The work of clearing the Zone of its population was begun early in 1913. A joint land commission was appointed to adjudicate the claims of those Panamans who were living within the Zone on lands that were needed for the operation of the canal. This commission consisted, under the treaty existing between the two countries, of two Americans and two Panamans. In their work they first took up the claims of the poorer classes who had nothing but a thatched hut and a small patch of ground. The commission visited the various parts of the Zone and fixed the value of such holdings. The people were given free transportation over the Panama Railroad, and usually were allowed from $50 to $100 for their homes. They preferred to move in colonies, so the Republic of Panama laid out small towns away from the Canal Zone for them. These natives, usually almost full-blooded Indians, were treated as kindly and as considerately as conditions would allow. They were willing to "fold their tents" like the Arabs, and leave their homes behind as they went out to conquer new ones in the jungles where the needs of a gigantic waterway could not encroach upon them. The claims for lands which have to be taken from individuals by the United States will aggregate a half million dollars. As the Panaman Government allows homesteading on Government lands at a cost of about a dollar an acre, and as there are tens of thousands of acres of better land outside of the Canal Zone than inside, the policy of the United States in freeing this strip from native population will not work any great injury to the people. During the construction period the laws under which the people of the Zone lived were made in three different ways. Of course, Congress as the legislative assembly was always supreme. But under the laws passed by it, the President of the United States was empowered to issue executive orders covering points not touched by congressional legislation, and under his instructions the Secretary of War could promulgate certain orders. In addition to this, the Canal Commission had a right to serve as a sort of local legislature. During the year 1912 sixteen executive orders pertaining to the Canal Zone were signed by the President and the Secretary of War, while five ordinances were promulgated by the Isthmian Canal Commission during the same period.