DOCUMENTARY HISTORY OF THE FLORIDA CANAL


 Senator VANDENBERG. I think so, but it is not sufficiently con-
 clusive, so I do not think it would be fair to present it yet.
 Senator FLEroH. With reference to the hazard, I do not want
 to advertise the hurricane dangers but when we were beginning to
 work on this channel it happened that the Dizie was thrown upon a
 reef opposite the keys there. The Diwie is a nice steamer, as you
 know, and probably worth ten or fifteen million, or six million to ten
 million, and it had 450 passengers, or about that many, on it, and
 they lay there on that reef for days-3 days, I think. And the ship
 itself was in danger. Every passenger's life was in peril, but they
 got off finally without losing a life and without any very great dam-
 age to the ship. But that illustrates what may have been happening,
 although lives may not have been lost. And the hurricanes come and
 go. and there is considerable risk about it.
 Senator VANDENBERo. That accident to the Dixie occurred about
 10 days before the President issued his Executive order, did it not,
 or thereabouts?
 Senator FiLETH=. Yes; I think the Executive order to commence
 the canal. I do not know whether he turned it over to the Army
 engineers before that or not. It commenced before that, as I remem-
 ber, about December.*
 Mr. BUCKMAN. May I proceed ?
 The CHAIRMAN. Yes; you may go ahead.
 Mr. BUCKMAN. It seems appropriate to call the attention of the
 committee to both the support and the opposition which have been
 offered to this project. The record shows that it is formally opposed
 by the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad, the Florida East Coast -ail-
 way, the Seaboard Air Line Railway, and the Southern Railway.
 The record also shows that it is opposed by the chamber of com-
 merce of the city of Tampa, the city of Orlando, and by certain other
 civic organizations in the State of Florida.
 Senator VANDENBERG. Where is this railroad opposition recorded?
 I have not seen any of it.
 Mr. BUOKMAN. It is recorded in the public hearings of the Corps
 of Engineers. I have a copy of it here if you would like to ex-
 amine it.
 Senator VANDENBERG. All right
 Senator FEiTHER. They appeared before the Corps of Engineers.
 Mr. BUCKMAN. The record further shows that both the city of
Tampa and the city of Orlando have petitioned the Corps of Engi-
neers to make a survey, with a view to constructing a canal along
a route which would he adjacent to those two cities, respectively.
 Senator VANDENBERG. Excuse me, Mr. Buckman. You do not
mean to indicate that that is the extent of the opposition?
 Mr. BUCKXAN. Oh, no. That is the only opposition I find in the
official records. Senator, I am attempting to confine this as far as
it is possible to do so to the departmental records for the project.
 Senator VANDENBERO. We had considerable opposition in telegrams
the other day, which the chairman said it would not be fair to put in,
because we were not collecting that kind of information.
 Mr. BUCKMAN. I agree with you, Senator, but I am quoting only
those which are officially in the departmental records.
 SCoast Guard records show that first distress signals from the Dixie were received
about midnight of Sept. 8, 1935, or approximately 3 days after the President authorized
the Canal (Aug. 80. 1935).


247