318 DOCUMENTARY HISTORY OF THE FLORIDA CANAL

 Mr. VANDmA Bme. I yield to the Senator from Utah.
 Mr. KiNG. There have been furnished to the Senate no data justifying this
 enormous appropriation. The Senator is furnishing us facts. I suggest the
 absence of a quorum in order that the Senate may get some information on this
 subject.
 Mr. VANDEWmeG. Mr. President, I thank the Senator; but I am sure If the Sen-
 ators should return it would only be momentarily, because, after all, what is
 $200,000,000 in these days?
 Mr. Kimo. I confess that that does not awaken very much interest or concern
 upon the part of Senators. Nevertheless it does seem to me that Senators ought
 to be interested in this important project; and if the Senator does not forbid me,
 I should like to suggest the absence of a quorum.
 Mr. VANu~Dw i Let me forbid the Senator, because I should like not to break
 the continuity of what I am trying to say.
 Mr. KIno. Very well, Mr. President
 Mr. VAN~ rmEG. I thank the Senator for his interest I agree with him that
 there ought to be an interest which does not exist
 Now we are coming to the most interesting part of all about this thing, from
 my point of view. I have told you what happens upon the basis of a hypothetical
 calculation of benefits from this canal. I showed you that if all the hypothetical
 benefits put together should really be achieved, still the net result in terms of
 navigation dollar savings would only just about pay the interest on the debt
 involved and would not provide a penny either for amortization or for the annual
 maintenance and upkeep charges. But, Mr. President, the alarming and the
 astounding and the shocking thing is that almost none of the hypothetical trade
 will use the canal after it is built
 This is a magnificent map which hangs upon the wall, with the red footprints
 of the ships of the world trailing their way around the tip of Florida; and I
 suppose the presumption is that after that black line is turned into $200,000,000
 worth of ditch, all those red footprints are going to trail right down across that
 black line. The tragedy of the thing is that there is going to be an utterly merci-
 less disillusionment even for the Senator from Florida and his associates and
 his constituents, because it is perfectly evident from the record that these ship
 operators do not propose to use this canal at all. They are not interested in it.
 They do not think it is feasible, and they do not think it is economically justified.
 Now, let us see if that is so.
 Mr. Kiew. Mr. President, will the Senator yield?
 Mr. VANDENBaa. I yield.
 Mr. KINo. Why should the Senator say, as his statement would imply, that
 all the constituents of the senior Senator from Florida favor this canal? I
 have received communications from some indicating that a very considerable
 number of the people of Florida are opposed to it.
 Mr. VANDwjmmo. Oh, yes; I am coming to that.
 Mr. FLrECHnE About 3 percent of them.
 Mr. VANDmENa. Now, let us see who would use the canal; because, after all,
 that is the common-sense, rational test. Is there anybody who wants the
 canal? Are these hypothetical beneficiaries prepared to take advantage of
 grace after it is supplied? Let us see.
 In 1963, when the canal was still just a more or less vague prospectus, the
 Board of Rivers and Harbors Engineers sent a questionnaire to 61 shipping
 concerns. They tell me that those 81 shipping concerns were all the shipping
 concerns operating in Gulf and Florida waters; and on the basis of a prelimi-
 nary engineering prospectus, which lacked much detailed information and was
 more or less a test question as to the abstract problem involved, the Board of
 Engineers asked these 61 shipping concerns how they felt about the canal, and
 whether they would like to have it built, and whether they would probably use
 it if it were built. Out of 61 shipping concerns, they were able to find just 9
 who expressed any interest whatever in the matter; and on the basis of the
 original conversation we were told that these 9 shipping concerns undoubtedly
 would use the canal, and, therefore, that there was proof that although only
 9 out of 61 were interested, the canal did involve a practical reality.
 That was very interesting; so, in 1935, after the canal had ceased to be Just
 a prospectus, just an abstract thing, and had come to be a specific, 30-foot, sen-
 level canal over an established route, I asked the same question of the same 61
 shipping operators: "Do you consider this canal economically justified? Would
 you use It if it were constructed?" And, Mr. President, all nine of the ship
operators who 2 years before had said they might use the canal if it were built