DOCUMENTARY HISTORY OF THE FLORIDA CANAL 313

Markham very frankly stated that on the basis of work relief the cost will be
substantially larger than any estimated cost on the basis of contractual
operations.
 So we have the figure of $160,000,000 minimum which must be increased first
by whatever degree the price index increases after June 1934; second, by what-
ever price increase is inevitably related to the use of work relief instead of
contractual labor. *
SMr. CLAsK. Mr. President-
 The PBmIDINO OFFICrB (Mr. George in the chair). Does the Senator from
Michigan yield to the Senator from Missouri?
 Mr. yANDONEmQ I yield.
 Mr. CLAnx. Is it not a fact that in the construction of the Panama Canal, a
canal the construction of which was in some respects a work of less magnitude
than the pending Florida canal, there were variations in the various estimates
of actual construction cost of from $60,000,000 to $70,000,000?
 Mr. VANDMeBnum I think the Senator is correct. I think there was ulti-
mately a substantial spread, although the final estimate made by the Board
of Engineers, as I recall, was substantially accurate.
 Mr. CLanK. That is perfectly correct; but between the time the construction
project was conceived and the time the work was actually begun on another set
of estimates and the time it had gone sufficiently far that accurate estimates
could be made, there was not only a variation but a large spread on the ulti-
mate cost of the Canal.
 Mr. VANDzNB O. The Senator is entirely correct; and his observation is
completely pertinent to the situation, for the following reason:
 We have not as yet a final estimate or recommendation from the Board of
Rivers and Harbors Engineers regarding this project. It has not reached the
point where the ultimate figure is even remotely suggested by the Board of
Rivers and Harbors Engineers. Not only that, but the canal as now being
built is a sea-level canal
 Every time an inquiry is made as to hazard to southern Florida ground
 waters, we are told that if a hazard develops the plans will be changed to
 provide for a lock canal. Furthermore, we are then told that if a lock canal
 fails to safeguard southern Florida waters against infiltration and depletion
 the canal will be sealed.
 Mr. President, in addition to the $160,000,000, in addition to the factors I
 have already identified as necessarily increasing the sum, all of these addi-
 tional tentative factors enter into the proposition. So I think it is conserva-
 tive to say that we are dealing with a $200,000,000 project.
 My firm conviction is, for reasons which I shall subsequently present, that
 this may be a project involving infinitely more than $200,000,000; but for the
 sake of this argument let us say that it is a $200,000,000 undertaking. The
 President then asked his special board for a financial report on the prospectus
 respecting the Florida Canal. The board made its report on September 15,
 1984; and this is what the President's special board found: It found that if
 8-cent tolls were collected the canal could pay its maintenance and operation
 and repay the cost of construction without any interest in 80 years. I inter-
 rupt myself again to say parenthetically that now it is proposed to build the
 canal and operate it without any tolls at all; so if the President's special
 board found that not even the interest could be paid on an 80-year amortiza-
 tion of this canal on a toll basis, what would the President's board have found
 by way of the economic justification of this undertaking if it had been realized
 that there were to be no tolls at all?
 Mr. FLErcm. Mr. President, will the Senator yield?
 Mr. VANDmmNBmG. I yield to the Senator from Florida.
 Mr. FiLTHrHm The Senator will be fair enough to state, without any calling
 attention to it-
 Mr. VANDwBERG. I hope so.
 Mr. Franrcm, That the board of review appointed by the President made
 its report on the whole project, I think, on June 28 1984. That report had to
 do with the canal Itself according to the plans and specifications which had
 been agreed upon. Then the President directed a special board to consider the
 question of its self-liquidating possibilities and as to what might be done in
 that connection. The Senator is reading from that report, which has nothing
 whatever to do with the question before the Senate, because we are not deal-
 ing with the self-liquidating feature at alL That report had to do with the