Colonel ERNST. It would be better. It is not necessary. Senator MORGAN. You are a member of what I call the Walker Exploration Commission of 1901? Colonel ERNST. Yes, sir. Senator MORGAN. And you served on that and joined in the report? Colonel ERNST. Yes, sir. Senator MORGAN. And then you became a member of the first Walker Construction Commission? Colonel ERNST. No, sir; I was not a member of that. Senator MORGAN. Or of the present one? Colonel ERNST. I am on the present one. Senator MORGAN. You were not with the Walker Commission, then, when they were encountering the first work that they had to do in providing for constructing the canal down there? Colonel ERNST. No, sir. Senator MORGAN. But you knew the conditions pretty well, did you not? Colonel ERNST. Yes, sir. Senator MORGAN. I wish you would describe them, Colonel, if you please. I want to show, in justice to that Commission, the sort of work that had to be done and the amount of it in the first opening up of their work on the canal. Colonel ERNST. The work had gone to seed. The French had a force down there of 600 or 700 men taking care of the property. There was an immense amount of machinery and plant of every description upon the site, which we had looked over and pronouneed worthless; that is to say, it was so nearly worthless that we would not make any special allowance for it. It is said to have cost $30,000,000, and I think that is not impossible. There were village after village of these laborers' camps, engineering camps along the Isthmus, some of them buried in thickets. Some of them you would not know were there, and they were not discovered until later. Those buildings looked a great deal worse than they really turned out to be afterwards. The exterior was badly rotten, the boards were exposed to the weather, wind, and rain, and were ready to fall to pieces. You would take those off, and you would come to good lumber; so that there was a good deal more in the buildings than we thought there was. The railroad was overworked and behind the times. There was a man in charge of it who had left this country sixteen years before, who was a very good railroad man in his day, but who had not learned anything of the new methods. The wharves were not sufficient really for the every day traffic of that railroad. The Commission had to create everything from the ground. They had to rebuild or build new all the structures required for a population, we will say, of 25,000 people; and by that I do not mean simply boarding houses and sleeping rooms, but they had to build jails, and hospitals, and court-houses, and everything else that you require in a municipality. They had to multiply the wharf room by eight or ten-I do not know what to build new wharves. They had to buy new steamers to get things down there. This could not all go on at once, because to do this work you had to have shelter for your men, and they did not have that. So that the progress had to be gradual, of course, first getting a little more force, and then a little more accommodation to take care of more force; so that it increased by degrees. It was utterly impossible to do that thing in a day-absolutely impossible. I think the Commission did some very good work down there. Senator MORGAN. Then they had to organize transportation, I suppose, on the Isthmus? I Colonel ERNST. Yes, sir. They had to reorganize the railroad, and they had to get a new plant. The locomotives were out of date and the cars were out of date. I think they ordered some 1,500 ears. have a memorandum of that somewhere. [Consulting memorandum]. Yes; they ordered 24 locomotives, 500 box cars, 6 passenger cars, 12 caboose cars, 1 pile driver and wrecker for the railroad. Senator MORGAN. This was all necessary just for inaugurating the work? Colonel ERNST. For inaugurating it, yes, sir. They ordered €1 steam shovels, 120 locomotives, 1,300 flat cars, 324 dump cars, 12 Lidgerwood unloaders, and 13 spreaders. Those were some of the principal items of plant that they had to get. Concerning that cld material down there, as I say, we were not willing to allow anything for it. We were conscious that there was some residue of value in it; that some of that material might be used-bar iron, and things I that, surveying instruments, and so on-but we were not ready a› pay anything for it at all, except in that general item of omission. That is all they had. They patched up a lot of that and kept their force going with it. Senator MORGAN. The railroad and connecting steamers that belonged to the railroad were an indispensable arm of that service? Colonel ERNST. Yes, sir; absolutely. Senator MORGAN. But for those they could not have made any progress? Colonel ERNST. Practically, no. Senator MORGAN. If they had depended upon miscellaneous shipping to get their material and people in there, and food, and all that, they could have made practically no progress. Colonel ERNST. No, sir. Senator MORGAN. The country was barren of food, practically? Colonel ERNST. Yes, sir; there was not enough for the people who lived in it. Senator MORGAN. The railroad was then, in fact, and practically during the first year of the effort to open that canal, the most active and the most important factor in the work? Colonel ERNST. Yes, sir. Senator MORGAN. Who controlled that railroad in regard, for instance, to transportation, and also in regard to freight rates across the Isthmus at that time? Was it the railroad company? Colonel ERNST. The railroad company, yes; the board of directors. Senator MORGAN. When you got there as a commissioner you found that the railroad and all of its work and all of its property and all of its possessions were under the control of the railroad company? Colonel ERNST. Yes, sir. Senator MORGAN. Through a board of directors? Colonel ERNST. Yes, sir. Senator MORGAN. And the United States had acquired at the time you became a Commissioner all or nearly all of the stock in the railroad? Colonel ERNST. Yes, sir. Senator MORGAN. And soon acquired the whole of it? Senator MORGAN. And the United States, through its Canal Commissioners, organized a board of directors for that railroad with some outsiders coming in-stockholders? Colonel ERNST. Yes; the number is fixed by law-by the charterand the Secretary of War really represents the Government. He dictates the board of directors. Senator MORGAN. He dictates-or did then, when you first came in, dictate the majority of the board of directors; but there were still persons who were elected in some way by the stockholders that had not as yet sold their stock? Colonel ERNST. I do not understand it that way, Senator. The shares were so few and so scattered that they could not control a director. There were only some 1,100 shares, and they were scattered all over the world. The other nearly 69,000 were voted by the Secretary of War, and he dictated the board of directors; and he ordered that each member of the Canal Commission should be a member of the board of directors. Senator MORGAN. Yes; that is, controlling the majority of the stock? Colonel ERNST. Yes, sir. Senator MORGAN. So that after the Government took over the property it first obtained a board of directors, and they were really named and elected by the stock of the United States? Colonel ERNST. Yes, sir. Senator MORGAN. And through the Secretary of War? Senator MORGAN. And the Secretary of War went out and got other persons who had no connection with the construction of the canal at all, and no interest in it, to come in and constitute membership in that board? Colonel ERNST. Yes, sir. Senator MORGAN. You had been there at the opening and before the opening of any work done by the United States Government, and you arrived again, I suppose, as a Commissioner, at the time that the first Commission was removed. Colonel ERNST. Yes, sir; soon after that. Senator MORGAN. Do you know whether their resignation had been required by the Government? Colonel ERNST. Not of my personal knowledge. I only know what I saw in the newspapers about it. Senator MORGAN. But they had all resigned? Colonel ERNST. Yes, sir. Senator MORGAN. And a new Commission was appointed? Colonel ERNST. Yes, sir. Senator MORGAN. And upon that new Commission some of the old Commissioners were retained. Who were they? Colonel Hains was one that was retained, was he not? Colonel ERNST. No, sir; Colonel Hains was on the Commission of 1899-1901. He was not on the first construction Commission. There was no member of it retained-yes; Major Harrod was retained. Senator MORGAN. Was he the only one? Colonel ERNST. Yes, sir. Senator MORGAN. So that six were removed or resigned, and one remained? Colonel ERNST. Yes, sir. Senator MORGAN. And he formed a nucleus around which the new board was assembled? Colonel ERNST. Yes, sir. Senator MORGAN. Where is Major Harrod now? Colonel ERNST. He is here in the room. [Laughter.] Senator MORGAN. He is right here? I did not know the gentleman. I did not know that he was in the room. When you entered upon your duties as a commissioner, you then first knew accurately the amount of work that had been done by that first construction commission? Colonel ERNST. Yes, sir. Senator MORGAN. Did you think that was a creditable or a discreditable performance on the part of that board? Colonel ERNST. It certainly was not a discreditable one. Senator MORGAN. Have you any knowledge of any objection that was urged by the President or by anybody else to a member of that first construction commission, called the Walker commission, on the ground of incompetency or delinquency in the performance of duty or for any other cause? Colonel ERNST. No, sir. Senator MORGAN. There was nothing assigned? Colonel ERNST. No, sir; I never heard of anything. Senator MORGAN. They were merely swept out and a new commission put in. Have you any knowledge of the influences that were brought to bear-any of them-to produce that result? Colonel ERNST. No, sir. Senator MORGAN. Were you surprised at it? Colonel ERNST. Very much. Senator MORGAN. You were very much surprised? Colonel ERNST. Yes, sir. Senator MORGAN. You are still unable to account for it? Colonel ERNST. Yes sir; entirely. Senator MORGAN. The country seems to be in the same condition. When you entered upon work there under the new Commission, did the Commission immediately go down to the Isthmus, after they were appointed and organized? Colonel ERNST. Not immediately. We were organized the first of April, and the order of the President was that we should meet on the Isthmus the first of each quarter; that is, the first of April, the first of July, and so on. We were organized too late to go at that time, so that we, under the orders, intended to go in June. Mr. Wallace's resignation came just about the time that we were getting ready to go down there, and that deferred the trip for two or three weeks, so that we did not actually go until some time in July. Senator MORGAN. How long did you remain on the Isthmus after you went down as a body? Colonel ERNST. I think we were there about two weeks. Senator MORGAN. When you got there you found that the previous Commission had organized all of the statutes and ordinances that were necessary for the government of that Zone, or supposed to be necessary? Colonel ERNST. Yes, sir. Senator MORGAN. That was a heavy task, was it not? Colonel ERNST. I should think it must have been a very heavy task. Senator MORGAN. The records here show that it must have been a heavy task. And they had put in operation the judicial establishment, organized and put in operation the health establishment, and the labor as far as it was being conducted, and the commissary establishment, and whatever was necessary for the accommodation of the laborers who were there and those that were coming in. I suppose that is all correct, that they had done all that? Colonel ERNST. They had done it as far as they were able to do it. Of course that work was not completed. Senator MORGAN. The laborers came in rapidly after the new Commission was appointed, did they not? Colonel ERNST. Yes, sir. Senator MORGAN. You made it a business to push labor in there, employees of every kind? Colonel ERNST. Yes, sir. Senator MORGAN. And a good many appointments were made to clerical and other positions among what were called the gold men? Colonel ERNST. Yes, sir. Senator MORGAN. And there were some thousands added to the list of laborers? Colonel ERNST. Yes, sir. Senator MORGAN. About how many? Colonel ERNST. I think that that force grew from about 7,000 in July to some 17,000-I do not know, Senator. Senator MORGAN. That was an addition practically of 10,000 laborers? Colonel ERNST. There was a very large addition, I know that. Senator MORGAN. The first Commission had put on, I suppose, from your calculations here, about five or six thousand laborers? Colonel ERNST. Oh, I think so. Senator MORGAN. And then, when the new Commission came in, there were 10,000 more put on. Colonel ERNST. There have been that many added; yes. Senator MORGAN. And it was done in a hurry, was it not-with rapidity? Colonel ERNST. As fast as we could; yes, sir. Senator MORGAN. You made great efforts to get labor? Colonel ERNST. Yes, sir. Senator MORGAN. When this great addition of 10,000 laborers came into this Isthmus, were sufficient quarters provided for that great addition to the force? Colonel ERNST. There was always a tight squeeze. There were always more men than there were quarters, and I suppose that is so to-day; but the quarters were being increased as fast as they could, and the men were being increased as fast as the quarters could be provided, and the thing kept along in that way. Senator MORGAN. And there were rapid importations I supposeand the record shows it-of lumber for building material from the Pacific coast and from the Atlantic coast? Colonel ERNST. Yes, sir. Senator MORGAN. And of all other kinds of material that were necessary to be employed in the rapid progress of the work? |