According to Philippe Bunau-Varilla, the real secret of the defeat of the Nicaragua Canal project at this juncture lay in a dispute between the House and Senate as to the manner of building the canal. The Senate wanted to do it by the reorganization of the Maritime Canal Company, with the majority of its board of directors appointed by the President, using that corporation as the agent of the Government for constructing and operating the canal. Representative William P. Hepburn, of Iowa, at that time Chairman of the Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce, contended that such a plan proposed that the United States should masquerade as a corporation, instead of doing the work in its own proper person, as it was in every sense capable of doing. He asked for what purpose the Government should thus convert itself into a corporation, making of itself an artificial person and taking a position of equality with a citizen? He further pointed out that as a corporation the Government might be sued in its own courts, and fined for contempt by its own judicial servants. A compromise was adopted in the form of an appropriation of $1,000,000 to defray the expenses of an investigation into all of the various routes for an Isthmian Canal. This investigation was to have reference particularly to the relative merits of the Nicaragua and Panama routes, together with an estimate of the cost of constructing each. The investigators were to ascertain what rights, privileges, and franchises were held, and what work had been done in the construction of the proposed canals. They were also to ascertain the cost of acquiring the interests of any organizations holding franchises on these routes. The President was directed to employ engineers of the United States Army and engineers from civil life, together with such other persons as were necessary to carry out the purposes of the investigation. A few months later he appointed the first Isthmian Canal Commission, consisting of Rear Admiral John G. Walker, Senator Samuel Pasco, Alfred Noble, George S. Morison, Peter C. Hains, William H. Burr, O. H. Ernst, Louis M. Haupt, and Emory R. Johnson.