Expansion

The season of reports--official, annual, Government reports--which is at its height during December of each year, was inaugurated by the appearance of the official report on the Panama Canal, rendered through the War Department by Governor Jay J. Morrow, who is just retiring. The report was, as usual, for the fiscal year--ended June 30, last. It showed an increase of traffic through the Canal of 38.7% over the previous year. A great part of this was due to large shipments of oil from California. Deducting all this temporary boom-oil, however, canal traffic increased 16.4%. Shipping tolls aggregated $24,290,963. This brought the income from the canal to more than $16,000,000, as compared to $10,000,000 in the previous year and to $3,000.000 in the year before that. Adding in the sums earned by the Panama Railroad, the machine shops, commissaries, coaling plants, etc., the net revenue amounted to $18,254,459--handsome enough. U. S. ships were by far the greatest users of the Canal, contributing 61.7% of the total. Great Britain stood next with 22.4%; and 19 other nations, including the Free City of Danzig, Yugo-Slavia, Finland, trailed with none of them as much as 5% of the traffic. Exactly half the ships using the Canal were engaged in the U. S. intercoastal trade. In all, 5,230 toll-paying ships, having a net tonnage of 26,148,878, used the Canal. Since the Canal has a capacity of about 50,000,000 tons annually, it was doing about half its possible business.

All American commercial vessels pay toll. During President Taft's Administration a law was passed exempting U. S. vessels in coastwise trade from toll, but Great Britain objected that this was a violation of the Hay-Pauncefote Treaty under which the U. S., formerly a partner in the canal business with Great Britain, acquired sole rights in the project and promised equal treatment to "all nations." Elihu Root, then a Senator, held that the law violated our treaty promise. President Wilson and Ambassador Page took the same attitude. In the Spring of 1914. the President asked that the law be repealed. After a bitter wrangle for several months this was done. Party lines were broken in the bitterness of the struggle. Senators Root, Lodge, Kenyon, MeCumber, Burton (Republicans) supported Mr. Wilson. Senators O'Gorman, Reed (Mo.), Chamberlain, Vardaman (Democrats) opposed the President.