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OFFICIAL REPORT OF THE PROCEEDINGS OF THE 



bers of the committee, and I must say that we have had very little 

 encouragement. We all felt very sanguine that there was no need 

 for much more effort on our part, after the Oregon had such trouble 

 about getting around the Cape, thinking that the Government would 

 take it to heart and try to get the ships through the canal, but 

 now we find ourselves back again with the. "old chestnut" and the 

 "innocuous desuetude" that the canal matter had fallen into. The 

 committee wrote to the Secretary of State to know what was the last 

 condition of affairs regarding the Walker Commission. The Secretary 

 wrote back the last report of the Walker Commission issued in the 

 month of June; that report was signed by Admiral Walker and an 

 engineer called Haupt, and by Col. Haynes of the Engineers. They all 

 Baid that the canal was a practically feasible proposition; the only dis- 

 agreement was regarding the price. The two former men I mentioned 

 put the cost down to about $124,000,000 — this was not to be the narrow 

 canal proposed in previous years, but one equal to all our largest ships, 

 and with locks big enough to raise and lower them as it might be, for * 

 this $124,000,000. 



Mb. JOHNSTON. I believe Mr. Haynes put the figure twenty per 

 cent higher. 



Mb. BERWICK. During Congress we tried to take congressional 

 action, but were not successful; we had to contend with a million-dollar 

 commission professedly to forward the interests of the canal, but really 

 to stay the canal as long as possible at the instigation of the transporta- 

 tion Companies. We recommend that you urge on your Congressmen, 

 and your different parties also, to go to work at once and construct a 

 canal and not leave the American nation the laughing stock of the world 

 in forbidding any other nation to build that canal and yet refusing to 

 build it themselves. You know that there have been commissions 

 appointed and surveys made for the last fifteen years, and many of you 

 know also that the height of the mountain chain there is the great 

 difficulty. There are many shorter canals to be surveyed than the 

 Nicaragua canal, but the elevation of the proposed Nicaragua canal and 

 the body of water available are the two chief points that recommend 

 that as being the site for the canal. We believe that the American 

 people want this canal and that the transportation companies oppose it, 

 and we want you to urge it wherever you have any influence. W^e 

 ask you to use all your influence to make Congress take immediate 

 action and prepare the necessary power to forward the necessary 

 scheme to furnish bonds for the building of that canal by the United 

 States government direct without the intervention of any company 

 whatever. I will say further that there is no taxation needed at 

 all. I told ex-Speaker Reed myself, in the Del Monte, that we did 

 not want any appropriation; that we simply wanted bonds to cover 



