be advisable for you to correct the map and not leave the impression upon the casual observer-that is what most people are that you propose to dig a continuous canal all the way from Boston to the Mexican border.

Mr. MOORE. I wish to say that all the digging contemplated is less than 130 miles, much of which is already covered with water. We had nothing to do with that map. We presume it came from the Coast and Geodetic Survey, but I am not sure. We have no information as to the map at all. The suggestion is a very good one, Mr. Humphreys. I think the association will improve upon it by preparing a map.

Mr. EDWARDS. I want to express on behalf of the city that I come from, the city I represent, the great pleasure of its citizens in having had this association meet in Savannah. Our citizens were very much delighted to have you there, and I want to say that not only in Savannah but in other sections the people formed a very fine impression both of your men and also the ladies who accompanied them.

Mr. MOORE. I thank you, Mr. Edwards. (Thereupon the committee adjourned.)

APPENDIX A.

THE SECRETARY OF THE NAVY,
Washington, November 10, 1915.

MY DEAR MR. MOORE: It is a matter of profound regret that I am not able to give myself the pleasure which I had anticipated of being present with you on the occasion of the meeting of your association in Savannah, but the destruction by fire of the Raleigh News and Observer plant in Raleigh has compelled me, much against my desire, to alter my plans. I am glad, however, that I had the opportunity of meeting with the leaders of this great enterprise in Raleigh as they passed through on their way to the convention.

The Atlantic inland deeper waterway is to our country what the Panama Canal is to the world. We have put $400,000,000 into that vast enterprise, which is the realization of an age-long dream. It was evidently in the mind of Columbus that nature must have supplied a water connection between oceans in the vicinity of the Panama Canal, for he cruised up and down the coast there looking for such an outlet from the Atlantic to the waters beyond. Pizarro, Cortez, and Balboa, and the leaders of the Conquistadores foresaw that a canal must some day be built across the Isthmus. Sir William Patterson, the founder of the Bank of England, planted a colony there with the idea of eventually digging a canal; the great explorer Humboldt surveyed the route, and the great poet Goethe, with remarkable prescience, declared that destiny had it in store for the young Republic of the New World to build the canal; and De Lesseps, the engineering genius of France, failed not because he was not a great engineer but because Gorgas had not then been born, who should eventually prepare the way by making it safe in the matter of health for Goethals to mobilize his army of workmen.

We have been doing great things in America, and I am one of those who believe that our country is on so firm and sound a bottom that not even the disasters of war which have temporarily deranged some of our affairs can long delay our inevitable success. Now that the Pacific and Atlantic have been happily married, our country is left free to turn its engineering genius and financial resources into other enterprises of like magnitude and like character. The vision of Moore and Small and the other men who have thrown their energy into this great project is surely to have a large realization in the future, and I expect to live to see the day when ships loaded in Albany shall carry their freight through to Buffalo and over the Lakes and down the Mississippi and through the Panama Canal to San Francisco. Germany has one of the greatest canal systems in the world. Her rivers are navigable by nature for fully 6,000 miles; but they have been further canalized a distance of nearly 1,400 miles, and, in addition, their radius has been extended by a system of canals some 1,500 miles in all, which have joined the rivers into a continuous watercourse. For instance, the Ludwigs Canal in Bavaria unites the Danube with the Main and makes a continuous waterway from the Black Sea to the North Sea. The Bromberg Canal joins the Vistula to the Oder. A canal joins the Oder to the Elbe, and the Plauen Canal the Elbe to the Havel. The Eider Canal connects the Eider with Kiel, and the Kiel, or Kaiser Wilhelm Canal, with locks greater than those of the Panama Canal, joins the Baltic with the North Sea. In Alsace and Lorraine are the Rhine-Rhone and the Rhine-Marne Canals, which have proven of inestimable value to Germany in the transport of supplies. Berlin itself, by way of the Spree and its canals, is connected directly with Hamburg. In fact, these canals have great military as well as commercial value, and have played a great part in the war now going on in Europe.

When one looks at the coast line from Boston to New Orleans and notes this long inside-of-the-coast waterway, needing only to be properly dredged, widened, and connected up by proper canal links in the chain it seems as if Providence had enriched us with a most remarkable natural defense provided we make use

of what nature has thus endowed us with. It seems as if Providence had lifted up a sand barrier between the hinterland and the sea and bade us go in and make it deep enough to carry our commercial and naval flotillas. Since it has been put within our reach would it not be national suicide for us to fail to follow the lead?

There are no ships in the Navy so delicate as our submarines and destroyers, and when we send them on long cruises it costs thousands of dollars to repair them after they have had to go on the high seas. If we had this canal, these ships of light draft could go from one end of the Atlantic coast to the other, and the saving of the navy-yard cost to-day in repairs would pay the interest on the investment; and this in time of peace, when we have not many of these craft, when we have not so many as we must have if we learn the lesson of the last month in Europe. For years the discussion among experts in naval affairs has been over the question as to whether most of the money should go into dreadnaughts or into destroyers and submarines, and our country has put its money chiefly into dreadnaughts, believing that they make the best defense. We are learning from the war in Europe something about naval affairs. So far there has been little learned on land, and there have been no great engagements on the sea, but there have been some engagements which would seem to indicate that the submarine, though it has not superseded the dreadnaught in importance, has proved to be a wonderful weapon of sea fighting, and in our five-year program this year we are recommending to Congress that it build 100 of them during the next five years, 15 fleet submarines and 85 coast-defense submarines. These, with the 73 we have now, will give us 173 by 1922. Now, this intracoastal canal is of vital importance to our submarines, for, as I have said, they are as delicately built as a clock and stand in great need of repair after a long voyage as a result of being rolled about in heavy seas.

You will recall that during the early part of the war an English submarine was seen off the island of Helgoland. A German ship, seeing this ship in dis tress and another English ship apparently going to its aid, rushed out and followed until other English ships came to destroy the German ship. Again we saw a German submarine destroy three large English cruisers without warning. Time and again the submarine has been effectively used, so that we are learning that it is to this small craft that can deliver its blow unseen that we must look for material aid in naval warfare. Now, if we should be engaged in war-which God forbid-if we should be engaged in war, what a blessing, what an incalculable asset, it would be for the Navy if we had this inland waterway. I need but illustrate what the Kiel Canal is worth to Germany for you to see the incalculable importance of this canal to the Navy. The English Navy is larger than the German Navy, and the German Navy there is protected by this Kiel Canal. Its officers, its men, quietly go about their daily duties on their ships, while on every English ship in the channel the officers and men must constantly be on the alert, hardly having time to sleep. If we should be so unfortunate as to be attacked, it would be of vital importance to us to be able to send through every possible channel these death-dealing submarines into the ocean and prevent a foreign navy landing on our coast; so that when you are advocating this inland waterway, when you have the vision to see its importance to commerce-and I put that as the reason why the money should be forthcoming to construct this canal-still you see that in any emergency it would be vitally important to the national life that our ships, when the occasion called, should be in harbor, protected, ready when the occasion called to save our cities and our people.

Even in times of peace the canal is a very important factor to the Navy, and lends itself to preparation for national security. Large quantities of heavy materials are constantly required by the Government for its navy yards, such as guns, armor, fuel, ammunition, machinery, structural steel, cement, and the like, and on these the transportation charges by the waterway would be more than cut in half. This cheaper transportation would stimulate our commercial establishments to larger and keener competition in the supply of war materials. There would be a further value in that the waterways enable our smaller craft to escape the dangers of storms at sea by plying from one port to another.

Aside from the commercial value of cheap transportation and safety from storms and deep-sea navigation, there are the following military and naval advantages in case of war: It will enable us with a more limited number of mine-laying ships, mine sweepers, submarines, and the torpedo boats to transfer these mobile harbor and coast defense weapons from one point to another on our coast, thus multiplying their efficiency, increasing the radius of action, and

lessening the danger of their being intercepted by an enemy until an attack is launched. It would increase our coast defenses by transporting heavy mortars and traction engines on canal boats and barges to points up and down the coast when an enemy may attempt to make a landing or seize a base. The Germans use their canals and rivers to thus transport heavy artillery.

I wish to express my thanks to the gentlemen who have organized this association for the work they have done. No enterprise-particularly an enterprise that calls for the united action of the people-ever comes to realization until it has been dreamed about, talked about, and presented on its merits to legislatures and to the people year in and year out. "Line upon line, precept upon precept," and finally the public will get the full vision of the need and act. This plan means so much to all New England, to the East, to the Middle States, and to the South that I have no doubt that this work will go on until we convince all of Congress and the country of its importance. With best wishes for a successful session, believe me,

-House Office Building, Washington, D. C. DEAR MR. MOORE: I find upon investigation that I misstated the unused acreage of Virginia, largely on the safe side. I stated that my recollection was that the amount was, approximately, 6,000,000 acres. To be exact, the amount is 9,926,566. Our figures in this regard, as compiled from the United States Census reports by the Southern Settlement and Development Organization of Baltimore, are as follows:

Thinking that possibly these figures, taken from Government reports, might be of use to you as showing conditions in this regard in the oldest of American settlements where the climate is free from extremes and the soil will raise any crop, I am sending them to you in the above form.

Very sincerely, yours,

(Signed)

GEORGE AINSLIE.

Brunswick.

Charleston.