466 DOCUMENTARY HISTORY OF THE FLORIDA CANAL

 years, conducted what MaJ. Gen. Lytle Brown, then Chief of Engineers, has
 described as the most exhaustive survey of any project ever made by the
 War Department. In the usual course of events the report of the board of
 survey of the Corps of Engineers would be made to the Board of Engineers
 for Rivers and Harbors, and that board would report to the Chief of Engi-
 neers, and the Chief of Engineers in turn would lay the matter before the
 Committee on Rivers and Harbors in accordance with the provisions of law
 governing rivers and harbors projects; and this course will undoubtedly be
 duly completed at the next regular session of Congress. In the meantime,
 however, between the time the surveys were ordered by Congress and the
 time of the completion of the report on the same by the board of survey of
 the Corps of Engineers, Congress enacted the laws creating the Reconstruc-
 tion Finance Corporation and establishing the Administration of Public Works
 and other work-relief agencies. Under the provisions of these acts Congress
 .made possible the financing of this project in whole or in part without direct
 specific appropriation. By enacting the Emergency Relief Appropriation Act
 of 1985 Congress went a step further and delegated to the President the power
 to authorize as well as to finance projects of this nature. Therefore, to under-
 stand the history of the Florida canal it is necessary to bear in mind that
 it is a river and harbor project, and it began as such In a regular river and
 harbor bill, and will undoubtedly continue as such as soon as it can be placed
 before the Committee on Rivers and Harbors in the course of orderly pro-
 cedure. In the meantime, it has been selected by the President, after due
 examination and approval by the appropriate departments of the Government,
 and, pursuant to the Emergency Relief Appropriation Act of 1935, has been
 authorized and designated by him for the expenditure of certain work-relief
 funds.
 The canal is now under construction on a large scale. Six thousand men are
 employed directly on the job. Seventeen million cubic yards of earth have been
 excavated. The people of that portion of the State of Florida traversed by the
 canal have bonded their property for nearly $2,000,000 and have purchased and
 contributed to the Federal Government the right-of-way, comprising many thou-
 sands of acres of land. An excavation has been opened across the central por-
 tion of the State nearly 16 miles long, 400 feet wide, and 30 feet deep. A great
 bridge, with its piers rising 40 feet into the air, is in course of construction.
 It is unanimously agreed thdt the project has given and is continuing to give,
 dollar for dollar expended, a more diversified, widespread, effective, and satis-
 factory work relief than almost any other project in the President's program,
 thus proving the wisdom of his decision to begin this enterprise.
 The construction of this canal is directly in line with the general policy of
 Congress as expressed in its river and harbor legislation over the past half
 century. I think no one will deny that that policy has been to steadily push
 forward the construction of the great intracoastal waterway system running
 along the Atlantic seaboard from the New England States on the north to the
 southern tip of Florida on the south; from the mouth of the Rio Grande River
 in Texas on the west, along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico to the southern
 Gulf coast of Florida; and finally to complete the system and thereby realize its
 full value to the Nation, a connecting waterway across the peninsula of Florida.
 The details of this policy-just how rapidly the development of this great sys-
 tem of Intracoastal waterways should be developed, the dimensions and types of
 the several links which comprise it-have been, of course, questions which have
 been debated from time to time for a great many years, but I feel that all will
 agree that the history of the legislation enacted by Congress indicates clearly
 the general policy I have outlined. Therefore I say again that the construction
 of this waterway across Florida, so far from being something new and a
departure from our long-established policy, is, on the contrary, an integral part
of that policy. The appropriate time for beginning this enterprise and the speed
with which its construction should be prosecuted are questions which, in the
normal course of events, would be decided entirely by direct action of Congress.
By the Emergency Relief Appropriation Act of 1935 the Congress not only
empowered the President to answer the first of these questions-that is, whether
the appropriate time to begin this project had arrived-but it laid upon him the
responsibility of making this decision. He has accepted that responsibility and,
after the most elaborate and painstaking examination of the subject, decided
that the appropriate time for initiating the work had arrived, and, pursuant to
his powers and duties under the law, he acted. Since that time he has clearly
and unmistakably referred to Congress for its decision the second question as