take care of himself; and I take it that General Davis is not going to be drawn into any antagonism of the President by any question that is put to him.

Senator HOPKINS. I think the best way is not to let the question be answered, because it is not pertinent to anything that we are considering here.

The CHAIRMAN. I see no reason why the witness should be called upon to answer this question unless he desires to do so. The chair will excuse him if he desires to be excused.

Senator MORGAN. Oh, if the General should say that he desires to be excused from it, that is another matter.

General DAVIS. It would be the height of impropriety for an officer of the Government holding the relation to the Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy that I necessarily hold to pass any opinion whatever of approval or disapproval on his action. It would be the height. of impropriety. I have been forty years and more in the service, and it would be entirely wrong. I do not know what was in the mind of the President when he wrote that paragraph. It is impossible that I should. He had means of knowledge which I did not possess. He could know of events that were unknown to me, and I feel as if it would be quite improper for me to discuss this subject.

The CHAIRMAN. Senator Morgan, will you proceed with other questions?

Senator MORGAN. I want to state one of the grounds upon which I ventured to ask this very tender question. That letter is dated April 1, 1905, at the time of the organization of the new Commission. The President says, in a message to Congress dated January 8, 1906:

"The work on the Isthmus is being admirably done, and great progress has been made, especially during the last nine months. The plant is being made ready and the organization perfected."

I want to show that as much progress had been made during the preceding time as had been during the last nine months, and a great deal more, and I will show it, and have shown it. [Reading:]

"The first work to be done was the work of sanitation, the necessary preliminary to the work of actual construction; and this has been pushed forward with the utmost energy and means. In a short while I shall lay before you the recommendations of the Commission and of the Board of Consulting Engineers as to the proper plan to be adopted for the canal itself, together with my own recommendations thereon. All the work so far has been done not only with the utmost expedition, but in the most careful and thorough manner; and what has been accomplished gives us good reason to believe that the canal will be dug in a shorter time than had been anticipated and at an expenditure within the estimated amount."

I suppose we are at liberty to show that the President was mistaken in that declaration to us. I think we are not debarred, because he says a thing, from inquiring into whether or not the foundations of fact on which he made that expression of opinion are correct.

Then he goes on to say, after speaking of certain accusations and the sources from which they sprung, that they emanate from men who are "desirous of obtaining notoriety by widespread slander. More often they originate with or are given currency by individuals with a personal grievance. * Every specific charge relating to jobbery, to immorality, or to inefficiency from whatever source it has come has

*

*

*

been immediately investigated, and in no single instance have the statements of these sensation mongers and the interested complainants behind them proved true. I court the fullest, most exhaustive, and most searching investigation of any act of theirs,” which includes their employees down there, "and if any one of them is ever shown to have done wrong his punishment shall be exemplary."

Senator HOPKINS. Senator, there is nothing inconsistent in that statement that he has sent to us and the statement upon which you predicated your question to General Davis. There is no inconsistency on the part of the President there.

Senator MORGAN. The Senator is defending the President against an alleged inconsistency that has not been even hinted.

Senator HOPKINS. I am not defending him at all; but you are reading that as a basis for the justification of your question, and I, without defending the President (because he does not need any defense) am saying that there is no inconsistency between what you are now reading and the statement that you read upon which you predicated your questions.

Senator MORGAN. I am trying in this manner simply to ascertain what has been done, and if there is anything that has been omitted to be done by any person who is in default to ascertain that and point it out; because the President demands the most thorough investigation of every person who has been engaged in that work there, and I supposed that he meant what he said. If anybody here has a right to say that he was not in earnest about it, let him speak up and say so.

I will not press the question upon General Davis, because he has evinced a disposition, which I think is very highly commendable, not to criticise in any possible sense his superior officer in the Army; though I think that around this board we are all civilians.

General Davis, have you ever known any person who was a stockholder in the New Panama Canal Company at any time?

General DAVIS. I have no personal acquaintance with any individual that I know to be a stockholder. I never saw a list of the stockholders of the New Panama Canal Company; I never saw a list of them in my life. I presume I have met people who were stockholders, but I did not know it, and do not know it now.

Senator MORGAN. Did you know it from anything they said to you? General DAVIS. No; I have no recollection of anything said to me that would indicate that any of the persons I was talking with were stockholders.

Senator TALIAFERRO. Does that apply also, General Davis, to bonds?

General DAVIS. To bondholders of the New Panama Canal Company? Senator MORGAN. There were not any bonds issued?

General DAVIS. There were not any bonds.

Senator TALIAFERRO. By the New Panama Canal Company? Senator MORGAN. The Old Panama Canal Company issued bonds? General DAVIS. No; I do not think--I can not recall now that I ever was acquainted with anybody that I knew to be an investor in the Old or New Panama Canal Company, although I presume that I have met such people without knowing it.

Senator MORGAN. While you were governor you made a report of which I have what I conceive to be an incomplete copy, or, I might

say, a corrected copy-an altered copy. I wish to hand it to you and ask you to look at it and see whether you recognize that document. General DAVIS. I recognize this paper as a retained copy of a report that I made to the chairman of the Isthmian Canal Commission on, I think, the 1st day of October, 1904. It is in the nature of an annual report of certain transactions that came to my knowledge as governor of the Canal Zone. The original sent forward was an exact copy of so much of this as is in typewriting. There are a few places in which I have made changes in pencil. Those were to note corrections that I would have made in the original if it had remained in my hands so that I could do so.

Senator MORGAN. I find some papers referred to in that document that are not copied. If you will hand it to me a moment, I will call your attention to them. One of them, I remember, is a letter from Mr. De Obaldia.

General DAVIS. Yes, sir; the letter was one from the minister of the Republic of Panama, addressed to the Secretary of State of the United States at Washington, and had for its date probably June, 1904. I am not quite sure about its date now. A copy of it was handed to me by the minister of the United States resident at Panama, Mr. John Barrett; and it was the paper that I used in the preparation of this report. I made frequent citations from it in that document. I have looked over my retained papers, and this is a copy of the original letter.

Senator MORGAN. From Mr. De Obalida?

General DAVIS. From Mr. De Obalida to Mr. Hay, which was given to me by Mr. Barrett, and which I think has been printed in the newspapers of the Republic of Panama. I think it has been given to the public. I found it in my file after the secretary of the Isthmian Canal Commission had made an inquiry of me in furtherance of a request made upon him by Senator Morgan as to what document Senator Morgan's request related to; and then I looked up what I had in the way of further information. I find this paper among them. It is a letter dated "Legation of Panama, Washington, August 11, 1904," and is addressed to the Secretary of State of the United States. As I said before, I think it was printed in the newspapers of the Republic of Panama. Whether it has been given to the public here by our Government or not I do not know. It is a document that came into my possession in the way I state.

Senator MORGAN. I will ask you, General Davis, whether the reports that you have made to that Commission have all been published in full, or whether they have been published in part and suppressed in part?

General DAVIS. The annual report as governor of the Zone which I made, I think, on the 1st of October --I think it has a concurrent date with the document you have before you --was forwarded in manuscript to the Commission; and a part of it was extracted and sent to me in manuscript form, with the statement that this part was what the Commission proposed to print of the report that I had written. As they had segregated the document and left out about half of it, I felt that they were not treating me fairly in the matter, and called the attention of the Secretary of War to the mutilation, as I called it, of that report. He himself directed that a large part of the remainder should be published, which has been published since, and is marked "Supplementary Report of General Davis."

Senator HOPKINS. But certain parts of it have not been published? General DAVIS. A few pages only have not been--a few pages. Senator MORGAN. So that your report as you made it has not been fully published, although it professed to have been fully published? General DAVIS. This report that I made has been printed in full, except about two pages-two foolscap pages of no especial importance. But it contained an appendix made up of a large number of documents-that map, that map, and this map [indicating maps in committee room], and a copy of the provisional agreement for the delimitation of the Canal Zone, which I have here, and a good many other documents, thirty or forty, as an appendix, so that the original might be explained. None of those appendices have been printed.

The CHAIRMAN. Senator Morgan, it will take you some little time, I suppose, to finish. Would you be willing to take an adjournment now until, say, 2 o'clock on Monday, or did you wish to proceed with this examination now? It is 5 o'clock, and I think perhaps we had better take an adjournment.

Senator MORGAN. I do not know about 2 o'clock on Monday.
The CHAIRMAN. I did not know how long you would be.

Senator MORGAN. To-morrow is a day that the committee ought to be at work, I think, as there is no session of the Senate.

The CHAIRMAN. If it is agreeable to the committee to meet to-morrow afternoon, it will be entirely agreeable to the chairman. I have a matter in the morning that will prevent my being here, but I can be here at any time after 12 o'clock to-morrow.

General DAVIS. There is just one thing that I happen to think of now that I would like to say in this connection. I spoke to Mr. Taft about coming before the committee, as I was told that I was to come in respect to these matters of Zone government, and the Secretary said at once: "By all means explain to the committee everything about this matter of Zone administration, for I want them to know everything that you know about it-this handling of these questions in the Zone; all of these matters of discussion that occurred. Explain everything to them fully if they wish you to."

Then I also have here a document which I feel confident will be interesting to you. It has not been published, so far as I know, in America, although it was printed in Panama. That is the identical agreement that I entered into with the Government of Panama for delimitation of the Canal Zone-the identical document which has not been printed at all in the United States.

Senator MORGAN. That is a very important paper and ought to go into these records, because we do not know what the delimitation of the Canal Zone around the cities of Colon and Panama is except by reference to that document.

General DAVIS. That is a copy of the paper that I found among my retained records. It is an exact copy of the original.

The CHAIRMAN. Is there any objection on the part of any member of the committee to handing it to the stenographer?

(There was no objection.)

Senator MORGAN. That is not a part of this other report at all? They have put it in as an appendix to the report, or an exhibit?

General DAVIS. It is an exhibit, and I think it will be quite useful to you gentlemen here, for it relates to a very important matter.

Senator MORGAN. I want it by all means, because that is the only evidence we have as to what the agreement is.

The CHAIRMAN. It will go into the record unless some member of the committee objects.

General DAVIS. And the Secretary's agreement with the Government of Panama ratifying it, you know, and requiring from the Government of Panama an indorsement of it.

(The paper above referred to, which, by direction of the committee, was printed as a part of the record, is as follows:)

ISTHMIAN CANAL ZONE, EXECUTIVE OFFICE,

Culebra, June 21, 1904.

SIR: I have the honor to inclose herewith copy of the agreement relating to the delimitation of the Canal Zone recently entered into by myself as governor of the Zone with the secretary of state and the attorney-general of Panama as representing that Republic; also copy of each of three maps illustrating the boundaries of which a verbal description is contained in the agreement.

Very cloudy weather has made it impossible for us to print satisfac torily from the tracings, and I regret that the maps are in the condition they are, but later on better copies will be forwarded.

Copies of these maps have also been forwarded to the Chief of Staff of the Army.

Respectfully,

The SECRETARY OF WAR,

GEO. W. DAVIS,

War Department, Washington, D. C.

Governor.

Whereas by the terms and provisions of Article II of the Convention for the Construction of an Interoceanic Canal between the United States of America and the Republic of Panama, signed by the representatives of the two nations on November 18, 1903, the ratifications of which were exchanged at Washington on the 26th day of February, 1904, the United States acquired the right of use, occupation, and perpetual control from and after the said 26th day of February, 1904, in and over the Canal Zone and other lands, waters, and islands named in said Article II of the convention aforesaid; and

Whereas it has not yet been, and is not now, practicable to make a complete, definite, and exact location of the precise boundaries of all the territory ceded to the United States by the terms and provisions of said Article II of said convention; and

Whereas the successful completion of the work of construction of the Interoceanic Canal across the Isthmus of Panama is of transcendent importance to the United States, to the Republic of Panama, and to the people of the world; and

Whereas in order that said work of construction of said interoceanic canal may be systematically prosecuted, and in order that a government for the Canal Zone created by the terms and provisions of said Article II of said convention may be successfully organized and carried forward, it is necessary that the extent and boundaries of the territory ceded to the Government of the United States by the Gov