Executive Order 1944

To Create a Committee to Formally and Officially Open The Panama Canal.

By virtue of authority vested in me by the Act approved April 6, 1914, entitled "An Act Making appropriations to supply urgent deficiencies in appropriations for the fiscal year nineteen hundred and fourteen and for prior years, and for other purposes," a committee of six members is hereby created to arrange and provide suitable ceremonies for the official and formal opening of the Panama Canal, as is provided for in Section 4 of the Panama Canal Act. The committee shall be composed of persons who were members of the Isthmian Canal Commission. The committee shall be known and referred to as the "Committee for the Formal and Official Opening of the Panama Canal." It shall have a chairman and vice chairman, but shall perform its duties under the direction of the Governor of the Panama Canal.

The persons named below are hereby appointed members of this committee:

Colonel George W. Goethals, U. S. A.

Honorable Richard L. Metcalfe.

General William C. Gorgas, U. S. A.

Colonel H. F. Hodges, U. S. A.

Lieutenant Colonel William L. Sibert, U. S. A.

Civil Engineer, H. H. Rousseau, U. S. N.

Colonel George W. Goethals, now Governor of the Panama Canal, shall be Chairman of this committee.

Honorable Richard L. Metcalfe shall be Vice Chairman.

The members of said committee shall each receive salary at the rate of $10,000 per annum from April 1, 1914, to December 31, 1914, inclusive, and such necessary traveling and living expenses during the period from April 1, 1914, to January 31, 1915, when on duty connected with the work of providing for formally and officially opening the Panama Canal, as may be approved by the Secretary of War. The salary fixed as above shall include any salary to which any member or this committee may be entitled by reason of his appointment to or employment in any other position under the United States for the period above provided for, and the amount of such salary shall be deducted from the salary fixed as above. The salary to be paid May 31, 1914, shall be equal to two months pay in a lump sum, less the amount of any other salary for the months of April and May, 1914. The word "salary " as used herein, in determining the amount to be deducted, shall not be construed to include additional emoluments, such as quarters, heat, light, etc., but shall be confined to actual pay.

The committee is authorized to spend such sums as may be available for printing, postage, correspondence, employment of clerks, and other necessary expenses connected with formally and officially opening the Panama Canal, as may be approved by the Secretary of War, it being understood that the sum to be expended for traveling, living, and other expenses shall not exceed $10,000, and that the total expenditure authorized by this order shall not exceed $25,000.

The payments herein authorized shall be made from such appropriation or appropriations for the construction, completion, and sanitation of the Panama Canal as may be directed by the Governor of the Panama Canal.

The payments authorized hereunder shall be made by such disbursing officer of the Panama Canal as the Governor shall designate.

The Secretary of War shall provide the manner in which the amount to be expended for traveling, living and other expenses authorized by him shall be certified to, and, when such expenditures are so certified to, they shall be paid without further vouchers therefor.

Woodrow Wilson.

The White House, 20 May, 1914.