Taft Will Sign The Canal Bill.

New York Times 100 years ago today, August 24, 1912:
And Won't Be Offended by British Request to Arbitrate, Which Senate Will Refuse.
NO SUEZ REPRISALS PLANNED
Reduction of Tolls Is the Usual Policy When Dividends Go Up, Say Directors.
Special to the New York Times.
    WASHINGTON, Aug. 23.— President Taft has yielded on the Panama Canal bill. The fact that he would sign it became known to the Senate to-day, when he asked Mr, Sutherland of Utah to assist him in carrying out one of its provisions. The bill directs the President to prepare a schedule of payments for canal employes injured on duty. Mr. Sutherland is Chairman of the Employers' Liability Commission, and has thoroughly investigated the subject in regard to railroads in the United States, and the President sought his advice,
    It has been known for some time that the President would sign the bill and that he was merely waiting to give Congress every chance to yield to his suggestions for amendment. It is understood that Great Britain will then protest against free tolls to American ships and ask for arbitration at The Hague. That request is not offensive to the President, but unless a great change comes over the feeling in the Senate it will refuse ratification of the necessary treaty fixing the "terms of submission" of the case to any international tribunal. The Senate's refusal to arbitrate, though directly violating our treaty with Great Britain, will be on the ground that the Panama Canal is a domestic problem not subject to arbitration.
    The bill as it now stands before the President may be divided into two sections. The first relates to the canal as such, providing for its operation and maintenance, the collecting and exemption of tolls, the civil government of the zone, and the salaries of officers. The second part is really an indirect amendment to the Inter-State Commerce act From a political point of view, the second part is the more important.
    Any ship owned in whole or in part by a trust doing business in violation of the Anti-Trust act is barred from the canal, as is any ship owned in whole or in part by a railroad. Without any reference whatsoever to the canal, another provision empowers the Inter-State Commerce Commission to divorce all railroad and water lines held in the same ownership. But if the jointly owned lines show that they do not reduce competition and do not injure the public, the commission may permit the continuance of the joinder under such regulations as they prescribe. The bill authorizes the President within certain limits to fix tolls that will be equal to ships of all nations. But while American ships in foreign trade are subject to tolls, American coastwise ships will go through free, This is the provision that has stirred Great Britain's protest, as she interprets the Hay-Pauncefote treaty to guarantee rates to her ships and ships of other nations not higher than those levied on American ships.
    An important addition to existing law is accomplished in the so-called Williams amendment, granting free admission to American-registered foreign-built ships, though this amendment was finally limited to ships for use in our overseas traffic. Shipbuilding materials are admitted to this country free of duty.
    In the administration of the zone, Senator Root and Senator Lodge were able to save the House's provisions for a one-man government. That man would be an army engineer, There will be one court with two divisions.
    The figures showing the amount of excavation to be done on the canal indicate that the great work was five-sixths finished on Aug. 1, but there actually remained 6,903,000 cubic yards more earth to be removed than had been estimated for a year before.