DOCUMENTARY HISTORY OF THE FLORIDA CANAL


 It might be entirely reasonable to increase that if you found you
needed it, but on that basis you estimated that the revenue would
not provide for your requirements of liquidation in 40 years at 4-
percent interest, setting up an amortization, sinking fund, deprecia-
tion, and all that sort of thing; would not justify you in making the
loan for $115,000,000?
 Secretary IcKEs. That is correct, but we also took into account
the fact the more you raise your tolls the more you decrease your
tonnage.
 Senator VANDENBERG. Of course, if it had been a free canal you
could not have considered it at all?
 Senator FLECHER. That consideration was without consideration
of other benefits that might arise from the canal
 Secretary IcKEs. Oh, yes. As I have said, Senator, we were con-
cerned about the security for our loan.
 Senator FLETCHEB. Yes.
 Secretary IcKEs. And we took into careful consideration every
factor and element that seemed to have a bearing upon that.
 The CHAIrMAN. Senator Fletcher, you have made a deep study of
this question of the effect on navigation. Did any of these reports
give consideration to the possibility and probability of ships going
one way and not the other on account of the greater speed they have
going north with the Gulf Stream ? That is to say, on the downward
trip they would be likely to use the canal, while, on the other hand,
when they are going north they would get the benefit of extra speed
given by nature by the Gulf Stream. Was that matter all considered ?
 Senator FIETCHEB. That was all considered by the engineers. For
 instance, the round trip from Tampa to New York would be reduced
 350 miles both ways. The hours are given here in one of the reports,
 the actual hours saved, but the saving in time is greater when they
 are going south than when moving north, because they have the
 benefit of the Gulf Stream.
 The CHAIRMAN. But the average was taken?
 Senator FLETCHEB. For the round trip you save more hours going
 south than you do when you are going north. That is all figured out
 by the Bureau of Navigation and by the engineers. They took that
 into consideration.
 For instance, here is a statement by Col. Gilbert A. Youngberg, a
 retired Army engineer:
 On a trip from the Gibraltar, the entrance to the Mediterranean, to Tampa,
 the canal would save about 12 hours on a 10-knot ship, and from New York to
 Tampa the savings would be 32 hours. However, from Tampa to New York the
 savings would be 20 hours, or a total of 52 hours on a round trip.
 The CHAInMAN. Senator Fletcher, as I told you privately, my
 worry over this canal relates to the effect on the ground waters. That
 is the reason why I pricked up my ears when I heard this letter
 referred to, the letter from Mr. Slattery. As I understand the matter,
 his criticism, based on the Geological Survey over there, related to the
 sea-level canal, because of the fact that it was cut not alone 70 feet
 through the Ocala limestone but 30 feet below that. I think, Senator
 Vandenberg, for the benefit of the committee, that Slattery letter
 should be in the record.
 Senator VANDENBERG. I will be very glad to put it in.
 The CHAIRMAN. Because that to me is the one matter of importance
 which should be considered and answered.


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