DOCUMENTARY HISTORY OF THE FLORIDA CANAL 335

 "(1) Because of the slightly lower first and much lower operating and main-
tenance cost.
 "(2) Because it has greater ship capacity.
 "(3) Because of the lesser difficulties in construction."
 Those are the reasons they give for preferring a sea-level canal
 Mr. NonRIS. That is what aroused my curiosity. They say that a sea-level
canal will be less expensive than a lock canal. I cannot understand how that
can be possible.
 Mr. FL rCHmB. The conditions at the locality in Florida are somewhat dif-
ferent from the conditions at the Panama Canal, where there is quite a varia-
tion between the level of the Pacific and the Atlantic Oceans. The nature of
the material is also very different. Evidently the excavation of the larger
amount of soft material will cost less than the locks.
 Mr. NORRMS. Oh, yes. If we had had a sea-level canal at Panama, some locks
would have been necessary on account of the difference in the tide on the Pacific
side and the Atlantic side. I am wondering if that explains the conclusion that
is reached in the report, because if the water on the Gulf side is higher or
lower than the water on the Atlantic side, made so by the tides, it might be
necessary to have locks anyway, even if a sea-level canal were constructed.
 Mr. FLBvronm. There is very little variation there. Anyway, the lock question
 is out of the picture, because the President adopted the report of the board and
 acted upon it and provided in the first allotment of $5,000,000 for a sea-level
 canal.
 Mr. NOBBms. It seems to be plain, but in the recommendations the Senator has
 just read there is contained the statement, in effect, that a sea-level canal will
 cost less money than a lock canaL If the report shows how that can be possible,
 I should like to have the Senator read it. I do not see how that can be.
 Mr. FLTCHER. The report does not go into details about that. The board just
 makes that statement. It may be that attached to their report are some details
 which I have not at hand. I am simply relying upon that report; and the
 President relied upon it and based his action upon it.
 The President had before him this report for nearly a year and had it under
 serious consideration all that time. He was not hurried into this venture at
 all; he took his time about it; he studied the whole problem thoroughly and
 exhaustively; he had this report and these data before him for a year before
 he issued the order to the Treasury. That order, by the way, was issued not on
 September 3, as stated yesterday, but on August 30. 1935.
 With reference to hazards, while the Senator from Michigan stressed that
 there was almost no loss of life and no loss of property by reason of the hazards
 in the Florida Straits, it happened that last year-and I do not brag about
 those hazards: they are too close to Florida: and I mention this as a fact that
 cannot be questioned-on September 2 the Dixie, a fine passenger ship costing
 six or eight million dollars and voyaging from New Orleans to New York, while
 passing through the Florida Straits was blown by a hurricane upon the reef
 opposite the Florida Keys. Three hundred and twenty-nine passengers and 110
 officers and members of the crew of the vessel were in desperate peril of their
 lives for 3 days on that reef. It happened that there was no loss of life, for
 after a while the waters became sufficiently smooth to permit the rescue of those
 on the ship. But I venture to say that none of them would like to undergo
 that experience again. It also happened that the ship was not lost. After the
 lapse of 4 or 5 days more they were able to salvage the ship and take her off
 the reef. I do not know the percentage of damage to the vessel, but all during
 that time the lives of four or five hundred persons were in imminent danger of
 being lost, as was the ship itself. That is one instance. Another hurricane
 came in the early part of November last year, in that same region, which was
 just as severe. So there are hazards in that region. The trans-Florida canal
 will relieve shipping of those hazards in passing through the Florida Straits at
 certain seasons of the year. If the canal had been constructed and the Dixie
 had been in it, she would have been perfectly safe in going from New Orleans to
 New York.
 Let me pass on to the statement that there is no justification for the construc-
 tion of the canal and that there are no benefits practically shown by the engi-
 neers. The estimate of the Army engineers is that the benefits to commerce
 from the enterprise will be approximately $8,300,000 a year. The P. W. A.
 engineers did not go into the question of the hazards or the question of the value
 of the canal to national defense or the question of promoting commerce; that
 was not their function; but the Army engineers on river and harbor projects do