DOCUMENTARY HISTORY OF THE FLORIDA CANAL 431

first project, the Florida ship canal, approximately $150,000,000, including the
amount that has already been expended under the allotment made by the Presi-
dent; and as to the second project, Passamaquoddy, the total is estimated to
approximate $42,000,000.
 There was no question as to the legal right of the Executive to initiate the
projects. So far as my information goes, no question has ever been raised of
the legal right to initiate the two projects Questions have arisen which involve
the subjects of public policy, the feasibility of the projects, their adaptability to
the purposes for which they are to be constructed, and other related questions.
 The time is approaching when the question must be determined whether work
on the projects shall be suspended or continued. The object of presenting the
amendment at this time is to resort to a method by which a conclusion may be
reached as to those questions. If the amendment should be agreed to, it would
result either in a continuation of the work or an abandonment of the projects.
In all probability the latter outcome would be the result it the report contem-
plated by the amendment should be unfavorable to the project. While the Execu-
tive would have the power, unless the law is changed, to make new allotments,
I am sure he would hesitate to do so on the state of the record as it now exists.
 It has seemed to me fair and proper to present the questions involved in the
 amendment for the consideration of the Senate, inasmuch as unless something is
 done great confusion will result. There are now something like 5,000 laborers
 employed at Passamaquoddy and approximately 6,000 engaged in work on the
 Florida ship canal. If the work is to be continued, it should be done, of course,
 without interruption or with as little interruption as may be permissible.
 In an effort to work out the controversy fairly it is proposed.that the Presi-
 dent shall appoint two boards consisting of three members each, all the
 members of the boards to be engineers. In order to insure impartial reports,
 reports not biased or prejudiced by conclusions heretofore reached, it is also
 provided that no one who is employed by the Government of the United States
 or by either the State of Florida or the State of Maine, or who has an interest,
 direct or indirect, present or prospective, in the financial transactions incident
 to the two projects, shall be eligible to membership on either board.
 It is also contemplated that if the boards shall be created and constituted
 as just stated, they shall discharge certain functions. They would have avail-
 able, of course, for their study all the investigations and findings which have
 been made heretofore either by the engineers under the jurisdiction of the
 War Department or by those connected with the Works Administration. In
 addition to that they would have certain functions which would be specially
 imposed upon them.
 With respect to the Florida ship canal, there are four aspects of the duties
 of the members of the board to which attention is now directed.
 First, the board is to consider whether the construction of the canal would
 create disturbance of the ground-water levels of the State of Florida. One of
 the objections urged to the project is that it will disarrange the ground-water
 levels of the State, and this new board will be expected to give special atten-
 tion to that phase of the matter.
 The second function relates to the estimated cost of construction, operation,
 and maintenance.
 The third is a very broad one and an important one insofar as the future
 fate of these projects is concerned. It relates to the justification of the
 expenditure of the Federal funds necessary in connection with the project.
 The fourth requirement 4s that the board shall make such further study of
 these and other pertinent questions as it may deem necessary.
 The President's view is that it will be informative and helpful to have the
 study and the advice of a board whose judgment may be relied upon as
 unbiased and unprejudiced in determining these fundamental questions, which
 have relationship to the merits of the projects and which should govern in
 determining whether they should be carried forward.
 With respect to the Passamaquoddy project, while the duties of the board
 to be created to consider that project are somewhat different from those of
 the board to study and report on the Florida ship canal, the duties are closely
 analogous.
 First, the board is charged with the direct duty of passing on the feasibility
 of the project from an engineering standpoint Certainly this phase of the
 inquiry has been involved either directly or indirectly in all the examinations
 that have been heretofore made; but it is believed, in view of the contentions
 that have been raised respecting the proposed tidal-power project, that it