of all of the decedent's property, a list of all the liens and encumbrances of record at the date of death, and an estimate of the value of the property, and may include, in the prayer, an alternative prayer that if the court finds that the net value of the whole estate, over and above all liens and encumbrances of record at the date of death and not including the property excepted from administration under section 649 of title 3 does not exceed $1,000, the same be set aside to the surviving spouse, if there be one, and if there be none, then to the minor child or minor children of the decedent. When such allegation is included in the petition, the petition shall be verified, and the notice of hearing shall include a statement that a prayer for setting aside the estate to the surviving spouse or minor child or minor children, as the case may be, is included in the petition.

"CROSS-REFERENCE

"Settlement by public administrator without regular administration of estates less than $250, see section 1703 of this title, as amended.

"1470b. SAME; SEPARATE PETITION PRIOR TO HEARING OF PETITION FOR PROBATE OR LETTERS.-If the person petitioning for probate of the will or for letters of administration does not include such an allegation as is provided for by the next preceding section, the surviving spouse, if there be one, and if there be none, the guardian of the minor child or minor children, may, at any time prior to the hearing of such petition, file a verified petition setting forth the matters mentioned in the next preceding section, and pray that the estate be set aside for the use of the surviving spouse or minor child or minor children. If the hearing of the original petition is set for a day more than ten days after the filing of the petition herein provided for, the latter shall be set for hearing at the same time as the former; if not, it shall be set for hearing at least ten days after the date on which it is filed, and the former petition shall be continued until such date.

"1470c. SAME; PETITION AFTER FILING OF INVENTORY.-If the decedent leaves a surviving spouse or minor child or minor children, and upon the filing of the inventory of the estate it appears that the net value of the whole estate, over and above all liens and encumbrances of record at the date of death and not including the property excepted from administration under section 649 of title 3, does not exceed the sum of $1,000, the personal representative of the decedent or the surviving spouse or the guardian of the minor child or children may file a verified petition showing the value of the estate to be no greater than as aforesaid, and the clerk shall fix a day for the hearing thereof.

"1470d. SAME; NOTICE OF HEARING.-When a petition is filed under section 1470b or section 1470c of this title, the clerk shall give notice of the hearing for the period and in the manner required by section 1463 of this title.

"1470e. SAME; DECREE SETTING ASIDE.-If, upon the hearing of any petition provided for by this chapter, the court finds that the net value of the estate, over and above all liens and encumbrances of record at the date of the death of the decedent and not including the property excepted from administration under section 649 of title 3, does not exceed the sum of $1.000, and that the expenses of the last illness, funeral charges, and expenses of administration have been paid, it shall, by decree for that purpose, assign to the surviving spouse of the decedent, if there be a surviving spouse, or, if there be no surviving spouse, then to the minor child or children of the decedent, if any, the whole of the estate, subject to whatever mortgages, liens, or encumbrances there may be upon said estate at the time of the death of the decedent. The title thereto shall vest absolutely in the surviving spouse, if there be a surviving spouse, or if there be no surviving spouse, in the minor child or children subject to whatever mortgages, liens, er encumbrances there may be upon said estate at the time of the death of the decedent, and there must be no further proceedings in the administration, unless further estate be discovered.

"1470f. SAME; DENYING PETITION AND INSTEAD ACTING ON PETITION FOR PROPATE OR LETTERS.-If the court finds that the net value of the estate exceeds $1.000, or that there is neither a surviving spouse nor minor child, it shall act upon the petition for probate or for letters of administration in the same manner as though no petition to set aside the estate had been included, and the estate shall then be administered in the usual manner."

SEC. 6. Section 1703 of title 4 of the Canal Zone Code is amended to read as follows:

"1703. ESTATES LESS THAN $250.-Whenever the public administrator shall file with the clerk of the district court a statement that the value of any estate, of

which he has taken charge, is less than $250, there shall be no regular administration on such estate unless additional estate be found or discovered; and the public administrator may, after the payment of the expenses of the last illness of the deceased, and the funeral charges, pay out and deliver such estate to the surviving spouse of the decedent, if there be a surviving spouse, or, if there be no surviving spouse, then to the minor child or children of the decedent, if any, or, if there be neither a surviving spouse nor minor child, then to such creditors, heirs, or other persons as may appear in the judgment of the public administrator to be legally entitled thereto, and the title to such estate shall vest absolutely in the person or persons to whom the same is paid out and delivered as provided in this section."

SEC. 7. Title 5 of the Canal Zone Code is amended by adding in article 8 of chapter 11 thereof a new section numbered 573 and reading as follows:

"573. REGULATIONS FOR FIRE PROTECTION; VIOLATIONS.-The Governor of the Panama Canal is granted continuing authority to make regulations for prevention of, and protection against, fires in the Canal Zone: Provided, however, That no regulation made under this section shall have force or effect within the boundaries of any military or naval reservation in the Canal Zone, unless prescribed with the concurrence of the officers commanding the military and naval forces in the Canal Zone, as to the reservations within their respective jurisdictions. Any person who shall violate any of the regulations prescribed under this section shall be guilty of a misdemeanor."

SEC. 8. Title 5 of the Canal Zone Code is amended by adding in article 10 of chapter 14 thereof a new section numbered 812 and reading as follows:

"812. INJURING OR TAMPERING WITH MOTOR VEHICLE, LAUNCH, OF AIRCRAFT.— Every person who, without the consent of the owner of any motor vehicle

"(a) willfully injures or tampers with such motor vehicle or the contents thereof;

“(b) breaks or removes any part or parts of or from such motor vehicle; "(c) climbs into or upon such motor vehicle whether it is in motion or at rest, with intent to commit any malcious mischief, or injury or other crime;

or

"(d) manipulates or attempts to manipulate any of the levers, starting mechanism, brakes, or other mechanism or device of such motor vehicle while the same is at rest and unattended,

is guilty of a misdemeanor. As used in this section the term 'motor vehicle' shall mean and include any automobile, motorcycle, other motor vehicle, motorboat or launch, or aircraft.”

SEC. 9. The following statutes or parts of statutes are reapealed:

(a) Canal Zone Code, title 2, chapter 17, article 2, which article includes sections 331 to 333 of said title 2.

(b) Canal Zone Code, title 4, sections 1467 and 1468.

(c) The Act of May 3, 1932, entitled "An Act to authorize the modification of the boundary line between the Panama Canal Zone and the Republic of Panama, and for other purposes" (ch. 162, 47 Stat. 145; 48 U. S. C..1304a to 1304c).

(d) The Act of June 19, 1934, entitled "An Act authorizing the President to make rules and regulations in respect to alcoholic beverages in the Canal Zone, and for other purposes" (ch. 657, 48 Stat. 1116; 48 U. S. C. 1314b to 1314d).

Mr. O'TOOLE. Mr. Bland, I think you would like to say a few words about H. R. 3158?

The CHAIRMAN. I really have not had time to read the bill since I introduced it. I introduced it at the suggestion of the Panama Canal. I do not believe the reports have come in on it.

Mr. Burdick, the Chief of Office of the Panama Canal, is present and he can tell you more about the bill than I can.

Mr. O'TOOLE. I suggest that we call Mr. Burdick.

The CHAIRMAN. The chairman just asked me to explain H. R. 3158 introduced by me, and I told him I introduced it at your request, as Chief of Office of the Panama Canal, and the War Department, and you would explain it.

STATEMENT OF BERNARD F. BURDICK, CHIEF OF OFFICE, PANAMA CANAL OFFICE, ACCOMPANIED BY R. E. RAMSEY, ASSISTANT CHIEF OF OFFICE, AND W. M. WHITMAN, ATTORNEY

Mr. BURDICK. Yes, sir. Mr. Chairman, this bill is composed of several amendments to the Canal Zone Code. For the most part, these amendments are unrelated, but they are desirable and necessary to improve the laws applying and relating to the Canal Zone. The provisions of the bill will not, it is believed, involve the expenditure of any additional funds.

Section 1 of the bill would add to the Canal Zone Code a section 84 of title 2, relative to the designation of beneficiaries, and the order of precedence, for leave payments upon the death of an employee of the Panama Canal or the Panama Railroad Company on the Isthmus of Panama.

Article 1 of chapter 6, title 2, Canal Zone Code, relates to appointment and compensation of Panama Canal and Panama Railroad employees in general and comprises sections 81 to 83. This proposed section would add in article 1 a new section numbered 84, the effects of which would be as follows:

(a) The section_would authorize any employee of the Panama Canal or Panama Railroad Company on the Isthmus to designate a beneficiary or beneficiaries to whom shall be paid by those agencies, any cash payment in commutation of the leave due such employee.

(b) The section would provide for the making of any cash payment in commutation of leave in the same order of precedence as is provided in section 2 of the 1944 act, 5 United States Code 61c, namely, first, to the beneficiary or beneficiaries designated by the employees under the retirement act, and, second, to the estate of the decedent.

(c) The section would, however, permit the deduction from any such cash payment, as provided in section 83 of title 2, Canal Zone Code, of all amounts due from the employee for supplies and services to the extent only, however, that other compensation due the employee is insufficient for such purpose.

The amendment is definitely beneficial to employees. Its effect is such as to take the commutation payment entirely out of the estate of the deceased employee, resulting in prompt payment of the amount without the delay and expense of administration of his estate. The amendment would apply to Canal and Railroad employees on the Isthmus of Panama a congressional policy which has heretofore been applied to all other employees of the executive branch of the Government, including Government-owned corporations. The amendment would make no change in the amounts or rates of commuted leave payments, which are established by Executive order.

Section 2 of the bill adds sections 181 and 182 to title 2 of the Canal Zone Code.

The CHAIRMAN. Mr. Chairman, may I ask one question?

Mr. O'TOOLE. Surely.

The CHAIRMAN. Mr. Burdick, the members of the Panama Canal subcommittee, all or nearly all, are new members of the committee. They do not understand the machinery as well as you and I.

I wondered if it would be well for you to explain to them just what the functions of the Panama Canal Railroad are, why they are in here,

89685-49-2

so they will have before them and they may know the relation between the Panama Canal and the Panama Canal Railroad.

As I recall, it is the old railroad that they had there before the days of the Panama Canal, but it was entirely Government-owned and is entirely Government-owned and operated now by the Government.

Mr. BURDICK. The Railroad Company was originally established by an act of the Legislature of the State of New York in 1849 as a private enterprise. The French Canal Company acquired the stock of that railroad so that it could use the railroad in its attempt to build a trans-Isthmian canal.

When the United States acquired the rights to the Canal Zone in 1904, they took over with those rights most all of the stock of the Panama Railroad Company. During the next year the Government acquired the remaining stock of that railroad.

It operated under this charter until June 30 of last year. During the last session of the Eightieth Congress, the Company was reincorporated under Federal charter. It operates as an adjunct to the Canal. Many of the business activities that would be necessary for the Panama Canal to conduct are conducted through this corporation. The CHAIRMAN. It operates these steamers that run down Ancon and Cristobal.

Mr. BURDICK. Yes, sir. It operates the railroad across the Isthmus, the harbor-terminal facilities, the telephone system, the two hotels that are maintained by the Government in the Canal Zone.

The CHAIRMAN. That is the Tivoli?

Mr. BURDICK. The Tivoli on the Pacific side and the Washington on the Atlantic side. It operates the commissary division which handles the food and general merchandise required by the employees and their dependents. It operates the coaling plants and a New York office and the steamship line.

The CHAIRMAN. One other thing that I would try to bring out. It may have been brought to the knowledge of the committee, that frequently if you read old reports and old committee hearings, you see the constant reference to "silver employees" and "gold employees."

As I understand, that separate designation has been now abolished and we no longer have the gold employees and the silver employees. I recall on my first visit to Panama, wherever there were pay windows, there was one for the silver employees and another for the gold employees.

That, I understand, has been abolished.

Mr. BURDICK. That has been abolished in recent years. The terms, of course, originally arose because the natives, largely of the commonlabor class, that is the natives in the Tropics, had been accustomed to being paid in silver, and for a while we continued to pay them in silver, whereas the American employees at that time were frequently paid in gold.

So those terms naturally attached to the rolls there, one to the common labor and the other to the skilled and technical people. Those have all been abolished and we have one roll now, and are graded according to the duties and responsibilities of the various positions. The CHAIRMAN. I am today extending in the record an article appearing in Pacific Marine Review entitled, "A Sea Level Canal, Panama Canal," by Brig. Gen. Hans Kramer, United States Army, retired.

(The article referred to appears in the Congressional Record of March 29, 1949.)

The CHAIRMAN. That article deals with the proposed sea-level canal, as I recall, and Terminal Lake Canal, both arising out of the effect that the atomic bomb or anything of that kind may have upon the operation of the Panama Canal and its essentiality for defense purposes.

Calling the attention of the committee to the fact that Mr. Roosevelt went there before the Panama Canal was finished and came back, and I saw a copy of a letter from him to his mother saying that everybody ought to see it because it is a miracle of the world; that the Panama Canal is equal to the Towers of Babel or the Pyramids. That is really true, as I believe my friend Mr. Miller who was there last year will testify.

That is all the questions I intended to ask.

Mr. BARRETT. Mr. Chairman, I would like to ask Mr. Burdick, what is the reason the Government owns and continues to operate the two respective hotels which you have just mentioned?

Mr. BURDICK. It is necessary, we think, and the Government has from the very beginning, to maintain hotels within the Canal Zone that are at least adequate to accommodate all persons going down there on business with the Canal, including Government officials.

There have not been adequate facilities in the Republic of Panama to provide for that service. I might say that the 1936 treaty would require us to go out of this business as adequate hotel facilities become available in the adjoining city of Panama.

Mr. THOMPSON. Mr. Chairman. I wonder, Mr. Burdick, are there any private enterprises within the Canal Zone, or are they all Government-owned?

Mr. BURDICK. There are none, with the exception of some cable companies and shipping companies and fuel-oil companies that are closely connected with the transiting of vessels. Other businesses that were not in there at the time this treaty was negotiated are not permitted to be established there in the future.

Mr. THOMPSON. No stores, no eating places, or anything of that kind?

Mr. BURDICK. No, sir; those are operated by governmental agencies. Mr. O'TOOLE. Is the administration of decedents' estates attended to by a surrogate, or is that attended to by a public administrator? Mr. BURDICK. By the public administrator and the United States District Court for the District of Canal Zone.

Mr. O'TOOLE. Are there any other questions?

(There was no response.)

Mr. O'TOOLE. You may preceed, Mr. Burdick.

Mr. BURDICK. Section 2 of the bill adds sections 181 and 182 to title 2 of the Canal Zone Code. The present law with respect to alcoholic beverages in the Canal Zone is the act of June 19, 1934– 48 U. S. C. 1314b to 1314d. The present regulations of the President under the authority of the act are contained in Executive Oder No. 6997 of March 25, 1935-35 CFR 6.1 to 6.11.

At the time of the preparation of the Canal Zone Code a chapter heading, "Chapter 9. Intoxicating Liquors," and necessary space were allotted for insertion of this legislation. However, the legislation was originally passed on the same day as the code and its insertion was consequently impossible. This proposed measure would carry this