by the President, and one of whom shall be named as the chairman of said Commission. Of the seven members of said Commission at least four of them shall be persons learned and skilled in the science of engineering, and of the four at least one shall be an officer of the United States Army, and at least one other shall be an officer of the United States Navy, the said officers respectively being either upon the active or the retired list of the Army or of the Navy. Said commissioners shall each receive such compensation as the President shall prescribe until the same shall have been otherwise fixed by the Congress. In addition to the members of said Isthmian Canal Commission, the President is hereby authorized through said Commission to employ in said service any of the engineers of the United States Army at his discretion, and likewise to employ any engineers in civil life, at his discretion, and any other persons necessary for the proper and expeditious prosecution of said work. The compensation of all such engineers and other persons employed under this Act shall be fixed by said Commission, subject to the approval of the President. The official salary of any officer appointed or employed under this Act shall be deducted from the amount of salary or compensation provided by or which shall be fixed under the terms of this Act. Said Commission shall in all matters be subject to the direction and control of the President, and shall make to the President annually and at such other periods as may be required, either by law or by the order of the President, full and complete reports of all their actings and doings and of all moneys received and expended in the construction of said work and in the performance of their duties in connection therewith, which said reports shall be by the President transmitted to Congress. And the said Commission shall furthermore give to Congress, or either House of Congress, such information as may at any time be required either by Act of Congress or by the order of either House of Congress. The President shall cause to be provided and assigned for the use of the Commission such offices as may, with the suitable equipment of the same, be necessary and proper, in his discretion, for the proper discharge of the duties thereof.

The Secretary of the Treasury is hereby authorized to Sec. 8. borrow on the credit of the United States from time to time, as the proceeds may be required to defray expenditures authorized by this Act (such proceeds when received to be used only for the purpose of meeting such expenditures), the sum of one hundred and thirty million dollars, or so much thereof as may be necessary, and to prepare and issue therefor coupon or registered bonds of the United States in such form as he may prescribe, and in denominations of twenty dollars or some multiple of that sum, redeemable in gold coin at the pleasure of the United States after ten years from the date of their issue,

Apr. 28, 1904.

and payable thirty years from such date, and bearing interest payable quarterly in gold coin at the rate of two per centum per annum; and the bonds herein authorized shall be exempt from all taxes or duties of the United States, as well as from taxation in any form by or under State, municipal, or local authority: Provided, That said bonds may be disposed of by the Secretary of the Treasury at not less than par, under such regulations as he may prescribe, giving to all citizens of the United States an equal opportunity to subscribe therefor, but no commissions shall be allowed or paid thereon; and a sum not exceeding one-tenth of one per centum of the amount of the bonds herein authorized is hereby appropriated, out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, to pay the expense of preparing, advertising, and issuing the same.

The President is hereby authorized, upon the acquisition of the property of the New Panama Canal Company and the payment to the Republic of Panama of the ten millions of dollars provided by article fourteen of the treaty between the United States and the Republic of Panama, the ratifications of which were exchanged on the twenty-sixth day of February, nineteen hundred and four, to be paid to the latter Government, to take possession of and occupy on behalf of the United States the zone of land and land under water of the width of ten miles, extending to the distance of five miles on each side of the center line of the route of the canal to be constructed thereon, which said zone begins in the Caribbean Sea three marine miles from mean low-water mark and extends to and across the Isthmus of Panama into the Pacific Ocean to the distance of three marine miles from mean low-water mark, and also of all islands within said zone, and in addition thereto the group of islands in the Bay of Panama named Perico, Naos, Culebra, and Flamenco, and, from time to time, of any lands and waters outside of said zone which may be necessary and convenient for the construction, maintenance, operation, sanitation, and protection of the said canal, or of any auxiliary canals or other works necessary and convenient for the construction, maintenance, operation, sanitation, and protection of said enterprise, the use, occupation, and control whereof were granted to the United States by article two of said treaty. The said zone is hereinafter referred to as "the Canal Zone." The payment of the ten millions of dollars provided by article fourteen of said treaty shall be made in lieu of the indefinite appropriation made in the third section of the Act of June twenty-eighth, nineteen hundred and two, and is hereby appropriated for said purpose.

Until the expiration of the Fifty-eighth Congress, unless provision for the temporary government of the Canal Zone be sooner made by Congress, all the military, civil, and judicial powers as well as the power to make all

rules and regulations necessary for the government of the Canal Zone and all the rights, powers, and authority granted by the terms of said treaty to the United States shall be vested in such person or persons and shall be exercised in such manner as the President shall direct for the government of said Zone and maintaining and protecting the inhabitants thereof in the free enjoyment of their liberty, property and religion.

J. Res.

Purchases of material and equipment for use in the June 25, 1906. construction of the Panama Canal shall be restricted to articles of domestic production and manufacture, from the lowest responsible bidder, unless the President shall, in any case, deem the bids or tenders therefor to be extortionate or unreasonable.

A lock canal be constructed across the Isthmus of June 29, 1906. Panama connecting the waters of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, of the general type proposed by the minority of the Board of Consulting Engineers, created by order of the President dated January twenty-fourth, nineteen hundred and five, in pursuance of an Act entitled "An Act to provide for the construction of a canal connecting the waters of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans," approved June twenty-eighth, nineteen hundred and two.

All laws affecting imports of articles, goods, wares, and Mar. 2, 1905. merchandise and entry of persons into the United States from foreign countries shall apply to articles, goods, wares, and merchandise and persons coming from the Canal Zone, Isthmus of Panama, and seeking entry into any State or Territory of the United States or the District of Columbia.

410. Great Lakes-Atlantic Canal.

The President of the United States is authorized to ap- Mar. 2, 1895. point, immediately after the passage of this Act, three persons, who shall have power to meet and confer with any similar committee which may be appointed by the Government of Great Britain or of the Dominion of Canada, and who shall make inquiry and report whether it is feasible to build such canals as shall enable vessels engaged in ocean commerce to pass to and fro between the Great Lakes and the Atlantic Ocean, with an adequate and controllable supply of water for continual use; where such canals can be most conveniently located, the probable cost of the same, with estimates in detail; and if any part of the same should be built in the territory of Canada, what regulations or treaty arrangements will be necessary between the United States and Great Britain to preserve the free use of such canal to the people of this country at all times; and all necessary facts and considerations relating to the construction and future use of deep-water channels between the Great Lakes and the Atlantic Ocean. The persons so appointed shall serve without compensation in any form, but they shall be paid their actual traveling and other necessary expenses, not

June 13, 1902.
Sec. 4.

Apr. 28, 1904.

exceeding in all ten thousand dollars, for which purpose the said sum of ten thousand dollars, or so much thereof as may be necessary, is hereby appropriated. The President may, in his discretion, detail as one of such persons an officer of the Army or Navy.

411. Great Lakes levels.

The President of the United States is hereby requested to invite the Government of Great Britain to join in the formation of an international commission, to be composed of three members from the United States and three who shall represent the interests of the Dominion of Canada, whose duty it shall be to investigate and report upon the conditions and uses of the waters adjacent to the boundary lines between the United States and Canada, including all of the waters of the lakes and rivers whose natural outlet is by the River Saint Lawrence to the Atlantic Ocean; also upon the maintenance and regulation of suitable levels; and also upon the effect upon the shores of these waters and the structures thereon, and upon the interests of navigation, by reason of the diversion of these waters from or change in their natural flow; and, further, to report upon the necessary measures to regulate such diversion, and to make such recommendations for improvements and regulations as shall best subserve the interests of navigation in said waters. The said commissioners shall report upon the advisability of locating a dam at the outlet of Lake Erie, with a view to determining whether such dam will benefit navigation, and if such structure is deemed advisable, shall make recommendations to their respective Governments looking to an agreement or treaty which shall provide for the construction of the same, and they shall make an estimate of the probable cost thereof. The President, in selecting the three members of said Commission who shall represent the United States, is authorized to appoint one officer of the Corps of Engineers of the United States Army, one civil engineer well versed in the hydraulics of the Great Lakes, and one lawyer of experience in questions of international and riparian law, and said Commission shall be authorized to employ such persons as it may deem needful in the performance of the duties hereby imposed; and for the purpose of paying the expenses and salaries of said Commission the Secretary of War is authorized to expend from the amounts heretofore appropriated for the Saint Marys River at the Falls, the sum of twenty thousand dollars, or so much thereof as may be necessary to pay that portion of the expenses of said Commission chargeable to the United States.

412. Employment of vessels of the United States for public purposes.

Vessels of the United States, or belonging to the United States, and no others, shall be employed in the transportation by sea of coal, provisions, fodder, or supplies of

any description, purchased pursuant to law, for the use of the Army or Navy unless the President shall find that the rates of freight charges by said vessels are excessive and unreasonable, in which case contracts shall be made under the law as it now exists: Provided, That no greater charges be made by such vessels for transportation of articles for the use of the said Army and Navy than are made by such vessels for transportation of like goods for private parties or companies.

413. Exemption of private property at sea.

28, 1904.

It is the sense of the Congress of the United States that J. Res., Apr. it is desirable, in the interest of uniformity of action by the maritime states of the world in time of war, that the President endeavor to bring about an understanding among the principal maritime powers with a view of incorporating into the permanent law of civilized nations the principle of the exemption of all private property at sea, not contraband of war, from capture or destruction by belligerents.

414. Sponge fishing.

From and after May first, anno Domini nineteen hun- June 20, 1906. dred and seven, it shall be unlawful to land, deliver, cure, or offer for sale at any port or place in the United States any sponges taken by means of diving or diving apparatus from the waters of the Gulf of Mexico or Straits of Florida: Provided, That sponges taken or gathered by such process between October first and May first of each year in a greater depth of water than fifty feet shall not be subject to the provisions of this Act: And provided further, That no sponges taken from said waters shall be landed, delivered, cured, or offered for sale at any port or place in the United States of a smaller size than four inches in diameter.

Every person guilty of a violation of this Act shall for Sec. 2. each offense be liable to a fine of not less than one hundred dollars or more than five hundred dollars, which fine shall be a lien against the vessel on which the offense was committed. And every vessel used or employed in violation of this Act shall be liable to a fine of not less than one hundred dollars or more than five hundred dollars or forfeiture, and shall be seized and proceeded against by process of libel in any court having jurisdiction of the offense.

Any violation of this Act shall be prosecuted in the dis- Sec. 3. trict court of the United States of the district wherein the offense was committed.

It shall be the duty of the Secretary of Commerce and Sec. 4. Labor to enforce the provisions of this Act, and upon his request the Secretary of the Treasury and the Secretary of the Navy may employ the vessels of the RevenueCutter Service and of the Navy, respectively, to that end.