And State Papers 709 



other details, particularly as to the acquisition of the 

 interests of the New Panama Canal Company and 

 the Panama Railway by the United States and the 

 condemnation of private property for the uses of the 

 canal, the stipulations of the Hay-Herran treaty are 

 closely followed, while the compensation to be given 

 for these enlarged grants remains the same, being 

 ten millions of dollars payable on exchange of ratifi- 

 cations ; and, beginning nine years from that date, an 

 annual payment of $250,000 during the life of the 

 convention. 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 

 WHITE HOUSE, 

 December 7, ipoj. 



MESSAGE OF THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED 

 STATES COMMUNICATED TO THE TWO 

 HOUSES OF CONGRESS ON JANUARY 4, 1904 



To the Senate and House of Representatives: 



I lay before the Congress for its information a 

 statement of my action up to this time in executing 

 the act entitled "An act to provide for the construc- 

 tion of a canal connecting the waters of the Atlantic 

 and Pacific Oceans/' approved June 28, 1902. 



By the said act the President was authorized to 

 secure for the United States the property of the 

 Panama Canal Company and the perpetual control 

 of a strip six miles wide across the Isthmus of 

 Panama. It was further provided that "should the 

 President be unable to obtain for the United States 

 a satisfactory title to the property of the New 



