DOCUMENTARY HISTORY OF THE FLORIDA CANAL 371

 AEUMENTS IN OPPOSITION TO CANAL
 Now, there has been in the State a little opposition to this canaL There has
been some propaganda sent out to the effect that this canal, if constructed,
will have a detrimental effect upon the water supply and upon the vegetation of
that area south of the canaL The Board of Army Engineers, through the Chief
of Engineers-and I will put that in the record-concludes that he has exam-
ined it and that no adverse effects will accrue therefrom. No board of engi-
neers, no engineer, that has made a careful survey, says that it will have any
serious adverse effect.
 There are 30,000 lakes in the State of Florida. This canal route has two
large rivers, one from either direction-one from the Atlantic and one from
the Gulf-feeding this canal and beginning and ending it The engineers have
estimated and found that there is a sufficient volume of water which will flow
into the canal from the midsection of it so that there will be a continuous
current to the Atlantic and a continuous current to the Gulf of Mexico of fresh
water, and that the salt water, in fact, will never get to the interior parts of
the State in this canal. Therefore, if the salt water cannot get there, the
underground fresh water could not be contaminated. But even granting that
the salt water could get there, the engineers have found that where salt-water
streams impregnate our State, all along by those salt-water streams, fresh
water springs are found. Orange groves and groves of other trees and general
vegetables grow on the very bank of the salt-water stream, out from St
Augustine some 3 miles; in the Atlantic Ocean there is a huge spring that
yields so much fresh water, away out in the ocean, that the shrimping boats,
instead of going to St. Augustine to refill with water, go to this spring, throw
out their buckets, fill up their tanks and other receptacles and go back to fish-
ing, and do not go ashore for days. You can go anywhere, almost on the edge
of the Florida salt water, the edge of the coast, bore down a few feet, and get
fresh water-sometimes artesian water. The engineers claim-and they know;
and if they do not, common sense would lead us to know-that if this canal
would contaminate the spring water and the underground streams in our State,
the salt water adjacent to the shores of Florida-and it is enveloped all the
way around by salt water; you cannot get more than 50 or 60 miles from salt
water in Florida-if that should obtain, every foot of Florida land today would
be spoiled by salt seepage from the ocean.
 So that is a smoke screen put out by the opposition. The opposition to this
canal is the usual opposition to practically all water improvements. It is the
railroad opposition. They fear that they may haul less tonnage and that the
transportation rate charge may be reduced. My contention is that the trans-
portation charge will be reduced, but the tonnage hauled by the railroads will
be so greatly increased that the railroads will produce more revenue every
year after the canal is constructed than they are producing today-every rail-
road going into that territory. These common carriers will thus be enabled
to employ more people and also pay greater dividends on their investments.
 So the argument relative to contamination of water and our vegetation has
 been disproven, and is absolutely without foundation, according to the superior
 engineering figures and conclusions in the matter. If we cannot trust the Chief
 of Engineers of the Army, after he has carefully examined the project-and
 he has; he has appointed a special committee of his engineers to examine it
 and to determine these questions-I do not know whom we could trust. That
 is the highest authority we have, and they say that it will not contaminate
 the water and the vegetation will not be seriously affected.
 I do not believe that 2 percent of the people of Florida oppose this canal
 There was some opposition in Tampa to it, and I find in my records here a
 letter from Tampa, from the chamber of commerce or some organization there,
 indicating that if they could get the canal routed through Tampa they were
 for the Florida canal. They did not get the route through Tampa, and in that
 part of the State of Florida a few of them are opposing the canal-very few.
 There is always a certain rivalry and jealousy in every State relative to where
 a great improvement or a great project shall be located. So that minor
 rivalry has existed in our State.
 There is also a slight opposition from a few shipowners; not those who
 operate their own ships, but the shipowner who sublets his ship to another
 man and reaps his pay for that ship by the number of miles that the ship
 makes. He leases his ship out; that ship goes all the way around the Florida
 Peninsula and does that extra 3 days' time and mileage in going to New Or-