nditions on the
Isthmus, and led to the public demand that by one route or another an
American waterway be constructed within a reasonable period of time and
at a reasonable cost. It will serve no practical purpose to recite the
subsequent facts and the chain of events which led to the passage of the
act of March 3, 1899, which authorized the President to have a full and
complete investigation made of the entire subject of Isthmian canals.

A million dollars was appropriated for the expenses of a commission, and
in pursuance of the provisions of the act the President appointed a
commission consisting of Rear-admiral Walker, United States Navy,
president, and nine members eminent in their respective professions as
experts or engineers. A report was rendered under the date of November
30, 1901, in which the cost of constructing a canal by way of Nicaragua
was estimated at $189,864,062 and by way of Panama at $184,233,358,
including in the last estimate $40,000,000 for the estimated value of
the rights and property of the New Panama Canal Company. The company,
however, held its property at a much higher value, or some $109,000,000,
which the Commission considered exorbitant, and thus the only
alternative was to recommend the construction of a canal by way of the
Nicaraguan route. Convinced, however, that the American people were in
earnest, the New Panama Company expressed a willingness to reconsider
the matter, and finally agreed to the purchase price fixed by the
Isthmian Commission.

By the Spooner act, passed June 28, 1902, Congress authorized the
President to purchase the property of the New Panama Canal Company for a
price not exceeding $40,000,000, the title to the property having been
fully investigated and found valid. The Isthmian Commission, therefore,
recommended to Congress the purchase of the property, but the majority
of the Senate Committee on Interoceanic Canals disagreed, and it is only
to the courage and rare ability of the late Senator Hanna and his
associates, as minority members of the committee, that the nation owes
the abandonment of the Nicaraguan project, the acquirement of the Panama
Canal rights at a reasonable price and the making of the project a
national enterprise.

The report of the minority members of the Senate committee was made
under date of May 31, 1902. It is, without question, a most able and
comprehensive dissertation upon the subject, and forms a most valuable
addition to the tr