DOCUMENTARY HISTORY OF THE FLORIDA CANAL 485

dig sand in Florida for the purposes of a canal. You may dig sand anywhere
for any other purpose.
 As far as Passamaquoddy is concerned, I do not understand there is any-
thing in this legislation to prevent the President from continuing the Passa-
maquoddy project if he shall simply determine to allocate not the $9,000,000
contemplated by the amendment, but the $29,000,000 necessary to complete it.
I have every confidence that within a month after this Congress adjourns the
President, in his journey up the coast of Maine and surveying the relief needs
of our State, will determine such an expenditure is amply authorized and
required.
 Why this terrific excitement about Passamaquoddy and the Florida Canal
and why so little fuss about all the boondoggling extravagances which Maine
has thus far been so happily spared.
 Under this bill as now contemplated by the Congress the President has full
power and ample funds to allocate $29,000,000 to complete Passamaquoddy.
 This I feel confident he will do.
 As a matter of fact, the construction of the project has now reached a stage
 where orderly and economical procedure requires a complete allocation. Within
 the next 6 months all major contracts can then be awarded and the completion
 tar advanced.
 To continue piecemeal allocation by 6-month periods would greatly handicap
 the engineers.
 [Here the gavel felL]
 Mr. BucuANq. Mr. Speaker, I yield 11 minutes to the gentleman from
 Florida [Mr. Caldwell].
 Mr. CALDWL. Mr. Speaker, the Florida Canal does not traverse any portion
 of the district which I represent; and, while the people of my district are
 greatly interested in this project, I trust that I can bring to its discussion a
 point of view sufficiently detached to commend my observations to your atten-
 tion. When all is said and done, the canal is not a district project; it is not
 a Florida project; but is a national undertaking of which the State of Florida
 happens to be the focus. Therefore, I deem it necessary, in order that we
 obtain a comprehensive view which will enable us to fairly and intelligently
 act upon this matter, that it be discussed in its relations, not only to the
 State of Florida but to the country as a whole.
 Mr. CoNmaI Will the gentleman yield?
 Mr. CALDWEzL I yield to the gentleman from Massachusetts.
 Mr. CONN~ Y. I would like to ask the gentleman to clear up two things. I
 would like to vote for this legislation for the benefit of the people of Florida,
 but there are two things I would like to have cleared up. First of all, I am
 told that about two-thirds of the shipping that will go through the canal will
 be of the big oil companies. I am informed, second, that the water supply of
 the people of Florida will be affected by this ship canal. Will the gentleman
 clear up those two things?
 Mr. CALDwnL. If the gentleman will be patient with me, I am going to cover
 that very briefly.
 The fundamental purpose of the canal is to bring closer together the Missis-
 sippi Valley and Gulf States and the Atlantic seaboard by effecting economies
 in transportation and greater freedom from the hazards which attend navi-
 gation at certain seasons on the long route through the Straits of Florida. It
 thus affects directly the agriculture, industry, and commerce of at least 37
 States of the Union and indirectly it affects them all, including the States of
 the Pacific coast. It is probably the greatest river and harbor project ever
 undertaken by the Federal Government, not excepting the Panama Canal.
 While the Panama Canal possesses greater strategic importance and was far
 more expensive to construct, the existing available tonnage which the Army
 engineers and other authorities state will transit the Florida Canal is nearly
 one and one-half times as great as the traffic which passes through the
 Panama Canal.
 This project began, as other river and harbor projects, in the orderly course
 of procedure laid down by Congress and nothing is more certain than that it
 will continue to be subject to this procedure in the future. However, due to
 conditions arising out of the emergency and the legislation which Congress
 has enacted to meet that emergency, this project has temporarily become a ve-
 hicle for work relief which has been selected by the President, upon the ad-
 vice of the appropriate departments, for that purpose. So that we are not
 now dealing with this river and harbor project out of turn, as it were. It has