340 DOCUMENTARY HISTORY OF THE FLORIDA CANAL

 There are other things suggested in the Senator's remarks which I should like
 to take up, but I will not take time to do so.
 I desire to call attention to the exhibits on my left, the photographs on the
 wall. These photographs show excavation in the cut section of the canal. This
 cut section is really the canal proper, and is only 29 miles long. All the rest of
 the so-called canal is merely a canalization of existing rivers. Senators will
 hear talk of the great length of the canal As a matter of fact, that canal itself,
 the actual cut, is only 29 miles long. I hope Senators will bear that in mind.
 These pictures show the excavation of approximately 17,000,000 cubic yards
 so far. These excavating operations at the present time extend over a line 20
 miles long. In other words, this "hole in the ground", as it is sometimes
 described, is about 20 miles long, with some gaps.
 The average labor at the present time employed is about 5,000 men.
 As the pictures will show, the work is being done by efficient machines and by
 hand labor where appropriate.
 The dimensions of the canal are as follows:
 Depth, 30 feet
 Bottom width: A. Sea approaches, 1,000 feet B. In rivers, 400 feet. C. In
 cut, 250 feet.
 Mr. President, it is sometimes called the Florida Canal. It gets that name
 because of its passage across the State of Florida. Its proper title is Atlantic
 to Gulf Canal. It affords a connection between the Atlantic and the Gulf.
 Florida, of course, is interested in the canal. The Florida Legislature unani-
 mously petitions for the construction of the canaL Florida has authorized its
 construction across the State. Florida people are greatly interested because, in
 the first place, they have been given to understand this canal would be con-
 structed, that the Government would proceed with it, and they have trusted in
 that assurance. They have voted for a million and a half of bonds which have
 been issued to provide the right-of-way.
 I do not know how much of the original grant of funds under the act of 1935
 remains in the hands of the President. I am not familiar with that. I only
 know that the President has come to Congress and laid this proposal and rec-
 ommendation before Congress: That the Director of the Budget has recom-
 mended this appropriation of $12,000,000 for the next year's work on that canal
 These are projects which the President has recommended, which he has au-
 thorized, pursuant to law, which have been undertaken and which are under
 construction, and he brings them to Congress and recommends specific appro-
 priation of money for them
 It has been said that the President has ample authority to continue to allot
 funds to these projects under the Emergency Appropriation Act of 1935, and
 possibly from any additional relief appropriations which Congress may make,
 and this Is unquestionably true. But that is no valid reason why we should not
 make specific appropriations for them in this bill. They are undoubtedly
 qualified for appropriations as river and harbor items.
 I have not dwelt upon other features such as the importance of the con-
 struction of the canal to the national defense. It would afford another route
 to the Panama Canal and to the Gulf of Mexico, If the Straits of Florida should
 be blockaded or interfered with. Its value as a factor in national defense can-
 not be estimated in dollars and cents. This project is the mightiest force now
 available in making the Gulf of Mexico the Mediterranean of the western world.
 I submit the matter to the Senate.
 Mr. President, I ask to have printed, as a part of my remarks, a statement by
 Mr. Henry H. Buckman, consulting engineer, giving the facts and the history
 in connection with the Florida canal project; and a telegram which I have
 received from CoL Gilbert A. Youngberg, a retired former United States district
 engineer.
 There being no objection, the statement and the telegram were ordered to be
 printed in the Record, as follows:

 "STATrzxxT Bv HzmT H. BUcxKMN, ConsuLr ITa ENGOIN 
 "The proposal to construct a waterway across Florida which would obviate
the expense and danger attendant upon navigation of the route through the
Straits of Florida has been considered now and again for more than a century.
President Jackson urged the construction of such a canal, and since that time
it has been from time to time the subject of examinations and inquiry by the
Federal Government. Until recent years the project assumed the form of a