446 DOCUMENTARY HISTORY OF THE FLORIDA CANAL

 Mr. Dern said: "People who deride the proposed waterway as an impracti.
 cable scheme don't know what they are talking about"
 I think I should say for the Secretary of War that when I asked him
 whether these were literally correct quotations, he said they were in effect,
 although the second quotation should have had something in it about "hare
 brained" schemes instead of "impracticable" scheme.
 But the point I make is that Secretary of War Dern is a personal repre-
 sentative of the President of the United States. He is at the head of the par-
 ticular Department which deals with tide harnessing and ditch digging under
 this administration. Mr. Dern Is the official tide harnesser. Mr. Dern is the
 official ditch digger. He sits at the Presidential council table, and, in advance
 of the appointment of any piously impartial board of engineers, surrounded by
 all the plausible language that has been written into the amendment, in ad-
 vance of any such independent investigation, the chief officer of the Govern-
 ment dealing with this particular responsibility announces that anybody who
 does not like it "does not know what he is talking about."
 Mr. President, I digress to say very respectfully to the Secretary of War
 that I think he has set a very bad precedent for himself. In his Department
 is the Board of Rivers and Harbors Engineers, upon which Congress and the
 country have come to rely with complete faith and confidence for unpreju-
 diced and unbiased findings in respect to engineering problems. What right
 has a civilian Secretary of War, in advance of a conclusive decision by his
 Board of Rivers and Harbors Engineers, what right has he in common, decent
 conscience, to prejudge the case and announce that if their report is unfavor-
 able they "do not know what they are talking about"?
 That is precisely the position in which he places himself, and it is precisely
 the position in which he places these engineers. It is an utterly unfair posi-
 tion in which to put the Board of Engineers.
 They will continue to be courageous, independent, honest-minded men; but,
 Mr. President, in the light of the experience of General Hagood, I respectfully
 submit that it becomes exceedingly hazardous and precarious for the Board
 of Rivers and Harbors Engineers ever again, so long as Secretary Dern is
 their superior officer, to say there is anything wrong with the Florida Canal
 because the Secretary has announced in advance that if they do say so they
 "do not know what they are talking about."
 I complain very bitterly against the situation which the Secretary thus
 creates. I think he should be called to account for it. I think it is a direct
 and specific invasion of the independence of the Board of Rivers and Harbors
 Engineers, an independence which must be maintained if we are to have the
 continuing benefits of the kind of recommendations which have been such a
 joy and such a reliance to us heretofore.
 I submit the exhibit, however, in this connection chiefly to support my con-
 tention that the adoption of the amendment, no matter how adroitly and
 cunningly it may be worded, is to continue these projects. I make that asser-
 tion to support my contention that every Senator in this body, when he votes
 upon the amendment, cannot soothe his conscience on the theory that he is
 simply ordering an investigation and report He has to face the fact that in
 net effect he is putting his responsibility behind two utterly and totally inde-
 fensible, uneconomic undertakings which will involve the credit of the Federal
 Government to the extent of a quarter of a billion dollars at a time when the
 credit of the Federal Government is precarious enough at best
 Mr. President, let us take another look at the amendment. The joint reso-
lution originally introduced by the Senator from Arkansas [Mr. Robinson] pro-
posed to demand this independent, complete, and wholly persuasive report
in about 3 weeks. Then, when it was realized that only 8 weeks would be
allowed within which to survey and assess two of the greatest, most far-
reaching, most unique engineering undertakings in modern times, the able
Senator from Arkansas promptly said, when he came before the Commerce
Committee, that he thought the time ought to be extended. Surely it had to
be extended. It was entirely too transparent the way it was written and
originally introduced. Accordingly the time was extended. Yes; it was ex-
tended another 28 days.
 Mr. President, if it takes Henry A. Wallace 2 months to get a few figures
out of his own miles to report to the Senate of the United States-and we have
no assurance yet that we will get them even in 2 months-I respectfully sub-
mit that these new boards of Independent, unprejudiced, unrelated engineers
must have more than July 20 as the deadline in which to submit rationally