adopted in pursuance of a declaration by “he party whieh s responsible for it that a customs biil sbould be a tariff for the protectiop of home industries, the measure of the protection to be the difference between the cest of produc- ing the imported article abroad and the cost of producing it at home, together with such addition to that difference | as might give a reasenable profit to the home producer. The basis for the criticism of this tariff is that in respect to a number of the schedules the declared measure was not followed, but a higher difference retalned or inserted by way of undue discrimination in favor of certain in- dustries and manufactures. Little, if any, of the eriticism of the tariff has been directed agalpst the protective principle above stated, but the main body of the criticism has been based on the charge that the attempt to con- | form to the measure of protection was not hounestly and sincerely adhered to. Tariff Board. The time in which the tariff was pre- | pared undoubtedly was so short as to malke it impossible for the congress and its experts to aeguire the information necessary sulctly to couform to the de- 1 clared measure. In order to aveid criticism of this kind fn the future and for the purpose of more nearly conforming to the party promise congress at its last session made provision at my request for the continmance of a board ereated under : imum clause of the tariff and author- ized this board to expend the money appropriated under my direction for the ascertainment of the cost of pro- duction at home and abroad of the va- rious artieles included in the schedules of the tariff. The tariff board thus appointed and authorized has been dili- gent in preparing itself for the neces- sary investigations. . The hope of those who have advocat- ed the use of this board for tariff pur- poses is that the question of the rate of a duty imposed shall become more of a business question and less of a political question, to be ascertained by experts of long training and accurate knowledge. The halt in business and the shock to business due to the an- nouncement that a new tariff bill is to be prepared and put in operation will be avoided by treating the schedules one by one as occasion shall arise for a change in the rates of each and enly after a report upon the schedule by the tariff board competent to make such report. It is not likely that the board will be able to make a report during the pres- ent session of congress on any of the schedules, because a proper examina- tion involves an enormous amount of detail and a great deal of care, but I hope to be able at the opening of the new congress, or at least during the session of that congress, to bring to its attention the facts in regard to those schedules in the present tariff that may prove to need amendment. The carrying out of this pilan, of course, invoives the full co-operation of congress in limiting the considera- tion in tariff matters to one schedule at a time, because if a proposed amend- ment to a tariff bill is to involve a complete comsideration of all the schedules and another revision then we shall only repeat the evil from which the business of this country has in times past suffered most grisvously by stagnation and umcertainty, pemd- ing a resettlement of a Iaw affecting all business directly or indirectly, and the effect of which no wise business { man would ignore in new projects and new investments. I cannot too much emphasize the importance and benefit of the pian above proposed for the treatment of the tariff. It facilitates the removal of noteworthy defects in an important law without a disturbance of business prosperity, which 18 even more impor- tant to the happiness and the comfort of the people than the elfmination of instances of injustice in the tariff. The inquiries which the members of the tariff board made during the last other government: with reference to the fixing of tariffs and the determinsa- tion of their effect upon trade show that each gbvernment maintains an of- fice or buteau the officers and em- ployees of which have made thelr life work the study of tariff matters, of foreizn and home prices and cost of articles imported and the effect of the | tariff upon trade, so that whenever a change is thought to be necessary in the tariff law this office is the source of the most reliable information as to the propriety of the change and its effect. I am stromgiy convinced that we need in this government just such an office and that it can be secured by making the tariff board already ap- pointed z permanent tariff commis- sion, emoluments as it may seem wise to congress to give. It has been pro- | pesed to enlarge the board from three | to five. The present number is8 con- | venient, but I do not know that an in- crease of tweo members would be ob- Jectionable. ‘Whether or not the protective policy protection to be accorded to our home ple must decide through their chosen | adopted it is clear that the necessary | legislation should be based on an im- partial, therough and continuous study of the facts. WAR DEPARTMERT. | We Are Sadly In Need of More Of- ficers—Deals With Militia. The war department has within its Jurisdiction the management of the ar- my and in conmection therewith the coast defenses, the government of the | dependencies of the Philippines and of Porto Rico, the recommendation of plans for the improvement of harbors and waterways and their execution ecutive order, the supervision of the construction of the Panama canal. The army of the United States is a small body compared with the fotal number @f people for the preservation of whose peace and good order it is a last recourse. The army mow numbers | about 80,000 men, of whom about 18,- | 000 are engaged in the eocast artillery and detailed to the management and use of the guns in the forts and bat- terles that protect our coasts. The rest of the army, or about 60,000, is the mobile part of our national forces and is divided into thirty-one regiments of infantry, including the Porto Rican regiment, fifteen regiments of cavalry, | six regiments of fleld artillery, a corps of ordnance, of engineers and of sig- nal, a quartermaster’s department, a commissary department and a medical | corps. The general plan for an army of the H United States uf peace should be that of a skeleton organization with an ex- cess of trained officers and thus capa- ble of rapid enlargement by enlist- ments, to be supplemented in emer- gency by the national militia and a . volunteer force. In some measure this 'plan has been adopted in the very large proportion of eavalry and fleld artillery as compared with infantry in the present ariny and on a peace basis. An infantry force can be trained in six months, a cavalry or a light artillery foree not under one and a half or two years: hence the imporiance of having ready a larger number of the more skilled soldiers. The militia system, for which con- gress by the constitution is authorized to provide, was developed by the so called Dick law, under which the dis- summaer into the methods pursued by ! with such duties, powers and | is to be continued and the degree of | industries are guestions which the peo- | representatives, but whatever poliey is | when adopted and, by virtue of an ex- | = cipline, the tactics, the drill, the rank, the uniform and the various branches the militia are assimilated as far as possible to those of the regular army. _ Under the militia law, as the consti- tution provides, the governors of the states appoint the militia officers, but by appropriations from congress states have been induced to comply with the | | rules of assimilation between the reg- ular army and the militia, so that now there is a force, the efficiency of which differs in different states, which counld be Incorporated under a single com- | mand with the regular army and which for some time each year receives the benefit of drill and maneuvers under conditions approximating actual mili- | tary service under the supervision of i regular army officers. In the army of the United States, in | addition to the regular forces and the | militia forces which may be summoned | to the defense of the nation by the | president, there is also the volunteer | force, which made up a very large part of the army in the civil war and which lin any war of long continuance would | become its most important constituent. ! | There is an act which dates from the | ! efvil war, known as the volunteer act, | which makes provision for the enlist- | | ment of volunteers in the army of the | United States in time of war. This | was found to be so defective in the | Philippine war that a speclal act for the organization of volunteer regiments ! to take part in that war was adopted, and it was much better adapted to the | necessities of the case. | There igz now pending in congress a " pill repealing the present volunteer act | and making provision for the organiza- tion of volunteer forces in time of war which is admirably adapted to meet the exigencies which would be | then presented. 'The passage of the | | bill would not entail a dollar's ex- ipeme upon the government at this | time or in the future until war comes, | but when war does come the methods therein directed are in accordance with | the best military judgment as to what | they ought to be, and the act would | prevent the mnecessity for the discus- | | sion of mew legislation and the delays | incident to its consideration and adop- | | tion. I earnestly urge the passage of | this volunteer bill. I further recommend that congress | establish a commission to determine | as early as practicable a comprehen- | i sive policy for the organization, mob- | flization and administration of the reg- | ular army, the organized militia and the volunteer forces in the event of | war. Need For Additional Officers. i One of the great difficulties in the | prompt organization and mobilization of militia and volunteer forces is the Eubsence of competent officers of the | rank of captain to teach the new army ! by the unit of the company'the busi- ! ness of being soldiers and of taking | eare of themselves so as to render ef- fective service. This need of army | | officers can only be supplied by pro- | vistons of law authorizing the appofnt- | ment of a greater number of army of- | ficers than are needed to supply the coremands of regular garmy troops now | enlisted in the service. THere are enough regular army offi- cers to command the troops n listed, but congress has authorh and the department has followed the example of congress and exercised the | authority conferred by detailing these | army officers to duty other than that | of the command of troops. For instance, there are a large num ber of army officers assigned to duty | with military colleges or in colleges 1. | which military tratuing is given. Then a large number of officers are assigned to general staff duily, and there are | various other places to which army| officers can be and are legaily assign-| | ed, which take them away from thel | regiments and companies. In order that the militia of each state should ! be properly drilled and made more like the regular army, regular army officers should be detafled to assist the | adjutant general of each state in the | supervision of the state militia, but! this is impossibie unless provision is| made by congress for a very consid- | erable incresse in the number of com | pany and field officers of the army. A | bill was pending in the last session ot | congress for this purpose, and 1 ear-| mnestly hope that in the interest of the! proper development of a republican army, an army small in the time of | peace, but possible of prompt and ade- | quate enlargement in time of war,| shall become possible under the laws of the United States. A Dbill, the strong argument for| which ean be based on the ground quite similar te that of the increased officers bill, Is the bill for the increase of sixty in the army engineers. The army engineers are largely employed in the expenditure of the moueys flp-“ ers and harbors. This, in addition to| their military duties, which includes | the construction of fortifications botk | | of our ecoasts and in our dependen | cies, together with the number used i | the Panama ecanal work, requires many more engineers than the armjy has, and this shortness of supply iz | such officers delays important rivel and harbor work and important fored | fication work. I earnestly recommend | the passage of this bill, which passet the house at the last session and Is now pending in the senate. Fortifications. | I have directed that the estimates for appropriation for the improvemen. of coast defense in the United States should be reduced to a minimum while those for the completion of the needed fortifications at Corregidor, in the Philippine Islands, and at Pear! { Harbor, in the Hawaiian Islands should be expedited as much az pos sible. The proposition to make Qlongapc and Subig bay the naval base for the | Pacific was given up; ard it is fo be | treated merely as. a: supply station while the fortifications in the Plilip pines are to be largely confined to Corregidor: isiapd and the adjacent is | lands which command entrance to Ma. | nila bay and which are being renderad impregnable from land and sea attack The Pacific naval base has been trans ferred to Pearl Harbor, in the Hawal ian Islands. This necessitates the heavy fortifiea tion of the harber and the establish ment of an important mititary station - | mining which of propriated for the improvement of riv-| near Honoluln. T urge that all the estimates made by the war depart- ment for these purposes be approved by comgressional appropriation. Philippine Islands. _ During the last summer, at my re- quest, the secretary of war visited the Philippine Islands and has described . his trip in his report. He found the islands in a state of franquillity and growing prosperity, due largely to the change in the tariff laws, which has opened the markets of America to the products of the Philippines and has opened the Philippine markets te American manufactures. Porto Rico. The year has been one of prosperity and progress in Porto Rico. Certain political changes are embodied in the Dbill “to provide a civil government . for Porto Rico and for other pur< poses,” which passed the house of rep- resentatives on June 15, 1910, at the last session of congress and is now awaiting the action of the senate. The importance of those features of this bill relating to public health and | sanitation cannot be overestimated. The removal from politics of the ju« diciary by providing for the appoint-« | ment of ‘the municipal judges is ex- cellent, and I recommend that a step further be taken by providing therein for the appointment of secretaries and marshals of these courts. I believe thet the provision in t. bill for a partially elective senate, th number of elective members being progressively increased, is unwise and that the composition of the senate as provided in the bill as introduced in the house far better meets conditions existing in Porto Rico. This is an im- | portant measure, and I recommend its early consideration and passage. Rivers and Harbors. I have already expressed my opinion to congress in regpect to the character of the river and harbor bills which should be enacted into law, and I have exercised as much power as I have un- der the law in directing the chier of engineers to make his repssiz to con« gress conform to the needs of the com+ mittee framing such a bill in deter« the proposed im- | provements Is the more important and ought te be completed first promptly. and PROGRESS OF PANAMA CANAL. W ork Most Batisfactory—Completed: Jan. 1, 1915—Cost $375,000,000. At the instanee of Colonel Goethaim, ¢ army engineer officer in charge of the work on the Panama canal, 1 Just made a visit to the isthmus to . spect the work done and to comua' with him on the ground as to certai probiems which are likely to arise i the near future. The progress of th work s most satisfactory. If no unes pected obstacle presents itself the cans will be completed well within the tim fixed by Colonel Goethals—to wit, Jas 1, 1915—and within the estimate of cos! $375,000,000. Preus reports have reached the Uni ed States from time to time giving a¢ counts of slides of earth of very larg yardage In the Culebra cut and els¢ where along the lina, from which 1 might be inferred that the work ha been much retarded and that the tim of completion has been necessaril postponed. The report of Dr. Hayes of the ges logical survey, whom I sent within tix last month to the isthmus to make a investigation, shows that this sectios of the canal zone is composed of sed! mentary rocks of rather weak structur and subject to almost immediate disin tegration when exposed to the air., Sub sequent to the deposition of these sed! mentis igneous rocks, barder and mor. durable, have been thrust into then and, being cold at the time of their in trusion, united but indifferently witl the sedimentary rock at the contacts. The result of these conditions is tha as the cut is deepened, causing unbal anced pressures, slides from the side of the cut bave occurred. These are iy part due to the flowing of surface sol and decomposed sedimentary roclkt upon inclined surfaces of the underly ing undecowposed rock and in part h) the crushing of structurally weak bed; under excessive preasure. These slides ogeur on one side or the other of the cut through a distance ot four or five miles, and now that theis character is understood allowance ha. been made in the caleulations of yard age for the amount of slides which will have to be removed and the greater slope that will bave to be given to the bank in many places in order to pre vent their recurrence. Such allow ance does not exceed 10,000,000 yards Considering that the number of yards removed from this cut on an averags of each month through the year Is 1,300,000 and that the total remaining to be exeavated, including slides, is about 80,000,000 yards, it is seen that this addition fo the excavation does not offer any great reason for delay. While this feature of the material ta be excavated in the cut will not seri ously delay or obstruct the construc: tion of a canal of the lock type, the increase of excavation due to such slides in the cut made eighty-five feet deeper for a sea level canal would cer tainly have been so great as to delay its completion to a time beyond the pa. tience of the American people. Among questions arising for presenf solution is the decision whether the canal shall be fortified. T have already stated to the congress that T strongly favor fortification, and I now reiterate this opinion and ask your considera: tion of the subject in the light of the report already before you made by & competent board. If in our discretion we believe mod ern fortifications to be necessary to the adequate protection and policing of the canal, then it is our duty to construct them. We bave bullt the ca- nal. It is our property. By conven. tion we have indicated our desire for and indeed undertaken its umiversal and equal use. It is also well known that one of the chief objects tm the construction of the cansl has beem to increase the military elfectiveness ot our navy. Failure ito fortify the canal weuld Jeave the attainment of hoth thase aims in the position of rights and ob- ligations which we should be mewer- |