DOCUMENTARY HISTORY OF THE FLORIDA CANAL


407


 Neither is there any likelihood, say these same authorities (who have made
many thousands of test borings all along the canal route), of any "backing up"
of sea water into the canal. Sea water does not back up into the St. Johns;
that it will back up from the Gulf into the Withlacoochee Valley is equally
unlikely, since long jetties will carry the canal channel well out into the Gulf.
Far more likely-certain in the opinion of the geological and hydraulic ex-
perts-the flow in the canal will be outward in both directions, fresh water,
surface drainage, pushing the salt water back. If only the rain that will fall
annually on the canal right-of-way drained into the canal prism, it would fill
it far above its 30-foot depth with fresh water.
 That summarizes 30 printed pages entitled "Interim Report of the Special
Board of Geologists and Engineers, Appointed by the District Engineer at
Ocala, Fla., to Make a Study of the Effect of the Sea-Level Canal on the
Underground Water Resources of the State of Florida."
 However, the water-supply question has served as a convenient red herring
to draw across the trail of the real opposition to the canal, as well as a handle
for politicians looking for a club with which to belabor the administration.
 Having been handed to the Army by the President, the Florida Canal became
a rivers and harbors project, and the request for further funds to carry on
the work became a necessary part of the War Department budget. The previous
allotments of $5,400,000 had been made by the President from the big Works
Progress Administration emergency fund, of which he has exclusive control.
But the Florida Canal, the Passamaquoddy power project, and three other minor
river and harbor improvements are all listed in the President's budget as a
part of the War Department's requirements for the next fiscal year.
 There probably would have been no uproar on Capitol Hill about the canal
 if it had been separately listed and not tied in with 'Quoddy. 'Quoddy has few
 friends on Capitol Hill and not very many left in the administration. It is
 regarded as an absurd and futile project into whiuh the Government has no
 business to enter.
 VANDENBERG USB WEAPONS PROVIDED BY OPPOSBITON

 The War Department's request for $12,000,000 to go on with the canal went
 in the natural course of procedure to the appropriate House and Senate com-
 mittees. But Senator Vandenberg saw a chance to shoot some political fire-
 works. He picked up the ammunition which the opponents of the canal had
 provided and introduced a resolution to instruct the Senate Committee on
 Commerce to investigate and report .on the nature and extent of expenditures
 from emergency relief funds and subsequent expenditures from regular funds
 for the Florida Canal; also to inquire into the suflciency of data to determine
 whether it should be a sea-level canal or a lock canal; also the suficiency of
 authentic information to determine whether the canal will contaminate the
 ground-water supply of adjacent areas; likewise to look into the nature and
 extent of available traffic to warrant the expenditure of $140,000,000 or more
 on the project
 The Vandenberg resolution was referred to the Committee on Commerce,
 which in turn referred it to a subcommittee of which Senator Copeland, of New
 York, who has extensive interests in Florida, was chairman, and Senator
 Fletcher, of Florida, who has been battling for a cross-Florida canal for 35 years,
 and Senator Vandenberg himself were the other two members. The subcom-
 mittee held three sessions-January 17, February 4, and February 19-and lis-
 tened to statements by three individuals, Gen. E. M. Markham, Chief of En-
 gineers, United States Army; Secretary Ickes, of the Interior Department; and
 H. H. Buckman, consulting engineer for the Florida Ship Canal Authority and
 the National Gulf-Atlantic Ship Canal Association.
 The hearing served several useful purposes.
 For one thing, it placed the whole Florida canal picture on the public records
 in its precise present form as an authorized project which the Army has orders
 to carry out when and as the funds are made available. And even Senator
 Vandenberg, the canal's most vigorous opponent, has no real expectation that
 Congress will not providee the money. Witness this little dolloquy from the
 record of the Senate subcommittee hearing:
 "Senator VAWs.mBmR. What disturbs me is that Congress has yet got to exer-
 eise some authority in passing a $140,000,000 to $200,000,000 appropriation on
 this thing.