dentally or intentionally developed, but must let it go to waste or give it away or turn it over to the State. I repeat that the development of power or of irrigation from surplus waters is subsidiary and collateral to, but nevertheless germane to, an actual development of navigation or to an exercise of the navigation jurisdiction where development is in abeyance. Of course the terms to licensees should be fair, and this is a matter for the justice as well as the wisdom of Congress to settle. The period of license should be long enough to permit the enterprise to be financed. In some cases it may very likely be that all charges should be nominal for a reasonable period, and the rate per horsepower unit might ultimately be varied in accordance with different conditions of time, place, population, and other tributary factors. Take a case in illustration: The proposal for the Long Saut on the St. Lawrence River contemplates a 20-foot channel in the river where now there is no navigable channel at all, and, under our conventional arrangements with Great Britain, vessels of the United States must use the canal on the Canadian side. This is navigation and an improvement to navigation of tremendour consequence and value. The power developed is enormous and correspondingly valuable. Of course the private enterprise which undertakes this public work is entitled to protection and reward. It may be that the contractors, in consideration of the creation of that most valuable channel, should be relieved from any government charges for the power developed for a term of years; but on the other hand the power developed, which belongs ultimately to and is held in trust for all the people of the United States, should not be granted forever and for nothing. I understand that the government engineers and experts estimate that the proper use of the water powers of the country as an asset of the people would in time pay for all contemplated and possible improvement of the navigable inland waterways. The proposed use of the funds to be produced is further evidence of the essential connection between the improvement of navigation and other uses of water thereby stored and made available, because the charges made are to constitute a permanent and general fund in aid of the development of all navigable waterways. The various States manifest concurrence and willingness toward the government plans, and while that fact would not authorize a scheme otherwise unconstitutional, it is of vast practical importance that local jealousies will not be aroused and that the proposals contemplate and would receive cooperation from States, municipalities, and all others locally interested in plans which in the end are for the benefit of the whole people. Keeping in mind the general principles established and the consid erations of proper methods and particular equities which are committed to Congress, the strict constitutionality of the programme proposed can not well be doubted. VETO MESSAGE To the House of Representatives: I herewith return, without approval, H. R. 16954, entitled "An act to provide for the Thirteenth and subsequent decennial censuses." I do this with extreme reluctance, because I fully realize the importance of supplying the Director of the Census at as early a date as possible with the force necessary to the carrying on of his work. But it is of high consequence to the country that the statistical work of the census shall be conducted with entire accuracy. This is as important from the standpoint of business and industry as from the scientific standpoint. It is, therefore, in my judgment, essential that the result should not be open to the suspicion of bias on political and personal grounds; that it should not be open to the reasonable suspicion of being a waste of the people's money and a fraud. Section 7 of the act provides in effect that appointments to the census shall be under the spoils system, for this is the real meaning of the provision that they shall be subject only to noncompetitive examination. The proviso is added that they shall be selected without regard to political party affiliations. But there is only one way to guarantee that they shall be selected without regard to politics and on merit, and that is by choosing them after competitive examination from the lists of eligibles provided by the Civil Service Commission. The present Director of the Census in his last report states the exact fact about these noncompetitive examinations when he says: "A noncompetitive examination means that every one of the many thousands who will pass the examinations will have an equal right to appointment, and that personal and political pressure must in the end, as always before, become the determining factor with regard to the great body of these temporary employments. I can not too earnestly urge that the Director of the Census be relieved from this unfortunate situation." To provide that the clerks and other employees shall be appointed after noncompetitive examination, and yet to provide that they shall be selected without regard to political party affiliations, means merely that the appointments shall be treated as the perquisites of the politicians of both parties, instead of as the perquisites of the poli THE PANAMA CANAL In the month of March, 1913, there were 44,733 employees on the Isthmus on the rolls of the Commission and of the Panama Railroad Company, about 5,000 of whom were Americans. This seems to have been the maximum number, as many were dispensed with only a little later. There were actually at work on May 29, 1912, 35,063 men, 28,272 for the Commission and 6,791 for the Panama Railroad Company. Of the 28,272 men working for the Commissior, 4,129 were on the gold roll, which comprised those paid in United States currency, and 24,143 men on the silver roll, which comprised those paid on the basis of Panaman currency, or its equivalent. Those on the gold roll include mechanics, skilled artisans of all classes, clerks, and higher officials, most of whom are Americans; those on the silver roll include principally the common laborers, who are practically all foreigners. Of the 6,791 Panama Railroad employees, 820 were on the gold roll. A complete history of the Panama Canal will be found in the Encyclopedic Index. ticians of one party. I do not believe in the doctrine that to the victor belong the spoils; but I think even less of the doctrine that the spoils shall be divided without a fight by the professional politicians on both sides; and this would be the result of permitting the bill in its present shape to become a law. Both of the last censuses, the Eleventh and the Twelfth, were taken under a provision of law excluding competition; that is, necessitating the appointments being made under the spoils system. Every man competent to speak with authority because of his knowledge of and familiarity with the work of those censuses has stated that the result was to produce extravagance and demoralization. Mr. Robert P. Porter, who took the census of 1890, states that "The efficiency of the decennial census would be greatly improved and its cost materially lessened if it were provided that the employees should be selected in accordance with the terms of the civil service law." Mr. Frederick H. Wines, the Assistant Director of the Census of 1900, states as follows: "A mathematical scale was worked out by which the number of 'assignments' to each Senator and Representative was determined in advance, so many appointments to a Senator, a smaller number to a Representative, half as many to a Democrat as a Republican, and in Democratic States and congressional districts the assignments were made to the Republican state and district committees. The assignees named in the first instance the persons to be examined. They were afterwards furnished each with a list of those names who had 'passed' and requested to name those whom they desired to have appointed. Vacancies were filled in the same manner. This system was thoroughly satisfactory to the majority of the politicians interested, though there were few who refused to have anything to do with it. The effect upon the bureau was. as may readily be imagined, thoroughly demoralizing." Mr. Carroll D. Wright, who had charge of the Census Bureau after the census of 1890, estimates that $2,000,coc, and more than a year's time, would have been saved if the census force had been brought into the classified service, and adds: "I do not hesitate to say one-third of the amount expended under my own administration was absolutel wasted, and wasted principally on account of the fact that the office was not under civil service rules. *** In October, 1893, when I took charge of the Census Office, there was an office force of 1,092. There had been a constant reduction for many months and this was kept up without cessation till the close of the census. There was never a month after October. 1893, that the clerical force reached the number then in office; nevertheless, while these general reductions were being made and in |