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 HE task of building the Canal and governing the Canal Zone was placed, by an act of Congress in March, 1904, in the hands of the Isthmian Canal Commission, a board of seven men, appointed by the President, and responsible to him through the Secretary of War. Rear-Admiral John G. Walker, an officer on the retired list of the United States Navy, who had already been at the head of two earlier commissions appointed to study and compare the Panama and Nicaragua canal-routes, was made the chairman. Major-General George W. Davis was made the Governor of the Canal Zone. The other five members of the Commission were expert engineers, and, in July, John F. Wallace became the Chief Engineer.

The Walker Commission held office for a little more than a year. Under its leadership, law and order were firmly established in the Zone, many valuable surveys were made, a little dirt dug, the nucleus of an operating force collected, and the fight against fever begun by Dr. Gorgas. Under the circumstances, it was a very creditable year's work. For, instead of being given plenty of money and left undisturbed to organize its campaign against the jungle, the Isthmian Canal Commission was expected to make bricks, not only without Rh