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General DAVIS. The models which we had to go by were helpful. Americans had had experience in the government of tropical people in the last few years preceding, which experience was useful, and codes had been written; and we found these examples were useful. Some things could be copied out of them.

Senator MORGAN. The models you speak of were such as we had created ourselves in Porto Rico and in Cuba and in the Philippines? General DAVIS. Yes; in the Philippines and Porto Rico especially. We did not do much legislating in Cuba.

Senator MORGAN. No. You found there a body of Spanish lawsColombian laws.

General DAVIS. Yes; of Spanish origin.

Senator MORGAN. Of Spanish origin, and modified by some local statutes, I suppose, of Panama?

General DAVIS. Yes, sir. Panama, however, had been in existence so short a while as an independent nation that her legislation was very limited in scope. Most of the legislation that was in existence in Panama was of Colombian origin-at least, of Colombian perfection; of Spanish origin.

Senator MORGAN. And under the directions of the President, supported by the provisions of international law and perhaps by the statutes to some extent, you had to adopt as many of the laws of Colombia as were applicable to the situation and not in conflict with the laws of the United States?

General DAVIS. The President's order, under which he set the government of the Zone on its feet, specified that the laws of the land should prevail until they were changed.

Senator MORGAN. And "the laws of the land" meant the laws of Colombia?

General DAVIS. Yes, sir-until they were changed, or unless they were repugnant to the fundamental principles of our Government. Senator MORGAN. We have, in the first of our efforts at territorial government, embodiments and displays of what we conceive to be the fundamental principles of our Government?

General DAVIS. Yes, sir.

Senator MORGAN. Involving sometimes trial by jury, and sometimes not?

General DAVIS. Yes, sir.

Senator MORGAN. Involving legislation that takes effect and is operative until it is changed and repealed by Congress, which legislation is by nonelective bodies, bodies appointed by the President of the United States, and sometimes two bodies-one appointed and the other elected?

General DAVIS. Exactly.

Senator MORGAN. And they went on under the provisions of the general system of government in the United States and of the Constitution of the United States to formulate laws that those people were compelled to obey as this territorial system sprang up?

General DAVIS. Yes, sir.

Senator MORGAN. There seems to have been no effort at all made at the establishment of a territorial system of government in the Zone as far as we have gone. It is a system such as was established or supposed to have been established for the government of the Ter

ritory of Louisiana after its acquisition under the treaty with France, and before Congress took hold of it to enact laws which should operate directly through the force of the Congressional action. Have you attempted at all to establish jury trial in the Zone?

General DAVIS. No, sir. It was attempted in Porto Rico; it is authorized by the statute, but the Porto Ricans make very little use of it-very little use of it.

Senator MORGAN. Have you attempted to establish there, practically or otherwise, by your declaration as legislators, the writ of habeas corpus or anything corresponding to it?

General DAVIS. The privileges of the writ are provided for, I think, in the criminal code which was enacted by the Commission, and which is one of the acts that has been printed in the annual report of the Commission. The provision of law applying to Porto Rico was, I have been told by the draftsmen of that law, taken principally as a model. I refer to Judge Magoon, the present governor of the Zone, who was the draftsman of the present criminal code for the Canal Zone.

Senator MORGAN. He was then general counsel for the Isthmian Canal Commission?

General DAVIS. Yes, sir.

Senator MORGAN. And was acting in that capacity in the drafting of that code?

General DAVIS. Yes, sir.

Senator MORGAN. All of which underwent the supervision and examination of the Commission?

General DAVIS. Oh, yes, sir; it was all enacted by the Commission afterwards.

Senator MORGAN. You established courts in that code?

General DAVIS. Yes, sir; under that code there were courts established.

Senator MORGAN. You established an appellate court?

General DAVIS. Yes; a court with three judges was created, and these three judges, meeting together, were granted appellate powers. Senator MORGAN. These three judges were called district judges or circuit judges?

General DAVIS. I have forgotten exactly the term used to describe them, but they were each assigned to a special, separate district. Senator MORGAN. They were courts of original jurisdiction? General DAVIS. Yes, sir.

Senator MORGAN. That tried cases and then sat in banc and heard the cases on appeal?

General Davis. Exactly; that is right.

Senator MORGAN. Was any attempt made, or has any attempt been made, either by Congress or otherwise, to give appellate jurisdiction or supervision to the Federal courts of the United States over that isthmian canal?

General DAVIS. I think attempts have been made, and I am not quite familiar with the legislative history of those attempts, but I have the impression that a member of this committee offered a bill in the Senate which was actually passed through the Senate and came into conference, but I believe it was not finally enacted into law.

Senator MORGAN. I do not remember that any law was enacted on that subject.

General DAVIS. No; I think there was none enacted, but you asked me if attempts were made.

Senator MORGAN. Yes; I know that.

(The committee thereupon took a recess until 2 o'clock p. m.)

AFTERNOON SESSION.

The committee met at 2 o'clock p. m., pursuant to the taking of

recess.

STATEMENT OF MAJ. GEN. GEORGE W. DAVIS, U. S. ARMY (RETIRED) Continued.

Senator Morgan submitted a copy of a letter from the President to the Secretary of War, dated May 9, 1904, and asked that it be made a part of the record, which was ordered.

The letter is as follows:

WHITE HOUSE, Washington, D. C., May 9, 1904.

SIR: By the act of Congress approved June 28, 1902, the President of the United States is authorized to acquire for and on behalf of the United States all the rights, privileges, franchises, concessions, grants of lands, rights of way, unfinished work, plants, shares of the capital stock of the Panama Railway, owned by or held for the use of the New Panama Canal Company, and any other property, real, personal, and mixed, of any name or nature, owned by the said New Panama Canal Company, situated on the Isthmus of Panama. The President is by the same act also authorized to acquire for and on behalf of the United States perpetual control of a strip of land on the Isthmus of Panama, not less than 6 miles in width, extending from the Caribbean Sea to the Pacific Ocean, and the right to excavate, construct, and maintain perpetually, operate and protect thereon, a ship canal of certain specified capacity, and also the right to perpetually operate the Panama Railroad. Having acquired such rights, franchises, property, and control, the President is by the same act required to excavate, construct, and complete a ship canal from the Caribbean Sea to the Pacific Ocean, and to enable him to carry forward and complete this work he is authorized to appoint, by and with the consent of the Senate, an Isthmian Canal Commission of seven members, who are to be in all matters subject to his direction and control.

By the terms of the canal convention between the United States and the Republic of Panama, entered into in pursuance of the said act of Congress approved June 28, 1902, the ratifications of which were exchanged on the 26th day of February, 1904, the Republic of Panama granted to the United States

First, the perpetual use, occupation, and control of a certain zone of land, land under water, including islands within said zone, at the Isthmus of Panama, all to be utilized in the construction, maintenance, and operation, sanitation and protection of the ship canal, of the width of 10 miles, extending to the distance of 5 miles on each side of the central line of the route of the canal, and the use, occupation, and control of other lands and waters outside of the zone above described

which may be necessary and convenient for the construction, maintenance, operation, sanitation, and protection of said canal or any auxiliary canals or other works necessary and convenient for the same purpose; also the islands of Perico, Naos, Culebra, and Flamenco, situated in the Bay of Panama; and,

Second, all the rights, powers, and authority within the zone, auxiliary lands and lands under water, which the United States would possess and exercise if it were the sovereign of the territory granted, to the entire exclusion of the exercise by the Republic of Panama of any such sovereign rights, power, and authority.

By the act of Congress approved April 28, 1904, the President is authorized, upon acquisition of the property of the New Panama Canal Company, and the payment to the Republic of Panama of the price. for compensation agreed upon in the said canal convention, to take possession of and occupy on behalf of the United States the zone of land and land under water, including islands within said zone, at the Isthmus of Panama, of the width of 10 miles, extending to the distance of 5 miles on each side of the central line of the route of the canal to be constructed thereon, including the islands of Perico, Naos, Culebra, and Flamento, and from time to time, as may be necessary and convenient, certain auxiliary lands and waters outside the said zone for the purpose of constructing, maintaining, operating, sanitating, and protecting the ship canal, the use, occupation, and control whereof were granted to the United States by the Republic of Panama in the said canal convention.

By the same act the President is authorized, for the purpose of providing temporarily for the maintenance of order in the Canal Zone and for maintaining and protecting the inhabitants thereof in the free enjoyment of their liberty, property, and religion, to delegate to such person or persons as he may designate and to control the manner of their exercise, all the military, civil, and judicial powers as well as the power to make all needful rules and regulations for the government of the Canal Zone and all the rights, powers, and authority granted by the said canal convention to the United States, until the close of the Fiftyeighth Congress.

Payments of the authorized purchase price of $40,000,000 to the New Panama Canal Company for the property of that corporation on the Isthmus, including the share of railway stock, and for the records in Paris, and of the sum of $10,000,000, as stipulated in the canal convention, to the Republic of Panama for the rights, powers, and privileges granted to the United States by the terms of the said convention have been made and proper instruments of transfer have been executed by the Panama Canal Company. The members of the Isthmian Canal Commission have been appointed. They have organized the Commission and entered upon their duties. I have taken possession of and now occupy, on behalf of the United States, the Canal Zone and public land ceded by the Republic of Panama.

It becomes my duty, under the statutes above referred to, to secure the active prosecution of the work of construction of the canal and its auxiliary works, through the Isthmian Canal Commission, and in connection with such work and in aid thereof to organize and conduct a temporary government of the Zone, so as to maintain and protect the inhabitants thereof in the free enjoyment of their liberty, property, and religion.

Inasmuch as it is impracticable for the President, with his other public duties, to give to the work of supervising the Commission's construction of the canal and government of the Zone the personal attention which seems proper and necessary, and inasmuch as the War Department is the Department which has always supervised the construction of the great civil works for improving the rivers and harbors of the country and the extended military works of public defense, and as the said Department has from time to time been charged with the supervision of the government of all the island possessions of the United States, and continues to supervise the government of the Philippine Islands, I direct that all the work of the Commission done by virtue of powers vested in me by the act of Congress approved June 28, 1902, in the digging, construction, and completion of the canal, and all the governmental power in and over said Canal Zone and its appurtenant territory which, by virtue of the act of Congress approved April 28, 1904, and these instructions, shall be vested in said Isthmian Canal Commission, shall be carried on or exercised under your supervision and direction as Secretary of War.

Subject to the limitations of law and the conditions herein contained, the Isthmian Canal Commission are authorized and directed

1. To make all needful rules and regulations for the government of the Zone and for the correct administration of the military, civil, and judicial affairs of its possessions until the close of the Fifty-eighth Congress.

2. To establish a civil service for the government of the strip and construction of the canal, appointments to which shall be secured as nearly as practicable by a merit system.

3. To make or cause to be made all needful surveys, borings, designs, plans, and specifications of the engineering, hydraulic, and sanitary works required, and to supervise the execution of the same.

4. To make and cause to be executed, after due advertisement, all necessary contracts for any and all kinds of engineering and construction works.

5. To acquire by purchase or through proper and uniform expropriation proceedings, to be prescribed by the Commission, any private lands or other real property whose ownership by the United States is essential to the excavation and completion of the canal.

6. To make all needful rules and regulations respecting an economical and correct disbursement and an accounting for all funds that may be appropriated by Congress for the construction of the canal, its auxiliary works, and the government of the Canal Zone, and also to establish a proper and comprehensive system of bookkeeping, showing the state of the work, the expenditures by classes, and the amounts still available.

7. To make requisition on the Secretary of War for funds needed from time to time in the proper prosecution of the work, and to designate the disbursing officers authorized to receipt for the same.

The inhabitants of the Isthmian Canal Zone are entitled to security in their persons, property, and religion and in all their private rights and relations. They should be so informed by public announcement. The people should be disturbed as little as possible in their customs and avocations that are in harmony with principles of well-ordered and decent living.

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