have been built under the governmental control of the nation thus controlling the Isthmus, with the hearty acquiescence of the United States and of all other powers.  But in the actual fact the canal would not have been built at all save for the action I took.  If men choose to say that it would have been better not to build it, than to build it as the result of such action, their position, although foolish, is compatible with belief in their wrongheaded sincerity.  But it is hypocrisy, alike odious and contemptible, for any man to say both that we ought to have built the canal and that we ought not to have acted in the way we did act.

After a sufficient period of wrangling, the Senate ratified the treaty with Panama, and work on the canal was begun.  The first thing that was necessary was to decide the type of canal.  I summoned a board of engineering experts, foreign and native.  They divided on their report.  The majority of the members, including all the foreign members, approved a sea-level canal.  The minority, including most of the American members, approved a lock canal.  Studying these conclusions, I came to the belief that the minority was right.  The two great traffic canals of the world were the Suez and the Soo.  The Suez Canal is a sea-level canal, and it was the one best known to European engineers.  The Soo Canal, through which an even greater volume of traffic passes every year, is a lock canal, and the American engineers were thoroughly familiar with it; whereas, in my judgment, the European engineers had failed to pay proper heed to the lessons taught by its operation and management.  Moreover, the engineers who were to do the work at Panama all favored a lock canal.  I came to the conclusion that a sea-level canal would be slightly less exposed to damage in the event of war; that the running expenses, apart from the heavy cost of interest on the amount necessary to build it, would be less; and that for small ships the time of transit would be less.  But I also came to the conclusion that the lock canal at the proposed level would cost only about half as much to build and would be built in half the time, with much less risk; that for large ships the transit would be quicker, and that, taking into account the interest saved, the cost of maintenance would be less.  Accordingly I recommended to Congress, on February 19, 1906, that a lock canal should be built, and my recommendation was adopted.  Congress insisted upon having it built by a commission of several men.  I tried faithfully to get good work out of the commission, and found it quite impossible; for a many-headed commission is an extremely poor executive instrument.  At last I put Colonel Goethals in as head of the commission.  Then, when Congress still refused to make the commission single-headed, I solved the difficulty by an executive order of January 6, 1908, which practically accomplished the object by enlarging the powers of the chairman, making all the other members of the commission dependent