DOCUMENTARY HISTORY OF THE FLORIDA CANAL 479

tenant, Field Artillery, United States Army, 1917-19; mining engineer and
chief engineer, Low Moore Iron Co., Virginia, 1919-25; associated with Weld
& Liddell, construction engineers, 1925-26; chief geologist, Missouri-Kansas
Zinc Corporation, 1926-27; in charge of explorations, Central American Mines,
Inc., 1927-29; assistant manager, Missouri-Kansas Zinc Corporation, 1929-31;
geologist, United States Engineer Department, 1931 to date."
 The next is Sidney Paige, geologist, and here is his record:
 "Born Washington, D. C., November 2, 1880; educated University of Michi-
gan; Yale Graduate School; engineer with Nicaragua Canal Commission,
1898-1900; United States Geological Survey, 1903-26; geologist, Panama Canal
Commission, 1907; construction geologist, 1926 to date; author of numerous
articles on geology."
 The next is Malcolm Pirnie, construction civil engineer, and here is his
 record:
 "Born New York City; educated Harvard College; Harvard University Gradu-
 ate School of Applied Science; assistant engineer with Hazen & Whipple,
 1911-16; member of firm Hazen, Whipple & Fuller, later Hazen, Everett & Pirney,
 1916-29; private practice 1929 to date; sanitary engineer, American Red Cross
 Commission, Russia, 1917; captain, Transportation Corps, American Expedi-
 tionary Forces, 1918-19; designed water-purification works, Providence, R. I.,
 West Palm Beach, Stewart, St. Petersburg, Fla., and many other cities."
 The next is Brehon Somervell, lieutenant colonel, Corps of Engineers, and
 I will give you his record, as follows:
 "Born Little Rock, Ark., May 9, 1892; graduated United States Military
 Academy, June 12, 1914, and promoted second lieutenant, Corps of Engineers;
 graduate Army Engineer School; Command and General Staff School; honor
 graduate Army War College; served in grades from second lieutenant to
 lieutenant colonel; returned to major, Engineers; after war with troops on
 surveys, New England, Texas; road building with punitive expedition in
 Mexico, charge of construction at Mehun, Is-sur-Tille and elsewhere in France;
 assistant chief of staff, G-1, G-3, Eighty-ninth Division, and Army of Occupa-
 tion, Germany; assistant and district engineer, New York City, Washington,
 Norfolk, New Orleans; assistant to president, Mississippi River Commission;
 assistant to Walker D. Hines on survey navigation conditions Rhine and Danube
 Rivers for League of Nations; special adviser, General Economic Survey, Gov-
 ernment of Turkey; temporary duty National Emergency Council; district
 engineer, Ocala, Fla., September 6, 1935; awarded Distinguished Service Medal
 and Distinguished Service Cross."
 I might say, with reference to Colonel Somervell, he was directly connected
 with the construction of the Panama Canal, and I doubt if there is an engineer
 in the country who is more capable, better qualified, or more competent than
 the geologists and engineers who reported on this matter.
 The Army engineers made their survey, and the amount submitted by them
 was too large. Then the Public Works engineers made an independent survey,
 and their estimate was too low. They were all competent engineers.
 The general width of the canal is 200 to 400 feet. It will be 30 feet below
 sea level. It would have a depth, in cut, roughly speaking, on an average
 of 40 feet. There is a section of about 56 miles that will be, perhaps, 90 feet
 deep in some places, because that is where it crosses the ridge of Florida.
 As to effect on water of Florida General Markham states in a letter to me
 as follows:
 WAR DEPaTMENT,
 OFFInC OF TrH CHIEF OF ENGINEERS,
 Washington, July 10, 1935.
 Hon. W. J. SEABs,
 House of Representatives, Washington, D. C.
 MY DI)E Ma. SEArS: The National Emergency Council has furnished this
 Department copies of your letter of June 29 to the President and its enclosure,
 letter of Hon. S. H. Christian, of Ocala, Fla., of June 28, relative to the proposed
 cross-Florida canal.
 A special board of review appointed by the Presient, consisting of two officers
 of the Corps of Engineers, two engineers of the Administration of Public Works,
 and a consulting engineer of New York City, concluded that a sea-level canal
 was more advantageous than a lock canal; and after securing the advice
 of ground-water experts having a knowledge of the geological and artesian-
 water supply of Florida found that the possible damage to agriculture from such
 a canal would be negligible and limited to a narrow strip adjacent to the canal