DOCUMENTARY HISTORY OF THE FLORIDA CANAL 443

Keyes, King, La Follette, Loftin, Lonergan, Long, McAdoo, McGill, McKellar,
McNary, Maloney, Minton, Murphy, Murray, Neely, Norris, O'Mahoney, Overton,
Pittman, Pope, Reynolds, Robinson, Russell, Schwellenbach, Sheppard, Ship-
stead, Smith, Steiwer, Thomas of Oklahoma, Thomas of Utah, Townsend, Tru-
man, Vandenberg, Wagner, Walsh, Wheeler, and White.
 The PRKEIDBNT pro tempore. Seventy-five Senators having answered to their
names, a quorum is present
 Mr. VANDNB mG. Mr. President, we are back again "moondoggling" on Quoddy
Bay and pipe-dreaming on the phantom Florida Canal Most of us thought-
or perhaps hoped would be a better word-that we were through with this
quarter-billion-dollar extravaganza when Congress settled with it the last time.
Even the taxpayers had started to sleep at night. We assumed that the disillu-
sioned proponents of these sapless schemes were musing as the poet mused-
 "I walked beside the evening sea,
 "And dreamed a dream that could not be.
 "The waves that plunged along the shore
 "Said only, 'Dreamer, dream no more.'"
 But we reckon without our host Like the music that goes "'round and
 'round and 'round and comes out here", so does Quoddy and the ship canaL
 Mr. President, the ship canal is no better today than it was when the Public
 Works Administration turned it down as a nonliquidating project because it
 was unsound in its business elements. The Florida Canal is no better today
 than when the report of the Department of Commerce-regardless of what the
 letter of the Secretary read by the Senator from Florida may say-indicated
 that there is no economic justification whatsoever for the undertaking. The
 Florida Canal is no better today than it was the day it was turned down by the
 subcommittee of the Appropriations Committee of the House, and then by the
 full Appropriations Committee of the House, and then by the House itself.
 The Florida Canal is no better today than it was when it was turned down
 by the subcommittee of the Senate Committee on Appropriations, then by the
 full committee, and then by the Senate itself.
 The Quoddy tidal scheme is no better today than it was when it was
 irrevocably and unreservedly condemned by the Federal Power Commission.
 It is no better today than it was when it was rejected by the Public Works
 Administration. It is no better today than it was when it was turned down
 by the subcommittee of the House Appropriations Conamittee, by the full com-
 mittee, and by the House itself. It is no better today than it was when the
 Senate was very glad to permit it to sleep in a dusty pigeonhole in the Senate
 Committee on Appropriations.
 Both projects are the same today that they have always been. There never
 was any justification for them. There is none now. All in the world that the
 amendment of the Senator from Arkansas does is to offer a little convenient
 chloroform for the congressional conscience.
 Mr. President, it is perfectly amazing to me that we should confront a request
 for a minimum of $200,000,000 of questionable public works-and that certainly
 puts it lnildly-at the very moment when committees of Congress are strug-
 gling in an effort to raise $600,000,000 in taxes. It seems to be next to im-
 possible-at least, it seems to be extremely difficult-to find $600,000,000 of
 taxes in this country to pay the already yawning deficit of the Government;
 yet, in the same week and in the same breath, when with difficulty we are
 finding $800,000,000 to apply upon existing debts, it is proposed that the Senate
 shall lend its authority-by indirection, yes, but none the less lend its au-
 thority-to the creation of $200,000,000 worth of additional obligations!
 You are never going to catch up with your deficit, Mr. President, if every
 time you dig up $600,000,000 you spend $200,000,000 of it on some new scheme.
 If you are ever going to overtake the balancing of Federal finances upon a
 sound basis you will have to start somewhere to be realistic in respect to
 money going out, instead of forever emphasizing the quest for money coming in.
 Mr. CLAzK. Mr. President, will the Senator yield?
 Mr. VANDshWB I yield.
 Mr. OrL.K. Does not the Senator think it is an extremely anomalous situa-
 tion to have the Finance Comnittee-one of the great committees of the United
 States Senate-arguing and quibbling for nearly 2.weeks in an effort to raise
 an additional $600,000,000, which has been requested by the Treasury Depart-


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