182 DOCUMENTARY HISTORY OF THE FLORIDA CANAL

DOCUMENT NO. 110 (FILES OF SENATE COMMITTEE ON COMMERCE),
 FEBRUARY 12, 1936

 COMMUNICATION FROM HON. FRANK R. REID, PRESIDENT or THE NA-
 TIONAL RIVERS AND HARBOn CONx Is, TO SENATOR FzLECHE

 Under date of February 12, 1936, President Reid addressed the
 following communication to Senator Fletcher:
 MY DEAr SENAo FLnrcuz: At its thirtieth annual convention, held in Wash-
 ington, D. C., May 2-3, 1935, the National Rivers and Harbors Congress, upon the
 recommendation of its projects committee, voted unanimously to endorse the
 Gulf-Atlantic ship canal across Florida as being sound, needful, and sufficiently
 advanced in status, and a project that should be promptly constructed In the
 public interest.
 The projects committee of the congress is composed of an outstanding water-
 way leader from each of the 10 engineering divisions of the United States, and
 gave careful consideration to this project at open hearings. The committee itself
 voted unanimously to recommend approval of the Florida Canal, and its report
 was adopted without a dissenting vote by the convention, composed of delegates
 from 40 States, the District of Columbia, Alaska, and Puerto Rico, representing
 the Federal Government; States; cities; counties; State, municipal, and local
 governmental agencies; chambers of commerce; waterway associations; agricul-
 tural, labor, industrial, and trade organizations throughout the Nation.
 This project will strengthen the national defense, provide a permanent invest-
 ment which will increase the national wealth, greatly benefit industry, agricul-
 ture, commerce, and labor, and afford protection to human life and property from
 the menace of the tropical hurricanes that visit the Florida peninsula.
 From my own personal examination of the project, I am convinced that it is
 one of the most meritorious waterway projects ever undertaken by the Govern-
 ments, and that the expressed fears of its ill effects are groundless. I hope the
 Senate Committee on Commerce will not be misled by the insidious campaign
 to discredit and destroy our national waterways.
 Very truly yours,
 FRNK R. Run,
 President, National Rivers and Harbors Congress.


 DOCUMENT NO. 111 (FILES OF SENATE COMMITTEE ON COMMERCE),
 FEBRUARY 13, 1936

COMUxNICATION FROM SENATOR F rECHrE TO THE SECRETARY or THE
 INTERIOR

 Under date of February 13, 1936, Senator Fletcher addressed the
following communication to Hon. Harold L. Ickes, Secretary of the
Interior:
 FBEmUABY 13, 1936.
Hon. HAxzo L. I omm,
 Secretary of the Interior, Washington, D. 0.
 My DEAR Ma. SECawrAr: In reference to the letter of Mr. Slattery dated
August 26, 1935, addressed to Representative J. Hardin Peterson, in which he
refers to an opinion of the Geological Survey to the effect that the construction
of a sea-level canal across Florida might seriously damage the underground
water supply of the State, the impression seems to obtain in the minds of some
people that the Geological Survey made a special survey and investigation of this
specific question and has issued a report giving its findings.
 So far as I am able to determine from an examination of the records of the
Survey, no such specific survey was ever made by the Geological Survey, nor was
any final or formal report ever made by it on this question, and the opinion
referred to in Mr. Slattery's letter to Mr. Peterson was preliminary and informal
and based upon the general data on the geology and water supply of Florida