374 DOCUMENTARY HISTORY OF THE FLORIDA CANAL The C.AImxA. You may have permission to revise and extend your remarks. Mr. Gam Thank you, Mr. Chairman; and I appreciate your letting me come before you. I was so interested in this matter that I would never be square with my conscience if I did not exercise every possible effort to show to the members of this committee such merit as exists in this project. I hope that the committee will consider it that way and not permit technicalities or minor things to stand in the way of the completion of a project that will stand out as the principal achievement in the way of public construction benefit of the first half of this century. Each generation in the future will reap benefits most justifiable. I thank you. DOCUMENT NO. 123 (FILES OF THE SHIP CANAL AUTHORITY OF THE STATE OF FLORIDA), APRIL 10, 1936 COMMUNICATION Eox HzwNr H. BUCKMAN, OF ENGINEERING COUN- EL, THE SHIP CANAL AUTHoRIrr or THE STATE OF FwLRIDA, TO SENATOR VANDENBERG Under date of April 10, 1936, Henry H. Buckman, of engineering counsel for the Ship Canal Authority of the State of Florida, ad- dressed the following communication to Senator Vandenberg: Tna SIP CANAL AvTnBOsr or TH STATE or FuDmA, Washington, D. 0., Apri 10, 1986. Hon. Aamna H. VANDzNBERG, United States Senate, Wahington, D. 0. Mr Damu SNawOn VAmAoama : There has been called to my attention your letter of April 6 to the Washington Post, as published on April 8, in which you attack the Florida canal and undertake to answer certain portions of my com- munication on this subject to the Post under date of April 5. I am reluctant to conclude that in your effort to discredit and defeat the administration you are deliberately attempting to destroy this really splendid enterprise, regardless of the facts; that for political purposes, and because the immediate responsibility for its construction lies in the lap of the President, you propose to sacrifice this great project, involving the well-being of more than two-thirds of the people of this country; the benefits of which reach out and transcend all sectional and party lines, and which derives its support from all quarters of the nation, regardless of party or politics. And yet your asser- tions and conclusions are so fundamentally at variance with the facts and authoritative opinion that it is difficult to escape this impression. When you deny the factual bases of the costs and benefits of the canal, as set up by the Army engineers, you assume the burden of proving them in error. When you assail the President for the initiation of projects for the comple- tion of which he did not allocate sufficient funds you really assail the law itself and the Congress which enacted It. You are a Member of that Congress, and according to your own statement you made no move to restrict the authority which an overwhelming majority intended to and did delegate to the Executive. In providing only a portion of the funds necessary to complete the canal, the President followed the well-established procedure of the Congress which, upon the adoption of any large project, seldom provides at one time more than suffi- cent funds for work during one fiscal year. When you imply that the President overstepped his authority when he au- thorized this and other projects you are squarely opposed to the opinion of the chairman of the subcommittee of the House Committee on Appropriations and to the formal vote of the Senate on this specific question. In writing your letter to the Post you have brought your charges directly to the bar of public opinion. It seems a fair assumption that you are prepared to prosecute them before that tribunal. In the conviction that you cannot successfully do this, I invite you to publicly debate this matter with me at such time and place as may be mutually convenient. Yours very sincerely, H. H. BUCKMAN, rngineering Oounsel, The Ship Canal Authority of the State of Florida.